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Disclaimer: I own nothing, and I'm pretty sure I won't be getting it for Christmas.
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Chapter 12 Angela Ruskins & Amy's Story
Teresa felt like her heart was going to break. Here she was in all her glory, the object of Patrick's affection. Angela Ruskins. She was more beautiful than she could have ever imagined, but she treated Patrick like he didn't exist, which was funny to the young brunette. Anybody with eyes could see that he was hung up on her.
"She has a boyfriend. Somebody she met this summer," Patrick confided to her quietly as the two of them set the table for dinner. "But she wanted to come and meet you."
Teresa looked surprised. "Meet me? Why!?"
"I don't know, maybe it's because I talk about you all the time."
"I'm sure you do," Teresa said drily.
"Really," Patrick assured her. "You're a major part of my life, of course I talk about you a lot."
"I bet that makes Angela jealous," Teresa told him. "I bet that's why she got a boyfriend, so she could have somebody to talk about all the time and make you jealous."
"Nope," Patrick said. "She really likes this guy and he really likes her. I'm okay with that."
"Because you're sure that one day she'll wake up and magically be in love with you?" Teresa asked, her heart pounding in her ears as she laid down the final napkin and set down silverware.
"I'm not so sure that will happen one day. I just want her to be happy."
Teresa studied him hard. "Really? That's all you want, for her to be happy?"
"You don't believe me?"
"Not for a second old friend," Teresa answered. "I know you've been carrying a torch for her for a very long time now. I don't know how you could possibly be happy for her."
Patrick shrugged. "I just am I can't explain it—"
"There you two are," Angela said, coming in and interrupting him. "Does Mrs. Minelli always make you guys do chores on Christmas Eve?"
"We all do our part," Teresa told her. "It makes it all come together faster. But don't worry, you have at least another year until she'll make you do any kind of work. The first year that you're here, you're a guest."
"I might not come back next year," Angela said. "Chicago is so cold and dreary; I don't see why anybody would want to spend Christmas here. Besides, this is Patrick's thing and you're Patrick's best friend. I just feel like I'm intruding."
"Around here, there's no such thing as intruding," Teresa told her. "There's room enough for everybody. The more the merrier."
"Well, we'll just see how things go this year. I really hate the cold."
Teresa shrugged. "You get used to it after a while. I'm going to see if May needs any help in the kitchen."
"I'm right behind you," Patrick said.
"Oh Paddy, I'm sure Teresa has it under control!" Angela protested. "Why don't you just let her go by herself? I hate being alone, I feel like a stranger in a strange land."
Teresa gave Patrick a weary look. "You should just stay here, I'm sure May will understand if you do."
"But—"
Teresa put her hand up. "Really Paddy just stay here with Angela."
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"Where's Patrick?" Amy asked when Teresa came into the kitchen.
"In the dining room with Angela," Teresa answered, pulling an apron down from the peg and putting it on.
"Oh. . ." Amy trailed off. "She's really something, isn't she?"
"She's beautiful," Teresa said. "I can see why he fell in love with her. Why he's in love with her. She's the whole package, his true best friend."
Amy sighed. "Oh boy, I knew her showing up wouldn't be a good thing. I don't understand why she had to come this year."
"Apparently, she wanted to meet me."
"Seize up the competition is more like it," Amy muttered. "I bet that she can't stand the fact that he has another best friend."
"Patrick says she has a boyfriend," Teresa said as she found the sugar cookie dough and started to roll it out.
Amy laughed. "I don't think that matters. Look at you, you're gorgeous. A boy could easily forget Angela Ruskins when you're around. I'm not sure she likes that."
"Why do you say that? She's never seen me before in her life," Teresa replied, choosing a reindeer cookie cutter and pressing it into the dough.
"I might have given Patrick a copy of the picture I took of the two of you together last year," Amy told her. "He could have shown it to her; you know to put a face to a name."
"It doesn't matter—"
"I'm going to tell you a story Teresa," Amy said, sitting down on the bar stool beside her. "Just listen, okay?"
Teresa frowned and nodded. "Okay."
Amy sighed. "I haven't told this story to anybody before now. When I was sixteen, I fell in love with a young man who came to Chicago with the first days of summer. He was so beautiful and so smart; he knew exactly who I was the first time he looked at me. We became the best of friends after spending a week together, and I was sure it was a matter of time before he fell in love with me. That our friendship would be the foundation to the best kind of love. But then, I made the mistake of introducing this young man to my twin sister Gemma."
Teresa's eyes widened. "Did you fall in love with—?"
"Yes," Amy answered. "But somewhere between Cokes and pizza he fell for Gemma. After that I knew, I knew all I would ever be was Alex's friend. And I wanted to hate her, I really did. But she was my sister and I could never quite bring myself to do it. Alex kept coming back every summer, and every summer he fell more and more in love with her. I almost thought he would settle down for her, but that never happened. He never was the settling down type, and Gemma was never the type to pick her whole entire life up for a man."
"What happened?" Teresa asked quietly.
"When we were nineteen, Gemma got pregnant with Patrick. She didn't want to have the baby but both Alex and I convinced her to keep him. He was three months old when she took her own life. Alex was devastated. I did my best to comfort him, but all he wanted was Gemma. He eventually healed and as you know, he still comes around about once a year. We're still best friends, I still love him. . . I've never even looked at another man, but I don't want that for you. You can't spend the rest of your life waiting for somebody to come around when he might not. You're seventeen, you have a whole life ahead of you to love and be loved in return. Don't waste it Reese. Please."
"It's too late," Teresa said. "I gave my heart to him when I was just a little girl. There's no getting it back. Not now, not ever."
