Unexpected places
Title: Unexpected places
Author:
alles_luege
Pairing: William/Gabe (also: Pete/Patrick, Nate/Greta and mentions of Vicky/Joe, Vicky/Greta, Vicky/Gerard…maybe.)
Rating: PG -13
Summary: Gabe has phases of obsessions and so it’s no wonder that he actually doesn’t realize that he’s heads over heels for William Beckett. Nate totally does see it coming, the disaster that is Gabe’s crush and Vicky. And Vicky is smiling when their world is doomed, also she’s an evil mastermind.
Warning(s): angst, boys kissing, boys being stupid, a bit girl kissing too
Author’s Notes: This my first high school AU, so constructive critic is welcome, but so are all the ‘awwwwwwww’ ‘hearts’ and ‘love’ comments! *laughs*
Title stolen form The Academy Is… (Who would guess?!)
Word Count: 12.055
Beta: tygermine(thanks for talking me through this.)
Disclaimer: Don’t know, don’t own, not real.
~1~
William is sitting at the table near the window, but he doesn’t see him. He can’t, because there are like hundred people surrounding him, talking to him, touching him. A brush of fingers on a shoulder, a whispered word near the ear, hot breath on skin.
It’s not William’s fault, Gabe knows. Life is like that sometimes. He drowns the rest of his coffee in one gulp, throws the paper cup in the trash can and makes his way to the door without looking back.
He takes out his cigarettes, lights one, shakes his head, because stupid, so, so, so stupid, Gabe, and starts walking.
~+~
“You were stalking him again,” Nate says as Gabe appears on his doorstep.
It’s not a question.
Gabe wants to deny it, because he wasn’t stalking William…that would be totally creepy.
“I happened to be where he was,” he answers sitting down on the floor of Nate’s room.
“Right.” Nate totally believes him.
“Really. I wasn’t stalking him. I’m not stalking him,” Gabe says not looking at Nate.
“Right,” Nate says again because he’s an asshole.
“Right.” Gabe confirms with a nod.
Nate doesn’t say a thing after that and that is just…Gabe can’t stand the silence.
“Listen,” he says, Nate raises a brow. “I…it’s just that he’s so…I don’t know,” he finishes frustrated. He really doesn’t know why William appeared on his radar one day and just doesn’t seem want to leave. “I’m fascinated. It will pass. You know me. It always passes.”
“Yes,” Nate answers, because it’s true. Gabe has these episodes when he becomes obsessed with things or people. Two months ago he was determined to learn Ikibana. Nate is really, really glad that that particular obsession is over. He sighs and asks, because he is just that kind of awesome friend.
“So where did you happen to be where he was too?”
“The café on the corner…he was there with his friends…” Gabe launches into an epic tale, gesturing with his hands and his cigarette, getting ashes everywhere, and Nate doesn’t listen.
~+~
Maybe he is stalking a little bit, he thinks, when he sits in the cafeteria on Monday and doesn’t touch his food at all. Nate sighs beside him.
“You are staring,” he hisses. Gabe turns to look at him.
“I’m not.”
“You so are,” Nate answers taking a sip from his juicebox. Apple. Nice.
“God. I need to stop that.”
“You do.”
“What is it with this kid anyway?” Vicky wants to know. “Besides that he is really good looking.” she adds contemplating Williams various virtues.
If asked, Gabe would not be able to answer as to how Vicky came to be part of their group. She was just suddenly there, like a nightmare come true. A sexy nightmare, but still a nightmare.
“He doesn’t even know you exist,” she says looking over at William and his swarming minions.
“That is sadly true,” Nate says. Gabe glares at him.
“So, do you have a new drummer yet?” Nate wants to know, okay, so maybe he isn’t being subtle here, but the staring has to stop before someone notices. He likes his life uncomplicated, thank you very much. High school can be hell if the wrong people take a liking to you. He doesn’t need that, Gabe doesn’t need that either. He supposes Vicky wouldn’t care; she would just kick someone’s ass. He knows, she totally could kick his and rumours are she kicked Pete’s. And he’s the soccer captain! Vicky of course doesn’t deny or confirm anything. The one time he dared to ask, she raised her eyebrow and LOOKED at him. He backed off. It was a manly retreat and the only sane thing to do.
“Yeah…no. We will see? There is this kid. Patrick? I think that’s his name…he’ll come over Friday,” Gabe says.
“Is he any good?” Nate asks, because he never heard of a Patrick playing drums.
“Joe says he is.”
