Mixtape For The End of the World

18. Pete, Gabe, and Brendon go into Gabe's basement.

18. Pete, Gabe, and Brendon go into Gabe's basement.

Two days later, Gabe called me just as I was about to go to work. "Do you want to come over to my house?" he asked. "Brendon already agreed to stop by."

"I can't," I said. "I'm working until six. Besides, it's probably not a good idea to have all of us at your house at the same time. We might make your next vision come true."

"Pete, that vision will never happen," Gabe said. "Nobody is going into my basement."

"How many times have we said that?" I said. "We need to be more careful."

"You need to be less paranoid," Gabe said.

"I just don't want you to die," I said. "The hardest part of this is leaving you."

"I won't die, because nobody is going into my basement," Gabe insisted. "It's always been off-limits, and it always will be. So are you coming over or not?"

"I guess I'll come after work," I said. I still didn't think that this was a good idea, but there was no point in arguing with Gabe.

"Great," Gabe said. "See you then."

I hung up and drove the DeLorean to work. When I got there, Billie immediately gave me a long list of places that I needed to deliver pizza to, and I faithfully did my job. I may or may not have taken and eaten an extra box of cheese pizza, but of course, Billie didn't need to know about that. "Y'know, we're lucky to have employees like you, Pete," he told me when I returned to the restaurant.

"Thank you, Billie," I said as I wiped a bit of tomato sauce off of my face.

Somehow, Billie still didn't notice that I had already eaten a pizza. "Are you going home after this?" he asked.

"No," I said. "I'm going to my friend Gabe's house."

"Why don't you take a slice of pizza for the road?" Billie suggested.

Even if I had just eaten, I wasn't one to pass up free pizza. "You're the best, Billie Joe," I said as I took a slice of pizza and devoured it.

When I was done, I opened the door and headed toward the car. However, I noticed that Tea Monkey was having a special on green tea, so I poked my head into the shop to see if Patrick was there. Not only was Patrick behind the counter, wearing his Tea Monkey hat on top of a fedora, but I could also hear the Hüsker Dü song that Billie Joe was blasting next door. I focused on Patrick, admiring his handsome face. His eyes were fixated on a cup of tea, waiting for it to steep, even as I felt like I was going to explode at any moment. Oh, how the mighty fall in love.

My heart broke when I realized that Patrick was the best I'd never have. We would be bulletproof loneliness at best.

All of a sudden, his baby blues met my wide-eyed browns, and I sprinted back to the car, sweating in the ninety two degree heat. I couldn't spend any longer around Patrick without falling apart. I started up the DeLorean and drove to Gabe's house, carefully plotting my route so that I didn't drive past Patrick's house. I parked the car, climbed out, and knocked on Gabe's door, and he let me in.

"Hey Pete," Gabe said. "What's up?" Penny Lane suddenly ran up to me, barking loudly. "Oh yeah," Gabe said. "Brendon brought his new puppy. She's pretty cute."

I petted Penny Lane, and she slobbered all over my leg. As I played with his dog, Brendon came over and said, "Hi Pete. I've noticed that Penny likes to do that sometimes. We're still working on training her."

"So your parents are okay with having a dog now?" I said.

Brendon nodded and said, "Penny Lane's gotten pretty attached to the whole family. I think she likes Ryan the best though. She whimpers a lot when I'm around and he's not." The puppy whined softly. "Just like that," Brendon said.