Chapter Text
“We're gonna be late Patrick” Pete whined as they were driving through neighborhoods.
“Should have set the clock early if you didn’t want to be late. We’re almost always late to everything anyway.” Patrick said
“Here, turn here” Pete said as they passed the turn he was pointing at
Patrick had a disappointed frown on his face as he stopped the car and looked over at Pete
“Sorry” Pete said
“This is the third time.” Patrick said turning the car around and taking the turn
“His house is right here,” Pete said, pointing at an upcoming house looking like an excited dog.
Patrick parked on the side of the road and they made their way up to the front door.
“Happy birthday Mikey!” Pete yelled as soon as Mikey had opened the door. Mikey pulled Pete into a hug and then a kiss. There was a very happy smile on Mikey’s face. He could instantly be cheered up by Pete.
“You!” Patrick said, pointing at Mikey, the Barnes and Noble worker. Things started connecting in his head from what Pete had described. This was Pete’s boyfriend?? Micheal from the Barnes and Noble.
“Hi Patrick” Mikey said with a knowing smile, “Nice to see you again”
“You guys have met before?” Pete questioned, pulling out of the hug to look at both Mikey and Patrick.
“We met yesterday,” Patrick said slowly, still processing that Mikey, the Barnes and Noble guy, is also Pete’s “imaginary” boyfriend. “He helped me find his birthday gift”
“Patrick! Why would you say that? Now he knows what I got him.” Pete exclaimed
“Pete, I already knew what you were getting me. That’s why I showed it to you a couple weeks ago and told you that we only had it at my bookstore and why I stored it in the back. I just didn’t know that Patrick was getting it instead of you, or this close to my birthday.” Mikey said with a laugh
“It would have been helpful to know that it was only at the Belleville Barnes and Noble, Pete. I went to four different places man!” Patrick said
“I’m sorry! I didn’t remember it was at that Barnes and Noble” Pete exclaimed
“It’s fine, I’m not actually mad” Patrick said with a wave of his hand
“Yeah, I know,” Pete said. Then he turned to Mikey. “I would have gotten your present sooner, I just got busy, ya know with my parents and everything coming home for the weekend”
“Yeah, how did that go by the way?” Mikey asked. He knew that Pete’s parents didn’t get along very well. He was there to witness a big fight between them, it was messy.
“It was fine. I’ll tell you more about it later” Pete said, “Hey, what happened to your glasses?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Oh, you know, just my dad. He took them off my face and snapped them in half” Mikey said with a shrug.
“I could get you new ones.” Pete said already taking note of what Mikey’s prescription was and the type of glasses to be identical to his current ones.
“You don’t need to get me new ones, my mom already went to get me a new pair this morning. She’ll be back soon.”
“Alright.” Pete said, squeezing Mikey’s hand
“Why don’t you ever offer to buy me new glasses Peter?” Patrick asked with a fake sad frown on his face.
“Are you my boyfriend Patrick?” Pete asked with a raised eyebrow
“Well, I should be with the amount of times I’ve been in your bed” Patrick said nonchalantly
“Shut up” Pete said, flipping Patrick off while Mikey rolled his eyes and shook his head at the both of them.
“Now are we going to bake a cake or what?” Pete asked, changing the subject back to Mikey’s birthday and heading towards the kitchen.
“Hey Mikey!” Illi yelled coming upstairs from the basement. “When is your boyfriend and his friend coming over?” she asked right before she saw her brother, his boyfriend, and Patrick, the boy –not to mention cute boy– she had given her number to yesterday standing in the front room of her house.
Illi was in pajamas for god’s sake! Could Mikey not have given her a heads up? She hadn’t done makeup either! She didn’t even look like a girl right now. She was going to kill Mikey.
“Oh, heyy” Mikey said with a scared smile on his face. He knew what was coming. He really should have told her about Patrick sooner. But he had a good reason for not telling her.
