He looked like hell and felt like it too.
It was ironic how he had broken it all off to keep himself from feeling the way he did right now, but it seemed that there was no way to win in this situation.
Atleast Mikey looked like he was enjoying himself, swaying hip to hip with some girl that had blue streaks in her blonde hair and boobs that almost popped out of her top.
"Why are you doing this to yourself" Patrick asked him.
Pete looked at his feet and smiled sadly "it's better to pull a bandage off quick than to make it slow and painful right?".
Patrick sighed and took a sip from his drink "yeah but...dude come on you're being ridiculous, stop letting your anxieties get the best of you".
He shook his head "I'm gonna grab a drink" he shuffled through the crowd of people, there were way too many, enough to fill the first floor of the huge house, he couldn't recall seeing that many people the night before the tour really started.
When he finally reached the makeshift bar he poured himself a little bit of everything that ended up tasting like a mixture of gasoline and nailpolish remover with a hint of coconut, however the burn in the back of throath and warmth spreading through his veins probably meant that it was doing the trick.

He took a deep breath and downed the cup in three big gulps before filling it up to the rim again, this time only going for the hard liquors.
When Bob saw him pour the new cup he walked over and snatched it from his hand "Wow slow down do you feel like pissing your pants and choking on your own vomit tonight or what".
"Give it back...-" Pete stopped when he looked at Bob's feet and saw the purple socks and plastic sandals, for the first time that day he laughed, but immediately stopped when he received a death-glare from the already annoyed drummer..
"Don't say a word" he then divided two thirds of Pete's cup into a cup each and gave Pete's his back "after this stick to beer and wine, you'll thank me in the morning".
Bob grabbed the two other cups from the table and was about to go on his way "what makes you think I won't just pour myself a new one" Pete said.
Bob looked him in the eyes "well I'll be only 5 feet away from the booze table tonight since Ray is a lazy fuck so the second I see you touch another bottle I'll just have to shove it up your ass, understood?".
Pete nodded and backed away, Bob could be a very frightening man.
He admitted his defeat and still being able to walk would probably come in handy late in the evening, he mingled back into the crowd and said his 'hey's and 'yeah it was a great tour's to vaguely familiar faces and a friend here or there.
The music was pounding through his skull and normally he'd be busy trying to coax Patrick into joining him on the dancefloor but tonight he'd rather be a wallflower than the center of attention.

The whole first floor was packed with sweaty bodies and from the looks of it the backyard wasn't much better.
He walked back and took a chance to see if the front lawn would provide him some peace and quiet, but first he poured himself a beer from one of the many kegs.
With his cup clutched thightly in his hand he walked through the hallway, stepped over a couple that was making out on the floor and finally reached the already open door.
There was only one person sitting there on the porch, he wasn't that fussy and one person wouldn't be a big deal, but this was different.
This person, had hair that was spiked up in the back and smoothed down at the front, this personwas wearing his white denim jacket.
He swallowed but stepped on to the porch and closed the door behind him, it was way too loud.
Mikey hadn't noticed him yet, probably because he was too busy fumbling with his lighter, cussing softly at the object with his cigarette still tucked between his lips.
"Need some help with that" Pete's words startled Mikey, who looked up.
Pete sat down next to him and plucked the lighter from his fingers without asking permission, Mikey didn't object but instead sat completely still while Pete held the lighter infront of the cigarette and cupped one hand around it.
The late summer breeze was soft but enough to blow out small, flickering flames.
When it was finally lit, Mikey took a long slow drag from the cigarette, letting the smoke curl around in his lungs before releasing it.
Pete looked at the mesmerizing sight infront of him, if his talents lay elsewhere he'd wish for paper and a pencil to sketch this sight out with his own hands.

