I should be finishing the fic I started Monday, but no...
Summary: He promised he'd come back to England. He promised he'd only be gone a month. She remembers these promises.
"Patricia, you can't just keep yourself locked up in your room today. I know it's hard, but people are expecting you to be there. Look I'll stay here with you till you want to head over. Everyone else already left," Joy said knocking softly on the bedroom door. Patricia had kept herself locked up in. She didn't want to go to his memorial service. She'd much rather be going to her first day of school. He promised he'd be back. He wasn't. She knew Joy was right. She just wanted to refuse to believe he broke his promises.
Flashback
"I made it here didn't I? It's just a plane. Nothing bad will happen. I'll be back a week before school starts, it's only a month," Eddie sighed. Patricia was being paranoid about him going home.
"Yeah but accidents happen."
"I promise I'll come back to England."
"You better," she sighed calming down starting to believe him.
"I promise I'll only be gone a month. I'll miss you, you know," he smirked.
"Even though I'll deny it. I'll miss you too," she smiled.
"Flight 349 for New York," a voice said through the airport.
"It's my flight. Gotta go," he said weakly, leaning in to kiss her quickly.
"You better not break your promises."
"I won't. I promise," he smiled turning away to board his plane. She believed him.
Present
"I don't want to go Joy," Patricia said tears threatening to break through again.
"I know you don't."
"He promised he'd come back."
"It's not his fault. I'm sure he wanted to keep the promise."
"He still promised me he'd come back," Patricia said biting her lip.
"I know," Joy said in some weird attempt to comfort her friend. It had been a tough two weeks for her.
Flashback
"I gotta go Joy, plane's boarding," Eddie's voice spoke through the earpiece of Joy's phone.
"She's lucky to have you, I can't believe you're coming back to England a week early for her birthday."
"I know and it's a surprise so keep your mouth shut?"
"Can do. Bye Eddie, see you when you get here." Joy was one of the few people who knew about Eddie's surprise for Patricia. She knew the most about it. She knew the plane information and she was responsible for getting him back to the house. He was to arrive a week before school started, when most of the house had arrived yesterday. Once Joy was off the phone she pulled up the flight tracking information on her laptop. She'd use it to know when to call for a taxi. He could've made it back to the house by himself, but to add to the surprise aspect, they organized her meeting him. Trudy had soon called for dinner. Joy minimized the window and went downstairs. The groups meal went as usual. Joy checked her watch to see if she should check the flight information again or not. She figured she still had time. The teens gathered in the living room. Fabian was watching the news. Mara and Jerome were being coupley. Nina was still in America. Amber was gossiping and Alfie was pretending to be interested. Patricia was flipping through a magazine and keeping an eye on her phone. Joy had her nose in the book but she was kind of listening to the news.
"Breaking news flight 24 lost contact over the Atlantic Ocean. It is believed the plane went down. More news to follow," the news lady's voice spoke. Joy dropped her book. That was Eddie's flight. Joy leaped off the chair and into the kitchen. She had no clue how to get in touch with him in case everything was alright, and the plane didn't go down. She thought it'd be best to go back into the living room and just pretend everything was alright. Trudy sent the kids off to bed at 11. Their curfew later do to the fact school was not in session. Joy continued to worry, knowing her friend had no idea what might have happened. Joy continued hoping for the best, there was no new news that followed before them getting sent to bed.
Around 2 in the morning, there was a knock on the bedroom door. Joy opened it being the one awoken by it.
"Yeah Trudy," she said yawning.
"Can you wake Patricia, I'm afraid I have some bad news, you can probably guess what it is," Trudy said softly. Joy studied her face and could tell there had been crying.
"The plane went down, he didn't make it, and now you need to tell Patricia," Joy swallowed she didn't want to cry until after her friend knew. She had to stay strong until Patricia knew. Joy stepped back into the room to wake her sleeping friend.
"Patricia you need to wake up, Trudy has something to tell you," Joy said swallowing hard, as she shook her friend's shoulder.
"Joy its early, can't it wait till morning."
"Trudy needs to tell you something."
"Fine I'm up," she spat, getting out of bed and heading to the hallway. Joy went to stand by the door. She switched the lights on knowing it would wake Mara. Soon the whole house would be awake upon hearing the news. They'd most likely all gather here. Joy waited patiently for her friend to return or not return. A few moments later the door was opened and Patricia stepped back inside. Joy studied her friends face. It showed clear signs of breaking she was just putting up her strong front.
"It's okay to cry Patricia," Joy murmured.
"He promised me that'd he'd come back."
"I know."
"He broke his promise."
"I know."
"What's going on, why is the light on," Mara asked yawning. She knew instantly something was wrong the moment she sat up. The house was gloomy the next few days. No one saying much. Patricia avoided everyone, she just stayed locked up in her room. Joy would sit up there with her. Neither would speak. They'd sit in silence. Nobody pushed Patricia into talking, they left her alone. Joy being the protective friend she was couldn't just leave her. So they would sit.
Present
"Are you going to at least let me in Patricia?" Joy asked standing outside the room still.
"I guess. I really do need to go don't I?"
"You should. You don't have to."