“Well, if Joe says that,” Vicky answers. Nate thinks she likes Joe, but he doesn’t comment on it. Because Vicky can be a scary bitch if she chooses to.
“We will see,” Gabe says again.
“Yeah…” Nate has no idea how he can prevent the staring from happening again, he looks over to Vicky for help. She rolls her eyes at him.
“Gabe. Have you heard about…” she begins and a few seconds later Gabe is enthralled. Vicky talks about Sex.
Nate is grateful and a little bit freaked out.
~+~
By Friday Nate is a wreck and it’s Gabe’s fault. Of course it is. He heard more about girl-sex than he ever wanted to know, but it could come in handy some sunny day. He fears Vicky even more and he is pretty sure that one or two or twenty of William’s friends noticed Gabe staring in the corridor today. Vicky says he’s paranoid. Maybe…but that is Gabe’s fault too. Because the whole mess is.
“You need to stop that. He isn’t a flower,” Nate says that evening. They are lying on the floor of Nate’s room smoking pot waiting for Joe to come and bring that Patrick kid.
“He’s not a flower? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Gabe asks one eyebrow raised. It looks better on Vicky, Nate thinks.
“I mean, he is a person in our SCHOOL and he is no flower you can put in your room and experiment with,” Nate says gesturing around.
“You can experiment with flowers? I’m worried about your choice in hobbies, my friend.”
“Shut up!”
Gabe laughs and steals the joint. He has no appreciation for Nate’s similes.
~+~
Joe shows up with Patrick an hour later and Gabe thinks that Joe is kidding, because that kid? No way can he even play a triangle.
“Hi”, the kid says shyly and sticks his hand out. Gabe blinks and then shakes it.
“Hi,” he answers, but doesn’t step back from the door, he stares and he knows he does.
Patrick blushes. BLUSHES! Who the hell ever heard of a blushing drummer? Nate nudges him and Gabe looks from Patrick to Nate.
“What?”
“You maybe want to step back? So people can come in…you know that’s why there are doors,” Nate answers. “He has a staring at people, animals, ice cream cones thing going on. Don’t mind him. I’m Nate,” he says to Patrick. Patrick smiles at him, Gabe frowns. No way can Patrick play in his band!
To his surprise Patrick can play drums. He plays really good. Nate beams, Ryland is pleased, because Ryland doesn’t beam and Joe just looks smug. Gabe hates Joe a little bit right now.
“So?” Joe asks. Patrick looks kind of lost. Gabe shrugs.
“He’s in if he wants,” he says, Patrick nods and smiles shyly. A blushing drummer. Gabe can’t believe it. Can life be more bizarre?
“Great. Now where is the pot?” Joe asks. It’s good to know that some things will always be the same.
“Where it always is,” Nate answers.
“Great,” Joe repeats.
A BLUSHING drummer, Gabe laments in the privacy of his head.
~2~
“I am not staring!” Gabe hisses and turns to look at Nate and maybe smack him in the head for talking about it in the bloody corridor where anyone could HEAR. And that’s how it happens: He runs into someone, in fact runs that someone over, jumps back and cracks his head a little bit on the locker behind him. It hurts like hell. He doesn’t apologise, because it’s not his fault.
“The hell! Could you watch where you’re going?!” he says instead, he’s still pissed at Nate.
“Well, yes. In fact I WAS, you weren’t,” the boy says haughtily. Gabe looks down. And stares. He just ran William fucking Beckett over. William still sits on the floor and looks up to him.
“Do you like to sit on the floor?” Gabe asks. He wants to smack his head against a desk so badly right now.
“No.” William deadpans.
“But you’re still sitting on the floor.” Gabe really wishes his mouth would stop working.
“Thanks for pointing that out, I wouldn’t know otherwise,” William says getting up. He picks up his bag, throws Gabe a nasty look and walks out of the building.
“Well…” Nate begins.
“Shut up!”
“But…”
”Really Nate. Just shut up.”
~+~
“I knew this would end in disaster. I just knew it,” Nate mumbles. Vicky throws him a look that clearly says ‘shut up’, but he ignores her. “You know it’s true!” he says.
She rolls her eyes. They’re waiting outside for Gabe who hasn’t come out yet.
“He’s late,” Vicky says, tapping her foot against a step and snapping her gum loudly. It smells like grapes.
“I’m sure he is in trouble for running Beckett over…”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she answers staring at the building.
“You didn’t see Beckett’s face,” he says miserably. She turns to look at him.
“He couldn’t look scary if his life depended on it!” she replies annoyed.
