Chapter 2: Redirect

It wasn't for several months when Pete came back to visit his family that Micheal managed to see him.

It was the off season in his mother's art store so Micheal picked up a job at one of the two small convenience stores in South Park. He quickly found that without school or a job sitting at home with no obligations only lead to depression so he didn't mind finding a new place to work. Being a night owl, Micheal could work late hours, sleep in during the day, and live the schedule that suited him best. However, this same convenience store was the one he and Pete used to walk to to buy cigarettes since they were friends with one of the employees back in high school. It wasn't something that really crossed Micheal's mind when applying, it was just a familiar store where he'd be comfortable working.

One particular night, while he was restocking the cigarettes behind the front counter, Micheal turned to see a familiar face he hadn't expected. There stood Pete, second in line, looking down at his shoes to divert his eyes from Micheal. The curly haired man behind the desk decided that if Pete wasn't going to look at him then he could use the chance to give his friend a look over.

Pete still had his hair dyed black but with only a few red streaks this time. The pock marks on his cheeks weren't discolored, so the curly haired man assumed he'd been applying the makeup all this time, but Micheal wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Micheal noted that Pete was sans chap stick this time. He wore a black short sleeved over shirt with a hood and zipper up the front over a red undershirt. Pete's black capries were rolled up above his knees with those familiar black shoes with the pointed toes. He'd obviously toned down from the style he wore in high school but he still looked goth in a subtle, slightly conformist sort of way. Pete's new style was kind of cute just because of who he was and the way his outfit outlined his trim body. Pete had thinned down a little too, perhaps from taking on a busier schedule than he'd had in the monotonous confines of South Park.

Then there were the small silver snakebites along Pete's lower lip which accentuated the glint of a small bead of his right nostril. That was new. Though Pete's lip had been down through early high school he had taken it out for a brief job at some point. The familiar piercings in Pete's ear which Micheal had done for him in middle school were even gauged.

Micheal's tummy ached in wonder because he had no idea what Pete had been up to and it hurt. Aside from the dress code he had to obey for the convenience store, Micheal hadn't really changed at all. He was the same tall, pasty guy with the sharp nose, bony features and naturally dark curls atop his head. Micheal fiddled with the register to hand back some change to the customer, his body on autopilot. As that man left, Pete came forward and Micheal felt his heartbeat pickup. For all the time they'd spent together growing up Micheal could guess what Pete was thinking and could probably be right but instead his mind whirled with anxiety.

"Hey. Can I get a pack of Newports?" Pete said with that familiar soft voice, tainted with nonchalance. If he felt any bit like Micheal did, he didn't show it, and that possibility of Pete being indifferent to his existence fucking hurt. Micheal nodded shortly in response then turned to grab Newports from the shelf. He returned to the register and as he punched in a few buttons he dared to say anything to break this silence between them.

"How's school?" Micheal asked lamely as he rang up the small box of cigarettes. Way to be eloquent, he thought briefly.

"It's fine," Pete answered vaguely and he paused. "How's life?" he continued as if he was obligated to reciprocate.

"It goes," Micheal replied flatly. "Will this be all?"

"Yeah," Pete took out his coffin shaped wallet Micheal had gifted him in early high school and the curly man's heart ached a little. He handed a five across the counter and Micheal longed to hang out with his old friend in a rush of nostalgia.

"Do you have any free time while you're in town?" Micheal asked as he made change.

"No, I leave tomorrow morning on the bus," again Pete paused but this time in consideration. "I didn't have much extra time this trip," he added more gently, as though he regretted not being able to spend more time with Micheal. The tall man behind the counter smiled softly as he watched Pete sweep the black and red bangs from his eyes with his fingertips. Micheal closed the drawer and handed the receipt and change to Pete who he was pleased to see didn't leave right away.

"That's alright, maybe next time," Micheal responded with more bitterness than he intended.

"Yes," Pete agreed. Again he hesitated, but Pete finally looked Micheal in the eye as he spoke. "I'll be in town again in three weeks for Fall Break."

"See you then?" Micheal asked.

