First off, two things that have nothing to do with the story: H3yyy0u, which article were you referring to in your review? I'd love to read it! And Silverpistola, yeah all the chapters are song titles and I did name Chapter 8 after the Frank Turner song. I saw him live last year with Flogging Molly and fell in LOVE with him!

Anyway...on to what is definitely my favorite chapter of the story!

It was only noon on Saturday, and it was shaping up to be a pretty dull day. Kat had spent most of the morning catching up on homework. She had a term paper due on Monday. She didn't mind; it was actually keeping her mind off of the fact that she had less than two days left before having to face the student body of Padua High. They might have memories like goldfish, but she doubted her insulting video would be entirely forgotten by Monday. Especially since someone had posted the thing to YouTube. "Someone" being Tabitha Cooke. Kat still hadn't decided what she was going to do to the little back-stabber, but Tabitha would pay.

"Katarina," she was pulled out of her thoughts by her father's voice. "Kat!" he said again, and she snapped her head around to where he was standing impatiently.

"I've just got a call from the hospital, I have to go in."

"Okay," Kat shrugged.

"I needed to go grocery shopping today though. We have next to nothing in the pantry."

Kat's eyes widened. "You mean..."

"Yes," her dad affirmed. "I need you to go for me. Bianca will go with you to make sure that grocery shopping is all you do."

"But daddy!" came Bianca's voice from the kitchen.

"No buts, young lady!" Walter was clearly not in a mood to be trifled with. Bianca sighed in resignation.

"Oh," added Walter as he ran out the door, "And make sure you bring...what have you been calling my teaching aid? Jane?"

"Dad, no!" Kat protested. "Patrick can stay here and take care of her. I am not going out in public with that thing!" Her argument fell on deaf ears, though, and Walter was out the door, stopping only long enough to leave Kat some money for the groceries.

"I think you are going out in public with that thing," Bianca said evilly. She laughed, "This is better than reality television."

"What's going on?" Patrick walked into the room just then and looked at Kat quizzically.

She gave him a pathetic look. "It's time for a field trip," she said.


"You really didn't have to come," Kat told Patrick as they walked into the grocery store. Bianca was a few steps behind them, texting and not really paying attention to their conversation.

"Yeah," said Patrick, grinning, "But like your sister said. This is better than reality TV. I mean, you're so domestic!" Leaning in to her as she pulled out a shopping cart, he added, "It's kinda hot."

She smacked him on the arm and pulled him along to the first aisle. "Let's just get in and out of here before I have to change a diaper in the middle of the produce section," she said.

As if on cue, the first gentle whimperings started from under the blanket that was covering up Kat's embarrassing punishment. "No, no no no!" she hissed, and frantically tried to find the bottle to quiet the baby.

"Um...I just remembered," started Bianca, dramatically snapping her phone shut and backing away, "I need some...Neutrogena. Be back...maybe." With that, she darted off down the aisle.

"Yeah," added Patrick, "I need some...stuff, too. Here!" he tossed the bottle towards Kat and took off down the next aisle.

"Douche," she muttered under her breath as she started feeding the baby. Keeping the bottle in place with one hand, she steered the cart with the other, down to the aisle where Patrick was hiding. She was exhausted and sick of Patrick's weird behavior. She wasn't going to put up with it anymore. "What the hell?" she spat.

"Kat, I'm sorry," he laughed, "I just...really didn't want to feed a fake baby in the grocery store."

Kat glanced around quickly. Seeing that the aisle was empty aside from the two of them, she felt free to raise her voice a little. "No, Patrick. I'm serious. What is your deal? One moment you're totally helpful, and the next you're acting like you want nothing to do with me."

Patrick's smile disappeared. He tilted his head and replied, "Oh, and you're so stable? Yesterday you bit my head off because I left a spoon in the sink."

"How hard is it to wash a freaking spoon?"

"How hard is it to chill out?"

"Yeah, you're right. It's not like I have anything stressful going on in my life right now!" She had abandoned the bottle now—the doll was quiet—and she was gesturing wildly with her arms.

"Oh, yes, I forgot. Kat's the only person in the world with any stress. You know, I've gone through everything you have this week!"

"Why? Why, Patrick? No one is forcing you to be here. So if you really hate it that much, then why are you still here?"

He stopped for a moment, and shrugged lamely. Then, his voice still harsh, added, "Why does it matter?"

"Because it does! Because sometimes people want to know how other people feel! That's not a bizarre request!"

"You want to know how I feel?"

"Just once would be nice!"

Patrick groaned, running one hand through his hair. He turned away from Kat, then spun around and blurted out, "I'm here because I love you, okay? I'm in love with you! I don't know, I must be out of my mind!" With that, he stalked off and around the corner of the next aisle. Bianca, who had been hiding out at the end of the aisle, came up to join her stunned sister.

As Kat tried to gather her thoughts, the baby started fussing again (exactly five minutes after it was done eating, Kat had learned, it needed to be burped). Bianca stopped her sister. "I'll take care of this," she said in a low tone, "You go take care of that," she motioned to the spot where Patrick had stood. Kat mouthed Thank You, because she couldn't seem to find her voice. She walked slowly around to the next aisle to look for Patrick.

She found him staring intently at the cereal selection, hands in his pockets. She stood next to him, mirroring his position. They stayed silent for a moment, neither one willing to face the other. Finally, still staring ahead of him, Patrick managed, "That's not really how I was planning on telling you."

Kat had to clear her throat before she was able to actually reply. "Did you mean it?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"I..." her voice caught in her throat. She started again, "I love you too."

"I love you," Patrick said for the second time. He finally turned to face Kat, and she looked at him as well. "It sounds better when I'm not shouting it," he decided, with a small smile. Kat broke into a grin and laughed softly.

"Yeah," she agreed, "It does."

The two took a step closer, so that they were mere centimeters apart. Patrick took Kat's chin in his hand and tilted her head up so she was looking into his eyes. "Hey," she said, as if greeting him for the first time that day.

"Hey back," he replied, then closed the gap between them as he leaned in to kiss her.

A few minutes later, Bianca came searching for them, and forced Kat to pry herself away from Patrick long enough to finish grocery shopping. It was a good thing, too, Kat thought later. If they had been left on their own much longer, it was very probable they would have been banned from the grocery store for indecent exposure.

End Note: Man, this was a hard chapter to write! But there it is, they finally said it! Literally the only way I could wrap my head around Patrick saying "I love you" was if he said it during an argument. :) One chapter to go, more like an epilogue, really, just wrapping everything up on the Sunday before spring break ends.