Patrick looked confused while Pete turned to her and said “Hi!” with a little wave
“Hi Pete” Illi said to him, with absolutely no emotion on her face or in her voice. Then she turned to Mikey “Micheal James, can we talk, downstairs.” she said sternly
“She’s gonna kill you” Pete said
“No shit. I’ll be back, ten minutes tops” Mikey said giving Pete a kiss
“If you keep me waiting you won’t be coming back” Illi said walking down the stairs, Mikey followed behind her.
“See ya soldier boy” Pete said before turning to say something to Patrick.
Mikey shut the door to the basement and turned to face Illi. “Look-” he started but Illi started talking over him.
“You jerk! You knew Patrick and didn’t tell me?” Illi asked pointing a finger at him
“Yeah…” Mikey said slowly, “I’m s-”
“You didn’t tell me he was coming over today? You didn’t even tell me when they were coming over. And now you’ve probably ruined any chance I had with Patrick. You’re a fucking jerk you know that?” Illi said.
“Ills, I'm sorry. I was going to tell you, but I didn’t know when they were coming over either. I should have told you last night.” Mikey said
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because if you knew he was Pete’s friend, you would have automatically put him under the weird-like-Pete-Wentz-stay-far-away category”
“No I wouldn’t” Illi argued, even though she knew she would have
“Yes, you would. Don’t even try to argue with me right now. Literally anything Pete likes, you dislike. I don’t know why you do that. Cuz you guys actually like a lot of the same things. But, I was trying to keep it to where you thought Patrick was still cool.”
“Mikey, he saw me as a boy just now. I have zero chance with him. He’s gonna think I’m a freak” Illi said, distraught.
“I don’t know about that Illi. I think he likes you just the same as he did last night.”
“How do you know that?” Illi asked crossing her arms
“I don’t know. The way he looks at you is almost identical to the way Frank looks at Ray. He most definitely does not hate you” Mikey said. When Illi didn’t respond Mikey started talking again. “Look, I really am sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I was wrong, okay? I can talk with Patrick and if he has a problem with you being trans, which I highly doubt, he can leave and I’ll tell him to never speak to you ever again, alright?”
“Sure, whatever” Illi said, turning away from Mikey to go to her room.
***
Patrick blinked a couple times looking at where Illi was standing at the top of the stairs just a few moments ago. She didn’t look the same as she did yesterday but she still looked beautiful in a Star Wars hoodie and sweatpants.
Oh, that’s what she meant. Patrick thought suddenly. She picked her name herself. God I’m so stupid.
“Hey, earth to Patrick” Pete said, snapping his fingers in front of his face getting Patrick out of his trance.
“Sorry, what?” Patrick said
“Is Illi the girl you saw yesterday?” Pete asked
“Yeah” Patrick said dreamily
“Shit. I’m so sorry dude” Pete said
“Huh?” Patrick asked. Why was Pete apologizing? Was Illi like a bad person or something? Did Pete think he wouldn’t date a trans girl??
“Well, Illi is strange and hates everything that I like” Pete explained
“So she hates me now?” Patrick asked “Well that’s unrealistic. She met me first yesterday, no way she could hate me after she gave me her number” Patrick reminded him. Patrick was trying to convince himself more than he was to Pete.
“I dunno. We’ll see” Pete said with a shrug.
“Thanks Pete,” Patrick said with a straight face.
Mikey returned upstairs a couple minutes later and Pete spoke first.
“You’re alive, soldier boy! I was starting to think you were never coming home after that” Pete said jokingly
“Me either” Mikey agreed
“So, what did she have to say?”
“She’s just being over dramatic. Thinking everyone hates her now”
“How could we hate her?” Patrick asked
“Exactly! Thank you!” Mikey said, “I knew you wouldn’t have a problem with her being trans”
“What? Of course I wouldn’t have a problem with her being trans” Patrick said like it was obvious.
“Exactly” Mikey said again like he was proving a point.
