trees

6.

June became July and school was let out for the summer, and the change of the seasons finally gave Pete and Mikey more time to spend together.

During that time, Mikey introduced Pete to his family as his boyfriend; it went surprisingly well, but then again, he wasn't out to his parents, so they didn't really think much of it. Mikey found the situation somewhat amusing; Pete just encouraged him to at least try and come out.

It was the Fourth of July; they were cloud-gazing together on a hill in the middle of nowhere while Gerard and his boyfriend, Frank, were setting up some illegal fireworks. Mikey wasn't entirely sure who trusted Gee with explosives and fire; he thought his parents knew better than to leave their eldest son alone with things like that.

"Mikes, you should at least try to tell your parents," Pete mumbled, turning his head so that the sun didn't shine directly into his eyes. "I'll be with you the entire time if you want, lovely."

Mikey bit his lip. He did want his family to know, and, judging by how they reacted to Gerard's coming out, they'd take it well, but he didn't think he could handle it when his parents inevitably told the school and he was inevitably thrown around like a rag doll because of it. Being a socially inept outcast was enough; he didn't need to give everyone more bullying material. Especially since he was caught using the boys' bathroom back on Pete's birthday by that hipster guy, Ryan Ross, in the grade above him.

Ryan had been nice about it.

The school counselor had not.

Mikey had gone off with a warning and a lecture on "watching where you're going," but even after he left the counselor's office the words wrong bathroom wrong bathroom wrong bathroom wrong bathroom echoed through his brain.

But it had been the right bathroom. And it had torn Mikey apart.

"It's not them I'm concerned about - it's more of the people at school. My parents will tell staff and staff will tell the students and those kids are the spawn of Satan - they'll murder me," he responded, looking over at his boyfriend. "Literally. They'd shove me off a bridge in exchange for a rusty spoon."

"Can't be worse than public school." Pete shrugged, sitting up and running a hand through his hair, messing up his trademark "emo fringe," as he liked to call it. "But I'll always be here for you, yeah? If you need to cry, I'll let you cry on my shoulder if it makes you feel any better."

"Thanks, Pete," Mikey sighed, letting Pete help him up. (a/n i'm so sorry for leaving that in)

One of the fireworks went off too soon and Frank yelled a long string of profanities while Gerard laughed like the mad scientist he was. The firework exploded into a star, trailing rainbow streamers of sparks behind it as it flew threw the air.

"Are you kidding me, Gee?" Mikey yelled at the pair of older boys at the base of the hill. "Rainbow fireworks? How gay are you?"

"Very," Gerard yelled back. "But don't worry, I got them with you in mind."

Mikey flashed Gerard his middle finger and Gerard blew a kiss in response.

"Hey, it's representation," Frank called, not looking up from sorting out his array of probably illegal fireworks. "And that's what matters."

"Yeah! Va te faire foutre! No taxation without representation!" Pete pumped his fist into the air as Mikey quite literally pushed him onto the ground. "Vive la révolution!"

"What is this, the goddamn Boston Tea Party?" Mikey laughed, kicking his boyfriend gently in the ribs. "The war's over, dumbass."

"We're always revolting against something," Pete grinned, breathing heavily. "Now help me up."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"I think I've got it." And just as he said that, Frank accidentally set off a firecracker, and seriously, who the hell trusted those two with explosives? Mikey made a mental note to reprimand his parents when they got back from nowhereland. "Never mind."

Gerard rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna go back to the car and get the cooler. Who wants a popsicle?"

So that's how Pete and Mikey ended up sitting at the top of a hill long after the sun set, finishing off electric blue popsicles while watching Frank trying and failing to successfully set up the fireworks display.
Eventually he just gave up and started lighting them, because by then it was about ten and they had to be back at home by eleven.

"Isn't it pretty?" Pete mumbled into Mikey's shoulder, pointing at the not-so-extravagant fireworks display going off at the bottom of the hill. He said something else, but his words were drowned out by the noise, so Mikey just nodded numbly.

He looked over at Pete, his skin colored pink and blue and purple and gold by the fireworks going off, and Pete grinned, and Mikey's heart melted because it was all so photogenic and beautiful and he wanted to remember it all.
That night was his lighthouse in his sea of oppression; Pete was his buoy and he was just floating at the surface.

But for some reason, something changed inside him when he saw the illegal fireworks Gerard somehow acquired exploding in the sky, the empty shells clattering back down in a cascade of rainbow sparks.

Mikey felt like he could lift the world and never get tired. He had been treading water for so long, and he felt like he had finally reached land.

Pete kissed Mikey with his blue popsicle lips and touched him with his chlorine summer skin, and the butterflies inside of the latter fluttered their wings harder than ever before. Somehow, this was better than all of their nights alone in Mikey's bedroom, more than when they met in that tree in the park, and he couldn't describe exactly what he felt but it was so much more than some stupid infatuation and a meaningless fourteen-year-old "I love you."

The feeling was at the tip of his tongue, but then again, his tongue was inside of Pete's mouth so maybe that's why he couldn't remember.

Regardless, it felt nice. Mikey felt like nothing and everything at the same time, and his heart soared when he saw the way Pete looked at him when they finally pulled apart.

The fireworks were so loud and the night was so nice that Mikey ignored his phone in his back pocket when it started ringing.

--
uhh idk how happy i am with this but i'm way too tired to revise and i wanted to post something because i can. it's 1 am help me

speaking of revision... it's almost been a year since i first started drafting this story lmAo and i haven't done a mass revision on it since. i've gotta get my shit together!!