The Elements (Peterick)

TWENTY-ONE

Gavin is waiting in the cafeteria for Pete and Patrick the next morning. He is frowning at them, his arms crossed.

Patrick simply rolls his eyes and pushes past his adopted father to get to the lunch line. Pete, however, stops and stands next to his kind of father-in-law. All he offers is an innocent look, knowing that he probably isn't happy about the whole Brendon thing.

"You boys both know that Brendon is my nephew now." Gavin says to Pete, and Pete just nods. "And making him cry is extremely rude. I never wanted to have that talk with my brother. It's like he was trying to teach me responsibility. And he used to crush beer cans with his head."

"I sincerely apologise for both of us, because I don't think you're going to get it out of Patrick. He seems to all of a sudden hate Brendon's guts." Pete explains, and Gavin huffs out a breath, sitting down at an empty table. Pete follows suit.

"The funny thing is, I don't blame Patrick? I would be pretty upset if Lacey just showed back up out of nowhere and assumed we were still together, too. But I have to be the responsible adult because I'm his father." Gavin seems conflicted on what he should do, so Pete comes up with an idea.

"Maybe talk to Brendon about it? Like explain to him how it hurt Patrick when he left and how it hurts even more for him to just show back up and expect everything to be the same?" Pete suggests, and Gavin's eyes light up.

"You are a genius, boy. Just how Patrick likes 'em." Gavin pats Pete's shoulder before he springs out of his seat and practically skips out of the cafeteria, presumably to find Brendon.

Andy and Joe walk up at the same time Patrick gets back to the table. Andy immediately says, "Did you hear the great news?" He has a smile on his face as he speaks.

"What great news?" Pete asks, but Patrick seems as if he couldn't care less.

"Brendon's back!" Andy exclaims, and everyone at the table looks up at him in shock.

"Did you really have to bring that up? Isn't that a little harsh?" Joe asks, frowning at his boyfriend.

"So what?" Patrick asks, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed.

"Well, I thought you two could talk things out and maybe fix your relationship." Andy clearly ignores Pete, much like he has for the past four months.

Patrick raises both of his eyebrows and says, "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"Patrick." Pete says in warning, grabbing his boyfriend's hand.

"I get that you liked Brendon. I get that. I also get that you wanted him to like you, too. And when he didn't, you settled for having him date me. But that shit? Is over. Why don't you tell your boyfriend about what I caught you and Brendon doing at that Halloween party when both of you were in relationships?" Patrick shoots back, and Joe looks stunned.

He turns to Andy, his eyes clearly full of hurt. "What is he talking about? What the fuck is he talking about, Andy?"

"Patrick.. you. Joe, I'm sorry." Andy struggles to come up with the words to say.

"Tell me now. What did you do?" Joe asks, this time, the hurt is replaced with anger.

When Andy doesn't answer, Patrick begins to speak again, "Oh, I just caught your boyfriend and mine getting really friendly. Sophomore year Halloween party. Remember when you were talking to BJ to ask if he'd seen Andy? Turns out he had seen them. He just didn't want to fucking crush you. Which, you know, I am sorry about. But it's time that the truth came out."

"You had sex with him?" Joe assumes, his breathing picking up and his jaw clenching. "Fuck you. And fuck you, too, for not telling me." Joe says to Andy and Patrick, who just sit there dumbfounded. He walks off, leaving his tray and his three 'best' friends to come up with a way to fix this mess.

"You're the shittiest friend ever." Andy says, shaking his head. "I was going to tell him when the time was right. It was a fucking mistake."

"That's why it happened more than once then, huh?" Patrick sneers, and Andy stands up, walking around the table and grabbing Patrick by his collar.

"I should kick your fucking ass." Andy says, and for a second, Pete thinks he's going to throw a punch.

"Oh yeah? You and what army, Earth boy?" Patrick smirks, and Andy drops him back into his chair.

"Fuck both of you." He gives them both the middle finger before walking off, presumably to find Joe.

"For the record, Pete never did anything to you. Who knows? You probably want him, too." Patrick calls out to Andy's retreating figure. Andy doesn't even acknowledge what Patrick says as he continues walking.

After a few seconds of silence (when the cafeteria stops staring at them), Pete says, "That was kind of a shitty thing you did, just then."

"Shitty is an understatement." Patrick says, sighing as he looks down at his hands. "I'm not sorry for what I said, but I don't think I should've done it in front of God and everybody."

"Poor Joe.." Pete thinks of how Joe must feel now, knowing that his boyfriend of four years cheated on him multiple times. "I think I'm going to try to talk to him."

"Maybe that's not a good idea? I'm thinking of how bad Joe's temper can get. And I don't see anything good coming out of it at the moment." Patrick explains. Pete stands up anyways.

"Someone has to fix this fucking mess. And I guess it has to be me, since I'm the least biased and involved." With that, he walks off, headed to Joe's room to make sure he's alright.

—
i feel as if trick's character is getting more dickish as the story goes on. oh well