15. Gabe makes out with some guy (probably Pete) in order to impress Sexy Stranger #2.
The next several days were uneventful, which at the point, was the greatest thing that had happened all summer. It meant that I didn't have to worry about Gabe's visions or how Brendon was dealing with the revelation that Dallon didn't like him or any of my own problems. I didn't even see Gabe or Brendon for the rest of the week, but by the weekend, I was starting to miss my friends. It was a small price to pay for a few days of normalcy though.
When Brendon called me at eight o'clock, I was lounging around on the couch, eating mac and cheese and an extra large deep dish pizza from Fall Out Bros. and watching TV. Don't judge me - I was really hungry. I was expecting to have a quiet night, but when the phone rang, I knew that it was useless to even think about spending the night on the sofa. Brendon would keep things interesting.
"It's Saturday night!" Brendon screamed into the phone. "I'm going to the Sunshine Riptide, and I swear to God I ain't ever gonna repent. Do you want to come too?"
I sighed and asked, "Is anyone else going?"
"Ryan's coming too!" Brendon exclaimed. "We're going to have so much fun. I'm feeling so good right now."
I thought about Brendon's offer for a moment. I didn't particularly want to go out, and going to the Sunshine Riptide would only make it more likely that Gabe would meet Sexy Stranger #2 and attempt to make out with me to impress them. Besides, if Ryan was going, Brendon would be fine. He wouldn't end up in his neighbor's pool again. "I think I'll pass on this one," I told Brendon. "I'm kind of tired."
"That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard," Brendon said. "Whatever. I'll just ask Gabe." He hung up, and I went back to laying on the couch and thinking about how if personal pan pizzas came in the form of human beings, I would make mine a Patrick Stump every time.
When I thought about it, I realized that it was a mistake for me to turn down Brendon's invitation. When he had first offered, Gabe wasn't even coming, so his vision couldn't happen. More importantly, Patrick might be going to the Sunshine Riptide. I had missed the perfect opportunity to see him again.
A few minutes later, the phone rang again, and I picked it up. Before I could say anything, Gabe asked, "Pete, why aren't you coming to the Sunshine Riptide with us?! I need my wingman!"
"I'm tired," I said.
"Brendon said that, but that's a lame excuse," Gabe said.
"I had three hours of soccer practice today," I said, which was technically true.
"I'm sure you still have some energy left to party," Gabe said. "Dancing's not a crime, you know."
"I'm worried about making your next vision come true," I admitted.
Gabe laughed and said, "Don't worry about it, Pete. Brendon and Ryan will be there. They'll make sure that I don't do anything stupid."
I thought about it a little more and then said, "I'll come."
"Great," Gabe said. "Can you pick me up? My parents aren't exactly going to drive me to the Sunshine Riptide."
"Yes, of course," I said. I went back into my bedroom and changed into a Cure T-shirt, a black leather jacket, tight black jeans, and boots. I spent far too long on my hair, making sure that it looked just right, but I had to be prepared, just in case I ran into Patrick again. "Makeup is great for a guy, because it makes a guy look beautiful," I said to myself in the mirror as I put the finishing touches on my eyeliner. "Trick knows that, right?"
Once I was done with my makeup, I got into the driver's seat of the DeLorean and drove to Gabe's house. "You look like the unholy spawn of Robert Smith and a skeleton," Gabe said as he climbed into the car.
"Thank you," I said as I pulled out of Gabe's driveway and drove toward the Sunshine Riptide. When we got there, we found Brendon and Ryan waiting in front of the building.
"Let's get boozy!" Brendon exclaimed, while Ryan rolled his eyes. Brendon was already dancing along to the overly cheerful pop music blasting in the club as Gabe showed the bouncer his fake ID. The bouncer barely looked at it, and we got into the Sunshine Riptide without a problem.
Gabe immediately ran off to buy all of us drinks, and when he came back, we all danced together. However, it was all just miserable for me. The music was awful, every drink I ordered tasted disgusting, and Brendon kept awkwardly standing between Gabe and I in some sort of attempt to prevent his vision from happening. Worst of all, Patrick was nowhere to be seen. It seemed like I had come to the Sunshine Riptide for nothing.
Two hours went by, and I was seriously starting to wonder why I was still here. Brendon and Ryan had gone missing, and even after searching all around the club, I couldn't find them. Gabe was unsuccessfully flirting with a brown-skinned young woman, and whoever was the DJ for the night was doing a terrible job. Music pounded in my head as I gulped down drink after drink, but not even inebriation could salvage this night. I was started to wish that I had just stayed home. Laying on the couch in the living room was better than this.
That's when "This Charming Man" began to play, and Gabe walked up to me.
"I want to listen to some depressing music," I slurred as I downed another beer.
"Well, they're playing The Smiths right now," Gabe said. "I requested this song just for you."
"The Smiths?" I said. "You know I don't like the Smiths. I want to listen to, like, The Cure or something. I need a band that plays sad, gray, depressing music."
