A/N: YAYAYAYAYAYA I'M BACK AND I'M SO EXCITED (summary of A/N paragraph below –excluding the sincere apology-)

*Oh wow. Wow. I bet you all really hate me right now. I'm sorry for all the time that I took off, I truly am. But I lost inspiration for a while, and mix that with a tight schedule – FanFiciton was just the thing that I had to give up for a while. But, I'm back, and starting fresh. I'm only going to keep some of my other stories, and try to work on just one or two new ones at a time; we'll see. If you guys forgot, I was xFabinao, but I'm definitely trying to recreate myself, and I felt that the name writtenbygrace gave me flexibility for any fandom. I really thought that this would be my first story with a publishing schedule –simply to give me flexibility- but I went ahead and wrote all of it… oops? It's not going to be that long – only 8 chapters including the epilogue, but it will definitely help ease me back on to this site. I have quite a few story ideas and this was not one of them, so I'm sure that I'll have more to write soon. In other news, I know that I had a lot of viewers on I Can See It Now; and it was my first AU. I personally didn't like it, so it's gone. I'm trying another AU, (this one) simply because I have mixed feelings about writing AUs, and I figured that I needed to give one another shot. I really hope that you enjoy this – I'm going to try my best to stay on here when I have time.*

Disclaimer: I don't own House of Anubis.

***o***

"Do you think that I should get him help?" Piper placed her mug of cooling tea down, glancing over at her sister.

"Get who help, now?" Patricia didn't mean to not listen, but after a few sentences Piper always became utterly boring.

"You're impossible, Trixie. I was talking about Eddie. You know, my friend from school last year? He was in my Music History class, seventh period."

"Oh right, him." Patricia nodded, although she couldn't remember ever hearing about Eddie before. How many times had Piper mentioned him? "What's up with Freddie, now?"

"Eddie," Piper corrected, gritting her teeth. As she was about to jump into her story, again, she thought better of it. It wasn't like Patricia was going to listen to her anyway. "I'm just worried about him, is all. I'll take care of it on my own."

"Great," Patricia was about to thank her sister, per usual, when her all too familiar Sick Puppies ringtone cut through the room. "I have to take this, sorry." Patricia silenced her sister and answered her cell phone, walking out of Piper's apartment to talk. Piper crossed her arms, leaning back into the cushioned sofa. Her irritated groan pushed pieces of the red hair, which hung loosely in front of her face, to waver in the air before falling back against her pale complexion. Patricia was a useless sister, a useless friend; completely unreliable. She didn't know why she even bothered trying to talk to her about anything, let alone serious problems. This was one of the few times that she had gone to Patricia for help, and if anything, she was only wrapped tighter in the chains that choked her with fears, not free from them.

"Pipes?" Patricia stuck her head back into the apartment. "I need to go help Jerome with something. I'll see you tomorrow for the party, yeah?" Piper was about to ask Patricia to please not show up to the party because of how upset she was with her, but she didn't have the time to do so before the door was slammed in her face. Needing Patricia's help this desperately should have made her jealous of Jerome for being capable of getting her sister's attention so quickly, but Piper knew that the two would only be planning a prank on Alfie. She didn't want to be a part of that. Patricia's immaturity was Piper's least favorite quality of her sister.

***o***

A disgusting cat whistle made Patricia snap her head around to the eyes of Alfie and Jerome. "Get away, losers." Patricia demanded, turning back to the mirror, and running her fingers along the curls in her hair. She smoothed out the bottom of her short black dress, and checked the zippers on her combat boots. Grabbing a black wristlet from her desk, she met her friends at the door downstairs, and they exited together.

"Do either of you know what she's been planning?" Jerome asked his best friends from the driver's seat.

"Nope," Patricia and Alfie replied in unison. Being sister and boyfriend to Piper should have made them more aware on what happened in her life, but neither of them was at that stage of maturity yet. They arrived at the party only a couple of minutes into the beginning. Patricia was surprised simply by the outside. Their parent's house was blasting with music, lights shining from all of the windows, and she briefly wondered if this was the correct party. Piper never attended these kinds of things, let alone threw one.

