FicWad

Chapter Three
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"Come in!" Samantha yelled over the music as she stared intently at the canvas in front of her tapping a paintbrush to her chin as she did so.

"Ugh turn this shit off." Zac replied with a disgusted groan as he dropped his man bag on the couch. Without another word he walked over to Samantha's computer typed in the password allowing it to awaken from slumber and changed the iTunes play list to something more appropriately named 'Zac Attack.' The Wallflowers' 'One Headlight' was immediately replaced with Britney Spears' 'Outrageous' and Zac sighed in relief before taking a generous sip of his venti non-fat Iced Caramel Macchiato.

She frowned at his choice of music and the fact that she even allowed him to have a play list on her iTunes before finally replying,
"I don't even know why you bother knocking anymore."

"Manners matter Sweetness." He replied smugly before replacing the paintbrush in her hand with a frappuccino.

"You, manners, right." She smiled while opening the lid and stirring around the whipped cream with her finger. "Thank you by the way." Samantha raised her cup in gesture before taking a sip and placing it down on the kitchen counter.

"Anything for my . . . unemployed lover - what is this?" Zac shrieked while picking up a scrap sheet of paper with a phone number scribbled across it.

"That," She paused to glance up at him before returning her gaze to figure she was painting, "is a sheet of paper sweetie."

"Chea!" He huffed while waving the piece of paper in the air, "A sheet of paper with very ugly MAN penmanship on it."

"Oh, Patrick must have left that for me last night then." Samantha was beyond distracted as she mixed colors.

Zac dramatically spit out his iced coffee at the mention of a man being in Samantha's apartment.
"A man? A man with a name, as in not a delivery man?"

"Delivery men have names." Samantha scoffed while adding a few brush strokes to the canvas.

"Hey Bitch, focus here - mini diva meltdown is about to happen if you do not stop being a smart ass and start answering my questions." He forcefully grabbed Samantha's face forcing her to look at him as he took the paintbrush out of her hands and chucked it haphazardly across the room.

Samantha groaned in response as she eyed her paintbrush that was now clear across the room.
"Fine. Yes. A real guy that is not a deliveryman was here last night, he has a name, it's Patrick. No nothing happened. He followed me home, literally, and I think that's all the questions you were going to ask me." She finished quickly and took a big breath.

"Nothing happened?" Zac inquired forcefully and Samantha shook her head 'no.'
"What were you wearing?"

"I was wearing the white dress -"

"With the peep toe pumps that I made you buy?" He squealed excitedly while clapping.

She nodded,
"Yes because I was at the studio at the show, which you didn't go to you whore."

"I had to work!" Zac interjected, his voice level raising a few octaves as he did so.

"Ugh whatever, anyways but then I changed." Samantha stopped when Zac let out a huge groan, ignoring him she continued. "Into jeans and a tank top. Please, I'm not completely tragic."

"Alright so you were dressed perfectly and then changed into," He stopped to sigh, "Jeans, and you didn't have paint on your face?"

"No."

"Or in your hair?" He shrieked as he pulled on a freshly painted purple piece of her red hair.

"No!"

Shaking his head in disappointment he sighed and nodded,
"And nothing happened?"

"No. Jesus."

"Is he gay?" Zac raised his hand inquisitively and Samantha let her head fall back in frustration.

"No, he was talking about his ex girlfriend and it wasn't like that Zackary. It was like weird but friendly at the same time." She replied while walking across the room to retrieve her paintbrush, "He seemed like a nice guy. A nice friendly guy to be friends with. I like friends."

Zac frowned at her and Samantha smiled,
"I'm not going to replace you, don't worry." She patted his shoulder playfully before fixating her gaze back to her painting.

"Pshh please, you couldn't replace me if you tried." Zac replied while waving her off before frowning once again. "But Sammy you are gorgeous it shouldn't be this hard for me to get you laid! Jesus Christ!"

"Shut up!" Samantha shhh-ed him and he shrugged innocently.

"I'm serious sweetie you need to get laid."

"No seriously shut up. Turn up this song." She pointed frantically at her computer and Zac followed her instructions turning up the song that was playing.

"Uh oh is someone getting into some Fall Out Boy?" He teased while jabbing her playfully into the stomach before singing along to 'I'm Like A Lawyer. . .'

"That voice." Samantha's hands reflexively went up to touch her throat.

"Is orgasmic, I know!" Zac gushed while moving his head along with the beat, "My perfect man would consist of Pete Wentz's body, Joe Trohman's eyes and lisp, Andy Hurley's wit, and Patrick Stump's voice. All of the Fall Out boys mushed into one gigantic Zackary Jones owned and operated sex machine boy."

