“The stars look so happy” Emilio mused, resting his head against Mateo's shoulder. 

They had been sitting on the hood of Mateo's car-Lucy- for the past 10 minutes, Emilio mainly rambling from one random subject to another, but the last couple of minutes he had fallen silent as he watched the night sky.

"Um, yeah, guess they do," Mateo said, more preoccupied with the fact that Emilio’s head was now on his shoulder. 

He kept trying to wrap his mind around this moment. 

How is this happening right now?!?! He kept thinking, making sure to hold extra still to be a good headrest for Emilio. 

Less than 12 hours ago I was freaking out over our phone interview and now we’re…cuddling???

He was 75% sure this was a just dream.

“Remember the star I was tellin you bout?” Emilio said, pulling Mateo from his thoughts.

“Patrick?” Mateo smirked. 

It quickly disappeared when he saw Emilio’s face.

“Yeah,” Emilio said, brows scrunched together. “She was brightest star of all. S-smart, witty, and she can do evv-everythin. Everythin. She put up with me, she took care of me. She took care of me." Emilio turned to look at Mateo with anguish in his eyes. "That wassnt her job. That wassnt fair. She was... and I—I... I was a bad a spongebob. I'm bad spongebob." 

Mateo's eyes were glued on Emilio—the man that so many people envied—looking so broken in front of him. 

He wanted to comfort him, let him know that nobody was really perfect. 

Sure, the media normally made Emilio seem vain and selfish, but anybody who did their homework would know how kind and selfless he really was.

Mateo wanted to tell Emilio that he knew about all the great things he's done—Mateo had written about many of them—and that while yes, he’d gone through some hiccups, so had everybody else! 

What mattered was that Emilio was trying his hardest to be a good person—a good... spongebob... 

For some reason though, all of those words got stuck in Mateo's throat and he just continued to stare at Emilio, looking so small next to him.

“She uh-” Mateo could hear Emilio's swallow as he forced the words out, “she found someone who can give her what she deserves... a better sponge."

"We're really sticking to this spongebob metaphor huh?" Mateo said, then mentally kicked himself because that??? That could come right out but not some comforting words? 

"And the worst part is," Emilio kept talking, oblivious to Mateo's comment, "here I am," —he spread his arms out, shaking them around, nearly smacking Mateo in the process— "wallowing in self-pity!" He stopped and looked at Mateo, as if asking for answers.

"Um, uh— " Mateo said wisely, only to be interrupted by a little buurrp from Emilio. 

Emilio burped again, this time his hand going up to cover his mouth. "Ss-sowwy."

"Are you okay? Do you need to throw up?" Mateo asked, looking around, trying to find the quickest and best throw up location. 

"I mean," Emilio continued, unphased once again, "I should be happy for her, right? I should be happy for them?" 

"Emilio, we should get back in the car. You need water, gatorade, some pretzels. I'm sure there's a gas station near-"

"And instead of being happy for them, what did I do?" Emilio continued, "I drank. And drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and drank, and—” he looked at Mateo again, “what was I talking about again?” 

“Getting some electrolytes in you."

“No,” Emilio said, shaking his head, "Ginny."

"Yeah, her too." 

“Pfft!!" Emilio suddenly snorted, laughter bubbling out of him, startling Mateo. "My favorite drink is Gin! GIN! Like Ginny. I’d never thought about that before." 

Mateo nodded, jaw tensing as he watched Emilio fall into a stupor of laugher. 

"You know," Emilio said, settling down after a moment, he sighed as he rested his head on Mateo's shoulder again, "I haven't been drunk like this in a loooooooooooooooooong time."

"Yeah?"

"I mean, yeah I drink, of course I drink! But I’ve got a very high tolerance! Once gave a speech while drunk— was told it was pretty good, that people couldn't tell how drunk I really was.”

"Well... we should get going, Emilio, stop by a convenience store, see if you can remember your address..." 

“OOHHH LOOKIE!!!" Emilio said as a shooting star streaked across the sky, he scrambled to his knees and pointed up. "Make a wish! Quick, make a wish!” He turned to look at Mateo again and stopped, head tilting. "What was your name again?" 

"Mateo,” Mateo said softly, “the guy that's driving you home."

"Mateo, make a wish."

Mateo looked at Emilio, he looked so happy again as he looked back up at the sky and closed his eyes to make his wish. 

After a few seconds Mateo did the same.

Author's Note -

Hello, I hope you're enjoying the story so far! We just hit 100 subs which is AMAZING!!!!!! WOOHOO!! Thank you so much!!! <3 😭😭😭💕💕💕

also, fun fact, this story is adapted from one of my fanfics that I ended up naming "I'm Spongebob" because I couldn't think of a better name and kept it cause I thought it was funny 😂😅

!! Update 1/20/21 !! I've made some revisions to the chapters! This includes character's names from Andy to Mateo and Eddie to Emilio! The story is also chronological now. So now some comments may not make sense because they're referring to somewhere else in the story !! Update 1/20/21 !!