So, em, first HOA story... I hope you'll like it.
Disclaimer: As I am sure everyone is aware of, I do not own House Of Anubis.
This, right here, right now, is the most awkward situation she's ever been in, Patricia decides, sitting in the passenger seat across from Eddie. Really, she didn't even know how she'd gotten there, playing with her fingers quietly as Eddie drove. They'd bought the tickets so long ago, back before the summer holidays, when things were still good between them. She'd almost forgotten about them, after everything wanting to go and see the Sick Puppies in London seemed juvenile and besides, they hardly ever speak anymore. It just didn't seem fathomable that they'd even use their tickets. But then Amber – god she didn't even want to dwell on the fact that Amber of all people was the only person she spoke to in Anubis House – announced that Eddie and Patricia wouldn't be around on Saturday night for pizza because they were going to a concert and everyone seemed so excited that Patricia was going to do something other than school work that even she couldn't bear to disappoint them.
Plus, Eddie didn't seem too thrilled with the idea at the time, which gave her just enough pleasure to go along with it.
Speaking of the devil himself, Eddie is awfully silent tonight, even if he is around Patricia. Normally, she's noticed, he'll pretend like she's not there. If they're all studying together, or if he's helping the entire house conjugate irregular French verbs, he'll address the group as if she's not actually present. Even if, in rare moments, they are alone together he will continue about his business as if she doesn't exist, singing aloud, chewing loudly and flicking quickly as if she is not watching the television with him.
However, tonight, Eddie is silent, has even left the radio off, just got in the car his Mum bought him for his eighteenth birthday. He'd already had one at home in America, Patricia remembered him telling her, some kind of Range Rover, but he needed one in England too, apparently. This is probably the third time he'd used it since May and it is already nearly Christmas. The only sound he makes in the occasional tap on his thumbs on the steering wheel.
The rain is pouring tonight too, which means the outdoor concert seem less and less appealing as they draw closer. They are that kind of impenetrable sheets of water that pound on the windshield, making the rain bounce up again off the ground after it initially hits it and it forces Eddie to drive slower than he normally would.
Speaking of speed, Patricia checks the time discreetly as she can, and she can feel her eyes widen slightly as she does. They've been driving for a lot longer than she thought and it's getting dangerously close to when the Sick Puppies are supposed to arrive onstage.
"Eddie," the sound of his name in the silence sounds strange for a moment, and it takes Patricia a second to realise she's the one who's said it. Eddie appears as shocked as Patricia feels, and she can sense him regarding her out of the corner of those brown eyes. He has extraordinarily long eyelashes; Patricia remembers that from before, from being close enough to admire them and their autumn leaf colour.
"Are you lost?" she regrets it as soon as she says it, because the instant it's out of her mouth she can see Eddie seize up. His biceps tense, his grip on the wheel tightens and the muscles in his jaw clench up. Boys do not like to be doubted, a fact Patricia momentarily forgot.
"No," he spits out, "I know exactly where we are." If the tension was palpable before, it's suffocating now and Patricia can feel it again, that anger she can normally control is bubbling up again.
"Look, Edison, I am not trying to offend you, but it's ten to nine and we're still miles from London, you're either lost or delaying us on purpose," Patricia scoffs, sitting up straighter in her chair, leaning toward Eddie and glaring accusingly. If there is anything other than the colour of his eyelashes that Patricia could never forget from their relationship, it is that Eddie had always been afraid of her when she glowered at him with her black rimmed blue eyes. He called them 'worse-than-death-glares'.
"Oh yeah, because I so enjoy hanging out with you!" Eddie snaps back and if possible Patricia's scowl becomes even more intense.
"Then why didn't you just give up your ticket and let Amber go in your place!" their voices are rising in decibels now, each one louder than its predecessor.
"Because that would be like letting you win!"
Despite the rain getting heavier, Patricia can feel the car speeding up beneath them and can hear the sound of the engine strain against the accelerator. Eddie doesn't seem to care, even though Patricia is now gripping one side of the seat, a little frightened. Patricia knows that Eddie is as aware as she is about the consequences of driving too fast, but he is angry now. Patricia also knows that when Eddie is angry, logic and rational goes out the window. Especially when he's angry at her.
"Okay, fine, whatever, you win, but slow down!"
Then Patricia is afraid, because all of a sudden the car jolts forward picking up more speed than she ever anticipated.
"Pull over!" The fear is coming back now, in the way it used to when she got into a car, the panic is rising in her throat and she feels like she is going to be sick all of a sudden. Eddie, for his part, doesn't seem to notice she's even spoken, his eyes glued to the road, unwavering.
"Eddie, please!"
Patricia is thrown forward and it is only her seatbelt that stops her from careening through the windshield as Eddie slams on the brakes.
