Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis or anything related to it.
Finally, at 10pm, Patricia had been allowed to see her dad. He was still sleeping, and her mum was beside the bed looking extremely exhausted and distraught. It made Patricia feel guilty for leaving when she did because, as much as her relationship with her parents was bumpy, she loved them and wanted them to be okay. And she didn't want to leave her mum alone in her current state.
But, visiting times had already been over for two hours when Patricia and Eddie finally left, and the hospital had asked them nicely if they could leave.
So now, they were walking down to the bus stop in complete silence, Patricia feeling like she needed to cry again but like the tears wouldn't fall. She was scared that if Eddie so much as touched her hand the tears would flow uncontrollably.
"We'll be back at Anubis way past curfew." Eddie said as they started down the hill towards the stop.
Patricia shrugged. "I don't care."
"Did you really think I would care?" Eddie grinned down at her and she laughed, shaking her head.
"No. I know you too well."
And when Eddie reached out and took her hand in his, as predicted the tears fell. They fell fast, silent and uncontrollably, and it took a few minutes for Eddie to notice. When he did notice, he didn't say anything; he just put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in, and she put her arm around his waist, burying her head in to his side so no one would see her crying (not that there were many people around).
Usually she would hate the fact that she was crying, again, but she was so tired, and Eddie was so warm and so unexpectedly good at this comforting thing, that she didn't have the mental capacity to care that night. She needed to cry and Eddie was happy to hold her while she did.
The bus ride home was mostly silent. The lights in the bus were really harsh compared to the darkness of outside, and there was only one other person on the bus sitting right at the back.
Eddie and Patricia sat next to each other at the front.
And when Patricia realised something, she wiped her eyes and just had to break the silence.
"Eddie," she started, her voice all crackly from the crying.
"Yeah?" He turned his head away from the window to look at her.
"You know you have a girlfriend, right? You just kissed me…and now you're holding my hand…does that count as cheating?"
Eddie looked down at his lap and shuffled his feet along the wet bus floor nervously. He shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, but…she's going back to France really soon and I guess it was always going to be a short-term thing, anyways…"
Patricia took a breath in before speaking again, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet and slightly tentative. "Did you ever even like her?"
His face clouded over with even more guilt and he looked down at their hands. His thumb smoothed over her skin and she felt a little weird about it; she wasn't used to him touching her hands, or anywhere that wasn't the usual.
"No," he answered finally. His voice was quiet. "I didn't…"
"Eddie, that's terrible, if she knew that it would break her heart…," Patricia's voice faded off and then she smirked slightly, looking at him. "Actually, maybe it's not so terrible."
He looked up at her. "What?"
"I don't really like her very much."
"So that makes it okay that I might break her heart?"
"Yeah; to me it does, anyway."
Shaking his head, he grinned slightly. "You're so judgemental, Williamson."
"I know."
"I do feel bad though," he said, tracing circles on her skin with the fingers of his spare hand. "For being with her even though I didn't like her. She's a good person; I never meant to be a jerk to her. I was just trying to get over you, I guess…"
Patricia smiled a tiny bit and then shrugged, trying not to crumble under his touch. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?"
"True."
"Are we nearly there yet?"
"Yeah. The next stop is our stop."
When they got back to the house, Victor had left the front door open and for a minute they stood in the porch, taking their shoes and coats off.
"Thanks for coming with me," Patricia whispered. "And thanks for staying. I, uh…appreciate it."
"You're welcome," he smiled, and then he grabbed her hand and pulled her back from where she was about to open the door. "Can I kiss you now?"
She studied his face for a moment, considering leaving him hanging until tomorrow, but then her heart took over her mind and she caved. Her head was nodding before she gave it permission to, and she was saying "please".
Grinning, he stepped forward and kissed her straight away, his mouth already open. She let him, of course, and kissed back as she was up against the wall.
Before she knew it, her hands were in his hair and his were finding their way around her waist. The kiss started slow but got a bit faster as minutes passed.
For a moment it felt weird – kissing each other somewhere that was a lot more public than a storage room in the school basement – but then it started to feel more and more natural; like they couldn't figure out why they hadn't been doing this the whole time.
Eddie moved from her lips and left a trail of light kisses down her neck, leaving one last one just under her earlobe.
Then he came back to her lips and grinned before leaning in to kiss her, and his hands ran down her back like he'd done on many different occasions before; but this time, it felt different on Patricia's skin—like it was more than just sparks; like it was electricity that meant something. It felt like magic.
She was just moving her hands around and down each side of his neck when suddenly, the inside porch door opened and a very cross looking Victor stood there glaring at them.
They broke apart instantly and Patricia felt her cheeks burn as red as her hair.
When Victor realised what was going on, he looked slightly embarrassed.
"What is going on here?" He asked grimly, his voice low and intimidating. He couldn't quite meet their eyes.
"Uh, nothing, it's…it's nothing…," Eddie stammered, standing slightly in front of Patricia. "We just got back from the, uh, hospital." He sorted his collar out and flattened his hair.
