Just Pizza

Pete unlocked the door to his apartment and. lopped the “puppy” onto the floor. He immediately ran and jumped onto Pete’s couch.
Pete always called every dog a “puppy”. No matter how big, or old the dog was. Pete had this philosophy that dogs can get “self-conscious” about their age, just like people can. So calling them “puppy” was a confidence booster!
Yeah, it’s weird.
But Pete is just weird.
Pete smiled at the tired puppy lying on his couch and shut the door behind him. The pup was panting hard.
“I bet you’re thirsty…” Pete pet the puppy on the head and went into the kitchen, he filled an old, plastic, Spiderman bowl with water and set it down on the couch, he smiled when the pup immediately started lapping it up. Pete started to pet him again.
“I’m sorry that you were stuck in that fence! Hopefully you weren’t there for too long!” Pete apologized to the pup.
Pete wanted to give him a name, but was afraid. Pete knew that if he named the puppy, then he would become attached. What if there was someone out there looking for him? He had to have belonged to someone else….
Pete was too happy at the current moment, so he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. Pete wanted to give him a name…..
Names like Fido were cliché….. it needed to be something interesting.
Pete thought for a while and took a look at the puppy that was curled up near his feet. He was a soft white color with a brown splotch on his face. His breaths were steady and he seemed to be asleep. He noticed that the pup’s head was resting on a book Pete left on the couch a few days ago. It didn’t look too comfortable, so Pete gently slid the book out from under the pup’s head.
“Old Man and the Sea” by Hemingway.
Pete flipped through a few of the pages of the book. It brought back memories to Pete. It was a book he was assigned to read back in high school. He remembered that his English teacher assigned everyone in class a different book… instead of reading the book; he drew on all the pages when he got bored. He gazed over all the colored pencil smudges and all the random items that he once taped inside the pages of his book; he remembered how they once meant something to him. So when that project came along, he failed it. Pete wasn’t so good at English, mostly because he never read any of the books they assigned and his teacher hated everything he wrote. And what was with that stupid “paragraph structure” everyone had to use for their essays and poems? It sounded ridiculous! There wasn’t anything free about it, not to mention every paper sounded EXACTLY the same.
“First of this”, “Secondly that” and Blah, Blah, Blah.
And as for poetry, it’s supposed to be an expression of who you are, and what you’re going through, Not a pre written “fill in the blank” worksheet!
An infant cow can write a better paper then anyone that was in that class!
Pete was always marked down for not following the guidelines which he thought were, “Fucking stupid”. Which it was.
English wasn’t the only class he was failing, it was all of them! Pete never really had the energy to do anything at that point in time. The chronic depression he had since he was little gave him that “Fuck My Life” attitude.
Then Pete sighed.
Sometime Pete regrets dropping out of high school. Pete loved his art classes! The teachers really understood him, and all the projects were free to expression. He missed the fact that he couldn’t graduate… He let his mom down. He was already the black sheep of the family before he dropped out of school, but when he eventually did drop out, He became even more distant.
Most of the time, he’s glad he dropped out. Pete was tired of being beat up and yelled at every day and he was tired of his bad grades. Pete can only really remember the bad times of high school. His family life wasn’t as good as it should have been, and school only magnified his already present issues.
When he dropped out of high school, Pete’s mother was more than supportive to her son. But Pete can’t help but feel like more of a burden to her. Pete tried hard not to cry, but it was hard. A few tears fell.
This book was one of the only good memories he had.
So he kept it.
Pete looked over at the new puppy laying near his feet, then he looked back at the book.
“Hemingway….. Hey, that’s a good name!” Pete then stoked Hemingway’s soft fur and smiled.
“The perfect name!”
---
Pete managed to get an hour of sleep that night. He also managed to take a shower, get dressed, and hit the pet store to buy some toys and food for Hemingway. Pete smiled watching Hemingway on the couch, chewing on a toy he had bought him. Hemingway seemed to be having fun. Pete loves that he gave Hemingway a good home. For once he felt like he had done something right.
Pete checked the time…
It was 5:25pm.
Pete began to think about Patrick again….Pete soon grew hungry while thinking about Patrick, so he decided to use this as an excuse to see him again. Pete dialed the number of the pizza place on his cellphone and called.
1, 2, 3 rings.
Pete desperately wanted to hear Patrick’s voice over the phone…. Then someone picked up.
“Hello! This is Pizza Hut! How can I help you?” The voice was loud and clear. The boy on the phone seemed very enthusiastic.
It wasn’t Patrick…..
“oh, uh… Hi.” Pete said, disappointed that Patrick wasn’t working the phone lines today.
“Um is Patrick working today?” Pete asked.