"You're wearing my jacket" Pete said softly, staring into the distance "you weren't wearing it earlier".
Mikey took another drag from his cigarette "yeah it's chilly, 'think fall's coming early this year".
He just nodded and glanced sideways to see the cherry of the cigarette already burning down half of it's length "you only smoke when you're sad".
"Yeah".
Pete now turned around to face Mikey "I'm sorry that I made you feel that way".
Mikey looked at him, his cigarette burning up between his fingers "me too".
His short answers made Pete's heart ache, it was yet more evidence that he had broken something in Mikey and he hated himself for it, but after all that had happened today it was too late to mend things, even hearts.
After the disaster of this morning he didn't know what to do with himself, hell he didn't even know himself anymore.
Too much had happened in too little time, yesterday he was kissing Mikey in the rain and that same evening he had decided that everything up to this point had been too good to be true.
Andy had caught him staring out of the window when he came back to the bus with some girl that was guitar tech for a band he knew a couple of members of.
The girl was nice, she stuck around to play videogames with Joe and Andy, while he himself was getting caught up by his insecurities again.
He had talked to Patrick about it, who had told him that he was being stupid, that he shouldn't throw a good thing away because it may or may not go bad at some point in the future.
It was spur of the moment thing, the girl crashed on their couch that night, and when they said their goodbye's this morning it was just good timing that Mikey was looking out of the window, or bad timing, he didn't even know anymore.
The truth was that he'd already seen Mikey grabbing cereal, so when the chance came he gave the girl a kiss and let his hand wander for a split second, just enough to make it look like something that it wasn't.
She didn't say anything of it probably because she knew he was with Mikey, she'd said something about seeing them around sometimes and that they looked cute together.
From there on he just played the part, if Mikey thought he was an asshole their falling apart might not be as bad, after all Mikey was better off without him.

He didn't realize how deeply burried in his thoughts he was until he saw Mikey waving his hand infront of his face "hey you still there?".
Pete blinked a few times "yeah, yeah, uhm I just blanked out for a moment" he stammered.
Mikey folded his hands in his lap and twiddled with his fingers, he never knew what do with his hands "I was saying that I thought about what you said earlier, and you're right, about you and me."
He paused for a moment as if he was looking for the courage to speak the same words now that Pete was actually listening "it would've never worked, after tomorrow it's all over, summer, us, everything".
Eventhough Pete was the one who started this it still killed him that he had poisoned Mikey's mind like this, it meant that the last dim light of hope had gone dark, the words stung in all the right places.
But he didn't let it show on his face "we had a great time though" he said it as if it were just that, great, when in reality it had been the most significant few weeks of his life.
"We could still have, like I said it's not over 'till tomorrow, we still have tonight" Mikey said, his dark eyes looking determined as ever.
Pete could stare into them all day, he was already in too deep, one more night couldn't do more damage than had already been done "so you're saying..".
Mikey grabbed his hand "spend the night with me, if all we had was this summer then I want to make every minute of it last, just you and me one last time."
He couldn't say a thing so he just pulled his hand loose and used it with his other to pull Mikey in his arms, Mikey snaked his arms around him and they felt so sickly in love.
"Maybe we can find a room upstairs, snatch some booze and just hang out" Pete asked a little unsure, but Mikey was already letting go to stand up, offering his hand which Pete gladly took and didn't let go off when they went inside.
-
Frank was busting out his best moves but had nothing on Gerard who was jumping and stomping along to "Can't Touch This".
At one point he just stopped and stood there watching how Gerard worked himself into a sweat, looking like he didn't have a care in the world, it were moments like this when it hit him how hard he had fallen for the dork.
When the song ended Gerard walked over to him and swooped one arm around Frank's neck "what are you smiling at sugar?".
He blushed and wrapped his arms around Gerard's waist "nothing, you just looked really cute, did you seriously just call me sugar?".
Gerard looked down at his feet "yeah, didn't you like it, I could just stick to Frankie but I don't know it just slipped..-.
Frank kissed him and pulled back with a grin "I fucking love it..babe".
The two of them laughed, Gerard bit his lip "oh god we're that couple now aren't we, the kind that call eachother pet names and other cheesy stuff?".
He nodded "yep, and I wouldn't have it any fucking other way".

