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“You’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Pete glared at the bassist, barely holding himself back from smashing his bass over his head, while the other guy didn’t even bother to give him a smile.
“Pete...”
That tone. He knew exactly what that tone meant. He was about to hear the most pathetic excuse in the world, and not even to apologize to him, just something to make himself feel better, it was just to pretend he wasn’t the one screwing everything up.
“You know we have a reputation to maintain...”
Reputation?
Before even meeting Mikey, Pete had already heard stories about this guy, how he’d sleep with anyone and how he wasn’t exactly dodging rumors about being gay. So pretending to care about his image was laughable. What he really wanted was an excuse to avoid getting into a real relationship.
Pete forced a smile before speaking.
“I think your ‘precious reputation’ is the last thing you actually care about. I mean, considering what Gerard does with Frank on stage, it’s kind of hilarious that his brother is too much of a coward to admit he’s just scared of being in a relationship with a guy. Good thing this is over. I won’t have to talk to you again, honestly, I couldn’t stand seeing you every day.”
Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. It hurt, not being with Mikey. He was his dream guy, aside from how ridiculously he’d been acting lately. But Pete knew it was also true that he wouldn’t have been able to handle seeing him all the time. Unfortunately, Pete had fallen for him. Really, deeply. And it felt ridiculous to smile and lie to his face when all he wanted to do was hit him and maybe kiss him as an apology.
Still, he swallowed it all down, stormed off the MCR bus, and went to look for his friends. They immediately noticed his expression. Joe clearly wanted to say something, but Patrick gave him a look, and he kept quiet.
...
The next day, the band was getting ready to go on stage. Pete hadn’t shown up yet, but the rest of them were in the middle of a conversation when he arrived, out of breath from running to avoid being late to Fall Out Boy’s final performance at the 2005 Warped Tour.
“Sorry... for... being late...” He was gasping for air so hard it looked like he might pass out, when he noticed the looks on their faces. “What’s going on??”
Joe looked at Patrick, then at Andy, took a deep breath, and said,
“Well... we kinda heard Mikey’s been saying you’re obsessed with him, and that when he tried to back off, you lost your mind.”
Joe went quiet, clearly bracing for a nuclear explosion, and maybe even preparing to shut his eyes.
Whatever showed on Pete’s face in that moment was enough to make even Patrick’s serious expression shift to something more worried. Especially when, instead of breaking down, Pete smiled wide and looked at his friends.
“We’ve got a show to play... it’s time to head out.”
And they played flawlessly. Pete still gave his usual banter with the crowd, everything normal...until it was time for “Sugar, We’re Goin Down.”
The band was nailing it. Then, just as the song was ending, and to everyone’s surprise (including the band) Pete started talking into the mic:
“This song’s special. I played it a bunch of times for my sweet friend Mikey Way from My Chemical Romance, just to practice it. Oh, speaking of which...hi, Mikeyway, this one’s for you.”
He blew a kiss toward a specific part of the crowd, and within seconds, everyone realized that Mikey Way, THE MCR’s bassist, was there, watching Fall Out Boy. There was a moment of stunned silence before the band launched into the next song with full energy. The rest of the concert went smoothly.
No one really noticed the moment Mikey quietly slipped away from the crowd, trying not to be seen and failing miserably.
When the show ended, Pete walked offstage like nothing had happened, calm and collected, casually looking for something to drink and a place to sit, completely satisfied with what he’d done.
“So we’re not gonna talk about the elephant in the room?” Joe asked a little later.
Pete just raised an eyebrow and let out a sigh.
“Oh, right, Mikey dumped me yesterday with the dumbest excuse ever...”
That night, when Mikey ended things with Pete, he’d actually thought about every pathetic way he could beg him to reconsider. When Pete fell in love, he didn’t think straight, he became irrational. All he wanted was to be with Mikey again. But when Joe told him what Mikey was saying behind his back, Pete made a decision: for once in his life, he wasn’t going to be the desperate one.
“...And that’s what happened,” he finished, as if it were just some random thing, no big deal.
He had just made the entire crowd realize and confirm that Michael Way was gay or at least a boy kisser, and told the story like it was no more important than a weather update.
But then again, he was Pete Wentz.
No one really understood the dreamy, tormented young man, but nobody could mess with him eithel