I realized that Gabe wasn't really listening to what I was saying. He was staring at a blonde-haired girl dancing along to the bouncing guitars. "Damn, she looks good out there," Gabe said.
"What about Elisa?" I asked.
"She broke things off with me a few days ago," Gabe said. "Don't worry about it."
He was still staring at the blonde girl, so I asked him an important question. "Is she Sexy Stranger #2?"
Gabe didn't respond. Instead, he said, "I have this theory about women," not even bothering to take his eyes off of the dancing girl.
"What's your theory?" I asked.
"They're all secretly attracted to gay men," Gabe said. "Why else would girls be so obsessed with Morrissey?" I shrugged and finished off my drink, while Gabe glanced toward the girl one more time, stepped closer to me, and asked, "Do you want to test my theory?"
"Why not?" I answered.
All of a sudden, Gabe pressed his lips against mine. I had nearly forgotten what he felt like - I could taste the alcohol on his lips, but I wasn't going to think about that right now. I deepened the kiss and ignored the fact that he was only doing this to impress the blonde girl. I closed my eyes, trying to pretend that we were anywhere else but the Sunshine Riptide and that I was making out with Patrick and not my best friend.
It would have been easier if Gabe wasn't such a good kisser.
Electricity flowed through my veins as Gabe finally broke the kiss, leaving us both breathless. A part of me wanted to kiss him again. Snap out of it, I told myself as he walked up to the blonde girl and flirted with her. You and Gabe broke up for a reason. Still, I couldn't deny that Gabe Saporta had more wit, a better kiss, a hotter touch, and a better fuck than anyone else I knew. I tried to look away from him and the girl, but it was hard when I could still feel his kiss on my lips.
I stood next to the door, awkwardly watching everyone else on the dancefloor. That Smiths song was still playing, and it was driving me mad.
I would go out tonight
But I haven't got a stitch to wear
This man said "It's gruesome
That someone so handsome should care"
All of a sudden, I noticed that Patrick was here, and I wondered how I hadn't noticed him before. Even from this distance, I could tell that he was crying, and just seeing that made me want to cry too. "What's wrong, Patrick?" Elisa asked.
"It's Pete," Patrick said. "I saw him making out with Gabe Saporta. I thought he was single, but I must have been mistaken. I think that he and Gabe are together."
"Honestly, I'm not surprised," Elisa said. "Those two were attached at the hip in high school. I know that you like Pete a lot though."
"I wish that he had just told me that he was taken instead of leading me on," Patrick said.
"Me too, but there's nothing that we can do about it now," Elisa said. "Our shift starts soon - we should get going."
I wanted to run up to Patrick and tell him the truth, but by the time I was able to muster up the confidence to do that, Patrick and Elisa were both gone. I could always tell him that Gabe and I were just friends later, but would he believe me? I desperately hoped that he would, but I suspected that he wouldn't. I tried to blink away my tears as I watched people dancing to synth pop. There was nothing left to do but wait by the door, watch everyone else dance and have fun, and nurse my broken heart. I had no idea where my friends were, and I was certain that I had ruined whatever I had with Patrick. At least this night can't get much worse, I thought as I leaned against the door, letting warm summer air flow into the club.
That was when a pale-skinned man pulled the door open, grabbed my arm, and dragged me outside. I screamed, but over the music in the club, nobody could hear me. I turned around to face the pale-skinned man and saw that he was wearing a T-shirt with a swastika on it. There were three other men there, along with the one that had an iron grip on my left arm, and all of them were wearing swastikas too. "Illinois Nazis," I whispered. "I hate Illinois Nazis!"
That was when one of them punched me in the stomach. I tried to fight back, but every time I came close to hitting one of them, they would all go after me at once. Eventually, I realized that trying to fight back was useless. No matter what I did, I would lose. The largest man kept hitting me in the face until I couldn't taste anything but blood, and one of my molars was about to fall out. I cried and screamed until my voice was ready to give out, but there was nobody around to hear me. The Neo-Nazis, of course, didn't care. All they wanted was to see me suffer, and that was exactly what they got.
I won't repeat a word that they said.
I refuse to remember the slurs that they hurled at me, repeated incessantly, like some kind of broken record. Somehow, hearing exactly what these people thought of me was worse than watching my own blood drip onto the pavement. It was those words that made me sick, not anything that they did to me. I would have rather received a thousand more blows to the face than hear another reminder that the only reason that all of this had happened was because my mom was black, and I had been dumb enough to walk into the Sunshine Riptide and kiss a boy.
I definitely won't repeat a word that they said.
The largest man in the group struck me hard in the back of the head, and all of a sudden, I felt the world spinning. Just as I was beginning to lose my balance, one of the Neo-Nazis kicked me over, and my head hit the concrete.
The last thing I saw was a Neo-Nazi looking at me in disgust, and then everything went black.
A/N: Thanks for reading Mixtape For The End of the World! Wattpad really, really doesn't like that my chapter titles are longer than Fall Out Boy song titles, so if the title in the chapter differs from the official title, the title in the chapter is the real title. Thanks again for your support :)