The Church Boys ➸ Peterick/Brentrick

14: Designer Jeans and Designer Ice Cream

Patrick wasn't eager to be in a shopping mall that looked like it had shirts that were worth more than his car. But, Pete had promised they'd have fun there somehow, and he elected to believe him. Anything to get his mind off Brendon at this point.

Pete was careful about the way he spoke. He knew bad breakups all too well. Yet, at the same time, it gave him an advantage when it came to cheering Patrick up.

Walking around, the poppy music that was surely all from the Billboard Hot 100 charts was played loud enough to hear but not loud enough to be heard inside the stores. Ironically, Pete did take him to Lush, which Patrick had no idea why, but everyone seemed so chill with them that he was surprised. That, and his gaydar was screaming when employees came up to talk to them.

"Aye, you're that dude from the Whoremones," one of them had said. Pete had given him a look that was greatly confused. "And it's the other dude from Arma Angelus. That's pretty rad, bro."

Pete and Patrick shared a look, and almost simultaneously said "I didn't know you were in that band." 

The employee just laughed, and admittedly, they ended up laughing with him before they ended up getting a few things and leaving. 

"The Whoremones?" Pete asked first, before Patrick could ask about Arma Angelus.

He'd nodded, nonetheless. "Yeah, I did drums then vocals...what about Arma Angelus?"

"I did the same thing. Vocals, I mean," Pete admitted with a laugh. "We split up, though. I'm not all that concerned about it, but I want to be in another band again at some point." 

"Same," Patrick said simply. Looking down as they walked again, Pete dragged him into another store afterwards. It wasn't an interesting store: in all honesty, he couldn't give two shits about Abercrombie, but Pete still got himself a few things there. Patrick's main thing was that everything looked far too small, like the store was just for models and that was it. He didn't even want to try on the jeans they had there.

Pete took him to H&M next, which he ended up heading to go try things on as Patrick browsed. He liked a few things there, but he didn't want Pete to spend his money on him, so he didn't say anything. Yet, part of him wished he had so he could've gone to try things on as well.

Neither was expecting to see each other, but clearly Brendon was annoyed and must've been watching them for awhile, because the way he spoke was full of venom when he approached Patrick.

"What the fuck, Trick? Are you already dating someone else?" He let out a hollow laugh. "It's been a day. Seriously, makes me think you were cheating on me."

"I'm allowed to have friends that are of the gender I'm attracted to, Brendon," he nearly spat. "I'm allowed to go out to try and forget about what happened yesterday... You need to chill out."

The taller boy snorted and shook his head in disbelief, though the two stopped when they heard Pete's voice. "Guys? Is everything okay?"

"Stay out-"

"No." Patrick stepped away from Brendon. "I'm here with Pete, we're hanging out. Brendon, you're...You can go before you fuck up our friendship even more."

"That was you who decided to fuck it up, not me." Brendon took a step towards him, but this just led Pete (who was in jeans that were far too long and completely covered his feet but fit everywhere else) to get in between them and hold them apart.

It was Patrick's turn to retaliate, but he kept his clenched fist in his pocket. "No. That was you. You fucked Ryan Ross because you couldn't fuck me. And I wanted to still be friends, but clearly that's not going to work." He shook his head. "Drop it, Brendon. Delete my number. We can't talk without being at each other's throats right now."