Coffee and Comfort (Petekey)

Misspelled Names and Stupid Games

No, but he was wearing eyeliner. Like, a lot.

Fucking hilarious.

Mikey thinks it's kind of funny, too. He doesn't tell Gerard that he thought Eyeliner-guy was kind of cute, even if he can't spell.

....

Mikey goes back to Starbucks that evening. He's managed to forget the keys to his apartment again, and his roommate, Brendon, won't be back from work for another two hours.

Not a big deal, Mikey tells himself, getting in line. Coffee helps studying.

The barista from morning is still there. His eyeliner is slightly more smudged than it was, but his smile is still lazy and pleasant. It seems to grow when he sees Mikey, and because Mikey doesn't know how to act like a functional, social human being, he stares down at his phone, trying not to look at him.

"Uh, cappuccino please. Venti."

"Cool." The barista pulls out the cup and a sharpie pen. "Name?"

"Mikey." He says, then quickly adds. "With no C, but there's an E."

"No problem, man." Mikey glances up and reads his nametag. Pete, it says, with a little smiley face after, and Mikey's first thought is this guy is a dork.

Mikey pays for the coffee and takes the cup, making sure to check the name. It no longer says Micky, but now reads Mikee.

Mikey turns around to glare at Pete, but Pete's already helping the next costumer. Whatever. It probably wasn't intentional, and there's only so many ways you can mess up a name. 

It turns out, there are many ways you can mess up a name. Many, many ways.

....

For the next week, it starts becoming a game between Pete the Barista and Mikey, a game where Pete tries his best to misspell names and Mikey trying not to chuck his coffee cup at him.

Mickee, Mekiy, Mikkye, Micyee, Imkeyy... Pete's spelling errors get more and more ridiculous, and Mikey grows increasingly more frustrated every time he looks the side of his coffee cup and it says something that is clearly not Mikey.

Maybe Pete just happens to be a really bad speller. Maybe he's in a rush, and just throws down random letters. Mikey could understand that. Except every time the name is spelt incorrectly, he glances up at Pete, and Pete is always staring at him with a ridiculous smirk on his face, like Whatchu gonna do?

I swear to god, I'm not coming back to here. Mikey thinks, but he always does.

Ray, one of Mikey's (only) friends, decides to grab coffee with him. They sit down by the windows, waiting for their drinks. Mikey figured if they got their drinks for here, Pete wouldn't have anything to write down, hence being unable to spell his name wrong. Ray doesn't get it, but it's a small victory.

Well, Mikey thought it was a victory. Pete walks over to them, puts the latte in front of Ray and hands the cappuccino to Mikey, saying, "Here you go, Mick-yay."

Ray has an eyebrow raised and a slight smile on his lips. Mikey takes the cappuccino, looks Pete in the eye, and says, "Thank you, Pepe." Pete beams at him and walks away. Ray starts laughing. So much for small victories

How's your eyeliner barista boy? Gerard texts that night.

His name is Pete. Mikey replies. I want my goddamn machine back.

....

Oh, finals. How they are the bane of Mikey's existence. Despite Mikey's promise not to return to that particular Starbucks, living with Brendon Urie isn't exactly ideal. Especially when he can hear him and Ryan making... noises in their room.