Title:Does your husband know?
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Pete/ Ashlee, Patrick/Ashlee
Author: Me! (xmexandxyou)
Summary:"He wasn’t just hurting himself, though, he was hurting Pete, his best friend in the whole world. "
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone. This never happened.

Patrick squeezed Ashlee’s hand, feeling the gold band on her ring finger, wondering how such a small object could tear him up so much inside. He wasn’t just hurting himself, though, he was hurting Pete, his best friend in the whole world. Every kiss they shared, every time he leaned over to whisper something in her ear, every time she was on top of him, every "I love you" was the knife digging deeper into the region of his chest.

Pete and Ashlee had been quite bad the last couple of months; she’d started seeing him when her marriage had fizzled out. He knew he should stop, but he couldn’t. Ashlee was his alcohol, his heroin and his smokes. His vice.

It hurt Ashlee too. She wore her wedding band always, even in the midst of a divorce to remind herself that what she was doing was wrong, no matter how many times she’d tried to convince herself that being with him while she was married to Pete was justified. Patrick was her addiction, her rock; he was everything Pete never was. No matter how many times she’s tried to break it off, she always ended up calling the number, "Patrick, I miss you. I know this is wrong, but I-I love you so much."

~

It wasn’t her fault she’d seen Patrick first. There was just something endearing about Patrick, engrossed in a conversation with Ne-Yo across the room. His gentleness, perhaps? Seconds before her friend Jenna came over to where she sat, bearing a big smile and a . . . guy? "You’ve got to meet him." And then she was swept away with Pete, his energy, his good looks, she was sold.

After the wedding, things began to get rocky. Big spats grew from small arguments such as, "Pete, where’s my purse?" And after Pete threatened to move out, it was clear that yes, the honeymoon was over. She filed for divorce, and when Pete moved in with Patrick for lack of anywhere else to stay, Ashlee soon found herself falling in love with the seemingly soft-spoken singer of her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s band. Thanks to Patrick’s "erratic studio hours," producing various records, (the records were real, the ‘schedule’ was not), Pete didn’t suspect a thing.

"I dunno, Ash."

"Of course you don’t, you never know anything!"

~

"Oh, Ash." Patrick sighed. This was not an "Oh-baby-yes" kind of "Oh, Ash’, this was an "Ash-please-tell-him-I-can’t-take-it" kind of "Oh, Ash." Ashlee felt a sob well up in her chest and work its way up her throat, making it unable for her to do anything except lean against him and let the tears slip from her eyes. Patrick felt a twinge of sympathy as he held her, sobs that shook her whole body. He sighed again, wistfully offering, "There’s always tomorrow." Before kissing the top of her head.

""No." She looked up at him, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

"No?" Patrick asked, surprised.

"No, I’m going to do it."When Ashlee put her mind to something, she was unstoppable. "I need to do this before I lose my nerve." She reached out and grabbed her Nokia from the glass-topped coffee table and pressed speed dial. Her voice wavered as she spoke into the mouthpiece, "Hi, Pete, could you come over? I have something I need to discuss with you." He agreed, and their conversation was over.

"Should I go?" Patrick asked, starting to get up from the comfy spot in the couch.

"No, no, stay." Ashlee patted his knee in a way that was probably supposed to be reassuring, but really only terrified him. They flipped channels on the flat-screen before settling on a French movie with subtitles. It was a mere few minutes before they began to nod off. There was a knock at the door.

Pete was here.