Green with Envy

May your pockets be heavy, and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

March 17, 2018

"Ow!" Eddie exclaimed as he jolted awake. He looked next to the guestroom bed to see Patricia. They were currently in England, staying with Mr. Sweet to see him and the rest of their friends as well. He liked to alternate which birthdays he was with his mom and which he was with his dad.

"Morning Weasel, Happy Birthday!" She smirked, handing him a small envelope and sitting down on the bed next to him.

"And why exactly did you start off my birthday by pinching me?" Eddie teased.

She rolled her eyes, "It's the same question every year, doofus. You're birthday happens to fall on St. Patrick's Day, and as usual, you didn't sleep in any green."

"Actually, I'm not wearing anything," He said wiggling his eyebrows, as Patricia scoffed.

"Whatever, just open your gift."

Eddie carefully opened the envelope, a little too carefully at first, to annoy her of course. Inside, he found a regular old card, as well as a print out of a "Skydive Long Island" advertisement.

"We're going skydiving?!" Eddie asked excitedly.

"Yep, the appointment's in a few weeks. It's a bit if a drive from home, but I know how you said you've always wanted to go skydiving so..."

Eddie cut her off with a kiss. "Thanks, Yacker, I love it."

She smiled and got up. "Now go get dressed, we have a lot to do today."

They ate breakfast at Eddie's favorite pancake place, which of course was serving green pancakes, and they planned out the rest of the day. Patricia wanted to make sure they did everything he wanted to, but he just insisted that they hang out, nothing special.

Usually, he would party it up with his friends the night of his birthday, but this year it happened to be on a Sunday, so they had gone out the previous night. Tonight, they were going to his dad's house, to be accompanied by Ben and Piper, for a birthday dinner cooked by Mr. Sweet himself. Eddie didn't quite know why Ben was always invited to this sort of thing, he had figured it was mostly because of Piper and Patricia.

But what he would find out later would certainly change that theory.

"Got the list?" Patricia asked, and Eddie pulled it out of his pocket to show her. They had just arrived at the grocery store to get stuff for dinner tonight.

"Read it off to me," Patricia ordered as she went to get a shopping cart. Eddie did as he was told, but he stopped Patricia from continuing down the aisle to hop in the main part of the cart.

"What are you doing?"

"It's my birthday, just push me," he teased, acting like a brat and snapping his fingers at her.

She just rolled her eyes, typical Eddie. "It's really hard to believe you're 23," she mumbled as she began to push him down the aisles.

After they had gotten all the items Mr. Sweet needed, Patricia finally had to stop pushing him. "Okay, you're way too heavy for this," she admitted.

"Calling me fat again Yacker? You know it's just muscle," he smirked and she rolled her eyes.

Nevertheless, he got out of the cart, but only on one condition:
"Your turn."

"No way," Patricia laughed. "You actually think I'm going to be as childish as you?"

"Well since I'm the birthday b- king, you have to do as I say." When Patricia didn't comply, however, Eddie practically threw her in there and took off running down the aisle, pushing a scowling Patricia in the cart. The stares from the customers were uncountable, but they were actually having fun, until Eddie crashed into the tower of soda bottles.

They definitely had everyone's attention now, not that they didn't before, including the manager's. He didn't even have to say anything, he just glared at them, and Eddie quickly ran to purchase the groceries before following Patricia out the door.

"Nice going doofus."

"We just got kicked out of the grocery store," he smirked before throwing his arm around her shoulder, "Personally I think it's pretty funny."

She rolled her eyes once again, "Just don't do anything stupid tonight, yeah?"

"I'll try," he teased as they hopped in the car, heading back to Mr. Sweet's house.

"Thank you, thank you!" Mr. Sweet exclaimed, a little too excitedly, as Ben and Piper arrived handing him the cake they had made, for him to hide it in the refrigerator.

"I'm almost done cooking, so you two go find Eddie and Patricia! They should be in the living room!"

So they made their way towards the living room, hand in hand, to find the two sitting as close as they possibly could, laughing at something on Eddie's laptop.

"Happy Birthday Eddie," Piper shouted when Ben yelled, "Happy Birthday Milly," at the same time.

"Hey! Thanks guys!" Eddie said getting up and hugging them both. "When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago," Piper said, sitting next to Patricia. "Soooo, what did you two do today?"

"Well I tried to do something special, but Slimeball here didn't want to," Patricia explained a bit sarcastically.

"Oh sue me," Eddie teased as he plopped down on a separate chair.

"Well I'm going to go help d- Sweetie set the table." Ben said mysteriously as he backed out of the room.

"Did anyone else find that odd?" Eddie asked, but the twins just shook their head. Ben being mysterious? Seemed normal.

The table roared with laughter as Eddie told them about their experience at the grocery store earlier.

"That is just marvelous!" Mr. Sweet laughed, and Eddie sent a smirk to Patricia across the table, openly enjoying the attention from his dad.

"It wasn't that funny if you were the one on the ride," Patricia pointed out, sending a smirk back at Eddie, to which he just rolled his eyes playfully.

"Hey Milly, remember that one time we raced through the store back home, and you knocked over the principal?!" Ben teased, remembering their times as little kids.

"Yes, that was one heck of a crash!" Eddie laughed.

"Weasel's always been clumsy then yeah?" Patricia asked, and Eddie nodded sheepishly, causing Ben to laugh.

"Oh most definitely," Mr. Sweet added. "Eddie was the clumsy one, Ben was the stable one."

Eddie froze. How would his dad know what Ben was like as a child? Patricia and Piper looked at each other in confusion, and then Patricia to Eddie, and Piper to Ben.