"I'll go," she said swallowing, gathering her clothes before heading to the bathroom to change. Joy sat on Patricia's bed waiting. Joy noticed Patricia's phone had lit up. She figured it was just someone asking where they were. Joy grabbed for it not thinking much of it. As Joy read the message she dropped the phone.
Sorry Yacker. It looks like I'm not making it back. I hope you get this. It's my last attempt at goodbye. I just want you to know. I love you Patricia. Goodbye. I'm sorry for breaking my promises.
Joy sat there unsure of what to do. Her best friend had just received a text from her dead boyfriend. What do you say? What do you do?
"Should we go," Patricia murmured wiping her eyes stepping back into the room.
"Yeah we probably should," Joy said still trying to think of what to do about the message. Patricia grabbed her phone of the floor and dropped it into the bag she carried not giving it much thought. They walked over to the school in silence and headed to the drama room. There were pictures of him all over the place. It was a school memorial type of thing, since no one would be able to attend an actual funeral for him. Even his dad was unable to attend his funeral. Patricia walked around the room trying to avoid people, she glanced at the pictures. There were some from when he was younger his mom had sent over according to Mara, who walked by as she studied them. On one of the last photoboards there was a picture of the two of them. Patricia studied the photo closely. It was one Amber snapped of them for her peddie scrapbook. It was taken the night of the exhibit closing. The pair had snuck into the kitchen and were enjoying the privacy. They talked about his new found title Osirion and how it scared the crap out of him. In the photo he had his arms snaked around her waist. He was standing behind her placing a kiss to her cheek. Patricia smiled at the photo. Silently wishing she had the chance for another like it to be taken. She hated admitting she liked acting like a couple sometimes. Now they didn't have the chance. It was too late, to act like a couple.
"Mr. Sweet wants to know if you have anything you'd want to say," Fabian said walking over to where she had been standing, she had been running her fingers over the picture like she had been stuck in a trance. She'd give everything for another picture like it.
"I supposed I should say something," she murmured, not taking her eyes off the picture. Attention was called to the front of the room and people took seats. Anubis house had been asked to sit in the front. Patricia took a seat at the end. Joy sat next to her. The rest of the house scattered down the row. Mr. Sweet gave a speech about how he wished he had more time to spend with this son, then just those 9 months last year and part of the summer. Jerome got up and talked about how he didn't like Eddie at first but how he grew on him. He also said in a way he kind of owed Eddie for the fact they were dating. Soon it was Patricia's turn. She didn't know what to say. As she dragged her feet up to the podium she decided she'd just start talking and see what would happen.
"Eddie Miller, as he preferred to be called. He'd most likely give you a dirty look if you called him Edison Sweet. Well Eddie was a slimeball, but for a few months he was my slimeball. And it just really sucks because he promised me that he'd come back to England, and he broke that promise. The slimeball went and died in a plane crash. I know it's not his fault. But I'm kind of mad at him. I told him not to go, and he promised he'd be safe. He promised he'd come back. He lied. He left us with holes in our hearts, and an unfixable ache. He broke his promise. He's not here. He's not coming back. He's gone. The slimeball lied to me. I miss him, more then I'd like to admit. I wish I never lowered my forcefield and let him in, but it's too late to change the past. He's gone and he's not coming back," she murmured again, tears springing from her eyes. She raced from the podium grabbed her bag from the chair and raced out the door.
"Shouldn't you go follow her," Fabian asked Joy.
"I'll give her a few seconds. She needs the space just for a little bit," Joy responded quickly. The group of teens and teachers were dismissed they stayed in the room chatting and remembering. Joy took this as her chance to check on her friend. Joy walked quickly out the door. Her friend wasn't outside in the hall or outside the school. Joy decided to check at home. She found Patricia on the front steps staring at her phone.
"How is this message even possible," Patricia said crying.
"I don't know."
"Do you know what it says."
"Yeah, I kind of read it."
"Why didn't you tell me."
"I wanted you to read it on your own."
"He said he loved me," Patricia said swallowing hard.
"He did love you Patricia, it was obvious in the way he looked at you."
"I never got to say it back," she said suddenly.
"So you loved him?"
"And it took losing him for me to realize it, and it's too late, he's gone and he'll never know."
"I'm sure he knew Patricia, when you know you know," Joy said in another attempt to make her friend feel better.
"What if he didn't."
"You can't live on what ifs, you need to believe he knew. Okay?"
"This is a big what if."
"It is, but believe it's not a what if. Believe that he knew."
"How?"
"He knew Patricia. I know he knew. That's why he was coming back. He wanted to tell you he loved you on his birthday. I helped him arrange the entire thing. So trust me he knew. And he wanted you to know how he felt."
"So that's why he was coming back early? He wanted to tell me he loved me. He wanted to see me? He should've just waited another week. I would've been waiting for him to tell me."
"He still told you. He wanted you to know. He wanted you to know as soon as possible."
"I knew. He was able to tell me. I never got the chance."
"It's all going to be alright. I promise," Joy said. Patricia believed this promise that things were going to turn out alright. They did, it took years of healing. There were rough times. But things turned out alright in the end. There wasn't a day that passed that she didn't think of him. She kept the message saved to her phone and some days she'd take her phone out to read it, and it would be all she needed. All she needed. An I love you. An I'm sorry, and she was okay again.
I KEPT typing and then was like just stop and ugh im sorry the end is shit.