Pete and Patrick looked at each other for a moment before Pete spoke
“Uh, are we ever going to bake the cake?” Pete asked
“Oh, yeah, sure”
One cake baked and Patrick looking at the top of the stairs longingly later they sang happy birthday to Mikey and watched him blow out the sixteen candles on his cake.
“What did you wish for” Pete asked
“Oh, just the usual you know” Mikey said with a smirk up at Pete.
Pete returned a knowing smile and Patrick did not want to see what was gonna happen next. He left just before they started making out at the kitchen table.
Pete and Mikey really didn’t care about people seeing them being in love with each other. They used to be, when Mikey was scared out of his mind about their relationship. But now, they could care less. Patrick wished they cared more about how he felt in a situation like this because he did not want to see them doing whatever freaky shit they get up to.
Patrick made his way back to the front room to look at the top of the stairs. He knew she wouldn’t be there but he hoped she would anyway. But, he also knows she’s still down there, he hasn’t seen her leave and there’s still a car parked outside. That’s not stalkerish is it? Patrick thought to himself. No, it’s just observation.
He slowly walked down the stairs, opening the door at the bottom and found a small living room. There was a couch, a couple of chairs, and a TV along with a bookshelf of books (obviously), DVDs and trinkets. He walked towards the couch and found a comic book sitting there labeled Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys. Patrick has never heard of this comic series before so he opened it and started flipping through the pages.
So far, what he’s learned from skimming the first couple pages is that there’s four dudes and a girl basically trying to fight these evil dudes that work for something called Better Living.
“Hey!” Illi said walking out of her room when she saw Patrick reading the comic. She looked more like herself now, wearing a skirt over jeans and a t-shirt for a band that he’s never heard of. “Where’d you get that?” She asked with a strict expression on her face.
“Oh, sorry. It was just on the couch.” Patrick said, setting it back down where he found it. “It’s a pretty cool comic. Where’d you get it from?”
“I made it,” Illi said, taking the comic from the couch and walking back to her room. Patrick followed behind her.
“You made it? That’s cool. I really like your art style. The guy with the bright red hair is my favorite.” Patrick said
“Yeah, I like them too” Illi said
“Does he got a name?” Patrick asked
“Well, yeah, but they have more of a code name than an actual name” she said
“You keep saying them. Am I missing something?” Patrick asked, confused why she kept referring to the character as them.
“Yeah, they’re non-binary. Not quite a girl or a boy. Just something in between" Illi explained nervously
“Oh, that’s cool,” Patrick said with a gentle smile. “So, what’s their name?”
Patrick saw Illi smile at herself and he knew he was going to get an entire run down of the comic before he could even read it. Which would have been fine by him, he really wanted to just listen to Illi’s voice while she rambled on about the thing she liked. But he did want to read the comic for himself, her art style and the story so far that he’s read is extremely good for a girl around his age. Patrick can only draw stick figures at best and even the stick figures don’t really look that good.
“Just the name, Illi. I want to read the comic for myself. If that’s alright with you of course.” Patrick said before she could start spoiling the entire story for him.
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Illi said, handing the comic over to him. “Party Poison” she said a second later
“Huh?”
“Their name is Party Poison” Illi clarified
“That’s a hardcore name” Patrick said
“I know right? It’s totally badass”
“Totally” Patrick agreed.
“So… you here for anything else than my comic?” Illi asked with a small smirk.
“Well, I came down for you. The comic is just a bonus.” Patrick said
“We could like, I don’t know… never mind.” Illi said, shaking her head.
“What?” Patrick asked, wanting to know what she was going to say.
“We could like, get out of here if you want.” Illi said
“Like, leave the party?”
“It’s hardly a party. Pete and Mikey are probably fucking on the couch” Illi said
“Close, they were on the kitchen table when I left” Patrick said
“Gross.” Illi said
“Agreed” Patrick said. “So, when can we leave?”
