Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis or any of the characters related to it.

Short Prologue.

"Patricia, wait up…"

"Oh, for goodness' sake, just leave me alone." Patricia growled to Eddie, not bothering to look back. "I told you not to follow me."

"But I need to talk to you."

Patricia reached for her bedroom door handle and turned to face him, scowling harshly. "We have nothing to talk about. Now leave. Me. Alone."
And with that, she walked in to her room, slamming the door behind her without giving Eddie a chance to respond.

She threw herself down on to her bed, face first, and sighed angrily. She hadn't thought to check if anyone was in the room and when she opened her eyes, one of her roommates (and best friend), Joy, was standing next to her with raised eyebrows.
"Another fight with Eddie?" She asked, already knowing what the answer was going to be.

"Yeah." Patricia mumbled.

"There's a shock," Joy said sarcastically, sitting down on the edge of her own bed. "You two really hate each other."

And then Patricia closed her eyes, turning her head to face the other way. That was just the thing; they didn't hate each other. She wished for all the world that she could hate him, and she wished she was able to express that she didn't hate him. But she wasn't able, and she knew that; she knew that her ability to be honest and open with people had left a long time ago.

Patricia took a deep breath in before replying to her best friend. "Yeah." She said quietly, feeling her eyes sting. She wasn't going to cry. She didn't do tears.

Eddie was annoying, and irritating, and downright stupid. He was stupid for following her every time she stormed off. He was stupid for trying to push her in to talking when all Patricia wanted to do was be silent; and he was irritating when he used that annoying little smirk on her all the time. All the time. It drove her crazy, and she hated it; she didn't want to feel stuff. She just liked to be Patricia, on her own, not needing to depend on anyone.

But then she just had to go and get involved with him and let him near her; let him kiss her, touch her…
She'd had a momentary lapse of reason and let him do this stuff. And that, in itself, should have been enough to show him how she really felt. But still, she pushed him away because she didn't want to be attached to anyone. She didn't want to be dependent.

But back then, when all this secret kissing started, if she'd known what she knew now…she wouldn't have played so nonchalant. She wouldn't have acted like she didn't care; like it was just kissing. Like it was just a bit of fun.
Because it wasn't just a bit of fun, and it wasn't just kissing. It should have been just kissing, because that's all she'd ever intended it to be. At first, she thought it had been, but she soon realised that it wasn't. And by the time she became scared and realised she didn't want to be attached, it was too late.

Neither of them could even recall why they started this; or how they started this.

She wished that she could go back in time and do this all over again. She never meant to get them in to this, and she certainly never expected it to come to anything even close to how she was feeling. A huge part of her wished that he was the one that got away.

But now, she was already in too deep.

A/N: *waves awkwardly* hi there!
What am I doing, starting yet another multi-chapter story when I already have a few others on the go? I know, I know, I shouldn't really be starting another commitment like that when I can't even update my other stories regularly enough, but hey, I've pretty much already written this whole story so it should be pretty regular! And it's also very different from my other stories. This story is a bit less heavy in terms of angst (as apposed to All This Time), but it's still got a bit of angst in there. Love a bit of angst.

Also, please let me know along the way if it gets confusing at all; I wrote this story over a few weeks and I guess even though I had it all worked out in my head, it might not come across as clearly as I would have liked!

This chapter is pretty short, I admit, but it's just the prologue. The chapters will get gradually longer as time goes on. I'm excited about this story...

Do let me know if I should continue?

Love :* xxx