Between the Lines 4
As soon as Patricia and Eddie got back to Anubis House- with plenty of time before curfew, mind you- they were immediately swallowed by the rest of their housemates. They were a pretty sight: dried grass sticking to their clothes, hair ruffled, and in Patricia's case, eyes red and swollen. A group of girls broke off the amoeba-like cluster and shuffled Patricia upstairs while the rest of the guys kept Eddie surrounded.
"What did you do? Where did you go? What happened?" They all pounced at once.
Eddie held his hands up. "I didn't do anything, I swear!"
"What did you have to do to make our tough girl cry like that?" Jerome's eyes glinted ominously.
"We just… talked." Eddie furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing what he could tell them without disrespecting Patricia's privacy.
"About what?" Alfie interjected next.
"Calm down, you lot." Joy popped out of nowhere. "It's her dad's birthday," she added quietly; everyone instantly sobered. "Where did she take you?" she asked.
"Her dad's grave." Everyone stared at him, eyes bulging. "What?"
"You're special to her, you know," Fabian spoke up. "We all know that her father had been in and out of her life since she was born, but never did she ever tell any of us about him."
"That's ridiculous," Eddie shook his head. "She hates me."
"And yet she told you some things about herself that I had to figure out," Joy said.
"She wasn't always this way either," Alfie piped up.
"You're right," Jerome said. "It started in… year seven, I think."
"Yes," Joy confirmed. "A little after her father came back from his third deployment."
Running a hand through his hair, Eddie asked, "She kept calling him a monster. Do you know why?"
"I always thought that something was going on in her family, but she never offered so I never pushed," Joy replied. "It might have been the PTSD, but she never told me."
"She's been really close with that Ben bloke though," Fabian said. "Sweetie's son?"
"Yeah, what's the deal with that?" Eddie could feel his blood bubble in his veins.
"Rumor has it that he had an affair with the former headmistress while he was still teaching science. When she found out she was pregnant, she quietly resigned and Sweet took her spot."
"But what about his wife?" Eddie gaped. Fabian stared.
"What wife?"
"You said he had an affair," he responded tersely. "He was married at the time."
"No, just a secret romance." Steam was flying out of his ears. How could his father pretend for two years that he was a single man? Without even grabbing his jacket, Eddie was out the door.
Using the spare key hidden inside the mailbox, Eddie stormed into his father's house on school campus, startling Mr. Sweet on the couch.
"Who the hell is Benjamin Reed to you?" Eddie demanded, snarling. His father's face blanched.
"Eddie, please, not now-"
"Oh no, Dad, I spent the better part of fourteen years waiting around for you. I want answers now."
"What is going on?" Ben walked into the living room. "Eddie, is it? What are you doing here?"
"Surprise," he replied flatly. "I'm your half-brother. Our dad cheated on my mom with yours."
"My mum would never-"
"Don't worry about your mom's morals or whatever," Eddie sarcastically appeased Ben. "He pretended he was single, didn't you, Dad?"
"I did," Mr. Sweet confessed. "But you have to understand- your mother and I were young and foolish when we married-"
"You were 27 and married for over seven years when you left! You knocked up my mom, had a shotgun wedding, had another kid, got bored, and left. I bet you even forgot that I had an older brother."
"Oh yes, how is he? Anthony?" Mr. Sweet was momentarily relieved when his son had stopped shouting.
"Dead."
"What?"
"You left. We were broke, so Tony followed family tradition and joined to military out of high school for the extra income. He died a proud Marine in Afghanistan on his first deployment. I have a drunk stepfather, no money, and a dead brother because you left." With nothing else to say, Eddie left the house, only turning back to say, "You are disgusting."
Outside, overcome by the emotions buzzing in his body, Eddie tried to punch the metal mailbox off the wall, but only succeeded in badly bruising his knuckles.
"Eddie?"
"Jesus!" he swore, jumping back. "What are you doing here, Patricia?"
"You do stupid things when you're angry, so I followed you." Holding out her hand, she said, "Come on. Let's get you home."
Walking back in the dark, memorizing the feel of her fingertips against the back of his hand, he asked, "Did you hear anything in the house?" Turning the face Eddie, she studied the tension in his shoulders, the line across his forehead, the tightness of his jaw. By her hesitation, he already knew the answer. "I was going to tell you soon," he begged.