“Right now.” She said, “Just let me grab my stuff and we’re out of here”
Patrick nodded and watched as Illi grabbed a messenger bag with various pins on it and a very old looking pair of converse that had doodles and song lyrics on them, and then they left. They didn’t see Mikey or Pete when they left but they certainly heard them from Mikey’s room. Illi grimaced and Patrick wanted to laugh at how cute her facial expressions were.
“We can take my car… or yours, whichever you like” Illi said adjusting her bag on her shoulder
“I can drive” Patrick said pulling out his car keys and spinning them around his finger
“Cool” Illi said, the both of them heading towards Patrick’s car.
Patrick made sure to be a couple steps in front of Illi just so he could open the door for her.
“Oh. Thanks” she said as she slid into the front seat of the car.
“Of course. Anything for the pretty lady” Patrick said with a smile
He saw the blush on Illi’s cheeks before he closed the door and he smiled to himself. He was winning! He was going to ask her on a real date after this because this is hardly considered a date when it’s her brother’s birthday.
Patrick got into the driver's seat and turned on the car, turning up the music on his CD a bit so it wasn’t silent but not too loud that they couldn’t also talk if they wanted to.
“So… where are we going?” Patrick asked, pulling off the side of the street and driving away from her house.
“Oh! We should go to Starbucks!” Illi said happily.
“Sure” Patrick said, driving with purpose now that he knew where he was going.
A few minutes later they parked in the Starbucks parking lot and they both got out. They ventured into the Starbucks, immediately getting the strong smell of coffee as soon as they walked in.
Illi told the barista her order first which of course was like a billion things. The barista frantically wrote down what she was telling her and Patrick smiled and shook his head lightly.
“Ah, I forgot my wallet in the car, I’ll be right back” Illi said
“I can pay for the both of us” Patrick said
“You don’t have to do that,” Illi said
“No, it’s fine.” Patrick said with a smile
“Are you sure?”
“Just let your boyfriend pay for you,” someone from the line behind them said, annoyed.
Illi’s cheeks went bright red, “He’s-”
“Yeah, let me pay for you” Patrick said with a smirk
Illi shut her mouth and let Patrick order for himself, paying for the both of them. They moved out of the way and sat down waiting for their coffee.
“Thanks” Illi said
“No problem” Patrick said
Their names got called a couple minutes later —or what sounded relatively close to their names— and they got their coffee and left, back to the car.
“Ha” Illi laughed, “They wrote LiLi on mine. What did they write on yours?” Illi said
“Pam” Patrick said, “That’s not even close to my name”
“You’re sure you got the right coffee?”
Patrick looked at the order and everything was correct to what he wanted. “Yup. Starbucks employees just give up on trying to get names right”
“Yeah” Illi laughed “One time I came here with one of my friends, his name is Frank, and he told the barista his full name, Frank Iero, and when he got his coffee back they had written Fred Lero” Illi said while laughing at the memory.
Patrick laughed along with her. “I usually just give them my nickname cuz they’re less likely to butcher it than Patrick”
“Let me guess, Pat?” Illi guessed
“Nah, Trick.”
“Cute” Illi said
Patrick smiled, “Thanks”
“You got any cool nicknames?” Patrick asked
“Well actually, Illi is my nickname. Although my brother and my friends called me Ills.”
“So what’s Illi short for?”
“Millipede” Illi said so nonchalantly that Patrick almost shot coffee out his nose.
He coughed before he spoke, “What?”
Illi chuckled, “Millipede”
“That’s, pretty hard core” Patrick said
Illi laughed “Thanks, Pam”
Patrick rolled his eyes playfully and laughed. “You’re welcome LiLi”
“You wanna go somewhere?” Patrick asked
“Sure,” Illi said, putting on her seatbelt.
Patrick put on his seatbelt as well and they left the Starbucks parking lot. Patrick knew where he was going, but he didn’t tell Illi to keep the element of surprise.
“You like Bowie?” Illi asked as one of David Bowie’s songs came on his CD. She turned it up a bit.
“Yeah. You like Bowie too?”
“Yeah, of course!” Illi said “He’s so cool. Way ahead of his time.”
