Where Is Your Boy Tonight

True to her word, Maddie went back to Pete's after she dropped off Sarah. She did stop back at home to see if her parents had been back. They had called and left her a message though, saying they wouldn't be back until tomorrow. Maddie would have been really annoyed if she hadn't made friends here.

"Where is everyone?" Maddie asked as Pete let her in.

"Apparently your parents called mine and invited them to the city for a 'fun kid free evening' and my brother and sister are at friends houses", Pete answered. Maddie followed him upstairs before asking, "is that why you wanted me to come over?"

"Well, that and I like hanging out with you."

"You're alright, too, I guess", Maddie said, smirking at him. Pete laughed, "OK then, Princess, what do you want to do?"

"You invited me over, you're supposed to plan fun things to do", Maddie answered, climbing to sit with her back against the headboard of Pete's bed. "Pizza, music, movie, twenty questions... I don't care you pick."

"I like that one, twenty questions. How about we order pizza, play twenty questions then watch a movie", Pete decided.

"Deal, cheese only?"

"Cheese only", Pete agreed, picking up the phone.

"Ok, here's the rules", Maddie said after they had settled into their spots on Pete's bed with the pizza box open in front of them. "We each ask a total of twenty questions. You can ask ANYTHING you want, but you have to answer every question asked. Promise you will answer?"

"Promise", Pete answered biting into his pizza. "You promise too."

Maddie agreed and asked the first question, "what's your favorite color?"

Pete looked at her, "that's what you're going with? You can only ask me twenty questions about anything in the world and that's it?"

"Yes", Maddie answered, "twenty questions never ends with twenty anyway."

Pete laughed, "green I guess. Like your eyes." Maddie glanced at him, not sure if he was being serious. "What's yours?"

"Pink."

"Really?!"

"See, favorite color can tell you about a person! And yes, it's pink." Pete laughed before waving his hand, signaling her to continue.

"Why don't you like to be alone?"

"Damn, that got heavy fast", Pete said. Maddie nodded, waiting for him to continue. "I have a thing. I go through these phases where I can be super excited and want to have fun. Then I go through phases where I don't want to be alone and I'm upset all of the time. I don't sleep a lot because I always have stuff going on in my head that I can't make stop."

"Is that why you like Jeanie around? Because she understands these phases?"

"I wouldn't say she gets them, but she knows I have them. I guess that's part of it. She knows how I get so it's just easier to keep her around."

Maddie nodded, trying to take in all of the information just presented to her.

"You asked two questions in a row, I get two now", Pete pointed out. Maddie smiled, "go ahead then."

"Have you had a boyfriend before?"

Maddie shook her head no.

"Why not?"

"All of the guys I knew growing up were like brothers. There were only eight guys my age in school. It felt too weird to be interested in them" Maddie answered as honestly as possible. "Have you had girlfriends other than Jeanie?"

"Well, not really. She was my first, you know, everything."

Maddie blushed a little once she realized what he meant, "oh."

"So I take it you've never been intimate with anyone?" Pete asked. Maddie could tell he wasn't doing it to make fun of her, he genuinely wanted to know. That didn't stop her from being embarrassed and she shook her head no. Pete smiled at her "good."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "good?"

"Yeah, good", Pete said, not offering anymore explanation.

"What did you think the first time you met me? When Patrick and Joe brought me to practice."

Pete gave a small laugh and turned his face away.

"You have to answer, you promised!" Maddie exclaimed. Pete mumbled a response. "What?" she asked.

"I thought 'great a girl, she's going to sit there and make faces and be bored the whole time' but ask me what I thought afterward" Pete answered.

"I'm not Jeanie", Maddie pointed out, "but what did you think afterward?"

"I thought I wouldn't mind if you came back. You seemed interested in what we were doing. You smiled at Patrick the entire time so I thought you had a thing for him, but you didn't act disinterested like Jeanie does."

"How do you know I don't have a thing for Patrick?" Maddie teased. Pete raised his eyebrows at her, "do you?"

"Well he is cute, he sings like an angel, he's sweet...", Maddie trailed off when she couldn't hold back a laugh at the face Pete was making at her. "You should see your face!" she exclaimed to him.

Pete gave her a playful shove, "you're so mean."

Maddie laughed, "Patrick is every single one of those things. If he wasn't one of my best friends I would definitely have a thing for him."

"So you could never have feelings for someone who was your best friend?"

"Well", Maddie said, thinking about his question, "I never say never."

They continued the game for a little longer. Maddie tried taking the questions in a more light-hearted direction. She didn't want to get too invasive since Pete had opened up to her so much in one night. Once they were finished with the pizza they decided on a movie, 10 Things I Hate About You. A while later Maddie woke up to the menu playing over and over and Pete snoring lightly beside her. She stood up and stretched, looking at the clock. It read four a.m.

'It's a good thing our parents aren't home', she thought as she slipped on her shoes.

"Where are you going?" Pete groggily asked from the bed, voice heavy with sleep.

"Home, it's four in the morning, we fell asleep" Maddie said pulling on her jacket.

"You could stay", Pete said, peaking at her through one cracked open eye.

"No, I better get home" she said leaning down to hug him. Pete pulled her in tight, "don't go. I was sleeping really well."

"Pete..."

"Ok, ok. I'll walk you out" he said, sitting up.

"You don't have to, I'm just going across the street" she protested.

"I know I don't have to, I want to" Pete insisted, slipping on his shoes.

Maddie gave in and followed him down the steps. He stopped her and hugged her again at the front door, "come back when you wake up?"

"Don't you want me to call you first?"

Pete shook his head no, "I won't be going back to sleep."

Maddie felt bad for waking him but didn't say anything other than agreeing to come back in a little while. She walked across the street and opened her front door. Once she was in she turned and waved to Pete who waved back and shut his door. Maddie went up the stairs to her room. She peeked out her window before climbing into bed and saw the light on in Pete's room. Maddie knew it would be on for the rest of the night. It was comforting knowing he was right there if she needed him.