Breathe Me Back To Life •Patrick Stump+Fall Out Boy•

Chapter Twenty Two: I Will Change Everything Till It's Perfect Again

Dedicated to Music__is_life for the awesome comments!

||Patrick Stump|| First Person||

I hold my iPhone up and tap the switch camera function, flipping to video recording. I aim my phone in the direction of Andy, Pete, and a sleeping Cole, pressing Record.

"Shhh," Andy scolds me jokingly, pointing at me and wagging his finger. I dip my head and giggle, earning another shush from Cole's brand new bodyguard, Pete Wentz.

"Guys, you're going to wake her up," Pete sighs, rubbing his eyes with his open palms. I quickly hit Stop, knowing exactly where this particular comment may lead to. "It was hard enough getting her to sleep now, even though she hasn't slept at all since the hospital."

"The kid's going to be okay, though, right?" Joe crouches down in front of Pete, studying the nineteen year old's sleepy form. I have this strange impulse to want to just shelter her from the world's peering eyes and protect her at all costs. Like one of those reblogs on tumblr of something sweet we said before with a caption of, 'protect so and so at all costs, 2k14.' Yup, majority of the time, they're screenshots of our tweets.

Anyways, I couldn't help but notice how much more fragile she looks when she's asleep- almost like she's vulnerable. Which I guess is reasonable, considering the past 72 hours of hell she's been through with my ex girlfriend and the whole confession. I feel terrible and sick just thinking of how I didn't get there in time to save her from Elisa, even worse when it came to the Derek Skinner guy and what he did to her. He broke my Porcelain, and I swear to you right now, as long as it's in my power, nobody else will ever harm that girl again.

"Hopefully," Pete whispers, looking down at the limp form lying across both his and Andy's laps. Her white cardigan is at least two sizes bigger than her actual size, the cuffs of her sleeves draping over her face like some sort of cotton blanket. A small bead of drool is teasing the corner of her mouth, making her look somewhat innocent, regardless of what's happened to her recently. I almost giggle when a soft snore slips out of her mouth.

People really do look younger when they're asleep.

I feel like there's a ton of misconceptions with that particular phrase, because nobody actually looks years younger. It's more of a mentally unoccupied sort of look. You can see that right now, in her unconscious state, that she doesn't necessarily have anything to worry about, making her almost as peaceful and innocent as a toddler. But when you wake up, all of that stress sort of... washes over your mind like a tidal wave and changes your perceptions of the world.

"She's been through a lot," Joe whispers, locking eyes with Pete. "She's stronger than you think."

"That's the funny thing though," Pete chuckles dryly. "I know she's strong, but how long can a person be strong for?"

And there's your thought of the day; rather than measuring strength in how much you can carry on your shoulders, think about how long you can go with it all weighing you down?

--

"Guys, do you all have your boarding passes?" Joe says, walking over to us with a cup of Starbucks coffee. I shake my head and let out a laugh at that, reaching up and grabbing his cup. He fully saw us all get our boarding passes two hours earlier. Joe is just a perfectionist sometimes.

"You know you'll have to get used to drinking Tim Hortons when we get to Canada?" Pete snorts as I take a sip of Joe's Pumpkin Spiced Latte. I make a face and force myself to swallow the drink, handing Joe the cup back.

"Tim Horton's is a thousand times better than that." I say, wanting to scrape the taste off my tongue. Joe gasps in mock hurt, holding his cup to his chest as if to protect it from my words.