“I agree”
“So, where are we going?” Illi asked after a minute
“Here” Patrick said, parking the car on the side of the road in front of a forest or woods? Patrick didn’t really know the difference.
“Uhh, are you gonna like kill me or something?” Illi asked half jokingly
“Oh, no, no. There’s just a- here it’s better if I just show you. I know that’s like really sketch but just trust me” Patrick said getting out of the car. Illi following suit
They walked through the trees for a while and a branch snapped, scaring Illi. She grabbed Patrick’s hand and pulled herself closer to him.
“Scared?” Patrick asked
“I mean sure. We’re in the woods, there could be a bear or something out there somewhere that could kill us” She said letting go of Patrick’s hand
“There aren’t any bears here, just rabbits and deer,” Patrick said, trying to make her feel better. “Here we are” he said a second later pushing past bushes and going through them.
“Where are you going?” Illi asked not following him
Patrick stuck his hand through the bushes holding it out for her. “Come look for yourself” Patrick said
Illi took his hand and he pulled her through the bushes into this little clearing. She looked around with awe.
“Is that a treehouse?” she said pointing to what was in fact an old treehouse.
“Yup”
“I’m gonna climb up there,” Illi said, walking over to the rope ladder. Patrick followed her.
“Awe man” Illi said stopping in her tracks
“What?”
“Pete and Mikey have been here??” Illi said, pointing to a carving in the tree of a heart with ”P+M” in the middle.
Patrick never saw that before, and the carving looked fairly new. “I dunno, maybe?”
“I mean how many couples have the initials P and M that live in Jersey?” Illi asked as a rhetorical question but Patrick answered anyway.
“I mean… us”
“Huh?”
“Patrick and Milipede,” Patrick clarified
“Yeah,” Illi said with a shrug. “But it’s probably Pete and Mikey who did that”
“Yeah. Most likely” Patrick agreed
They went up to the treehouse and it was actually fairly clean besides the fallen leaves from the nearby trees.
Illi looked out the little window of the tree house at the forest and found that there was a river not too far away. “Wow, this has a nice view”
“Yeah, it’s really cool in the evening and you can see the sunset” Patrick said
“Maybe you could show me sometime?” Illi asked
“Sure” Patrick said happily, thinking about getting to see Illi again after today.
They stayed up in the treehouse for hours. Patrick asked about her comics and Illi talked about her characters. She was always excited to share her stories with people. She tried to get Mikey to read her comic but she thinks he forgot about it and never got to reading it.
She asked Patrick what he liked to do after she had talked for who knows how long.
“Well, uh… I like to do like film… like short films or whatever.” Patrick said. Illi thought it was cute that Patrick looked so flustered while trying to remember what he liked to do for fun. “Uhhh… what else? I play drums and a little bit of guitar. OH! I’m in a band.”
“A band? That’s cool!” Illi said excitedly
“Yeah, they won’t let me write songs though. They say I’m not good at it. I’m just the drummer.” he says with a frown.
“Aw that sucks.” Illi said “You should just leave them do a solo thing or find a new band or something”
“Yeah Pete said that he’s opening auditions for his band with one of our friends Joe. I’m not sure why I gotta audition for it though. He said it was something about listening for the right sound??”
“That sounds like Pete Wentz” Illi said “but that’s cool, you think you’ll play drums for that band too?”
“I don’t want to play drums, I want to play guitar, to have like a higher ranking in the band, you know what I’m sayin?”
“Sure” Illi said. She noticed that she was looking at Patrick for far too long than any normal person should so she put her attention to her watch. The time was 5:30. “We’ve been here for hours” she pointed out
“Really? It seemed like thirty minutes” Patrick said, looking at his own watch.
“We should probably head back” Illi said
“Yeah…” Patrick said not wanting to leave at all
Illi got up though and started making her way to the ladder.
“Illi wait” Patrick called out
“What?”
“Would you, would you want to do this again sometime. Like as a date?” He asked
Illi smiled, “Sure”