The next song started playing and the two of them started laughing when they recognized it "seriously Cortez must be drunk as fuck if he's playing REO Speedwagon" Gerard said.
Frank chuckled "just shut the fuck up and dance with me".
And with that Gerard looped his other arm around Frank's neck too and like high school sweethearts they slowly swayed to the lyrics and music of "I can't fight this feeling anymore".
Gerard was mouthing the words to Frank who felt his heart melt a little bit more with every second he stared at his boyfriend's face.
It had taken them a good while to find the guts, but now that they finally were where they needed to be everything felt right.
Just like in the movies it felt like they were the only ones in the room, Frank pulled Gerard closer, this was the kind of stuff people wrote about, every love song he knew now sounded profound.
Before they knew it the song was already over again and Cortez changed back to faster paced songs, people who had been dancing in pairs let go of their partner and started moving by themselves again.
However him and Gerard were still standing in an embrace.
When they finally let go Frank thought that now was the right time to get ready for his surprise, it wasn't anyting big or extravagant but he hoped that Gerard would understand it.
If everything went right tonight could end up being very special for the two of them, before he excused himself he gave Gerard a deep kiss and started pushing through the small sea of people.
-
He really had no idea what Frank was up to, he said he'd be back in a couple of minutes, so Gerard decided to get himself a drink while he waited.
Before he got to the table where they kept the good booze someone snatched him back by his arm, when he turned around the irritation on his face cleared immediately because it was a clearly intoxicated Ray instead of a stranger.
"I see that you've been going hard tonight" he remarked, grabbing the cup from Ray's hand, it was almost full until he downed most of it, Ray was already drunk enough and it so happened to be that Red Bull-Vodka was one of his favorite drinks.
"Where's your loyal servant" Gerard hadn't seen Bob and Ray seperated this evening apart from the times when Ray had sent him out to grab drinks.
Ray scratched his head "he was convinced that some girl was flirting with him so I gave him 10 minutes to get her phone number, I bet that he couldn't."
Gerard laughed "wasn't losing one bet bad enough, although I have to say you're being pretty mild on him, he doesn't say it but I bet he fucking loves those Crocs, the fuckers are damn comfy".
Now it was Ray who laughed "so what should I ask him to do now" he said with a slight slur.
He thought for a second, came up with the one thing that Bob probably wouldn't do even if somebody payed him "ask him to make out with you".
Ray's eyes got wide "what the hell man, I don't swing that way." he said and Gerard thought that the shock on his face was pretty entertaining so he decided to take a slight adventage of Ray's intoxication.
He leaned back against the wall "oh come on Ray, remember that time me and Mikey walked in on you with that dude from that bar we played our, as I remember, second show. You know that dude that gave us a free round of really shitty, watered down rum-and-coke's which you didn't even taste since you were too busy getting your dick s-..".

Gerard couldn't finish his sentence because Ray had clasped his hand over his mouth "no, remember, we wouldn't talk about it ever again."
When Ray pulled his hand off again Gerard grinned, he had him right where he wanted him to be "whatever man, there's nothing wrong with liking two kinds of the same thing, but I knew you were too chicken to ask so yeah, whatever" he said as casual as he possibly could.
"Who said that I'm chicken for it... I just don't want to and I don't have a reason to" Ray replied.
He acted as if he was really busy studying his hand, picking at the already chipped nailpolish he had on his right thumb "sure man, whatever you say".
Ray sighed "Fuck! Fine I'll do it.".
"Do what?" Bob, who had appeared out of what seemed nowhere, asked.
Gerard chuckled "nothing, hey I'll catch you guys later, be safe" he said and winked at Ray, who looked like he was triying to use the Force to strangle Gerard without using his hands, he was thankful that his friend wasn't a Sith Lord.

He finally made it to his original destination: the booze table, he decided to go old school and grabbed a bottle of vodka, he enjoyed the drink he'd stolen off of Ray but sadly enough he couldn't find an energydrink, luckily he always thought coke was a good substitute as a mixer.
Before he could reach out to grab two fresh cups he felt a figure hugging him from behind and a kiss on his neck "ready for your surprise?" a familiar voice asked him.