#i actually broke down crying in front of another pal on disc the other week and while it DID feel cathartic...i feel awful abt it now | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sunsetinmyvein · 6 years

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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?”

“You need to work this out yourself, man. I can’t rescue your love life for you.” He shrugged. “I can offer you somewhere to start, though.”

Friday, 22nd of June, 2007 - Los Angeles, California

The Los Angeles show went a lot smoother than their San Francisco show. The band was able to play as a cohesive unit, nailing their set list and even chucking half of an extra song in on the high of playing a good show. Patrick’s heart seemed more in the music, and when he was happy, Pete was happy. When Pete was happy, everyone else was content that nothing was going to get broken. Their next stop was Vegas, and the trip was only short. As a result they had a comfy bed for the night and an almost-sleep-in drive to the venue. The McDonalds drive through breakfast also allowed everyone to be full, happy, and caffeinated. Pete sat on the lounge couch, happily fiddling with his Happy Meal toy as pressed his phone against his ear with his shoulder. His girlfriend had just finished her shift at work and he had agreed to chat if he was free at the time. This was the first time that things had gone so well between them and he had to admit, it felt oddly nice. He was almost falling into a sense of routine with it. It almost felt secure. Almost. He felt like if he could keep it going through this tour, he could keep it going for good. When the call finally ended, everyone else clambered into the lounge with him and shoved a disc into the DVD player.

Halfway through the movie, absolutely nobody was paying attention. It was nearing on lunch time and the drive through goodness had long since been forgotten. The conversation had dissolved into the foods they were craving from back in Chicago. It had only been a week, but there’s just nothing like home when it comes to favourite restaurants.

“I’m telling you, there’s this great place on Roscoe that does the best mac and cheese.” Pete said, trying to keep himself from drooling at the memory. Patrick made a grunt in agreement, nose stuck in the book he had been trying to finish since Oregon.

“Did they not used to exclusively sell variations on mac and cheese..?” Andy asked with a frown.

“They did!” He beamed.

“That’s not healthy.” The drummer muttered under his breath.

Pete ignored him and continued anyway, “Their hot and spicy mac was the best.” He said, his eyes almost glazing over at the thought. “Me and Trickster used to go there every Wednesday.” He wrapped an arm tightly around the man in question, pulling him into his chest.

“No wonder you were always comatose every Thursday practice.” Joe laughed loudly.

“We should go back. You can bring your girlfriend; it can be like a double date!” Pete started excitedly, shaking Patrick’s shoulders under his grip.

“We broke up.” Patrick mumbled quietly.

The bus fell silent at the sudden news. Nobody was sure if they’d heard Patrick right or not. Andy looked out of the back window nonchalantly as the other three looked between each other in confusion. Pete had a chill run through his bones, leaving him feeling like he’d just had a bucket of ice water thrown over him.

“What?” Joe asked eventually.

“We broke up.” He repeated, slightly louder this time.

“When?” Pete frowned. He tried to think back to any time he had seen them arguing before she left. He was sure that things had looked pretty solid between them. Though, he hadn’t exactly hung around too much between talking to his own girlfriend and not wanting to be a third wheel.

“Yesterday. I called her after sound check.” He explained, still not looking up from his book.

Pete felt this sinking feeling settle in his chest, threatening to pull him under. “Why?”

Patrick shrugged. “I dunno.” His eyes flicked up from the pages, meeting hers across the lounge. “My heart just wasn’t in it, I guess.” He added. She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. Andy snorted with something that sounded like laughter, but he covered it up with a cough.

“I, uh – I gotta go… do something.” Pete stuttered out as he scrambled to his feet. He glanced around the bus for a moment, seeming like he was looking for something, before climbing into his bunk and pulling the curtain shut. Joe watched him curiously, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned to Patrick.

“Welcome back to the bachelors club.” He grinned, holding his fist out for Patrick to fist bump. He stared at him for a moment before rolling his eyes and tapping his fist to Joe’s.

“How’d she take it?” Andy asked, still watching the flat landscape roll by behind them.

“Pretty well, considering.” He answered with a relieved sigh. A shout came from the front of the bus telling them that they were going to pull into a petrol station to refuel if they wanted to stretch their legs. The three band members left on the couch stood up and went to leave the lounge, but she caught Patrick’s wrist before he could leave. Ever since he’d revealed this new information, a pit of guilt had been sitting in the back of her mind and slowly growing.

“Please tell me you didn’t break up with your girlfriend for me?” She asked quietly.

“No, I did it for me.”

Friday, 22nd of June, 2007 – Las Vegas, Nevada

Their Vegas show didn’t go as well as they had hoped after their high in LA. Ever since they had gotten there Pete had vanished. He was nowhere to be seen for sound check and when he finally rocked up for the show (after Joe running through his bass and mic checks for him), it was like he didn’t want to be there. It seemed that when one member of the band got their act together, another just fell apart. Not that Patrick could be described as entirely having his life together right now. He had thought that maybe ending things with his girlfriend would make things a bit less awkward and maybe give him a chance to clear the air after California, but they seemed to be even more awkward now. He was still being avoided. But at least he was back to his old self on stage. Pete, however, was a terrible bassist at the best of times, so when he wasn’t trying, it really showed. His normal banter with the crowd was either half-assed and slurred into his microphone, or simply non-existent. Thankfully, the crowd didn’t seem to notice. They were either too happy that the Pete Wentz was right in front of them, or too out of their own minds to notice he was out of his. When the show finally wrapped up, he made a beeline to the tour bus. Joe felt like he couldn’t just let him get away with how terrible that show was. Particularly after the fact that he had effectively done two sound checks this afternoon, so he followed in the direction of the bus.

He finally cornered Pete rummaging through his bunk.

“What the hell was that today?” Joe asked. Pete jumped in surprise, the top of his head slamming into the bunk above his.

“Ow, what the fuck?” He asked, rubbing the back of his head and moving to sit back on the aisle between the bunks.

“Where were you, man?” He continued, ignoring the pain Pete was groaning about. “I had to do both of our sound checks.”

“What’s it to you?” He spat back, glaring up at the guitarist from the floor.

“To the band, Pete. We need you out there; the music isn’t the same without you and a lot of the kids think you’re the face of this whole thing.”

“I was on the bus, okay?” He answered, pulling out a fresh shirt. He smelled it once to make sure it was at least somewhat clean before changing into it.

“What’s wrong?” Joe asked with a concerned frown.

“Nothing, I’m fine. You wanna go get a drink?” He asked, pulling a hoodie over his shoulders. Joe watched him suspiciously, trying to decipher what was going on in Pete’s head. In the end though, a drink was a drink. And if he went with Pete, that meant he could keep an eye on him. Right?

#Patrick Stump #Patrick Stump x Reader #sunsetinmyvein

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