When she got there she parked across the street. She sat in her car and stared at his house, hoping he still wouldn't be angry with her, and that he would accept her apology.
Taking a deep breath she got out of her car and she rapped on the door a few times. When the door opened, it wasn't him. Even worse, it was his mother.
When you looked at Mrs. Verona, you could tell where Patrick got his looks from. His mom had the same long, dark curly hair and the same facial structure, but his mom's features were more sharpened and defined in her son.
"Hello, how might I help you?" She asked politely.
"Um... is Patrick home?" She asked uncertainly. She didn't want to come off creepy, knowing that Patrick has had a few girl stalkers in the past.
"Oh, yes let me get him," she turned around and hollered into the house, "PATRICK, there's someone at the door for you!"
"Be right there!" he called back. When she heard his voice her heart started to race, and her confidence started to waver.
She was brought out of her thoughts when his mom invited her inside, and she took off her shoes. She heard his footsteps coming down the stairs, and bit her lip nervously.
He rounded the corner and came to a dead halt when he saw her, standing there in his foyer, his mom talking to her like an old time friend. He forgot to breathe for a moment, and realized that he should say something to her. Then he remembered that he was mad at her, for what she did this morning. He was still hurt and his heart had defiantly been broken. The fact that she was here either meant that this would be their break-up or make-up. He really hoped the make-up, for he didn't want to lose her so soon.
She was listening to his mom talk, when he cleared his throat. They made eye contact and the room became silent. Mrs. Verona looked between the two, unsure what was going on. The girl, Katerina, she had learned, looked very tired- but confident and determined. Her son, on the other hand, looked surprised to see her and was visibly upset by her being here.
"I'll leave you two alone for now, but if you need anything I'll just be in the kitchen," Mrs. Verona said, breaking the silence and giving Patrick a meaningful glance as she passed by.
When his mom left to go into the kitchen he turned and walked upstairs with her following shortly after. He brought her to his room and he shut the door behind him.
She had never seen his bedroom before, and she couldn't suppress a smirk when she walked in. It was relatively clean, the bed made and no clothes on the floor. His desk was scattered with sheets of paper and there was a picture of him, his mother, and possibly his father on the nightstand. She stood in the middle of the room until he gestured for her to sit on the edge of the bed, while he sat in his desk chair across the room. He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to stop his hands from shaking. He was supposed to be mad at her still, but seeing her here, he couldn't bring himself to. He noticed that she was sitting on her hands as well. He couldn't help but wonder if it was for the same reason.
"Why are you here?" He asked, trying to start the conversation.
She looked at the ground, and nervously looked at him. She took a deep breath and said, "I wanted to apologize to you for what I did to you earlier. I thought about what you said and I realized that I do trust you, and I would trust you with my life. I also realized how much I need you in my life, and how much I love you, and how I regret letting you walk out my front door this morning without telling you that."
He looked at her in silence, dumbfounded. "What did you say?" He asked, shocked that those words would ever leave her mouth.
She smirked at him and crossed the room to straddle his lap for the second time today. "I said that I trust you, I need you, and I love you. I. Love. You.," she bent down and kissed him, with all the passion and love that she could muster. He returned the feelings, his hands wrapped around her waist, bringer her closer and keeping her there. She brought her hands up around his neck, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck.
When the kiss was broken off, he whispered, "I love you too."
They both grinned and he lift her up and spun her around. Her laughter sounded throughout the room, and it was the greatest thing that he could have ever heard in that moment. He had to laugh at her laughing. He couldn't help himself for she was so contagious. He pulled her down on his bed, lying down, with her on top of him. She lay there, just listening to the beating of his heart, thinking about how lucky she was to have him and how she would never let him slip away from her again. He was thinking the same thing, running his fingers though her long, silky locks while his other hand wrapped around her waist.
"I need you too you know," he whispered to her. She didn't say anything but nodded her head against his chest, acknowledging what he had said, yawning loudly.
"Come on, get under the covers and go to sleep. I'll wake you up later."
"Thank you," she said as she moved to climb into the covers with him, before resuming to her former position on him. She fell asleep with him stroking her hair and the beating of his heart in her ear, a feeling and sound that she could get very used to.
