Eddie XLVIX
Summary: Jerome gives advice and Patricia finally talks to Eddie.
Evie's Notes: Hey y'all I hope you are having a great week! Just a heads up that this chapter has a brief mention of Patricia's dysfunctional family situation. So please take caution while reading that section of her confession to Eddie. Hope you enjoy the new chapter! Let me know your favorite part in the comments!
The end of winter break came far too fast for Eddie's liking. Mara returned with great fanfare Sunday afternoon and Joy was over the moon to have her roommate back. While the girls had competed over the school website business in the past, Joy still counted her as a good friend. Hopefully Mara's return would also calm the strange mood that Patricia and Joy had been in the past few days.
England had been full of surprises for Eddie. If you had asked him a few months ago about reuniting with his long-lost father, well he wouldn't have been able to come up with anything worse; but now, well he wouldn't change any of it for the world. Of course it was super disconcerting to learn that his father was a part of a weird immortality cult and that he had kidnapped both his current best friend and his girlfriend, but Joy and Patricia were worth it.
The other residents of the house were chill, but kind of hard to get to know. His roommate Fabian was always with Amber and Nina, so the pair hadn't really bonded. Of course, there was the strange pull he kept feeling towards Nina ever since they had hung out one night during the break, but he just chocked that up to the fact that she was a very pretty girl and the only other American in the crazy house. Alfie and Jerome were fun, but Eddie hadn't had a chance to bond with them either since they kept disappearing with the others.
Speaking of the devil, "Eddie can I borrow your notes for French?" asked Jerome.
"Yeah, give me a sec" replied Eddie distractedly, still thinking about Patricia and Joy's strange behavior.
"Something on your mind?" quipped Jerome shaking the sandwich he had accidentally passed the boy instead of his French notebook.
Eddie had to scoff, Jerome was definitely one of the last students he would go to for girl advice in Anubis house, except for maybe Fabian.
"Oh, come on. I'm not all bad" complained the Brit. "Try me"
What the heck, what's the worst that could happen? "I'm just thinking about Patricia".
"Not having second thoughts now are you mate?" asked Jerome lightly, but with a dangerous undertone.
"No! No, of course not!"
"Good. Now I thought that you were one of those supercool, uberconfident, piece of cake kind of guys" he teased.
"Uh thanks. But no, it's… I don't know. Patricia is different from the other girls I've dated. I've never felt like this before. Which is why this new behavior is so troubling".
"Ok. Then here is what you do my American friend. The next time you are with her, you are going to plant a big fat smackaroo right on those luscious lips of hers" explained Jerome.
"You really think so?" asked Eddie uncertainly. He was getting desperate enough to have his Yacker back, that he was willing to try anything.
"Yeah… well everything except luscious" joked Jerry.
"Leave off" scoffed Eddie bumping the taller boy's shoulder before strolling off.
"Wait where are you going?" called Jerome confused, "French is that way".
"Oh, I've been to class all morning, it's Eddie time" smirked Eddie as he jogged out of the school.
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
Entering Anubis house through the backdoor Eddie bopped along to the Sick Puppies song playing in his ear. He stopped in shock as he noticed a very familiar form scavenging for food in the kitchen, "Patricia?".
The girl froze before turning around slowly with a forced smile, "Hey…".
"Didn't I just see you at school? In uniform? Eating chips?" he asked incredulously. How on earth did she beat him back to the house and change clothes that fast? Was he really that slow of a walker?
"Huh? Well, why aren't you in school?" she asked clearly trying to change the conversation.
Deciding ignore his many questions for now Eddie teased, "Oh, well I like to skip 15% – 20% of my classes. It's a strict formula. You know, not enough to get expelled, but enough to maintain my rep". Popping his collar Eddie waited for her sassy comeback, but only received silence…
Now chuckling awkwardly Eddie figured that he really had nothing to lose from taking Jerome's advice. So, taking a deep breath he began, "This is a lot of talking…"
"That's what I was thinking" smiled Patricia relievedly.
"You know, it is really nice to hear your voice again. I've missed hearing you speak over the last couple weeks. And ever since you got it back a couple days ago, we haven't really hung out…". Still no reaction so Eddie shuffled closer to her "Well Jerome said not to talk".
"Very wise of Jerome" agreed Patricia.
"Just seal the deal" he muttered.
"No idea where you are going with this…" she sassed.
"Just smackeroo"
"Smack-a-what now?" muttered Patricia as he pulled her close and kissed her firmly.
Patricia pulled away breathless, but Eddie couldn't help but feel like something was still off with her. "There you go. Your second kiss ever" he chuckled and waited for her witty crack.
Once again, he was disappointed to face only silence, "No parting insult? Lips like sandpaper, badger breath? Anything?!" he begged.
But again, he was met with only silence and her slightly confused look, "Okay… you're losing your touch, Yacker" when even the loving insult didn't bring a response Eddie's only remaining option was to awkwardly mutter a hurried goodbye and exit the room. What on earth was going on with his best girl?
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
Eddie wasn't able to talk to Patricia agian until a few hours later when there was a knock on his door. "Come in" called Fabian from where he was studying at his desk.
"Hey Fabes! Can I have the room for a sec to talk to Eddie? I kinda need to talk to him about something important". This caused Eddie to sit up worried.
"Of course, Trix! Everything ok?" Fabian asked, clearly concerned.
"I'm fine, I just have to talk to Eddie about what we told you all when we started year nine". Wait… was Patricia finally going to tell him why she had been acting so strangely? Eddie hoped so, especially since the strange events of their kiss that morning had been bothering him all day.
