28. Gabe is on MTV.

The next morning, I woke up to the phone ringing. I rolled out of bed and picked it up, and I immediately heard Gabe scream, "Pete! Have you seen what the next vision is?"

"I didn't bother to check," I said. "Why are you up so early anyways?"

"I needed to call you as soon as I remembered what the next vision was," Gabe said. "We have to stop this one. In fact, we should have thought of it when we were making that music video. I wouldn't have made it if I had looked ahead."

"You shouldn't have made it in the first place," I said, pressing the phone to my ear as I searched for the list of visions. When I found it, I saw why making the music video and sending it to MTV was a grave mistake. Gabe's twenty-eighth vision was him ending up on MTV. I cursed loudly and then asked Gabe, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Gabe said. "That's why I called you."

"We've already sent the video!" I exclaimed. "We can't undo that!"

"Maybe we can," Gabe said. "We can send a letter to MTV explaining that we're not really the Flaming Zombie Heads and asking them not to air the video. That will probably keep them from broadcasting it."

"That might work," I said. "Then again, knowing our luck, they'll probably just air the video anyways."

"It's at least worth a try," Gabe said. "Meet me at Hot Mess Management this afternoon, and we'll work on the letter."

"Okay," I said. "See you then."

I hung up, and later that day, I drove to Hot Mess Management and met Gabe in his office. He was on the phone with someone when I walked in, sounding very unlike his normal self. "Yes, I will monetize our assets as soon as possible," he said. "Have a nice day, Mr. Nelson." He hung up, turned to me, and said, "I told you that I was good with adults." Gabe then pulled out a piece of paper with the Hot Mess Management logo on it, and the two of us began drafting our letter to MTV. It took a while, but we eventually came up with a letter that was both professional enough to send and would guarantee that MTV would not air our music video.

To whomever it may concern:

On behalf of Hot Mess Management, we would like to deeply apologize for the music video recently submitted to MTV attributed to The Flaming Zombie Heads. The Flaming Zombie Heads did not finish their single and music video in time, prompting us, along with Ryland Blackington, Alex Suarez, Nate Novarro, Victoria Asher, Brendon Urie, and Ryan Ross, to create our own song and video and submit it to MTV. The Flaming Zombie Heads were not involved with either the song or the video, which are both of very poor quality and unfit for broadcast on your fine network.

We would like to withdraw our submission to MTV, and we would also like to request that you not broadcast the Flaming Zombie Heads video on your channel. We believe that the low quality of our homemade video would be an insult to the Flaming Zombie Heads and MTV. In addition, we believe that the video poses a significant health risk, because it could cause MTV viewers' ears to bleed and their bodies to spontaneously combust.

You don't always have to make such expensive mistakes - in fact, we hope that our withdrawal will open up opportunities for more talented artists to have their videos broadcast on your channel. For example, Pete would really like to see more Sisters of Mercy videos on MTV.

We apologize once again for our deception, and we hope for the best for you and your network.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Saporta, intern at Hot Mess Management

Pete Wentz, Gabe's partner in crime

"It's perfect," Gabe said as he looked over the letter one more time and then stuffed it into an envelope.

"It's really obvious which parts you wrote and which parts I wrote," I said.

"Who cares?" Gabe said. "The people at MTV won't notice. They'll be too busy rejecting our video."

"We're probably the only two musicians in the world who want MTV to reject our music video," I said.

Gabe chuckled and said, "I'm not sure that we can call ourselves musicians."

"You wrote a song, and it was pretty good," I said. "I think that makes you a musician."

Gabe shrugged and sealed the envelope. "Can you drop this off at the post office?" he asked. "I still have some work that I need to do, and I want this to get to MTV as soon as possible. We'll only be able to get the video to them before they watch it if we send it now."

"Of course," I said.

"Thanks," Gabe said. "You're the best, Pete."

I left Hot Mess Management, and as promised, I dropped the letter off at the post office on my way home. I tried to convince myself that our plan would work. After all, no sane person would want to play our music video after reading that letter. After I dropped off the letter, I went home and forgot about the visions, finally letting myself focus on something else for once. Not worrying about Gabe's visions was definitely a refreshing feeling - I could finally deliver pizzas without thinking about whether I was making a vision come true, or I could spin for Patrick like his favorite records used to.

Two days after we sent the letter, Gabe called me, and my high hopes came crashing down. "I need you to come over to my house right away," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I need to show you something," Gabe said.

I immediately drove the DeLorean to Gabe's house, and when I knocked on his door, Gabe opened it. "I got a letter back from MTV," he told me in a low voice as I entered the house. His hands shook as he handed me the letter.

Dear Gabe and Pete,

It's a shame that you have such a low opinion of your own work. I have already watched and reviewed your submission, and I strongly believe that it is suitable for broadcast. Your video is one of the most creative and original submissions that I have seen in a long time, and I am certain that MTV viewers will enjoy watching it as much as I did.

"Did this guy watch the right video?" I asked Gabe. "Our music video wasn't particularly creative or original. It was just us dancing around in a parking lot."

"Unless there's another band out there called The Flaming Zombie Heads, I think he's talking about our video," Gabe said.

In particular, the sports car was a nice touch.

"He's definitely talking about our video," I said, freaking out. I shouldn't have brought the DeLorean - I could have stopped both the vision where Gabe made a music and the vision with Gabe on MTV if I hadn't driven the DeLorean to Hot Mess Management. I went back to reading the letter, but I had already lost all hope.

