35. Pete tells Gabe that his book is trash.

About a week into our vacation, Mikey, Ray, Brendon, Gabe, and I decided to go to a park near Ray's house. It wasn't quite as nice as the park back home, but I preferred the people here. I raced Mikey down the slides as Brendon and Ray sat on the swings and chatted. Frank and Gerard were alone together somewhere else in the city, and although Mikey was glad to be rid of them, I kind of missed having the two of them around. Sometimes, I was a little bit jealous of Mikey - he had an amazing older brother to look up to, and I just had two annoying little siblings. He didn't realize how lucky he was.

Mikey and I had already talked about Gabe's next vision many times, and we had both agreed that it couldn't possibly come true. I knew better than to tell Gabe that his book was trash. To be safe, however, I just avoided talking to Gabe about The Cobra Factor. If I saw him with his manuscript, I pretended like it wasn't there. If he tried to get me to read it, I changed the subject. Whenever I saw him writing, I quickly left the room. Sometimes, I worked on my own poetry, and asked myself, "If poets are just kids that didn't make it, then what are bad novelists?"

I never could come up with a good answer.

When we all went to the park together, Gabe brought his manuscript along, and as usual, I ignored it. "Gabe, do you want to go on the slides with us?" I asked him, but he shook his head.

"I need to work on my book," Gabe said. He had been doing a lot of that over the last few days, but no matter how many hours he spent writing, it was never enough for him.

"What's your book about?" Ray asked.

"It's a political thriller, and it's about..." Gabe began, but Mikey soon distracted Ray.

"Ray, come on," Mikey said. "Let's go on the slide."

The two of them ran off, and Brendon and I followed them. Gabe, meanwhile, stayed on the bench and worked on writing his book. All of us raced down the slide, but eventually, Brendon and Ray got bored and went on the swings. Mikey and I eventually moved to the jungle gym, and we watched Brendon attempt to do backflips off of the swings from the top of the jungle gym.

"Is he always like this?" Mikey asked, laughing.

"Pretty much," I said.

"You have some really crazy friends," Mikey said.

"I know, but in the end, I'd do it all again," I said.

"Is Gabe's book really as bad as you say it is?" Mikey asked.

"Yes," I said. "The main character is obviously just Gabe in disguise, most of the plot is him blowing stuff up or screwing his Secretary of the Interior, and he used the word 'masticate' unironically."

"That sounds like it might be worse than you say it is," Mikey said.

"If you want, you can see for yourself," I said. "Gabe would probably let you read it."

"I'm not sure that I want to," Mikey said.

"I don't blame you," I said.

"PETE!" Gabe shouted suddenly.

I climbed down the jungle gym, while Mikey stayed at the top and watched Ray and Brendon play on the swings. When Brendon nearly smashed his head open while trying to do a backflip, Mikey raced over and told Brendon to act his age. "What's my age again?" Brendon responded, prompting Mikey to roll his eyes.

Meanwhile, I approached Gabe and asked, "What's going on?"

"Can you read Chapter 42 of The Cobra Factor for me?" Gabe asked. "It's about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything."

"Gabe, I'm not reading your book," I said.

"You're going to have to read it at some point," Gabe said. "I thought that you were going to get it published after I'm gone."

I froze. I couldn't possibly unleash the horror of The Cobra Factor on the world, but at the same time, who was I to refuse the request of a dying man? "I never said that I would do that," I said.

Gabe frowned and then said, "Pete, I'm dying."

Somehow, I had known that he would play that card. "You're not dying quite yet," I said. "There are still five visions left before you die."

"We've made thirty four of them come true already," Gabe said. "We'll be kidding ourselves if we say that we can stop the last five."

"Don't give up yet, Gabe," I said. "You're young enough to still believe."

"But young enough not to know what to believe in," Gabe said. "Face it, Pete, I'm going to die. I might as well start making the most of the remainder of my short life instead of trying to cheat death, and my dying wish is to have The Cobra Factor published. I'm only eighteen. I'm far too young to die. I'll never go to college, I'll never fall in love, and I'll definitely never get to be president. That's why I'm writing The Cobra Factor and it's why I want it to be published. It's my way to live a life that I'll never get a chance to live. Will you grant my dying wish, Pete?"

When he said it like that, it was almost impossible to say no. I tossed a few ideas through my head, trying to figure out how to respond without completely breaking Gabe's heart. He had poured so many hours into The Cobra Factor, but I couldn't publish it. I was pretty sure that whatever publishing house I sent it to would reject it anyways. Nobody wanted to read books like The Cobra Factor, with the possible exception of Gabe Saporta himself. At the same time, it was my best friend's dying wish.

"I wish I could, Gabe, but I can't," I said finally.

"Why not?" Gabe asked.

"It's just that...I don't know...maybe your book isn't really what publishers are looking for..." I stammered.

"Just spit it out, Pete," Gabe said.

"Your book is garbage!" I shouted.

"Pete, seriously?!" Gabe said as looked at me with nothing but pure wrath. At first, I thought that it was because I had insulted The Cobra Factor, but I soon realized that it was more than just that.

"I didn't make the vision come true," I insisted. "I said that your book was garbage, not trash."

"You did make the vision come true," Gabe said.

"How?" I asked.

"I misremembered," Gabe said. "I thought that you said that the book was trash in the vision, but I was wrong. You actually said that it was garbage."

"You can't even remember your own visions?" I yelled.

"Pete, you know my memory's not perfect," Gabe said.

"What's the point then?!" I shouted. "Why are we even bothering with trying to stop the visions from coming true, when you could have misremembered any of them?" Gabe didn't respond, so I added, "Keep your lousy book, and take it to your grave."