"Um, Dad, how do you know that?" He asked carefully, and Patricia and Piper noticed Ben sink down a little in his chair.

"Know what?" Mr. Sweet asked, oblivious to his earlier mistake.

"What Ben was like as a child..."

His eyes widened as he came to realization on what he'd said. He took a moment, deciding if he was going to lie, or tell the truth, but he figured he had lied to him enough. "Edison, there's no easy way to say this, but you two are, um... well... half-brothers."

"What?!" Eddie shouted as Patricia and Piper's eyes practically came out of their head.

"Surprise," Ben mumbled weakly, trying, yet failing, to lighten the mood.

Eddie spun around to face Ben, "You knew?!" He spat, watching Ben avert his eyes under Eddie's stare.

"Oh my God," Eddie whispered as everything from his past finally clicked together. His dad had left all those years ago for Ben. Eddie had been played this whole time, by both of them.

He quickly hopped out of his chair and fled upstairs, and the door slam could be heard throughout the whole house.

The other four sat there in silence, until Patricia figured she should go see him. "I'm just gonna go, uh... yeah," she said quickly before following in his steps.

She opened the guest room door just a tad, so she could see where he was. He was laying down, but was propped up by the many pillows on the bed, one if which he was holding tightly in his lap. His stare was straight ahead, and anyone could tell he was crying silently, trying his best to keep it in.

It hurt Patricia to see him like this, because it didn't happen often. He was usually this carefree guy with a smile plastered on his face.

"Aw, Eddie," she muttered before appearing at his side, arms wrapped around his torso, and he moved slightly only to let her slide underneath his arm. They sat like that for a few moments, Patricia not knowing what to say, until Eddie finally spoke up.

"They lied to me." He said quietly, and Patricia sighed. They had lied to him, what could she possibly say to make him feel better?

"This whole time I thought he had left to protect me, he had really left for his other son, his better son." Eddie continued.

"That's not true, there might be more to the stor-"

"How could there be more to the story?" He burst out, interrupting her, and she finally sat up to see his face. It was red with anger, and the tears had stopped falling. She just needed to get him to calm down.

"Eddie, I'm trying to help you," she said trying to stay calm herself, even though she didn't know what to say.

"Well it's not fucking working," he snapped.

"Fine," she shot right back, getting up and walking out the door, but not before she heard Eddie grumble a "Good!" from his unchanging spot on the bed.

As soon as the door slammed shut, Eddie knew he shouldn't have snapped at her. He'd done it again, pushed away the only one who had for sure cared about him the whole time.

He was just so sick of being lied to. He thought his dad was done lying to him after high school, but now it looks like there's more secrets to be found out.

He didn't even know what his next move should be, but he did know that Patricia would. She knew him better than anyone.

He slumped over to the door thinking of the places she would've gone. Eddie would just have to find her without seeing anybody else, simple enough right? But, when he opened the door, there she was, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

Like he said before, Patricia knew him too well.

She knew he didn't mean to snap, so she'd waited outside until he was ready for her to come back.

"I'm, uh, sorry I snapped at you..." He muttered, and she gave him a soft smile.

That's when the tears started to fall again. He pulled her into his arms and she ran her fingers through his hair as he cried into her shoulder.

He was rather embarrassed to be the one crying on her shoulder, but all their teasing aside, he knew she would understand. She was a lot better at comforting him than she gave herself credit for.

"Eddie, everything's going to be okay," she said softly when his tears had slowed down.

"How do you know?" he choked out, once they sat back down on the bed.

"Just... just look at how far you've come, it's just another bump in the road, yeah?"

"I guess... I just thought he, you know, cared about me."

That completely broke her heart. She knew how he felt, she really did. Having to live behind the shadow of a superior sibling? It's how she grew up. Eddie had been doing it too, but he never even knew. His dad kept it a secret, and Patricia couldn't quite figure out which was worse.

"You know, he still does," she said quietly, "I mean it doesn't change that much, does it?"

"Maybe not for you, but for me, it does. I just don't wanna face them yet..." he said pulling her closer, and she nodded.

"So... what do you want to do then?"

He shrugged in response.

"I have an idea," Patricia said smiling, "Be right back."

She quietly descended the stairs and snuck around the corner into the kitchen. She almost had two plates of dinner and dessert ready when Mr. Sweet entered the room.

"How is he?"

"Well, he doesn't want to come back down that's for sure. I was gonna bring him some food..." she explained, and Mr. Sweet silently nodded.

"You could've told him, you know," she pointed out, deciding to stand up for Eddie.

Mr. Sweet sighed, "I know and I should have." Patricia didn't say anything else, just putting the finishing touches on their plates, before strategically balancing them in her hands.

"Can you let him know I'm sorry?" He said softly. Patricia could tell by his face that he, in fact, was sorry, so who was she to say no?

"Sure," she said sending him a small smile and continuing on her way back to Eddie.

"Delivery," Patricia teased as she entered the room with the food, placing one plate on his lap. "I was thinking we could watch a movie?"

Eddie couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face when she sat down next to him. "You're the best," he said kissing her cheek. "And sorry for dragging you out here to see my dad, we're leaving tomorrow instead."

This caught her attention, "Are you sure? I thought you wanted to stay the whole week?"

"Not anymore..." he said glumly, and she understood what he meant now.

"He wanted me to tell you he's sorry," she said seriously, but Eddie just nodded. "And you're gonna have to talk to him eventually,"she pointed out, trying to get some kind of reaction from him, now that he had calmed down.

"I know, and I will, but not now," he whined. "Just come here." He pulled her back over to him, turned on "Nightmare on Elm Street," their favorite, and left the situation at that...

For now.

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