Victor coughed awkwardly, but still managed to keep up his intimidating tone. "Well next time you get in at such an absurd hour, I suggest you get straight back to bed instead of…fooling around. Now go, both of you. To your own rooms."
Both Eddie and Patricia looked down guiltily, squeezing past Victor and making their way in to the hallway. Patricia started up the stairs and smiled slightly at Eddie as he walked past.
"Night." He whispered, and she gave him a little wave. Which, looking back on, she felt stupid for. But she didn't care—not really, anyway.
The next day, Patricia was feeling a lot better. She had woken up at 9am because Trudy told her she could have the day off due to the news about her dad; and Patricia wasn't going to turn that opportunity down.
She spent the morning in some skinny jeans and a big hoody, her hair hanging in natural curls around her face and neck. Her face had little makeup on and the whole house was silent; it was a nice change from the chaos of the house when everyone was there.
A few times she had thought about what had happened last night between her and Eddie. But then when she recalled everything she said to him – how honest she was – she cringed and pushed it to the back of her mind. Usually, she would never have been so open with him. That just wasn't her style. So instead, Patricia had managed to convince herself that it was just the intensity of yesterday's events that had made her act like she did; so different from her usual way of doing things. Yesterday was just a one-time thing; there was no reason for Eddie to take it seriously.
At lunchtime, Patricia went downstairs to get a sandwich and a drink; she'd spent some of the morning up in her room listening to music or reading a magazine. A couple of times Trudy had come to check she was okay but for the most part she would leave Patricia to her own business.
Patricia had thought she was alone in the house but once she got some bread and peanut butter out, she heard the back door open and then close again.
"Yacker, hey," Patricia heard a familiar voice say from behind her.
Patricia tensed. Eddie.
She had been hoping to avoid him for the rest of the day. Her worst fear was that Eddie would try and kiss her or admit he loved her or something crazy like that.
"Um…hello? Earth to Yacker!?"
Patricia heard his footsteps advance behind her and then felt hands on her waist.
Rolling her eyes, she turned around begrudgingly and scowled.
"Get off me, Slimeball," the words were out of her mouth like venom before she gave them permission. Why was she doing this again?
Eddie's face twisted in confusion, his hands still sitting tentatively on her waist. He let out a nervous laugh. "Uh, Yacker, you can drop the act now. We're done with that, remember?"
"Uh, no we're not," she spat, pushing his hands off her waist and walking to the other end of the kitchen. She let a few silent seconds pass by as she filled a glass of water before speaking again. "What do you want, Weasel?"
Eddie was thoroughly confused. His mouth was opening and closing; he was willing his brain to give him words to say. But he had none.
"I…what?" He managed to stammer out, staring at her in confusion.
Patricia turned to face him, her face innocent.
"What about last night!? – The…the things you said!?" He exclaimed, his brow furrowing even further.
Rolling her eyes, Patricia moved back over to her sandwich things and pushed him out of the way forcefully.
"Last night was a mistake, OK? I was emotional because of my dad, and all the things I said were just a side effect of that. My stupid little outburst was all just because of the situation. Got it?" She wasn't looking at him.
But Eddie was looking at her. He was frowning intensely. "I just…I don't understand you! You kissed me yesterday, and admitted you like me, but now you're back to acting like you hate me!?"
For a moment – a tiny, tiny passing moment – Patricia felt guilty for the way she was treating him. He had been so good to her last night and now she was pushing him away again, like she had done many, many times before. It was all she was used to. It was her way of staying safe.
And once this guilty moment passed, she scoffed and finally looked up at him, glaring. "I do hate you, Slimeball. Just…just leave me alone!"
They held eye contact for a good minute, Patricia's breathing a little more rugged than usual. Her eyes were narrowed and Eddie's brow was knitted together.
For a moment, Eddie considered the words she just said. She had told him to leave her alone; one of her favourite lines to use on him.
But instead of walking away like he had done many, many times before when she'd tried to push him away, he decided to try something different.
He grabbed her roughly by the waist and pulled her in, kissing her desperately. His spare hand came down and entwined their fingers together as their lips moved against each other's.
Patricia considered pushing him away.
But Eddie was so warm and so familiar, and he was just such a good kisser, and everything he was pouring in to this kiss spoke all the words neither of them had ever said, that she ended up just melting in to him. She couldn't help it.
Patricia's spare hand came up behind his neck and pulled him effortlessly closer, her fingers starting at the soft hair at the top of his neck and then sliding further in to his light brown locks.
When Eddie pulled away, he kept his lips up at hers.
"I'm sick of leaving you alone," he said against her lips, his voice husky as he breathed heavily. "So, so sick of it."
Patricia smiled shyly, her lips curving slightly at each side, and then she leaned in to kiss him again.
"Then don't." She whispered.
"Please, please stop pushing me away." Eddie begged, his voice surprisingly serious.
"It's a bad habit."
Smirking, Eddie brought his hands up to cup her face. "I noticed."
A/N: HI. You guys are wonderful. Thank you so much for all your reviews and kind words and favourites and follows.
For once I don't have much to say? Weird. But still, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Do let me know what you think in a review. I'm so nearly at 50 reviews! Can't believe that:')
Love :* xxx
