/37
April 4, 2014

The Acre was crowded.
More crowded than Pete could ever remember seeing.

It wasn't much of a surprise, as the promotion team had done a fantastic job of reminding everyone in the city that this competition was happening, at every chance they got.
There were notices and banners on the Acre's website, flyers posted outside the club, as well as various locations all over the city. Pete had even seen a flyer stapled to his school's community board.
Obviously, this was a big deal.

Luckily, he'd arrived with one of the bands, so he didn't have to wait to get in.
Unfortunately, this also meant he'd be sitting alone, while the guys unloaded their gear. According to Gary, in an effort to equalise all of the participants, the back room was closed off, and all participating bands were sharing a space directly behind the stage to unload their gear until their performance.
Pete thought this was a good, fair idea.

He sat at his table, and watched various band members slowly emerge from the back hallway, carrying their gear behind the stage.
From what he could see, there would be one band competing that he was unfamiliar with; an all-girl band. Adam had a female guitarist, but other than that, Pete hadn't seen very many women on the stage. He secretly hoped that these girls won the competition, and maybe ended Adam and Gary's rivalry.

Pete recognised the other two bands that he saw walking back and forth, he had seen them both perform his first night coming here, and a few times since.
One of them was the screechy band with a keyboardist, Wolf Party. They were never popular on the nights that they had performed, so why they would decide to compete was baffling to Pete.

To his excitement, Pete also recognised the small red headed guy and his band, also from his first night at the club.
He remembered that Gary had told him that their name was Southfield. Pete didn't particularly care for the name, but he really liked their music.

With the exception of Wolf Party, Pete felt that this would be a pretty entertaining night.

As he was about to go to the bar for a drink, Gary and the others walked over to the table, evidently finished storing their gear. Casey approached with them, and Pete wondered when he had shown up.

"How's it going, stud?" Gary asked in a seductive voice, before leaning across the table to kiss Pete.

Pete blushed a bit, "Just fine," he said, biting his lower lip, "Although, I was just about to get a drink."

"Oh no, allow me," Gary said, going around the table for another, longer kiss.

"Okay," Pete breathed out, after they had separated.

Behind them, someone cleared their throat loudly.

"Oh, like this is the first time you've seen two guys making out," Gary said sarcastically over his shoulder.

"What's that mean?" Came Nick's voice from behind them, obviously the source of the noise.

Gary smiled.
"I'll be right back," he said to Pete, before walking away to the bar.

As soon as Gary had left, Casey slid into the seat next to Pete.
"So, things seem to be going really well... " He said, raising his eyebrows at Pete.

"Yeah," Pete said with a laugh, "We're totally fine now." He glanced across the table to Connor, who immediately looked away.
"I've been meaning to say," He continued, turning his attention back to Casey, "Thank you. I think we both needed that extra push, and you and Shannon were really great."

"Hey," Casey replied with a smile, "we're friends. Plus, you and Gary are destined to be together. It's like, written in the stars and shit."

Pete narrowed his eyes at Casey, "Are you drunk?" he asked.

"I may have pre-gamed a little bit," Casey answered, giggling.

Pete laughed a bit with him, "Well, as long as you're not going to throw up on me," he said. He looked over to Connor again, who was now intently focused on something else, on the other side of the club.
Pete followed Connor's gaze until he saw exactly what he was looking at.

"Oh no," he mumbled.

Gary walked away from the table, still tasting Pete on his lips.

It was so perfect, some might say too perfect.
He really did love Pete, and getting to spend every night with him was like a dream.

He thought about the day Pete had gone back home to an empty apartment. It hadn't surprised him too much that Julia had taken off like that, she seemed like that type of person. That day, when Gary had gone to the apartment and practically pleaded with her to give Pete his message, he knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that she wasn't going to do it. Despite how receptive she had seemed, he knew that she would see it as an opportunity to push he and Pete farther apart.
He was willing to be that she had even been encouraging Pete to stay with Adam.
So no, when he learned that she had left, left Pete and left her responsibility to both of them, he wasn't surprised.

What had surprised him was how reluctant Pete was to ask him for help. Gary wasn't blind or stupid, he could see that Pete was in trouble, and he knew that Pete must've known that.
He also knew that Pete had to be feeling the same things that he was, how right and perfect it felt. The more he had thought of it, the more it seemed like a natural course for their lives.
Not rushed.
Not forced.
Just, right.

He thought that this competition might improve their reputation, and in turn, make them some more money that he could bring home to Pete. Their current situation was on a steady decline, and both he and Pete had been considering getting jobs.
Truthfully, he had been against Caesar competing, at first. He wasn't really sure why, it just didn't feel like the right thing to do.
No, that wasn't right.
He knew the reason. It was something he'd been grappling with ever since they got back from New York.
He was afraid he'd fail.

When he and the others had been in New York, his relationship with Pete was all but dissolved. He had failed to keep him, a second time, and if he couldn't do that, what chance did he have with the band?
He had lost his confidence for just about everything, and even though he and Pete had quickly patched things up once he'd returned, the fear of failing - failing the band, failing his friends - was still strong in his mind. So when this competition was mentioned to him, he backed into a corner.

While he certainly wasn't going to admit it to anyone, he had been - and still was, to a degree - doubtful of Caesar's ability to out-perform Cleen. Specifically, his own ability to beat Adam.
Adam had nearly taken Pete from him, and he couldn't blame Pete. Gary's own actions had nearly driven him away, and Adam was...
Well, Adam had an appeal to certain people, he could see that.

He thought Adam might not be such a bad guy, if it hadn't been for what he'd said about Pete that day, and his stupid accent.
That stupid accent... He thought. For a moment, it was almost as if he could hear Adam's voice.
Just as he approached the bar and broke free from his thoughts, he realised that he did hear Adam's voice, directly next to him at the bar.

"Well, if it isn't my best friend in the world," He heard Adam say.
It took a moment for Gary to realise that he was talking to him.

He gave Adam a sour smile and turned back to the bar.

"I just want to let you know," Adam continued, ignoring Gary's body language, "whatever happens, I'll still respect you."

Gary licked his lips and slowly turned to face the red head.
"And exactly what do you think is going to happen?" He asked in a slow, deliberate tone.

Adam erupted with laughter.
"There's that sunny disposition I've missed so much!"

Gary raised his eyebrow at Adam, wondering if the red head had been drinking.

"Here's the thing," Adam continued, "I don't want any bad blood between us. We'll get up there, we'll do what we do - one of us will do it a little better than the other - and then the best man will graciously accept his triumph"

Gary crossed his arms over his chest, and nodded toward the other end of the bar, where the all-female band was seated and waiting for the competition to begin.
"Or best woman," he said.

Adam turned to follow Gary's nod, and his eyes fell on the female band members.
"Well how do you like that," He said out loud to himself.
"Let me ask you a question," he said, his head still turned away from Gary, "Do you like girls?"

Gary narrowed his eyes at Adam.
"What?"

"Nevermind, not important," Adam said quickly, swiveling around in his chair and standing up to face Gary.
"Good luck out there," he said, extending his hand for Gary.

"You too," Gary replied, cautiously shaking Adam's hand.

He watched Adam walk quickly away from the bar and thought for a moment.
Then, he got his drinks and headed back for his own table.