Mrs. Verona was down in the kitchen, scrubbing the stove with all her might and trying to hear a noise coming from her son's room. When she heard no noise coming from upstairs she couldn't help but start to worry. Judging by the way Patrick was looking at the girl, Katerina, he was not looking forward to talking to her. She had expected screaming and yelling, followed by stomping down the stairs and slamming of the front door- the usual break-up scene. When it had been over an hour, she was getting worried that something had happened.
She made her way upstairs, and called her sons name and knocked on the door. When she got no reply, she opened the door and was very surprised to find her son and the girl asleep in his bed. Both looked peaceful and happy. The girl was lying on top of her son, and his arms were protectively and lovingly wrapped around her. She was surprised to find them like this, for the last time Patrick ever let a girl into the house was to break-up with them and throw them away like a rag. She looked at this site wide-eyed, not quite sure what to think about this.
She walked over and touched her sons shoulder, shaking it lightly. When he awoke, he tightened his grip on the girl and looked up to find his mother standing over him, with a You-Better-Explain-What's-Going-On expression on her face.
Patrick put a finger to his lips, his expression exhausted. His mother motioned him to come with her, now. He put up a finger, telling her to wait. He slowly untangled himself from the girl, careful not to wake her. She whispered his name and grabbed his shirt, and he told her that he would come back to her. He tucked her back in the covers, and kissed her on the forehead. His mother was standing in the doorway, her eyebrows raised and a surprised expression on her face. Patrick followed his mother downstairs into the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" Mrs. Verona asked, exasperated.
"What do you mean What are you doing?" Patrick questioned back, anger stating to fill him.
"What is that girl doing here still? We've talked about this, I don't like the fact that you play around with girls that are hoes and then cast them aside like last weeks old news. I thought we agreed that you would knock off playing around and finally be serious with your life. Things were going so well too! Then all of a sudden I don't see you all day and you come home in the morning, which I've spoken to you about already, clearly upset. Then this girl comes along, obviously making you mad. I then come upstairs and your sleeping with her in your bed. What is this Patrick? I thought I raised you better than this!" Mrs. Verona was breathing heavily, her face red.
Her son was looking at his mother, arms- crossed on his chest, his angry expression turned into an amused one.
"Mom, that "hoe" up there is my girlfriend," he stated simply.
He watched his mom's expression change from anger to astonishment.
"You're girlfriend," she said slowly, like she wasn't sure if he was playing some sort of joke on her.
"Yes, my girlfriend," he repeated to her.
"Oh."
The kitchen was silent for a minute.
"You looked very protective of her while you were asleep," she stated to him.
"Yeah, well. What of it?" he asked defensively.
"Nothing," his mother said to herself, smiling.
"You think you've got me all figured out now, don't you?" he accused.
"Not at all sweetheart. I never said anything, now did I?"
He looked at his mother, frustrated, knowing what she wanted to hear from him.
"Okay God, I'll tell you what you want to know!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air and plopping down on a wooden chair.
"I never said I wanted to know anything," she said, feigning innocence.
"Yeah, well you were not wanting to know anything very loudly," he grumbled.
"But really sweetie, how much do like this girl? Will I expect to be seeing her around more often or not?" she asked, generously curious.
He looked up at his mom, the woman who had always been openly honest with him whenever he asked her something like this. She had always been honest with him, so it was his turn to be honest with her. After everything he had put her through, she at least deserved this.
"I love her mom," he told her quietly, looking at the ground, embarrassed to admit something like this to his mother. "She isn't like any of the other girls I've known. She is smart, witty, and definitely not afraid of me. She's gorgeous and she makes me feel me alive. I have never wanted anyone as badly as I've wanted her and once I got her, I found that I needed her more than I could ever imagine. I plan to keep her coming around, if I'm lucky enough for her to keep me."
Mrs. Verona looked at her son, who was looking at his hands, his face red. "Well, I'm glad that you have found someone who makes you so happy Patrick and I'm proud of you for that. Just, don't go and get yourself into something that will only break your heart. Okay?"
Patrick looked up at his mother, nodding his head.
