Work Text:
"So, Pete," the MTV VJ with her plastic smile leaned forward conspiratorially. Pete just managed to hold back the urge to recoil from her and what he swears is residual bleach. He vaguely wishes for a warm hand to cling to but he's flying solo on this one. He managed a grin anyway. "We all known that you and Ashlee split on good terms. Both of you have said as much many times but--" She broke off to bite at her lip and Pete mentally rolled his eyes and physically smirked. She was going to ask if it was all really true and he was weighing the pros and cons of extreme sarcasm, whether or not she or anyone there now would really get it. "But, Pete, we're all dying to know if there's really any truth to the rumors about you and a certain redhead."
"Of course not," Pete spat with a roll of his eyes. God, they were always so predictable. Maybe a straightforward answer would shut them up once and for all. "We realized that while we're great friends, there's just nothing else there. Nothing at all. If you see us together anywhere, you're just seeing us as friends. Nothing else." The bottled blonde sat back, wavering between satisfaction and disappointed. The rest of the interview was just as predictably as always.
It took Pete seven unanswered calls to Patrick afterward to realize something was wrong.