The Problem with Patrick || Fall Out Boy

The dinner party was perfect in theory. Pete had made a roast dinner and it had filled the house with a lovely smell, and Patrick seemed reasonably excited to see the guys, so everything was in order.

It was only when they showed up that everything started to derail. Pete's plan involved Joe and Andy coming over to help Patrick with some of his memory issues, but that all hit the ceiling when Andy came in and announced that he'd invited Brendon and Bob along – considering that they were leaving for tour soon and it would be good for them to have a proper practice rather than just a short jam.

Before Pete could even get a word in, the two uninvited guests walked through the door. Pete doubted they'd been told that they weren't really invited at all, and just forced a smile as Joe handed him a casserole so there would be enough food for all six of them.

Pete just muttered a string of profanity under his breath as he went to set another two places at the table.

Patrick was sitting quietly at the kitchen bench, staring at the crowd of people that was laughing and smiling. He recognised Andy straight away, but was a little disappointed to note that he didn't have any more bears with him today. The other three... he knew the bald man in the collared shirt from somewhere, but couldn't place it. The other two were completely blank.

That was a complete and utter 50/50 chance. So he bit his lip, got on his crutches and headed over to the man in the lavender hoodie and smiled. "Hi Joe!"

The man gave him a bit of an odd look, but then seemed to remember something. "I'm not Joe, that's Joe over there. You must be Patrick, then."

"Um... yeah..." Patrick mumbled, his cheeks flushing pink. "I-I-"

The bald man joined the conversation, and smiled at him. "You're looking really good, Patrick. Honestly. Is it good to be out of hospital?"

There was a moment of silence as Patrick tried to figure out what to say, before forcing a smile and pretending that he understood what was being asked of him. "Good."

"That's really good news." The man beamed. "Do you know how long you have to have the cast for?"

Cast? What cast? Patrick adjusted his weight on his crutches, before remembering that he broke his leg at some point. How long ago was that? How long until it was better? "I-I-, uh... I..."

"Do you want a soda, Patrick?" The man who he now knew to be the real Joe called from the kitchen. "Brendon? Bob?"

"U-Uh... yes please?" He responded nervously, hoping that was the right answer.

He was relieved beyond belief when Pete came back into the room, because he knew that Pete had all the answers about himself that he didn't have.

"You must be Pete!" Lavender hoodie man smiled, shaking Pete's hand. "It's so good to finally meet you. Thank you for inviting me tonight, it's really a pleasure."

"It's no problem." Pete lied with a smile. "Hey, do you want to come through to the table and I'll get dinner served?"

Pete let Bob lead the way, giving him a split second alone with Patrick, who just looked very stressed, and very confused as to what was going on. "Hey, I'm sorry these other guys showed up, I think Andy invited them. I didn't mean for this to get overwhelming."

"How long do I, how long do I need a cast?" Patrick asked, meeting his friend's eyes nervously.

"Three months."

"Okay... is that a long time?"

"Well... yeah..."

"Okay..." He nodded uncertainly. "Three months. Yeah, okay. I know that."