You're a Hot Mess (Peterick)

Chapter Fourteen - The Television Flickers

Brendon and Gabe come up with the last of the boxes of my things and set them down outside with the rest of them.

They wouldn't let me open the door until they got everything up here so there'd be 'more suspense for the surprise'.

Lucky for us I didn't have much stuff anyway, and I didn't need it. The apartment is more than fully furnished.

There's a coffee machine; who knows why.

"Okay, okay open the door!" Brendon urges, bouncing on the spot like a schoolkid.

I open it nonchalantly, even though every time I open it it still impresses me. Not that I'm completely okay with Patrick having bought it for me... But all I'm saying is if it was a bribe, for someone who wasn't me, it'd be pretty damn convincing.

"Holy shit." They say in unison, and while Gabe seems a little stuck to the ground, Brendon rushes in and spins in a circle, admiring the room.

"The ceiling's higher than my house." He says, still spinning, but a lot more unsteadily than before.

"This one room is bigger than your entire old apartment." Gabe adds, having made his way to the fountain with a dream-like haze on his face.

"I'm moving in." He says, stroking the fountain's stone decals. Brendon finally stops spinning and raises his hand, waving it vigorously to get my attention. "Me too, me too!"

"I can't believe Patrick got you this place. It must've cost like, millions." Gabe says in awe and I laugh because they've only seen one room. But he's right, Patrick must've spent a lot of money on this place. I'm surprised he didn't use it for himself.

"I bet you're still thanking him. I'd send him a thank you card everyday." Brendon says, seemingly quite dizzy from spinning for so long, and looking at Gabe instead of me.

"I haven't seen Patrick in awhile." I shrug, like it's not a big deal. And I didn't think it was.

Until I saw their faces.

Before I even got a chance to say anything else, they were pulling me over to the sofas and sitting me down with two very intrigued, and very concerned expressions.

"Why not?" Brendon asks blatantly, as if it's a conscious decision on my part.

I lean back into the sofa, partially so they're not so in my face and sigh, not really wanting to explain it, or knowing why I should. "I'm back, my boyfriend's here. Tour's over. I've no reason to visit."

"Really?" Gabe raises an eyebrow, clearly about to say something that'll expose me because I know that look. I feel a sense of dread before he says, "Because if I remember right, Jack and Alex both said that the night you got the apartment you stayed over at it."

"Now we don't wanna jump to conclusions but-" Brendon rushes in, looking as if that's exactly what he wants to do, grinning like an idiot.

"How did they know what night I got the apartment?" I ask, trying to drive the conversation away from that point, but I realise it just makes me look worse.

"Patrick told them before. I guess he wanted to make sure they were okay with their best friend moving out because of him." Gabe explains as if it's obvious, and in some ways it is because that's just like him, putting others before himself.