"Oooh! That!" replied Fabian his eyes the size of saucers. "Well good luck, and I'll be in Nina and Amber's room if you need me, ok?" promised Fabian squeezing her arm briefly before hurriedly exiting the room.
"Thanks, Faby!" called Patricia as she shut the door.
Eddie, now completely confused, watched worriedly as Patricia settled herself in the boy's abandoned desk chair. "Patricia what on earth is going on?".
Blowing out a long breath Patricia began to speak, "Eddie I have something really important to tell you, and I'm pretty sure that I know how you are going to react. If possible though, I just ask that you keep your reactions to a minimum while I tell you this story".
"Is it another kidnapping story or truth bomb about my biological father?" asked Eddie, only half joking.
"Not this time" reassured Patricia. "This story is about me, and I've wanted to tell you this for a little while now, but I had to talk to the other person in this story and get their approval to disclose certain facts before we had this talk".
"And you finally got permission to talk about it from this mystery person" checked Eddie.
"Yes, we were able to have a good talk last night and she agreed that I could include her role in the story".
"Well, I promise to listen to everything you have to say with an open mind" promised Eddie scooting closer to his amazing girlfriend offering her his hand in comfort.
Squeezing his hand once thankfully, she sat back in her seat and began her story "I guess the best place to start the story would be all the way back during our original arrival at Anubis House. Most of the current boarders all started at Anubis together in year six. Joy and I hit it off right from the start, we were assigned as roommates in what is now Nina and Amber's room and we were basically inseparable. We did everything together and Joy quickly became my world.
Over the next three years I went through a series of events that led to certain… realizations about myself. I found that the feelings that I had for my best friend…" trailed off Patricia studiously studying the hem of her skirt. "Well, they were more than friendship" she admitted in little more than a whisper.
Even though he had started to guess where this was going, Eddie was still struck dumb by the silent admission. Looking at Patricia he saw the fear of rejection hidden in her eyes and Eddie never wanted to see that look on her ever again. Knowing that there was clearly more to this story, Eddie simply scooted even closer to her and tried to convey his love and acceptance of who she was in the tight hand squeeze and encouraging smile he silently gave her.
Strengthened by his silent acceptance, Patricia continued her story. "As you have pointed out a couple times, Joy and I are not on the greatest of terms this year. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have been on the outs. One of the more notable fights we had was right before the end of term in our eighth year. In pervious summers I had chosen to stay with Joy over the holidays since my family situation is rather fucked up".
Holding up her hand, she cut off Eddie's questions "I know that you probably want me to go into more detail on that, but just know that I have always been able to find suitable safe alternatives to returning home and that I am not open to discussing my shitshow of a family at this time".
Respecting her wishes Eddie stayed silent as Patricia continued her tale. "Since Joy and I were fighting I obviously couldn't stay with her for the summer, so Amber offered to let me come home with her. I gladly accepted her invitation and spent the summer with Amber, her nanny, her father and his latest fling in their summer villa. It was an amazing summer and Amber and I grew… close. A little backstory on Ambs, Mick and her basically grew up together since their fathers had several business contracts in the years before the pair started at Frobisher Academy. Because of this the two have a super close bond and at times it even seemed like they were psychically linked" laughed Patricia.
"With their close bond it really wasn't a surprise when the pair started going on dates in our seventh year. The pair were quickly labeled with the moniker of 'Barbie and Ken' for their seemingly perfect relationship. The pair don't really work as a couple for several reasons and when we broke for the holiday, the pair were once again 'off'. Spending so much time together led to Amber and I … finding comfort in each other. I was upset and struggling with my feelings for Joy and Amber wanted to focus on something other than Mick. In our search for comfort, we began a whirlwind summer fling" revealed Patricia.
What? The revelation that Patricia was bisexual, really wasn't all that surprising. The fact that she had been in a relationship before was definitely a shock though. At least Eddie finally knew why his favorite girls had been acting so strangely all week, Patricia must have told Joy that she was planning to tell Eddie about all of this.
"I know that I led you to believe that you were my first relationship, but I couldn't tell you without outing Amber as well. I'm so sorry that I omitted this, but I would never out someone without their permission. I really hope that you aren't too mad, but I understand if you want to break up" whispered Patricia, tears gathering in her eyes.
Taking a moment to try and collect his racing thoughts he eventually answered "I can understand why you acted that way. I want you to know that I accept you one hundred percent for who you are. I definitely don't want to break up. I understand that you have aspects of your life that you are not able to talk about yet, so do I, but in the future let's avoid lying. I want to know that I can trust you, so if there is a topic that you are not ready to address, like your family, please just tell me that. I have seen enough failed ones to know that all good relationships come from setting and respecting healthy boundaries".
"I can agree to that" said Patricia with a tentative smile.
Throwing caution to the wind as the harder parts of the conversation were now over Eddie tugged lightly on their joined hands, leading Patricia to cuddle up beside him on the bed. "I am so proud of you for telling me, Yacker" he murmured pressing a soft kiss to her hairline. Sensing how emotionally exhausted she was, Eddie loaded the movie the pair had started watching the other week on his phone and settled down for a relaxing evening with his girlfriend.
Evie's Notes 2: Wow, that was an intense chapter to write. I hope that you enjoyed it!
Next Week: Alfie does a little laundry and the dollhouse has a new clue for Sibuna.
Question of the week: What is your favorite friendship in this universe? Mine is probably Eddie and Joy's :)
I love hearing from y'all! Let me know what you think of the chapter and the story so far in the comments or my Tumblr House-of-Secrets! Have a great week and stay safe! - Xo Evie