He looked the same way he always did. His hair askew underneath one of his many hats, his eyes wider, more innocent than they could possibly be. He looked the same. But he looked different.
----
She looked like always. One of the many hats she stole from me sitting crooked on her head, above the chocolate curls that infuriated her. She had Andy’s iPod,Joe's belt and a pair of jeans that were just too small for Pete. She was a big pile of every thing I held close. But underneath that pile I could still see the teen that came up to me shyly, as if she knew what would happen if I was found out, as if she could comprehend the mob that would form, and asked me, ever so nicely, how I did it.
Did what?
Pete wrote the lyrics.
He did publicity.
He was the one everyone knew.
I didn't mind.
But of course I did.
She explained further. "How do you write music? There are so many diffrent parts, and yet, you write them all. I mean, as a person who writes amazing music, you must know what really goes into the music. Even lyricsts don't really know."
Did she know?
Was she trying to make me feel better?
She always made me feel better.
We were still young, before 'Under the Cork Tree'. Or was it just after it came out?
It's all a blur now.
That's okay.
Cause she's here now.
I don't remeber the answer I gave her. She probably does.
"How do you do it?"
"Look into your soul, and as you listen hard, pluck the quivering strings of your oldest guitar. Love your family and your friends, then hope to God some pretty young thing will come around and put you back together again." She recited frommemory.
"But then, you knew that Patty. You've always known that."
I nodded. Ofcourse.
"You've always known that I'd be the prettty young thing thats come to the piece back together. You've always loved me. Just like I've always loved you." she whispers softly in my ear. It's not meant to be seductive, but secret. She belived in the words she said.
She kisses bot my cheeks, then gives me eskimo kisses, the way she does before shows for luck.
and then her eyesdarker, more heartbreakingly blue than ever, she puts her plush lips against mine.
"Always." I whisper back.
