The Church Boys ➸ Peterick/Brentrick

33: In Which Joe Decides to Get His Nose Pierced

At first, Joe wasn't a fan of the fact that Pete was joining their band. But Patrick set up a day for the three of them to go hang out and wander around at a mall, and Joe couldn't really hate Pete after that. They got along really well, and Patrick didn't seem to hate him, so it must not have been a big issue. After the mall, they were supposedly gonna go over to Joe's house and play some new game he got for his X-Box.

Patrick and Joe were carpooling, and Pete was supposedly meeting them at Starbucks. Because, after all, if they weren't obviously white girls, they were secretly white girls. The two boys that travelled together got there first. They got their coffee and settled at a table just outside making idle chatter about random things. 

Some of it was Patrick explaining to him that things were "okay" with Pete- enough so that he'd be a valuable resource and he didn't hate him entirely anymore. Joe was okay with that, honestly. It went from that to music (they had been there early, admittedly, so it wasn't like they were mad to Pete because he wasn't exactly late), and where they musically could see themselves going.

Joe got really excited when they started talking about it- it was almost like he just lit up, suddenly having energy and agreeing but he wasn't just listening anymore. He actively engaged, offering an opinion.

Patrick hadn't seen anyone get that passionate about something, save maybe himself.  

And Joe was obviously really excited to start writing songs too with a band. They were talking about a song he'd been thinking of when Pete came through, ordering his coffee and sitting down with them after he got it. 

"Hey, guys. Am I late?"

"No, we got here really early." Patrick smiled, straightening out in his chair and looking between the two. 

"Cool. Sorry, I had to do stuff with my dad for college."

"Where are you going?" Joe asked, the hype from earlier not having fully worn off yet.

"Chicago, probably. He's gonna try to get me into a law program."

The others nodded, and after that they ended up walking around the mall and slipping into the pet store to formulate a plan to steal puppies. Patrick was sitting on the floor in front of the glass, playing with the French Bulldog puppy that was running around the small box and kept trying to lick Patrick's fingers. 

"I want him, can we steal him?" Patrick asked, glancing up at Pete and Joe. 

Pete glanced around. "Joe, get someone to bring him to us. I'll grab him and run if Patrick has the getaway car."

The three laughed. "I don't have three thousand dollars on me, so that sounds like a good plan," Patrick said. 

After pulling Patrick away from his new best friend, they went out and the next stop was the Hot Topic in the mall, somewhat discussing ideas as to music as they did so. Though originally, it was intended for Patrick to be the drummer, bringing Pete in also meant someone that knew he could sing would want him to sing.

Joe knew he could, but he'd originally figured that Patrick had wanted to play drums for one reason or another. But when Pete was insistent on the fact Patrick should be singing, Joe hesitantly gave in and Patrick just sighed and said "okay." He couldn't argue, nor would he especially when they had no other frontman, but that meant finding a new drummer and nobody really knew any. 

They browsed shirts, Joe making a comment about wanting to get his nose pierced, which though it was deemed odd by Pete and Patrick, they didn't tell him no. He might look good with one, who knew? As long as it wasn't silver- he didn't seem like the silver sort of guy- they were okay with it. Joe was excited from that aspect, especially when they said that they'd go get it done after if he wanted.