"Now go and get up there. Your love is waiting for you," Mrs. Verona smiled at her son, hugging him an giving a kiss on the check before he headed upstairs, his face as happier than she's seen in years.
When he went back upstairs Kat was still sleeping soundly on his bed. He went over and pulled her hair back from her face. He sat at his desk and shuffled through the papers scattered everywhere. They were all song lyrics that he was trying to write, about Kat. But every time he went to write about her, he made her sound too good for him, like he was some lovesick puppy. This was true, but he wanted the song to be about how he felt about her, not why she was to good to be true. To show her that he has changed because of her.
He stared at the blank page in front of him, no inspiration coming to him. He felt useless. He threw his pen down on the desk in frustration.
Kat moved in his bed, slowly waking up. He went over to her and sat next to her. She opened her eyes to find him next to her, watching her. She smiled a small smile, and sat up to crawl into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her, making her feel safer than any place on earth. She could stay here forever, wrapped up in Patrick Verona. She highly doubted that her father would allow that to happen.
"You know that you're going to have to talk to my father sooner or later," she stated.
"Yeah, well I still have to formally introduce you to my mother, so that makes two of us," he told her, rolling his eyes.
"Here, why don't we do that right now," He said, pulling her up off of the bed with him and dragging her downstairs as she smoothed out her now wrinkled shirt and disarrayed hair. He never thought she looked cuter, but he understood her motives for looking nice when formally meeting his mother.
His mom had moved from cleaning the kitchen to watching the evening news in the den. He pulled Kat into the den and stood by the TV. His mother looked up in confusion, seeing her son and his girlfriend standing in front of her, holding hands.
"Mom, I would like you to meet my girlfriend, Katerina Stratford. Kat, I would like you to meet my mom, Linda Verona," he held his hand out, pointing to each person as he introduced them to each other.
Kat leaned forward to shake his mother's hand, saying, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Verona."
"Just call me Linda sweetie, and it's such a pleasure to meet you too Katerina," Linda smiled at Kat, thinking that she looked like a nice person and was beautiful, just as Patrick had said.
"You can call me Kat, ma'am, everyone else does," Kat said as she retreated to stand back near Patrick.
There was an awkward silence, where no one knew what to say and no one wanted to be the one to break the silence.
Finally Patrick stepped in, "Well Mom, Kat's go to go home. I'll just walk her to her car."
"That's fine sweetheart, and it was nice to meet you Kat. I hope to have you over for dinner sometime soon," she said smiling at Kat.
"I would love that, thank you. It was nice to meet you too Linda," Kat replied, nervous all of a sudden, thinking of how this dinner with his mother would turn out.
The minute they got into her car she turned to Patrick and mumbled, "She didn't like me."
He looked at her, raising his eyebrows slightly, an amused expression on his face. "I thought that she liked you, considering the few words that were exchanged."
She chucked, saying, "Well, I've yet to have dinner with her, so you may not want to call that card quite yet."
That shut him up for a minute, and she started her car, turning on her headlights so she could see now that it had gotten darker, the sun setting allowing the sky to light up in flames. She turned to him and leaned forward, and he came to meet her in the middle. Their kiss was loving and affectionate, and when then parted she whispered, "Good night."
"Good night," he whispered back after a second, regaining his composure. He sat there for a minute, staring at her and trying to memorize everything about her in this one moment. A moment they could never get back. This was them, the bad boy and the shrew, coming together as one. He leaned in to give her another loving kiss, making her eyes sparkle. He knew that her eyes mirrored his own, and he traced the outline of her lips with his finger.
"I love you Kat," he whispered when he rested his forehead against hers.
She smiled, loving the sound that those three words made coming out of his mouth, with her name attached.
"I love you too Patrick," she whispered back, just as quietly. They grinned at each other, him kissing her forehead before climbing out of her car.
She waved before backing out of the driveway. He stood there, waving back until he could no longer see her car, which had faded away in the distance.
He turned around to look at the sunset, wanting to jump and shout with joy. He sat on his front steps and watched the sunset fade away, thinking about how there will always be tomorrow. Even though he didn't want this day to end, he couldn't help but go inside and wait for the start of a brand new day.