Chapter 12: Notes and Negatives
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
It was all very suspicious, Patricia making herself scarce around school save for the few classes she and Eddie shared together. It was almost as if she had skipped out on the first chunk of the day altogether but he knew better than that. They had had breakfast with the rest of the house that morning and he had watched her run off towards school with a mischievous raise of the eyebrow and the killer smirk he had come to think was more vital to his life than air itself.
When he had finally made it over—it was a personal rule of his to never set foot in school before he had to—he had found two new photos taped up inside his locker confirming her presence in the building. Eddie took a sly look around him before snatching the kiss photo off the blue metal with a smirk and slipping it into his bag to find new residence in his room… The other could stay as a proud display of his affection, but it was hard enough to focus on school as it was without constantly being reminded of how her lips tasted against his.
The few hours that had followed that discovery were relatively uneventful and boring until between third and fourth period when he had received more insight into what Patricia was really up to in the form of an envelope with her heavy handed penmanship across the front of it.
FOR A SPECIAL SLIMEBALL…
He smirked briefly, just the sight of the small piece of her enough to trigger countless emotions. It was sappy, he thought, that he missed her no longer than they had been apart today.
But with one shake of the package he knew what was waiting for him and he knew without a doubt that she had used this tactic to avoid the confrontation and emotions she liked to think she didn't have. Patricia wasn't being romantic or spontaneous at all and suddenly he wanted no part of this…not today.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out an ink pen, scribbling over her handwriting and scrawling his own beneath it.
STOP BREAKING INTO MY LOCKER, YACKER.
She would be back to check on it, he knew she would be. What he didn't know was when or how she managed to accomplish it.
Art class came and went next without Patricia meeting the weird questioning faces he was making at her from across the room. They had accidentally brushed shoulders once in the hall after that as she ran past him as best she could in her baddest boots. His note back to her sat untouched after both incidents.
He was beginning to think that maybe she wasn't coming back after all but a new envelope had appeared in front of the first some time during his last class to be discovered after school.
STOP BEING SUCH A DOOFUS AND OPEN THEM.
He rolled his eyes but surrendered the fight, swooping the envelopes out of his locker, intrigued enough that there were now two of them and slipped them into his bag to place his text books in their spot.
He would open them later; right now, he had a practice to get to. He had to face his team and coach eventually. But it wasn't like he had missed the meet on purpose. None of them knew about his morning activities that day, but with or without Patricia he would have forgotten.
Eddie let out a heavy exhale as he flopped back onto his bed. He was just about to get comfortable when Patrica startled him by bursting into his room.
"Eddie, hey! Did you get my envelopes?"
He rubbed his hands down his face at being reminded of their existence but didn't budge any farther, "…Yeah, I did."
"And?…"
"And…nothing. Haven't opened them yet."
"Ohhh. Well then I've to get to—" she tried for the door as he sat up.
"Yacker, wait. Have a seat and I'll open them right now."
She sighed. The whole point of sneaking around all day was so that she could avoid this and she knew that he was somehow aware of that and was doing this deliberately. "Okay…fine."
"You know, our little escapade the other morning cost me three detentions and another forfeit this weekend…"
She sat down beside him as he began to open the first envelope, "Hey! Don't try to pin that one on me, Krueger…"
He smirked at her teasing tone, "I probably should…maybe then my dad would be less disappointed in me. I'm sure he's embarrassed that he had to beg Coach to cut his own son some slack…" He pulled out the photo of said father and himself posing for Patricia's camera and gave it a hard look. "…I knew that's what this was," he mumbled. It seemed like ages ago now that he had worn that first place metal. How quickly things could change…
"It was one race. I'm sure he doesn't think that. I've known Sweetie a long time and he's been much happier with you here…"
Eddie braced himself for the snark or the punchline, but for once neither came. He met her eyes and found them to be open and loving. He'd only ever seen her like this maybe twice before. She handed him the second envelope and he tore into it having thought he had already gotten the worst out of the way first.
"Yeah, but… Being happy to have me here is a lot different than being proud of me, Yacker. Nothing I've done here has made him—"
He stopped mid-sentence as he pulled out another photo of he and his dad. This one wasn't staged nor was he prepared for it.
"Are you sure about that?"
A/N: Hi, guys. Hopefully I won't get too behind with this story as I've started another multi-chap called Facade. I'm really excited to get into that one, so I hope you'll check it out as well and enjoy the ride with me. Things are about to get real in the Sweet family in that story and that's all I can say about that. AND, Thanks so much for the 100 reviews here. That's so cool! Sibuna.
