The Church Boys ➸ Peterick/Brentrick

33: In Which Joe Decides to Get His Nose Pierced

Because Pete knew a place, and he'd wanted to get his ears pierced for awhile. Get plugs, that sort of thing. Patrick would probably just be in the background as moral support. 

Joe also wanted a tattoo, but he'd make an appointment for that once he knew what he wanted. It was amusing bringing people together that had maybe hated each other at one point, but now they were getting along perfectly fine and that was great. The three ended up going shortly after, meeting up at the shop and heading inside as an interesting looking trio.

Pete explained to the person that came up to talk to him what they wanted, while Patrick sort of just stood next to Joe and observed. Tattoos weren't his thing, but he didn't think piercings were either. He wasn't a fan of pain really. So instead, he watched them get their piercings and he found it greatly amusing. Joe hardly flinched, and seemed surprised when it was done. He asked a couple questions, but other than that he was good.

On the other hand, Pete hated the piercing gun (they said it was easiest for ears) and was happy to leave once it was over. He asked about when it was safe to start stretching his ears, to which they told him to wait at least three months, then wait a month between going up sizes. 

They left with that, heading back to Joe's house once the ordeal was over, and they ended up playing video games for the rest of the day. Bonding, right? 

It was a shitty ripoff of Overwatch, but hey, it was free and it was still fun even if they took turns playing. Joe had to show them how to play first, then let Pete try. He'd picked a character Joe suggested, then gotten his ass handed to him within ten seconds of the game starting.

"Wasted," Patrick uttered in a dramatic tone that made both Pete and Joe laugh. 

"Dude, please tell me you don't just fucking suck at video games," Joe said as they waited for Pete to respawn.

"I don't! It's been awhile since I've played anything, and I've never played Overwatch!"

"This isn't Overwatch!"

Patrick was giggling in the back while Pete tried to go out and fight again. He was pretty focused, and Joe was biting his tongue to keep from spewing out advice.

"Go Hidden," Joe finally said, to which Pete had to look down to find the right button before he did. "Run the fuck away and go back when you have full health."

Pete took the advice, but ended up attacking someone with low health and killing the character while he was trying to regenerate his own character's health. "Hey! Hey, guys! I did something good!" 

"You deserve a gold star for that one," Patrick told him, laughing again and letting the pillow Pete threw at him hit his shoulder.

"Run! Fuckin' run!"

"Why can't I use the hidden shit again?!"

"It's on cooldown! Fuckin- oh my God." 

"I deserved to die that time."

"Yeah you did."

"Hey! We got the objective!"

"Your team did, not you."

Pete pouted, and Joe shook his head before Pete tried to answer with, "but I helped."

"Yeah, you helped, I'll give you that." Joe shook his head, finding himself smirking still.

Patrick got the controller when Pete's team failed two more times, picking a character he'd seen someone else playing with during Pete's game. Joe didn't really argue, he just watched, having faith he wouldn't fuck things up for himself. He tended to skirt the outside in his playing style, killing the people with low health running from the fight as opposed to throwing himself in the center of it all like Pete did. 

It took him a few tries to figure out how to do what he wanted, but after that he started getting the streaks he wanted. Joe gave him tips, Pete chipping in when he saw someone Patrick didn't. The combined effort actually made the whole thing work to a certain extent, as surprising as it was. 

"You're actually halfway decent at this," Pete mused aloud, glancing over once he realized he'd said it, then following up with, "have you played this before?"

"I've played Overwatch before. It's pretty similar control wise." Patrick bit his lip as he focused before killing someone with his character. "I used to play video games all the time before I started playing music-" he paused to jump away from an attack, "-I still do play, just not as often. Admittedly I played Overwatch for a month straight when I got it, but hey."

"Why didn't we ever play together?" Joe mumbled, shaking his head and chuckling. "I'll text you my username and Skype shit when you leave, I expect good things from you if we play."

Patrick laughed, though was still obviously focused on the game. "I mean, my brother and I played whenever I wasn't working over the summer. It was great." 

"You talk a lot when you get excited about things," Joe observed, then found himself chuckling. "It's almost endearing."

"You do it too. I don't think I've seen someone get that passionate about music in so short a time for a long while." Patrick narrowly avoided getting killed, and silence fell over them as they watched him finish the round.

They played a different game after that, and then got to talking about music again and things were getting real. It was the start of a game plan. Joe's puppy had wandered over and tried to play with them for a bit before running out of energy and deciding Patrick's lap was a suitable resting place.

Sitting in a small circle over at Joe's house, the three sat in silence. With Patrick being shifted from drummer to singer, it complicated things because nobody knew anyone that could actually play besides Brendon, and Patrick was very against having two exes in the same band. Besides, he was putting together something on his own with Spencer, the other drummer they knew.

"Do you guys know any drummers?" Pete started, scratching the back of his neck. "We're gonna need one now...and another guitarist."

"I can do guitar too, it's not a big deal," Patrick answered. "I mean, I know a few, but...I don't think they'd be interested. Or I'd want them in the band. Or they're probably already in a band."

"Otto?"

Otto was cool, but Patrick didn't think he'd be very interested. He shook his head, focusing back on the puppy and petting it gently as he tried to think up someone else he knew. There weren't very many people.

With Joe's puppy settled in Patrick's lap, there was a long silence as they tried to think over what their plan would be for a drummer.

"I know people at my school that might know other people," Joe said, "might...er..."

"And Otto is a no?"

"Otto is a no," Patrick answered, sighing softly at the idea. "God, really, no ideas?"

Joe finally perked up. "I may have an idea."

- - - - - -

not as long but it's okay tbh

bUT ANDY'S COMING GUYS FINALLY

smut is next chapter, here's your warning, it's at the very end. prepare yourselves for the shit fest that will go down.

<3 you guys more than kanye loves kanye, votes and comments are appreciated xoxo