The boy sighed angrily over the phone, “Yeah. He’s working. But his shift is almost over….” He had an attitude.
“OH! That’s awesome!” Pete beamed. “Is it possible to have him bring me a pizza as soon as his shift ends?”
“Hold on, I’ll have to ask….” The boy pressed the phone up against his shirt and called out, “Hey, Fatty!”
Patrick’s face got red with a mixture of shame, embarrassment, and disgust in himself. “w-what…” he stuttered, as he hung his head low.
“This guy on the phone…” The boy glared at Patrick. “He wants you to deliver a pizza after your shift is over…”
Patrick thought it over.
“Well what is it fat boy? I don’t have all day! He’s on the phone!” The boy exclaimed.
“Fine.” Patrick said softly. “I-I’ll do it…..”
The boy smirked and picked up the phone again, “It’s Fine… It’ll Be Ten Fifty.” The boy was snippy.
Pete gave him the address and card number before hanging up the phone. And he turned on the TV to pass the time.
---
The boy gave Patrick the address on a slip of paper. Patrick recognized the address and shook slightly.
Patrick was scared….
He was always scared.
Patrick was waiting for his shift to end, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw a group of boys walk into the pizza place. Patrick’s eyes widened and he quickly ran into the staff bathroom.
He hoped, He prayed they didn’t see him. Patrick had his back against the door, and he locked it just in case.
He lifted his head slightly. Patrick almost forgot about the mirror hanging on the wall, and jumped, scared of his own reflection. Patrick quickly looked up again. He looked at his eye, swollen, and black. He then raised his shaky hand and lightly pressed his fingers under his eye. He winced at the touch. The pain pulsed through his eye. Patrick started to well up with tears. He tried as hard as he could to hold them back but he couldn’t anymore. Patrick looked in the mirror again, and one word came to his mind,
Pathetic.
He slid down the door and onto the floor with a thump. The tears poured out. Patrick had stayed in the bathroom for roughly 10 minutes. Patrick couldn’t stand his own reflection. He dreaded seeing himself in the mirror every day. The very fact that he is existing it too much for him to handle. Patrick started to hyperventilate.
30 minutes...
He rummaged through his pocked and pulled out his cellphone, then took off the back, exposing the battery. It wasn’t just exposing the battery, but it also exposed a small, thin, smooth, razor blade.
Patrick’s cell phone is one of many hiding places he has for his “tools”…
Patrick told himself how much he deserved the pain… and he convinced himself that the pain was good… that he needed it to feel alive...
35 minutes....
There was a sharp knock on the door.
“Hey! Patrick, You gonna be out soon?”
Patrick applied pressure to the new cut on his arm.
“Um… uh… y-yeah!” Patrick stuttered, he covered up his fresh cut with one of his wrist bands he always wears and hid the blade back in his phone case. He took a deep breath and opened the door, making sure to keep his head down low.
“You’re shift is over man, you just have that one pizza….” The snotty boy said.
Patrick sniffed. “Y-yeah…. Thanks….” He began to walk away.
“Patrick.” The boy called out. Patrick stopped suddenly. “are you ok?” the snotty boy softened his words.
“…yeah.. j-just tired…” Patrick grabbed the order off the counter and slipped out the back door. He began his trip to to Pete's place.
---
Pete watched another episode of “American Horror Story.” He owned the DVD, and was invested in it. He desided he migjt as well have a mini marathon before his pizza gets here.He wrapped himself in his old blanket, holding Hemingway close. Pete was excited to see the pizza boy again… His eyes, His skin and his hair…. Pete loved Patrick’s soft voice. He couldn’t express that enough. Physically, Patrick was adorable. Pete admired Patrick’s gentle personality.
Patrick. Was. Just. So. Freakin. Cute.
Pete was through his 5th episode of AHS when Hemingway suddenly got up and started scratching at the front door, and a few moments later there was a knock. Pete smiled and opened the door. He saw Patrick there, his head hanging low, and his voice shaky.
“H-h-here’s your pizza…..” his voice was worn out.
“Thank you so much sweetie….” Pete grabbed the pizza. Patrick stood there with his head low… and his voice cracking. His hands were scraped up because he had tripped on his way up to Pete’s apartment and scraped his hands.
“Oh sweetie what happened?” Pete put the pizza down and lifted up Patrick’s hands to inspect them. Patrick just wanted to cry. He wanted to go home and cry.
“ I…..” he trailed off and began to cry.. Pete felt terrible and pulled him into a hug.
“shhh…..” pete said. “just… come inside. I’ll get you a bandage.”
Patrick didn’t know if he should go inside…. He didn’t know this guy well, and he had never been inside anyone else’s place before.
Patrick panicked slightly, but walked inside Pete’s apartment anyway.