“I’m sure he could!” Gabe says cheerily in her ear.
“Gabe! What the hell took you so long? Nate was freaking out and I was an inch from murdering him in cold blood,” she demands to know turning to look at him.
“Aww…I’m sure you wouldn’t,” he answers.
“I’m not so sure.” Nate says.
“What took you so long?” she asks again.
“Forgot my notes!”
“Idiot,” she says, he laughs.
~+~
Friday can’t come soon enough for Nate. It’s not that he is afraid or something. Things were strangely quiet during the week. Vicky has this small triumphant smile on her lips every time Nate sees her, which is like every day in school and sometimes in his free time. Nate can’t for the life of him pinpoint when she became a part of them. And her smile is starting to freak him out.
“It’s strange,” he says at lunch on Thursday.
“What is?” Vicky has her perfect eyebrow up.
“The Beckett-thing,” he answers.
“What’s strange about that? Gabe ran him over, they shared a few heated words…he’s not the Godfather, you know?” Vicky shrugs and bites into a bacon and avo roll.
“Can you imagine that?” Gabe asks imagining his life as a Sopranos episode. Vicky laughs, shooting crumbs over the table. Nate doesn’t think it’s that funny.
“He has the looks,” she muses.
“He has the friends,” Nate adds. And that, Gabe thinks, is really true.
~+~
He can’t get over it. His drummer is blushing nearly every time someone speaks to him - or tries. Really.
“It’s good you’re playing the drums, Patrick,” he says throwing himself on the old couch in Nate’s basement.
“Shut up!” Nate says.
“No, he’s right. I like being here...” Patrick says from behind the safety of the drum kit.
“Where no one can see you?” Gabe says, it isn’t really a question. Patrick nods.
“But you’re GOOD,” Nate says shaking his head. Patrick mumbles something no man could have hope to ever understand under his breath. Gabe doesn’t care that much, so he doesn’t ask.
“So, where did Joe find you anyway?” he wants to know instead.
“Ehm… Borders.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Patrick says more firmly.
“That is just so…chick flick.” Gabe splutters.
“Gabe!” Nate says laughing.
“But it is!”
“Maybe…” Patrick says shyly. He prays for Joe to show up with the weed. Oh, so very soon.
“It totally is. I can’t believe it.” He can’t believe that such a brilliant drummer could be his and that Joe found him! Of all people…Joe who can’t find his head when he’s stoned. Which is more often than not. Life has a sense of humour after all. Gabe knew it. Always.
“And what are you doing when you’re not chatting Joe up in Borders?” Gabe asks, he takes a drag of his joint and passes it over.
“I didn’t chat him up!” Patrick splutters.
“Yeah…tell yourself that,” Gabe grins.
“Gabe!” Nate says, but he’s laughing too.
“I wasn’t…I was…it was the MUSIC. I like music,” Patrick says.
“It’s okay. I’m just kidding. So tell me, what do you do when you’re not hanging with us?”
“Messing around with my laptop, going to school, playing with some kids in some bands…” Patrick breaks off at the look on Gabe’s face.
“Wait!” Gabe jumps up and points an accusing finger at Patrick.
“What?”
“You’re cheating on us?” Gabe wants to know. He’s looking directly at Patrick, Patrick squirms uncomfortably.
“I’m not cheating… it’s the second time I’m here!”
“Well…but you’re ours now.”
“That sounds really creepy…” Nate throws in.
“Especially in a basement,” Patrick says.
“Well…who’s the other bands you’re cheating on?” Gabe has to know.
“Just some kids I’ve known for years.”
“That’s precise…”
“Well…Jon, Siska and Bill.”
“Who?”
“I knew it…” Patrick says wringing his shirt.
“Doesn’t matter,” Nate says and gives Gabe a LOOK nearly worth of Vicky’s.
“Alright, alright…” Gabe answers. “Where the hell is Ryland anyway. He’s late…like an hour!” he asks. It occurs to him that they should have noticed that earlier. Maybe an .
“Maybe you should call?” Patrick suggests. Gabe looks at him. That might be a brilliant idea. Now where is his cell?
“Yes…call Ryland. Right. Nate, I need your phone.”
“What? Why?!”
“I don’t know where mine is…I had it in biology I know…hell if I could just remember…”
“It’s the pot,” Patrick says. He says it like his mother would, Gabe wants to laugh.
“Right. Nate. Phone.”
And because Nate is just the awesome friend he is, he throws it on the couch.
“Thanks.”