I stormed off, immediately regretting what I had said to Gabe. I was still furious at him for not remembering what had happened in his own vision, but he was my best friend. I knew that I had been overly harsh. I looked back at Gabe, who had gone back to working on his book. Gabe briefly looked up at me, gave me a dirty look, and then returned to his writing. Already, I worried that I wouldn't be able to make this up to Gabe. I could already feel that there was a hole where something was.

A little while later, all of us went back toward the Ways' house for dinner. "What do you guys want to eat?" Ray asked.

"Sushi!" Mikey exclaimed.

"No, we're not getting sushi," Ray said. "Does anyone else have any other suggestions?"

"Maybe we could get some sandwiches," Brendon suggested.

"What kind of sandwiches?" Ray asked, and Brendon shrugged.

"I'm fine with that," I said. I would have suggested pizza, but I knew that there wouldn't be any good pizza in New Jersey.

We all decided that sandwiches were fine, as long as we got something vegan for Gabe. All of us walked to a local deli, ordered our food, and headed back to the Ways' house. "That lady was totally judging me for not wanting to eat a cow," Gabe said as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"I don't think she was," Brendon said.

"She asked me four times if I was sure that I didn't want cheese on my sandwich," Gabe complained. "I've never been so thankful for the people at Fall Out Bros. They never judge me."

"Thanks, Gabe," I said.

Gabe glared at me and said, "Not you, Pete."

Mikey opened the door, and all of us walked into the house. Mikey, Ray, Brendon, and I ate our sandwiches in front of the TV, taking advantage of the fact that Mikey's parents weren't home yet, while Gabe went into the basement to write. "He's turning into Gerard," Mikey grumbled, but I didn't mind. After our argument in the park, he deserved a little bit of space.

As I took the last bite of my sandwich, the phone rang. Mikey picked it up, and then passed the phone to Ray. "It's for you," he said.

Ray talked on the phone for a few minutes and then hung up. "My parents want me to go home," he said. "I'll see you guys later."

"Bye Ray," Mikey said as Ray walked out the door. Brendon took the TV remote and flipped through the channels, passing by our video once again. "That video is everywhere these days," Mikey said. "I even heard the song on the radio yesterday."

Brendon and I both groaned. "Why didn't MTV just listen to us?" I asked.

"It's a good song," Mikey admitted. "It's very catchy."

"That's not a good excuse," I said as Brendon continued to channel surf. Finally, he found a show that was worth watching.

"Hey, Amber Wallace: Consulting Detective is on!" Brendon exclaimed.

"I'll go get Gabe," I said. I raced into the basement and shouted, "Gabe, Amber Wallace: Consulting Detective is on! Do you want to watch it with us?" He didn't respond. I looked around in the basement, but I couldn't find Gabe. However, there was a stack of paper sitting on top of my air mattress. I picked it up and began to read.

Chapter 43

Garrett Santiago lifted the severed head of his one-time idol and mentor into the air and let forth a triumphant, guttural cry.

"Behold! The beast, Paul West!" Santiago roared, eliciting awestruck cheers from the mob of admirers spread below him on the White House's south lawn. Eyes twinkling with cold amusement, the heartthrob savored their terrified glee as drops of blood pooled on the balcony tiles near his feet.

"Let this be a warning to ALL who would stand in the way of cool tunes and awesome good times," he declared. "They built this city on rock 'n' roll, but we built this city on disco beats, too!"

The crowd thundered. Fusion-powered airships screamed overhead. Laser cannons crackled in the distance. And Santiago smiled. Oh, it was so very good to be president.

"He killed me off," I whispered to myself in horror. I read on and discovered that Paul West had turned out to be a Soviet spy, and after a long and admittedly awesome (in an incredibly stupid way) gunfight, Garrett Santiago had murdered his former chief of staff and best friend in cold blood.

The door to the basement creaked open. "Pete?" Mikey said. "What are you still doing down here?"

"I've ruined everything," I said, still holding the forty third chapter of The Cobra Factor in my hands.

"What are you talking about?" Mikey asked.

He went downstairs into the basement and sat next to me on the air mattress, and I handed him the forty third chapter. Mikey read the chapter, and he instantly understood everything. "I have to find a way to make it up to Gabe, but I'm not sure if I can do it if he's this mad at me," I said.

"You can do it, Pete," Mikey said. "He may be mad at you, but you two have been friends for a long time."

"I just don't want Gabe to die," I said. "He doesn't deserve this. He should be able to go to college and find someone that he loves as much as this William Beckett guy and maybe he shouldn't be president because he would be awful at it, but..."

"I get it, Pete," Mikey said. "We just have to stop the next vision."

"How?" I asked. "We don't even know if it's accurate. Maybe Gabe misremembered that one too."

"We have to trust him," Mikey said. "By the way, I have a question about all of this."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Am I in Gabe's book?" Mikey asked.

"I have no idea," I answered. "I haven't read the last few chapters. If you are, you're probably Mickey Wood or something like that."

"Actually, he's Milo Wood," Gabe said from the top of the staircase.

"To be honest, I'd rather not be in The Cobra Factor at all," Mikey said.

"Too late," Gabe said. "Anyways, do you two want to watch Amber Wallace: Consulting Detective with us?"

"Sure," Mikey said. He and I went upstairs, and all of us sat in front of the TV, watching Amber's adventures on the screen. Gabe was lost in the story, trying to forget that he was about to die, but I couldn't focus. All I could think about was the fact that there were only four visions left before Gabe's death. Just thinking about it made me want to cry. I wanted nothing more than to prevent all of the visions and tell Gabe I didn't mean anything that I said tonight, so when the clock struck 11:11, I wished for Gabe's visions to stop coming true, even if it meant that I would never be Employee of the Month at Fall Out Bros. Pizza. It was the least that I could do.