Amy shook her head and pulled her into a hug. "Then I hope he sees what he's missing out on one day. That one day he gives you his heart in return. Because you, my dearest Teresa, are one in a million and you deserve all the love in the world."
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"Oh come on Patrick, you're twenty!" Angela said. "Don't you think you're a little too old to sit at the kid's table?"
"I promised Teresa that as long as she was sitting here I'd sit here too," Patrick answered. "You don't want me to break my promise, do you?"
"Well. . . of course not, it's just that. . ." Angela trailed off and looked at the kids, watching her like was the devil. "It's just that. . . you both are a little too old to be sitting here."
"Rules are rules," Patrick answered, slinging his arm around Teresa's chair. "But if you want to, you can go and sit at the adult table. Don't let me stop you."
"Oh grow up Patrick!" Angela said.
"Just go and sit with her," Teresa told him quietly. "Don't worry about me; this is my last year sitting at the kid's table. I think I can handle it without you."
"Teresa—"
"Just go," Teresa said.
Angela shot a grateful look in her direction and tugged at Patrick's sleeve. "Come on Patrick, your friend said it was okay. I really don't want to sit here."
"Teresa—" Patrick started again.
"Go," she whispered. "We can catch up after dinner."
Patrick sighed; he knew sitting with Angela at the adult table was probably the right thing to do. She was his guest, and completely out of her element. But at the same time, he hated breaking his promise to the beautiful, strong girl sitting next to him. She deserved better than that. He got up and wished that Angela had never asked to tag along with him.
"Teresa," Murphy Posey, a ten-year-old black boy asked when the pair had left the table. "Why did you just let him go like that? He wanted to stay. . ."
Teresa sighed and watched as Patrick took a seat at the table with the rest of the grownups. "You'll understand when you're older," she answered.
James Lisbon put his hand on her knee. "Reese—"
"Really guys, I'm fine!" She told them, putting her hands up in the air and smiling at them. "Let's just eat and forget about it. Okay?"
The younger kids reluctantly agreed and dug into their meals, casting glances at her the whole night. None of them were used to seeing Teresa without Patrick. And there weren't any jokes or magic tricks, none of the kids quite knew what to do with themselves. They were all quiet, all contemplating exactly what the new woman in the Minelli household meant.
The kids weren't quite sure what it meant. But they knew it had caused Teresa to grow quieter, to play with her food and not engage with them like she usually did. And they knew they didn't like it. They didn't like it one bit.
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"I just wanted the chance to talk to you before I had left in a few minutes," Angela said, coming into the kitchen.
Teresa looked up from the mountain of dishes she was washing and nodded. "Okay."
"I wanted to thank you. . . you know, for being such a good friend to Patrick. I know he appreciates it, that he even loves you for it. And I'm hoping one day that the two of us. . . you and me. . . could be friends as well. Maybe the way you're friends with him."
Teresa smiled and vigorously scrubbed a cookie sheet. "Angela, we can be friends if you want. But I don't ever think that we'll ever have the kind of friendship that I share with Patrick."
Angela sighed. "I guess you don't let just anybody in, do you?"
"No," Teresa answered honestly. "I'm really sorry. I just, I can't afford to—"
Angela nodded. "I understand, I guess. I'll just be going now. See you around Teresa."
"See you around," Teresa replied, smiling at the older girl.
A few minutes later, Patrick came into the kitchen and grabbed a towel from the stack by the stove. "Hey Reese," he said.
Teresa's face lit up. "Hey! I thought you'd already left. . . Angela said you were planning on leaving—"
"Dad and Aunt Amy took Angela home," Patrick said. "I told them I'd be back later, we barely got a chance to spend time together tonight. And besides, who's going to take you to mass tonight if I didn't stay?"
"Well, I was planning on skipping it. . . you really shouldn't leave your guest all alone," Teresa answered.
"Angela will be fine," Patrick assured her. "She's probably on the phone with her boyfriend right about now. She'll be sound asleep by the time I get back to my aunt's house."
"Well," Teresa said. "I'm glad you stayed. I was so afraid we wouldn't get to spend any time together this year."
"I'd never let that happen!" Patrick told her as he started to dry dishes. "You know that Reese."
Teresa released a breath and nodded, swiping the back of her hand across her cheek. "I know."
"Oh! I have something for you," Patrick said, slinging the towel over his shoulder and fishing through his pockets. "We stopped in a lot of towns that had beaches this season. I wanted you to have a piece of the beach."
"We have beaches here—"
"Hardly," Patrick answered, waiting for her to dry her hands on her apron before pressing the package into her hands. "Go on, open it."
"Patrick, I-I don't have anything for you."
"So? I didn't expect anything from you. I just wanted you to have something nice," Patrick said. "Go on, open it."
He'd brought her a puka shell bracelet. "Oh Patrick. . ." she trailed off.
Patrick took the bracelet back and picked up her wrist. "I was going to get a necklace, but I remembered you always wore the cross that your mother bought for you a few years ago. It didn't seem right to replace it."
"You're so thoughtful," Teresa whispered. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Patrick answered. "Merry Christmas Reese."
And with that, she was sure that they'd be okay for one more year.
TBC. . .
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Author's Note:
You knew this was coming. Some people WANTED it to happen, I'm sure. So, don't be upset that it did. I promise though, you won't be disappointed. Tell me if you loved this chapter, or whatever. And I'm still taking prompts, shoot me tweet on Twitter (golightlyholly2) or tell me what you'd like to see in your review. There are two left!
Love,
Holly, 12/18/2013_