It turns out, Ryland is stuck at home, grounded but he doesn’t say why. Must be something really embarrassing. It will be Gabe’s quest to find that out.
“We don’t have a guitar player for the next few weeks,” Gabe says, throwing the cell back to Nate. “Life sucks so much…” he sighs.
“Maybe Joe?” Patrick asks.
“No, because Vicky would be here like EVERY fucking practice! No way,” Nate says firmly. Gabe isn’t in any state to argue with that.
“Right. You’re afraid of her.”
“Like you aren’t!” Nate replies. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. That’s not Nate’s business.
“Patrick!”
“Yes?” he answers a little bit startled.
“You are a band-whore…”
“I’m not…I AM NOT a band-WHORE.”
“Well…you think you could ask some of your guys if they would help out for a few weeks?”
“Maybe, I’ll see.” Patrick says. Nate thinks that Patrick is really too nice for this world full of sharks.
~+~
Gabe’s quest to find out Ryland’s crime is interrupted by his brother and Nate being all dorky and annoying, setting up a Halo-marathon in his room. He just gives in; it’s the sensible thing to do. He is well known for his sensibility. Okay, well…he has his moments.
“I swear one day he will write a creepy song about that basement…” he hears his brother say.
“What?” Gabe tunes back into the conversation, FHM forgotten nearby.
“Nothing?” Kevin tries.
“Why the fuck would I write a song about a basement?” Gabe says throwing an M&M at him. He misses, of course.
“Maybe you will write it about keeping a girl there.” his brother says, throwing the M&M back, he doesn’t miss. It hits Gabe near his heart.
“Good aim,” Nate says absentminded, Gabe glares at him. “You’re all creepy like that, aren’t you?” he asks and ads after a second “Maybe he will write it about Beckett.”
“Wait. What?” His best friend is ganging up on him using his brother? What the fuck?
“Ehm…nothing?” Nate says.
“You’re stalking Beckett now?” Kevin wants to know.
“No.” Gabe looks like he swallowed a fly.
“Ohmigod, you’re totally stalking him. Bet he’ll be the one kept in the basement.” Kevin is made of pure evil Gabe decides.
“Just fuck off, Kevin.” Gabe huffs. Nate can’t help giggling. “Who’s friend are you?” Gabe wants to know, his eyebrow raised. Nate suspects he tries to perfect the patent Vicky-glare. He isn’t successful.
“Yours?”
“I’m not so sure…” Gabe says.
“Give him a break. William fucking Beckett. Really?” his brother asks.
“Shut up!”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Just shut up,” Gabe says glaring. He is not stalking William Beckett.
“I suppose he’s pretty?”
“Like a girl,” Nate says.
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Gabe throws his hands in the air. “Both of you are lame. Hear that? Lame!”
~3~
Life has a sense of humour.
Nate isn’t freaking out anymore by Wednesday. Thanks to Vicky, Gabe supposes.
“Songs about basements, hmm?” Vicky asks. Gabe looks at Nate, who shrugs. “I knew there was a reason Elisa left you.”
“Just drop it.” Gabe answers. Elisa left him because she found someone new and shiny. He’s not bitter.
“Well…” she says a little bit uncomfortable. It’s a rare thing to see her uncomfortable but Elisa is still a touchy subject. Never mind it’s been weeks since she broke up with Gabe.
Vicky thinks he should be over her by now…maybe Beckett could be a solution? “Listen…” she begins but he interrupts her.
“No, you listen. You’re one of the guys and that’s okay, you’ll deal with it, but I will beat you up if you bring her up one more time. Do you understand?” Ok, so maybe just a little bitter.
He gets up, the need for a cigarette driving him towards the yard.
~+~
“I know she’s trying to help in her own strange way,” Gabe says that afternoon in Nate’s room.
“She’s Vicky,” Nate shrugs. “And you were an ass.”
“I know, but that’s hardly news.”
“Well. You could apologize,” Nate suggests.
“She will get over it.”
Nate nods because it’s true, Vicky doesn’t hold grudges. Usually.
“You think Patrick will find someone until Friday?” he asks changing the subject.
“Don’t know. Maybe he’s just brilliant at the drums…and has no social skills at all. He sure as hell doesn’t have a fashion sense.”
“Don’t think so…”
“For god’s sake! He just keeps blushing. BLUSHING Nate.”
“Doesn’t mean he hasn’t any friends or connections. Plus he chatted Joe up in Borders.”
“A squirrel could have chatted Joe up,” Gabe says passing the joint.
