Patrick mashed the buttons on his controller as he sat in a purple beanbag chair, tongue peeking from between his lips in concentration and his eyes glued to the TV screen. Joe sat cross-legged on the bed, resting his hands upon the pillow in his lap as he also furiously pressed buttons. They were stuck in a round of Mortal Kombat, --really this was more like their twentieth round but neither of them were counting-- silent except for the occasional swear being muttered. Joe never lost at this game whenever he played with anyone else, but Patrick was kicking his ass and he pretended not to hate him for it.

"Fatality!" The voice erupted from the TV as Patrick used Subzero to finish off Liu Kang, winning the match and throwing his arms in the air in victory. Joe groaned and rolled his eyes, stuffing his face into the pillow in his lap.

"Patrick: thirteen. Joe: seven." Patrick grinned smugly. "I believe that's code for 'you lose', dude."

Joe decided that throwing his pillow at Patrick's face was a great idea, so he did then laughed when it knocked his hat crooked. "Shut the fuck up and put in Mario Kart."

Removing the soft material from his face, Patrick throws the pillow back at his friend who catches it with ease, then gets up to change the game.

They've been gaming since the two had arrived at Joe's apartment after his shift. Patrick didn't want to go back to his hotel room just yet and hasn't seen the curly haired bastard since college, so he thought he'd hang out for a while and catch up. It felt like old times to sit here and play video games together, which is what they did with their free time when they didn't have to study. In short: being roommates was pretty awesome.

After putting the disk into the system, Patrick sits back down in the beanbag, letting out a small sigh as he does so, waiting for the game to load. Joe's face is illuminated by the light of his phone as his eyes skim over a text from Pete.

Petesicle: Hayley and I are on our way over

Trohmania: Alright, I'll unlock the door for you guys

Petesicle: DUDE WAIT

Trohmania: WHAT

Petesicle:....Is Patrick there??

Joe stares at the message for a few seconds longer than is necessary, like he really needed to think about that question, then glances at his friend who is scrolling through his own phone. Joe smirks slightly before returning his eyes to the message.

Trohmania: Yeah why?

Petesicle: .... no reason. See you in a bit

Tromania: K

"Be right back." Joe says before hopping up from his bed and jogging over to the front door, unlocking it for when his coworkers arrive then going back into his bedroom and jumping spread eagle onto his mattress.

"What was that about?" Patrick chuckles, his phone now in his pocket and hands occupied once more with the game controller.

Joe's hair bounces a bit as he lifts his head. "Pete and Hayley are gonna be here soon so I went to unlock the door for them." He shrugs then works himself back into his previous position, sitting cross-legged and grabbing his green controller.

Oddly, Patrick's body seems to visibly stiffen at the mention of Pete's name, looking back at his friend with wide eyes. "Pete's coming over?"

Joe nods, trying his best to hide a grin. "Might as well plug in the other two controllers, looks like we're having a game-a-thon tonight."

***

"Yo, Trohman!" Pete shouted as he opened the front door, allowing Hayley to enter first, car keys jingling in his hand as he walked in behind her. Joe peeks his head out of the room, going unnoticed by the two people in his living room. "Oh and we picked up some Taco Bell on the way over-"

"Tacos!" Joe ran out of the room and nearly bumped into Hayley who was carrying the bags containing edible heaven. He grabbed the bags from her and took them into the kitchen, placing them on the counter before sticking his hand into one of them.

Patrick emerges from Joe's room wearing a lot less layers than he was before, sporting a simple, plain black t-shirt instead of several jackets and long sleeved button-ups. Pete is placing his car keys into his shoulder bag when he sees Patrick entering, freezing up a little bit upon locking eyes with him. "H-hi, Patrick." He mentally slaps himself for the stutter in his voice.

"Hey, Pete." Patrick smiles widely, his eyes squinting a bit as he does so. It made Pete's belly swarm with insects.

"Oh uh, this is Hayley," Pete introduces once he's able to think properly. "She works with Joe and I at the café."

The two greet each other, Patrick waving awkwardly and Hayley letting out a happy 'hello'. It was then that everyone heard the sound of paper being ripped and crinkled, all of them turning toward the sound and finding Joe standing in the kitchen with a taco in his hand and about half of it being noisily crunched on.

Joe pauses a moment, glancing at everyone else with his big blue eyes, then speaking with a mouthful of food, "We're gonna play some Mario Kart so someone grab the food and let's go."

***

A majority of the night was filled with bickering and swears, insults and weird comments all being thrown at one another. No one was safe, everyone at one point had wronged someone else somehow. Whether it was Pete accusing Hayley of cheating:

"Motherfucker! You cheating asshole!"

"I'm not cheating, you just suck!"

"Fuck you, Hayley."

Or all of them just adding their own two cents to the mix of voices, arguing back and forth. It was a fun night all around.

"How about fuck all of you, because you're all cheating." Patrick whined, getting last place. He may have kicked ass in Mortal Kombat but he was shit at Mario Kart.

"Don't hate me 'cause you ain't me." Hayley said cheekily.

"Hate us 'cause they anus." Joe added, giving Hayley a high five as he got second place.

"Shut the fuck up, Joe." Pete pointed a finger in Joe's direction, putting on his best menacing face.

"Dude-" Patrick tried to intervene but Pete interrupted.

"You too, Patrick. Shut your face."

"Make me!"

"I will destroy you!"

Then Hayley just, "You can all suck it."

"Suck what exactly?" Joe asked.

"Hayley, you don't have a dick." Pete stated the obvious.

"Then suck my ass, bitches!"

"As a gay man, I do not wish to do that."

Patrick shouts out as he loses yet another race, nearly throwing his controller across the room. "Well just fuck me, then!"

"Dude, you offering?" Pete has this suggestive look on his face, not entirely serious about his question until Patrick responds.

"Not at first, but now-"

"Oh my god, stop! I will kick you both out of my house!" Joe shouts, covering his ears with the palms of his hands. He really did not want to hear that. The two simply laugh at their friend's discomfort.

Hayley reaches for the taco she had sitting beside her on the bed but finds the space to be empty. She looks around and moves the blankets but finds that her food is gone. "Who the fuck ate my taco?!"

"Oh shit, that was yours?" Joe genuinely didn't know the taco belonged to anyone, he just figured it was a stray delicacy just begging to be eaten.

"Goddammit."

"Oh, sorry."

"That was the most insincere 'sorry' I have ever heard."

"I can't be sorry for eating a taco. That's like apologizing for having a beard."

"Just get another one, there's more." Patrick said, handing Hayley the greasy Taco Bell bag.

"Fine, fine. But change the game, I wanna kill some zombies."

"Oooh, zombies, yes!" Pete immediately jumped up from the bed, going over to the stack of games by the TV and plucking Left 4 Dead from the top. He bends down to change the disk, entirely unaware that his ass was about a foot away from Patrick's face.

Joe nudged Hayley with his elbow to get her attention with a smirk on his lips, and once Hayley saw Patrick's reddened cheeks she began to giggle. She clapped her hand over her mouth to stop the laughter but it didn't matter because the other two didn't even notice, Patrick's eyes were too fixated on the rear of Pete's denim shorts and Pete just really wanted to kill some zombies.