"Hey roomie!" said Joy walking into the bedroom, "whatcha doing?"
"Listening to music. Why?" replied Patricia nonchalantly.
"Hey," Joy plopped herself on the bed beside Patricia, "so, what was that little jealous fit about earlier, you know, KT and Eddie?"
"Not this again..."
"Yeah," Joy pushed Patricia, "come on, you know all about my boy trouble and-"
"Hey is this an impromptu Sisterhood meeting?" asked Mara walking in.
"Nah, just girl talk." replied Joy.
"Unfortunately." said Patricia trying to put her headphones back on.
"I'm trying to get something about Eddie out of her."
"Oooh, interesting. Come on, Patrica, spill" Mara sat on the floor and grabbed a pillow and held it on her lap.
"So, why are you so jealous over Eddie and KT?"
"Yeah, what's that all about?"
"I really don't want to talk about it."
"Come on, spill!" Joy pushed.
"What happened on the America trip?" Mara continued Joy's question.
"Nothing." Patricia smirked at their inquisitive faces, "Nothing!"
"Something must have happened. You split up." Joy said matter-of-factly.
"Well," Mara and Joy both leaned forward, "ok, but promise you won't be weird or anything."
"Swear."
"Swear."
"Okay, well, we were having a really great time. I mean, his mom seemed to like me and we were spending, like, every second together. He took me to all the tourist-y spots in New York and it was... fun."
"But..." Joy continued her story.
"But..." Patricia smiled shyly, which was extremely abnormal, "the night before I was going to leave to come back to England, he, um... he... said that he... loved me." Patricia glanced away from Joy and Mara at the laptop closed on her lap, even without looking she could tell their mouths were about as wide as they could get.
"Oh my gosh!"
"Patricia!" Mara exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"
"Because it's embarrassing, and I didn't want things to be even weirder between Eddie and I. Except I didn't think he'd get some new American girl the second he got back to Anubis House."
Mara and Joy were watching her speak with rapt attention.
"So, continue!" Joy prompted.
"The next day, before I left for the airport. I, uh, told him that it was over. That it was moving really fast and all that cliché stuff. So, yada yada yada, he didn't come after me or anything-" she noticed the glances and fixed the hopeless romantic comedy parallel she just made with, "I mean, not that I wanted him to. But, uh, I didn't hear from him until we got back here so, I guessed we were really over. So, yeah." Patricia looked from Mara to Joy, "Say something you two."
"So, do you?" asked Joy.
"Do I what?"
"You know, you've been acting jealous ever since KT arrived, you still like him. I can see it. But do you, you know, love him too?"
Patricia looks down and the smallest of smiles flashed across her face before her regular expression took its place again.
"You do!" Joy jumped at the small expression and Patricia's cheeks turned a deep maroon.
"No I don't!" Patricia snapped. She stood up with her laptop and began to leave the room, "I'm going somewhere else. Feel free to close your mouths before bugs fly into them and nest."