Given the high quality of the song and video and the fact that your video was submitted over a week ago, MTV cannot guarantee that the Flaming Zombie Heads video will not be broadcast. It has already been scheduled to air at 11 AM EST on July 30th, and it may be impossible to pull the video at this point. In the future, if you wish to withdraw your submission for any reason, please notify MTV as soon as possible.

Thank you again for your submission.

Sincerely,

Donnie Catcher, executive at MTV Networks

Gabe quickly did some math and then said, "Eleven o'clock Eastern Time is the same as ten o'clock Central Time...which means that our video is going to air in three minutes."

Gabe grabbed the TV remote, turned on the TV, and changed the channel to MTV, but I took the remote from him and changed it to another channel. "What are you doing?" I shouted at him. "We can't watch MTV! If the video plays, then your vision will come true."

"If the video plays, then we'll see it while we're channel surfing, or we'll hear about it from someone else, or MTV will play it again and I'll see it some other time when I'm watching music videos," Gabe said. "No matter what happens, the vision's going to come true. I might as well enjoy my fifteen minutes of fame."

He had a good point. I handed the remote back to Gabe, and he switched the channel to MTV. All of a sudden, Gabe's face appeared on the TV screen, wearing a purple hoodie and lip-syncing to the song that he wrote. The video had actually turned out pretty well, and it was certainly entertaining to watch ourselves dancing around on the screen. I even had to agree with Donnie Catcher - the sports car was a nice touch.

In the middle of the video, as Gabe and I were staring at the screen in a mixture of horror and awe, Mrs. Saporta walked into the room. She looked at the TV screen, and then looked back at us and asked, "How did you end up on TV?"

"The Flaming Zombie Heads didn't submit their video on time, so Hot Mess Management made one for them," Gabe said. "We told MTV not to play it, but they didn't listen." All of it was technically true, although he had left out everything about the visions.

"It's still impressive that you got onto MTV," Mrs. Saporta said. "I'm so proud of you, Gabe."

"Thanks, Mom," Gabe said. Mrs. Saporta left, and as our music video finished and MTV started playing a different one, Gabe went back to panicking. He turned to me and asked, "What are we supposed to do now?"

"The next vision is me winning a soccer game," I told him. "We'll have to focus on stopping that from happening."

"That seems easy enough," Gabe said. "You only have one game left in the season, right?"

I nodded and said, "It's tomorrow."

"You'll just have to throw the game," Gabe said.

"That's easy enough," I said. "I'm fine with my team losing, especially if it means that you'll live."

"Thanks Pete," Gabe said, but it didn't sound quite as good as it did when Patrick said it. Gabe smiled and looked back toward the TV, and the two of us spent a few hours sitting in front of the TV and watching music videos. Eventually, we both got bored, and I had my last soccer practice in less than hour anyways. It was crazy to think that I would probably never play soccer again after this - I wasn't planning to play in college or professionally, although I had thought about it many times. Even if this summer wasn't the end of the world, it would be the end of eras in so many ways.

When I got home, the phone was ringing again. I picked it up, and a kick drum started beating in my chest again when I heard Patrick's voice on the other end of the line. "Holy smokes," he said.

"What is it, Trick?" I asked him.

"I saw you on MTV," he said.

"You saw the video?" I said.

"Yeah," Patrick said. "I didn't know that you and Gabe made a music video."

"I didn't know that MTV actually had any intention of playing it," I said. "We only did it because the Flaming Zombie Heads didn't make a video in time."

"I bet you're going to be super popular now," Patrick said. "I'll be able to say that I knew Pete Wentz before he was famous."

I laughed and then said, "If either of us is going to become famous, it's going to be you, Patrick. You're so talented."

"But you're the one who ended up on MTV," Patrick said.

"That was just a freak accident," I said. The whole summer so far had felt like a freak accident, to be honest. Even Patrick's existence seemed impossible, but I had met him and fallen for him anyways.

"I don't think so," Patrick said. "What else is going on, Pete?"

"I have soccer practice in half an hour," I said.

"Should I call back later?" Patrick asked.

"No, I want to talk to you," I said.

"Okay," Patrick said. "I've always wanted to watch one of your soccer games."

"My last game is tomorrow," I said. "You can come and watch if you want."

"I'd love to come and see you," Patrick said. I hadn't mentioned that I was planning to throw the game, and I worried that Patrick would think that I was a bad soccer player, but when I heard him tell me that he wanted to come, I knew that he didn't care if I could play soccer or not. He just wanted to support me, whether I played well or not, and I wondered how I had managed to get such an understanding and caring boyfriend. Patrick really was right for me - I knew it in my heart.

We spent a while aimlessly chatting, and I learned that Patrick was so good at sports as a kid that he started a band. He didn't know much about soccer, or any other sport for that matter, but he listened carefully as I told him about my soccer team. I wished that I could be wherever he was and talk in person, but chatting on the phone was the next best option. However, I eventually had to hang up and go to practice. I could have talked to him all day, but I knew that I would see him again the next day.

On my way to practice, I thought about how to stop the visions. The MTV incident had proven that I needed to do a better job of thinking ahead. However, there weren't any obvious connections between any of the remaining visions. We would have to keep taking it one vision at a time, and for now, I just had to lose tomorrow's soccer game.