Jerome, Alfie, and Patricia entered together, and the two boys immediately rushed over to the food table, leaving the red-head alone. Patricia had two personalities at parties, both of which she discovered when she had been a teenager. Sometimes, Patricia was fully willing to join in, dance, and drink a little bit. However, tonight her less social side was showing. She was surrounded by people that she didn't know, and noises that she didn't feel like she had the strength to add to. She scanned the room for somewhere to escape, somewhere that she could silently sit without looking like a total loser. Her eyes found an empty cushioned chair, pushed into the corner from its normal spot in the center of the room. She made her way toward it, pulling her phone from her wristlet. As she was about to sit, a blonde boy plumped down in it, as if he hadn't even seen her there.

"Um, hello?" Patricia waved her hands in his face, ready to slap him if he didn't move.

"Oh, Piper." The boy looked up at her, and seemed surprised. "You curled your hair?" Ew. Piper knew an obnoxious, blonde, American boy? Ew.

"I'm not-"

"Nevermind." He slumped back into his seat, but then seemed to think better of it, and grabbed her wrist, dragging her upstairs. "I need to talk to you." Patricia wanted to tell him who she was, really, but the way that his voice sounded; broken and desperate, made her know that this was going to be good. And she didn't want to miss out on a story. "Why did you throw this party?"

"Why did you come?" Patricia snapped back all too suddenly. She regretted it immediately; if she was going to get any information from him, she'd have to tread carefully.

"Because you told me to!" The boy erupted. "But I was wrong. I know that you're expecting this 'socialness' to help me, but I'm not ready to get over her. Stop trying."

"Over who, exactly?" Damn. Patricia felt like slapping her palm to her forehead. This boy clearly knew Piper; Patricia's perfect-friend-of-a-twin wouldn't have asked such a stupid question. She would have known the answer before he had asked it.

"What?" The blonde boy sneered unwelcomingly, in a way that made Patricia question Piper's recent decisions on friendships. "Char, who else?"

"Um, yeah, Char. Sorry. I've been busy with this whole thing." Patricia gestured to the room, attempting to emphasize the extravagance of the party. Too bad they were alone in a white room with barely a mattress for furniture.

"Piper, it's getting bad. Really bad." He was close to her. Too close. She could feel his breath, see the emotions running through his hazel eyes. He had a boyish look to him, but he looked worn at the same time. Was he… was he going to kiss her? No. Alfie and Piper had been dating for months. Any of Piper's good friends would know that – he seemed like a good friend, at least. Why else would he confide in her?

He was waiting for her response, she could tell, but she wasn't quite sure how to deliver it. This was the kind of situation in which Piper would instruct that addressing him was required. But Patricia wasn't Piper. Patricia couldn't address him because she didn't even know his godforsaken name.

"Well," he swallowed, "Are you going to say anything?"

Patricia let out a prolonged sigh where his name should have been pronounced. "Just talk to me, okay? Let it all out." The blonde boy had tears in his eyes, his hands were shaking. For a moment, Patricia thought that maybe she shouldn't have said that. Maybe now, he assumed that Piper had never been listening to him when he reached out to her for help. But she hadn't messed up this time. For once, she had played the right card. He sat on to the ground with a sigh, his broad shoulders rising and then slumping. He puckered out his lips, emphasized the hurt puppy look in his eyes, and started his story. He was telling Patricia things that he hadn't even told Piper before, she could tell. It was almost obvious by the way that he constructed his story that Piper only knew his over-all generalized feeling. In this story, the blonde boy spilled his feelings during every significant moment leading up to their conversation. He told her everything, and for the first time in her life, Patricia listened.

***o***

A/N: Was that confusing… or? What are your opinions so far? I've finished it, and I like it myself, so I hope that you guys will too.

About this whole Palfie thing – I really don't ship them that much, but I felt that using a character that everyone already knows would make things flow easier. :)

I also wanted to thank everyone who's still reading my stories even though you probably all hate me, and I wanted to give a special thanks to sinfullysarcastic who checked in on me in the middle of my story-clean out. If you're reading this, I wanted to thank you again; you were so sweet. I love you so much.

Love you all,

Grace