"What is your problem?" she screams at him, panting now as the car starts up again and Eddie pulls slowly over to the side of the road. He still doesn't look at her, keeps his eyes ahead of him, fixed on the rain.
"Seriously, do you want to have us both killed?" she shouts at him, her breath fast and shallow while he shifts his eyes shift from the road to his hands.
She knows for definite now that she should never have agreed to come. Maybe, being honest with herself, she thought that things might become easier between them. Maybe, she thought he might make her laugh again. Instead, she's terrified and cold. Instead, she just wants to go home to bed, curl up and let Amber bring her a cup of tea and some chocolate.
"I hate you, do you know that?" it is possibly the single most honest thing Patricia has said in four months, yet she doesn't even mean to say it. It slips out as she sits in silence, waiting for him to calm down. He looks up at her and for the first time since before summer break, since before Fabian called to tell her, before Joy and the accident, their eyes meet and don't instantly shy away. Patricia holds his gaze, and he hers, and she knows in that instant that this, her hating him is the reason for the avoidance, the dismissals, for pretending she's not there. Because he knows, she can tell by the look in his eyes, he's known for months. He's more aware of her hatred that he's ever been of anything else.
"Of course I know," he barks back and suddenly it is a show down, a fight like their old ones, a staring contest neither of them are willing to lose. Ice eyes against chocolate, cold against heat, and anger and pain all mixed in together in a car of the side of some unmarked road in the English countryside.
Then it's no longer eyes on eyes, but lips on lips and Patricia finds her hands in Eddie's hair and all she can think is, 'god it's as soft as it ever was.' He tastes like peppermint and hoagies and his lips are fierce and furious and hot. His hands on her waist, pulling her across the car and she scrambles to climb over the gear stick, following his mouth desperately. He's gripping her so tightly for a moment she's afraid he'll leave bruises, black and blue on her hips, but as she slides her hands down his neck, and shifts her legs so she's straddling him she finds she doesn't care if he leaves marks. That way, she'll know this has been real.
They haven't been like this in months, since July, before their exams, when they could still manage to get a moment alone; hands everywhere, Eddie groaning and Patricia begging for more.
She can feel the heat of him all over, he's pressed up against her, breathing so deeply she can feel him move underneath her. His tongue runs over her lips, sticky with some awful strawberry lip gloss Amber forced onto her after she'd pinned her down. Then they are battling for power, each one so used to being out of control these past few months that being in command seems to be the most important thing.
Patricia slowly traces her hands over Eddie's cheekbones, eyes still closed, as he moves his hands slowly up under her black Sick Puppies t-shirt. She shivers as he hints at touching her ribs, playing them as a piano, one by one, slowly up to her chest.
Their hands are slow but their breath quick, yet, after what seems to Patricia like a blissful eternity, they have to disconnect to breathe.
Gasping for air, Patricia leans into Eddie as he starts to kiss up her neck gently, softly. The feeling on his lips on her skin causes her whole body to burn. There was nothing before or after Eddie that felt so unbelievably good.
Except, as the air rushes back to her brain and her breathing levels out, she is left with a bitter taste in her mouth. She feels wrong, not like she ever did before. And as her thought process progresses, the idea of what they've just done causes her stomach to churn.
She starts to feel uncomfortable and as Eddie reaches her jawbone, she pulls away.
Eddie's eyes flutter open, and confusion furrows his eyebrows.
"What's wrong, Patricia?" Eddie exhales, whispering to Patricia, "It was just a kiss."
Then suddenly, the atmosphere is broken and Eddie inhales sharply as what he has just said hits him. His eyes land on Patricia and they are desperate and pleading.
"Patricia, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like-" she cuts him off with the worst look he has ever seen, and she can feel it right to her core. Remembering that phone call, Joy and the accident, Eddie and Nina, all at once like a tsunami. The pain, the hurt and the betrayal all over again, flooding back in waves of memories. Patricia stares at Eddie for one more second before throwing herself over into her original seat, straightening her t-shirt. In an instant they are as they were before, as if the past twenty minutes never happened and Patricia is twisting her fingers together again.
"I don't want to talk about it." Her voice is no longer sharp and Eddie wishes in that instant that it was, that he didn't have to hear the disappointment it her tone, the defeat in her words.
"Patricia, please," he makes one last plea, but she is no longer able to look at him. He disgusts her almost as much as she repulses herself.
"Just take me home, Eddie."
After a moment of silence, she heard him start the car. 'Do not cry, do not cry,' she thinks to herself as he turns around and heads away from London towards Anubis house and comfort.
She's not even sure if she can make it that far.
So, I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review if you did. I think I might make it a two shot. Also, if anyone has any prompts, I'd be more than happy to write for them.:)