I'll Wait Forever

-28-

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I stood on my tiptoes in fifth period looking around nervously for Pete, we had third period together, but a lot can happen in fifty-three minutes. I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally caught sight of him in the crowd of people. I waved him over just as patrick came up to me.

"Wait, Frank, you know the new kid?" He asked.

"Dude, he's my best friend." I smirked.

"Oh! That's the Pete you were talking about? He seems really cool, do you think I could maybe-" Patrick's sentence came to an abrupt halt as Pete jogged over.

"Hey, what's your name?" He glanced at Patrick, who suddenly couldn't seem to form coherent words.

"His name is Pattycakes," I smiled as Patrick turned a bright shade of red and started stuttering about that not being his real name. Pete just laughed.

The three of us waited in line, and once Patrick and Pete had their food, we made our way outside to join the others. We were greeted with a chorus of 'hey's and 'sup's before we sat down.

"Guys, this is Pete, my best friend from back home. Pete, these are the guys. And they are fucking awesome. That's Patrick, Brendon, Ryan, Oli, Dallon, Andy, and, last but most certainly not least, Joe." Each one waved as I pointed them out, and before long, we started having more mindless chatter. It all seemed well and good until I noticed a few things- Patrick was staring at Pete, and whenever Pete looked back, they both averted their gaze and blushed. Weird. I also noticed that Dallon wasn't eating. He hardly even picked at his food. He seemed distant. But, I really don't know him well enough to judge.

After lunch, I went up to Dallon, "Hey, um... Are you okay?"

"Fine. Why?" He countered, not looking at me.

"Well, the other day at lunch you got really upset and walked off, and today you hardly touched your food. I just want to make sure you're ok." I picked at my nails nervously.

"Like I said before, I'm fine. No need to worry." He gave me a small, fake smile before he started walking away. Maybe he'll tell me at some point...

---

After school, Gerard came and picked up Me, Emma, and Pete. Pete had to go back to his house and unpack, so we dropped him off first. After that, Emma and I convinced Gerard to take us to Menchies for frozen yogurt.

"What flavors are good?" Gerard asked, "I've never been here before..."

"I can tell..." I laughed. "Just get some of those tiny cups and test some flavors. Find what you like, and then add shit." I grabbed a big cup and went over to the machines with Gerard following behind me.

"Well... What are you getting?" He asked softly, I glanced over at Emma who was quite focused on filling up her cup with half mint and half fudge.

"Personally, I love cake batter and red velvet. But just try a few and see what you like," I smiled and passed him the testing cups.

"O-ok... So how good is the almond one?"

"Here..." I took the small cup and filled it with almond and held it out for him to taste. He took it and licked it before pulling a face and throwing it away.

"I don't like nuts..." He muttered.

"Then why did you want to try almond?" I laughed and he blushed. I'd never seen Gerard so uncomfortable in his surroundings.

"I don't know! C-can I try the cake batter..?"

"Sure..." I filled up a new cup and held it out for him. Instead of taking it from me, he leaned down and licked it. So, naturally, I smashed it into his face. He was not amused.