“I think you smoked enough…I don’t want to hear anything anymore about your weird squirrel dreams. They’ve scarred me for life!” Nate answers putting the joint out.
“You are no fun.”
“Well, someone in our little group needs to stay sane. That will not be you, I’m sure. What with your songs about basements…”
“I didn’t write a single song about basements!” Gabe says defensively.
“Not yet. Maybe you’re too stoned for that or not stoned enough…” he muses.
“Definitely not stoned enough,” Gabe answers firmly.
Life has a sense of humour. Gabe always knew that. He just wishes he could figure out what type.
~+~
“Patrick is late…”
“He isn’t late,” Nate answers. Gabe is just irritable again because he has to wait, and because he isn’t stoned or drunk. He is sober. Nate’s mom found his pot…it’s a natural disaster. She flushed it down the toilet. Gabe is still grieving. The only good part is that Nate isn’t grounded. His mom was a wild chick when she was younger. But she still doesn’t want her son to smoke pot under her roof. “Besides, Patrick is never late. He wasn’t once.”
“He was just two times here, Nate! And he’s blushing…”
Nate has no idea what Patrick’s blushing has to do with all this, but he doesn’t want to ask either. Could lead to stupid conversations or squirrel dream analysis again. No one wants that. Especially not Nate. He needs to be drunk…so, so drunk for that. And he isn’t.
“He will be here soon. He has fifteen minutes left. You know?”
“Yeah, I hope he has a decent guitar player with him when he appears.”
“He said his friend is decent as he called yesterday. We will see,” Nate answers, because they will.
Fifteen minutes later the doorbell rings. Patrick is on time. Of course he is. Nate looks smug.
“Nate. Door.” Gabe says, because he can’t stand Nate of all people being smug.
“You could answer it too. You know where it is,” Nate answers lazy.
“It’s your house.”
“My mom’s.”
“Will you tell her to answer the door then?”
“That would go down so well…I can see it now,” Nate groans and gets up. The bell rings again. Gabe stays where he is, in Nate’s basement on the couch.
Nate’s back a few minutes later with Patrick and Beckett. Gabe gets no warning, it just hits him with the force of a train or a spaceship.
“Gabe this is Bill, Bill, Gabe.” Patrick says totally clueless.
Gabe stares. And he knows he does. Doesn’t make the situation any more surreal than it already is. Because he is in Nate’s basement and with William Beckett. The irony isn’t lost on him, neither it is on Nate. Gabe can see it out of the corner of his eye.
“You play guitar?” he asks at last.
“Yes,” William says with a nod to his guitar case. Could have been a clue, Gabe thinks and of course the fact that Patrick brought him here.
“Ehmm…you guys know each other?” Patrick asks shifting from one food to the other. He can feel the vibes coming off the guys. They aren’t good ones either.
“Not really, no,” William answers.
“Same school,” Nate offers. Patrick nods.
“I don’t think…” Gabe begins, he doesn’t know how to end that sentence though. It’s not that he wants William to go. He doesn’t. Obviously.
“No, it’s okay…” William says and Gabe has NO IDEA what he means. No clue whatsoever. Could be anything.
“What?” he asks.
“I can help you guys out. That’s why I’m here, right?”
“Right,” Gabe says and never in his life has he been so ineloquent. Never.
“Great?” Patrick says a little bit confused. Nate in his corner looks bemused by this whole situation. It’s the first time since Elisa that he witnesses one of Gabe’s person-obsessions. And that’s when it hits him. They are so, so, so fucked he thinks.
~+~
“Can you believe him?” Gabe asks afterwards, lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, smoking cigarettes. Wishing he had some pot but not grieving anymore.
“William?” Nate asks a little bit confused.
“No! You douche. Patrick! Appears out of nowhere and brings William Beckett into your basement.” Gabe sits up and looks at Nate. “William Beckett, Nate!”
“The kid has connections and you thought he couldn’t even play triangle,” Nate answers.
“I was wrong. He’s an evil mastermind,” Gabe states with something like respect in his voice, Nate is sure he actually believes it.
“Obviously he will rule the world one day with his drum sticks.”
“Maybe…I see great things for him,” Gabe answers his voice some vague high pitched Sybil Trelawney imitation.
“You’re such a dork!” Nate says laughing.
“Maybe…”
“William fucking Beckett, hmm?” Nate says.
“William fucking Beckett,” Gabe answers, but Nate isn’t sure Gabe actually is aware that he looks at William like he used to look at Elisa.
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