Just Off the Key of Reason

Chapter Fifteen - I'm Not a Shoulder to Cry On

Thursday, 21st of June, 2007 - Los Angeles, California

The drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles was fairly short. Despite this, they still had to wake up early and leave their plush hotel beds in order to make sound check in time. The small coffee machine managed to wake them up enough to cope. However, much to Joe's dismay, it turned out that getting up early wasn't required anyway. They made good time on the trip, the driver said something about getting every green light, which left them with a little while to kill time before being required at the venue. The weather wasn't too sweltering hot, so they figured they might as well see the sights of LA. Or, as many sights as you can see on foot. They piled out of the bus, heading in various directions in search of food or something to look at. Patrick spied their red-headed drummer walking at a brisk pace down one of the café strips and started jogging to catch up with him.

"Andy!" He shouted once he was within a decent distance. Andy turned around to look at him, watching as he jogged up to a halt. "Buddy, pal." He continued, grinning at the drummer and pretending he was not out of breath. He only eyed him suspiciously in return. "Just the man I wanted to talk to."

"Oh?" He asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Let me buy you a coffee." He offered, motioning inside the café they were standing in front of. Andy looked up at the window in front of them, seeing it emblazoned with some fancy lettering and many disclosures about being vegan, cruelty free and all made from scratch. In all honesty, it looked expensive, even for what it was, and like it wouldn't be worth the high price tag. But he wasn't going to complain if he wasn't paying.

"What have you done?" He asked, turning back to the singer.

"Nothing." Patrick lied. Andy just stared at him. "Okay, okay. All will be revealed in due time." He assured, pushing him through the glass doors. Andy rolled his eyes, already sensing what he was walking into but knowing if he didn't do it now, Patrick would only force it on him later.

"I want a cake as well." He muttered over his shoulder as he was forced to sit down at a table.

The two of them sat there munching on their baked goods in silence. Andy had assumed when he had been dragged inside for conversation that talking would actually be occurring, but it seemed that Patrick had cold feet all of a sudden. "We've been back on tour less than a week. What is it that you've done now?"

He chewed on his bottom lip nervously. "You remember our last conversation?"

"When you dragged me into your hotel room?" He asked. Patrick nodded, fiddling with the side of his glasses. "Yes."

"How I said that maybe finding a girl to distract me might help?" Andy made a noise of confirmation as he took a sip of his coffee. "Well... as it so turns out, having a girlfriend didn't." Patrick huffed, feeling his face burn up in embarrassment.

"What a surprise." Andy gasped over dramatically. "And did it also turn out that your feelings were not one-sided?"

"It, uh... yeah, it did." He admitted sheepishly.

"You need to listen to me more, kiddo." He sighed. "But, hey. Now you can ask her out, right?" He asked, leaning across the table to light-heartedly punch Patrick in the shoulder.

"No, not really. I might've screwed it all up. It turns out she's worried about something happening because of what the label might do about it, particularly if things go south." He explained, taking a bite of the chocolate cake that he had ordered.

Andy nodded thoughtfully. "So what are you gonna do now? Fake your own death?"

Patrick laughed dryly. "It's tempting." He muttered as he stared down into the swirls of milk in his coffee. "What do I do, Andy? How do I fix this?"