Listen (Patrick Stump / Fall Out Boy Fanfic)

Chapter 4 - Feel a Little Beautiful

                  

  "She's perfect, Patrick," Pete gasped, gripping the steering wheel like his life depended on it. I sunk into my seat and pulled my cardigan a little closer around my shoulders. We had just left the restaurant and said our goodbyes to the girls, and now we were sitting motionless in the parking lot, both of us looking and acting like a couple of star-crossed teenagers. To anyone passing by, we probably looked like we'd never seen a female before in our lives. But I knew I had never met anyone like her. And the kicker was that I still knew barely anything about her. She knew almost everything about me, after all the questions she'd asked.

            "I know," I whispered, a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. "Did Meagan mention a second date?"

            "She said to get her number from you."

            "Won't be necessary. Aria already set up a second date." Pete turned to look at me, his breath leaving his mouth in a puff of fog in the unheated car. I smirked and looked down at the notebook in my hands. "This weekend," I stated, "My place."

            "Both of us? You don't want time alone?"

            "I don't want to scare her off. I just want to know her right now."

            "Fair enough." Pete looked ahead of him again, both of us staring at the plain, brick wall of the building in front of us. Neither of us said anything for a few minutes, too lost in thought over Meagan and Aria. Finally, I looked over at Pete and laughed. He turned to look at me like I was insane, but then he laughed too. It was hilarious how stupid we were being, just sitting here.

            "Are you going to take us home?" I asked, chuckling at Pete, "Cause if you're just gonna sit here, you could at least turn the heat on."

            Pete scoffed and turned the key in the ignition, letting the engine roar to life before he turned the dial on the heat. In a matter of seconds, we were finally heading back to my place. I looked through my notebook on the ride home, smiling now and again when I remembered the way I'd made her laugh. As we finally pulled into my driveway, I slipped the notebook into my pocket and turned to Pete. "Text me with details?" He asked, referring to this upcoming weekend date at my house. I nodded and said goodbye, then hopped out of his car and headed inside.

            I went straight up to my office, sitting down with a pen and paper, and started writing. Something about her always made me want to write, it seemed, and that was a wonderful source of inspiration that I would always welcome. I sat there for hours that night, writing one song that I ended up calling, Save Rock and Roll. It really had nothing to do with her, other than the fact that she just made me want to write. She made me want to create, even if she would never hear any of it, because I needed to show her the words. If she could never listen, at least she could see.

***

            The rest of the week passed by in a blur. I had sent the song via email to Pete, Andy, and Joe, and everybody seemed to like it. Joe mentioned that it would make a nice album title, and others seemed to agree. It felt a little surreal to know that we were making some headway with this album, but it was definitely a weight off my shoulders knowing that we were still capable of doing this.

            When Saturday finally rolled around, I spent all morning straightening up the house. I wanted everything to be perfect when they came over, especially for Aria, because I didn't want her to think I was a slob. When the doorbell rang the first time, I was in the middle of getting dressed and my heart literally stopped for a moment. I raced down the stairs and bounded across the living room as if everything would come crashing down if I didn't answer the door in time, but then I pulled the door open and found Pete standing on the front step. I glared at him and stepped to the side so he could come in. "Since when do you ring the doorbell?" I asked, running a hand through my hair as I calmed down.