"Yeah," Pete said with a soft smile. Micheal looked after him as he turned for the door and the bell rang as he pushed it open. Then Pete turned back to wave gently at Micheal with that same smile, only this time it exposed an underlying melancholy that caught Micheal by surprise. Maybe Pete really did miss him too.

"Bye," Micheal mouthed as he rose his hand in response. He watched Pete through the large windows who paused just outside the building to cup his hands and light the cigarette he pursed between his lips. Micheal's eyes traced the familiar movement of Pete's casual stride until he went around the building and out of sight. Micheal wished he could walk Pete home and sighed. At least he could look forward to Pete's return. He smiled to himself, three weeks should go buy quick enough and another customer approached the counter. The rest of his night restocking the shelves and ringing up the occasional customer was filled with hopeful contemplation.

When those three weeks passed Micheal only managed to see Pete for a few hours and they just acted like they always had, although a little awkwardly. Micheal was disappointed their visit was so brief but pleased Pete took the initiative to tell him he was in town. With a taste of a visit from his best friend Micheal was confronted with the distance between them. When Pete expressed the convenience of having a page on a massive social networking site to keep up with family and friends, Micheal was hesitant and turned down the idea. What was more conformist that having a page on one of those sites?

For nearly a month Micheal longed to at least speak with Pete, but the shorter goth was busy with school and he thought he might be imposing to ask the two hours of time it would take them to talk to one another on the phone. After Pete repeatedly recommended Micheal sign up for his own page on that damned social networking site the curly haired man gave in.

"That way we can chat when I'm available online and you don't have to worry about interrupting my classes and club activities with texting," Pete had explained rather convincingly.

Micheal quickly found that their chat sessions at the end of each day lit up his world. Most everyone he knew in South Park his age had moved away to go to school or was a complete bumbling idiot, the likes of which drove Micheal up the wall. Pete was perhaps the only consistently positive, steady social interaction in his life. Not to mention there was always something new going on with Pete and Micheal thought his life paled in comparison.

Micheal even took to creating the little blurbs and doodle journals like what he'd created back in high school again. Despite how boring he found himself to be, the little bit of creating he did made Micheal feel a little more worthy of Pete who had always been a writer. Though their little group of goths had always written bad poetry back in elementary school, Pete found writing to be his passion. Micheal found himself living a little vicariously through the new things Pete was always doing or writing at school and he began to loath the uneventful confines of South Park.

Then Pete expressed the loneliness he experienced with having gone off to a school outside of his home town. Micheal was surprised to find that the quiet, though relatively sociable and interesting Pete found making friends difficult, and the curly haired man could sympathize with him. Perhaps Pete only seemed so open and friendly to Micheal because they'd known each other and been friends so long. Even though Pete was surrounded by others his age pursuing their passions he didn't feel there was much potential to any of them being friends. As Pete found Micheal to be his confidant all over again, the younger goth grew to expose a little more about his very personal relations. Micheal was a little surprised to learn that Pete had already dated or had flings with a couple of club attendees and classmates here and there. As Pete talked about a few vague experiences, Micheal listened with a subtle jealously, trying not to let the emotion flow over. Then Pete said 'he' and Micheal's eyes bulged.

Since middle school Micheal always expected that Pete was interested in both sexes at least, but he never dated and it made his orientation hard to discern for sure. Though hearing about Pete's social interactions made Micheal a little jealous, a light of hope gathered in him as he learned that Pete was indeed interested in men after all. His search for a partner was coming up empty handed and Micheal was even more reassured that perhaps Pete had already found his soul mate, he just hadn't realized who it was for sure. Micheal's tenancy to be a hopeless romantic consumed his writings and scribblings for the following month. It was a guilty pleasure he reassured himself he would never have to share with the rest of the world.

As Micheal expressed interest in Pete's everyday life, the younger goth asked him if he might be interested in paying the campus a visit. Trying not to make it obvious that he was jumping at he opportunity, Micheal responded with a passive 'Sure' and Pete with an 'Okay.'

Micheal was to take the bus in two weeks and he couldn't wait for the monotonous days to pass as he stood behind the counter of the convenience store.