They're Gonna Eat Me Alive

Pete woke up some time in the middle of the night a few weeks later. He could hear low voices coming from somewhere in the apartment. He quietly got out of bed and went down a hallway and now he could tell that the voices were coming from the living room. He noticed that there was a dim light on somewhere. Pete didn’t bother looking into the living room; he didn’t want to be seen.

“I don’t want to see you right now,” he heard Ryan say quickly.

“Ryan, please.”

It was definitely Brendon speaking now. Pete couldn’t help but worry about how Ryan was handling this. He had purposely been avoiding Brendon. Pete didn’t even know how Brendon found out that Ryan was here.

“Can you just talk to me?” Brendon asked quietly. “I know you left because of me.”

It was silent and Pete he thought he heard someone sniffle.

“Can you just leave?” Ryan whispered. Pete could barely hear him. He heard Brendon sigh.

“I’ll leave,” Brendon said now. “But only if you promise that we’ll talk about this soon.”

It was silent and Pete thought that maybe Ryan was thinking it over until he heard Brendon again.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said. Pete didn’t have time to get back to his room and Brendon walked into the hallway. Brendon only looked at Pete for a moment with saying anything before heading to the door of the apartment.

When he heard the door open and then close, Pete went into the living room and found Ryan sitting on the couch, looking at his hands in his lap.

“How’d Brendon find out you were here?” Pete asked. Ryan jumped slightly and looked up at him. He could tell that Ryan was crying even with the low amount of light in the room.

“I called him after you went to bed,” Ryan admitted. He looked back down at his hands. “I told him not to come over, but he didn’t listen.”

Without another word, Ryan stood up from the couch and walked past Pete.

“Goodnight,” he said quietly. Pete followed a moment later.