"I didn't hear anything," she promised, smoothing the curve of his eyebrows with her thumb. She honestly didn't know where she got all this courage from, but when Eddie closed his eyes and leaned into her palm, she found herself shuffling closer. She shivered and he brought her closer to him, looping his arms around her back. She had forgotten a jacket. Eddie felt something bumpy under the material of her shirt, and he opened his eyes with a question glimmering in them.
Patricia shook her head. "Not now, not tonight," she pleaded. He nodded but started unbuttoning the top half of his shirt. Sweeping the collar aside, she could see five thick scars forming an irregular pattern, sweeping from the center of his chest to his left shoulder.
"Whenever he gets drunk, he gets angry. And vice versa. He broke a wine glass on me when he found out I was going to England. I thought that by some miracle I could convince my dad to come back and fix everything, but obviously not."
"Why didn't you report him?"
"He pays our bills. Without him, we can barely sustain ourselves." He shrugs uneasily. "My mom deserves so much more than him."
"You deserve so much more than him too." They stared at each other, drinking in each other's souls. In another life, maybe they would lean in, maybe they would hold hands. Grounded in harsh reality, they settled in their own timeless bubble.
"All right, Pattycakes, you have got to tell us what's going on," Joy pounced on Patricia after school the next day, the rest of the girls clustering in.
"What?"
"Oh, don't play daft," Amber rolled her eyes. "You and Eddie!"
"Nothing."
"She's bluuuushing," Mara teased.
"Buzz off, Mara, no I'm not." At everyone's expectant stares, she finally gave in. "Okay, well… he's very… warm?"
"What?" Nina questioned. Completely attractive, extremely huggable, and eyes that draw me in like magnets, Patricia clarified to herself.
"They've been hugging!" Amber squealed. "And holding each other close, and breathing in the scent of their skin." She sighs happily. "Who knows what else they've been up to!" She exclaims with an eyebrow waggle.
"You've got to ask him to the dance on Saturday!" Joy said.
"What dance?"
"There's a dance at Isis House this Saturday at 1900," Mara confirmed. Great.
"And we are going to get you looking smoking," Nina smiled.
"Is this really necessary?" Patricia whined as she was dragged into her room late Saturday afternoon.
"Yes, now hush," Amber chided her. "I'll put you in trousers if you let me do your hair and makeup."
Patricia thought for a moment: there was no way she was going to get out of this. "Fine, deal," she sighed.
"You showered this morning, right?"
"Yes, your majesty," Patricia grumbled.
"Good: slightly dirty hair is always so much easier to deal with. Alright," she said, shoving clothes into Patricia's arms. "Go put these on. Then I'm doing makeup while Joy does hair."
"And where are Mara and Nina?"
"Mara is off seducing her calculator," Joy complained good naturedly while walking into the room. "And Nina is off making sure that Eddie will look presentable next to you tonight."
"Look at those collar bones!" Amber squealed as Patricia emerged from the bathroom with Joy several minutes later. The two finger-wide straps the crisscrossed just beneath the hollow of her neck only emphasized them. The shirt left most of her shoulders bare, but somehow she didn't really mind. It was pitch black, made of some sort of stretchy material that was extremely comfortable. With the green rhinestones that matched her eyes lining the collar, fancy straps, and empire waste, the shirt made her not-so-there bust look fantastic while balancing her wider hips.
"Wow," Patricia said. Joy and Amber high five. She rotated her shoulders, loving the delicious twirl of the flared shirt.
"I was thinking about curling her hair and leaving it down," Joy said, "but that would have covered the gorgeous neckline. Plus she always has her hair down, anyway." Tonight, Patricia's hair was in a messy bun at the nape of her neck. With black-boot-wedge-things on her feet and dark wash skinny jeans, she was all set.
As Patricia made her way down the stairs, Eddie had to remind himself to keep breathing. Amber had forbidden her usual dramatic makeup and settled with mascara and silver eyeliner, which looked just… fucking awesome. She looked lighter. Free.
"Tongue in, mouth closed, lover boy," Nina whispered. He did it in the wrong order and bit himself.
Eddie offered his arm to Patricia, who took it with a sly smile. That color on him looked absolutely ravishing. In fact, if anyone could hear her thoughts, she bet that she could make Fabian turn the exact same shade of maroon.
"Shall we?"
"We shall," Patricia laughed.
She shouldn't have.
So I'm late... sorry :/
Shout out to those wonderful people who review for every chapter! You really keep me going :)
Watch out for fluff and drama in the next chapter!
I mean like we are all dying for some Peddie, aren't we? What do you think will happen?
Also let me know if you want to see snippets of the other characters' lives.