Zac's ridiculous comment was just what she needed to snap out of the daze she was slowly falling under. She cleared her throat and allowed her hands to wander up to her cheeks in a subconscious attempt to hide her blush.
"Did your mother drop you on your head a lot when you were a child?" Samantha questioned with a smirk as she tried to mask her embarrassment with humor. Zac flicked her off and she just laughed before returning her attention back to her painting.

...

Patrick didn't hurry as the person on the other side of the door relentlessly rang the bell.

"Fucking finally." Pete retorted as he shoved past Patrick and into the house.

"Do you need something specific? 'Cause if you don't I really just want to go back to sleep." Patrick yawned as he followed Pete into the kitchen.

Pete groaned as he ignored Patrick's question and opened all the cabinets and the refrigerator.
"Dude, I thought you went grocery shopping yesterday?" Aggravated he turned just in time to see Patrick shrug.

"I did."

"There is no food."

"Well I kind of did." Patrick replied while biting his bottom lip.

"How does someone kind of go grocery shopping?" Pete questioned while crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well I went to the store and something came up so I kind of just left without groceries." He nodded impressed with the tainted version of the truth that he just gave to Pete. "I mean why the fuck do you care anyways? If you came to my house to get food you can just leave."

Patrick had Pete going until the last thing he said, someone doesn't usually get confrontational over the questioning of groceries.
"Well I just wanted marshmallows to put in," Pete stopped for a second to go outside, returning seconds later with a Starbucks cup "The hot chocolate I got you but you know," he huffed for effect, "Since I'm clearly not wanted here I'll just leave."

"No don't. I'm sorry, I just haven't gotten a lot of sleep." Patrick apologized feeling bad about questioning his friend's intentions.

"Why?" The bassist questioned curiously while scratching his head and placing the cup on the kitchen table.

"I was just in the city until late is all."

"Doing what?" Pete questioned with raised eyebrows.

"What are you my mother?" Patrick grew defensive once more. Samantha had to be a secret, there was no way he could just casually mention her without the situation getting blown way out of proportion.

"Maybe. Were you being depressing at a strip club? Trying to mask your lack of lady friends with naked women?" The bassist inquired while he retied the drawstring on his Mr. Bubbles PJ pants.

"What? No." Patrick huffed while opening his fridge remembering instantly that there was nothing inside of it.

"Then what were you doing Patrick seriously? You weren't with Joe I know that much because Joe and Marie were with me, the only other reason you would be in the city is if you were pulling a John Cusack and standing outside of Kelly's window with a boom box." Pete paused as he hopped on the counter, once situated he came to the sudden realization that in Patrick's altered state he very well could have been standing outside of his ex's window. "Oh God please don't tell me that's what you were doing!"

"No Pete. If you must know I was an art show." Patrick added a nod to confirm his statement, in all technicality he was at an art show.

"An art show?"

"Yes, an art show."

"Right, ok, who is she?" Crossing his arms over his chest Pete narrowed his eyes at his best friend.

"Who is who? She's not anybody, not that there's a she, cause there isn't. It's just, I can like art without there being a girl involved." Patrick stammered as he tried his best to convince Pete. He faked a laugh at the absurdity of there being a 'she' as he picked up the Starbucks cup on the counter. He raised it to hip lips before realizing that it was empty.
"What the fuck this is empty!" He shook the cup in Pete's direction.

"Well duh." Pete nodded.

"You went outside to get an empty cup that you stashed out there to mislead me?"

"No. I didn't know that I was going to have to pretend to get you a warm beverage - I went outside because that's where your plants were holding my cup." Pete stated matter a factly as if Patrick was dumb not to know that.

"So what are you doing here really?" He stated with a groan as he forcefully threw the empty cup in the garbage.

"We saw you with her last night Patrick." Pete sighed while lazily kicking the cabinets with his swinging feet. "And I was voted the one who got to come and get answers."

"Saw me with who?" Patrick had every intention of playing dumb until he physically couldn't anymore.

"The red headed girl in the white dress. Don't bullshit a bullshitter Patrick, I know you better than that." He narrowed his eyes at the now fidgeting singer.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Patrick cleared his throat as his voice cracked.

"Whatever." The bassist replied while hopping off the cabinets, "I think this is really good for you, we were getting worried. it's been six months it's about time you moved on."

"You don't know what you're talking about. Just leave me alone, I'm fine!" Patrick yelled forcefully before walking out of the kitchen and in the direction of his room.

Pete contemplated following him but decided against it, instead he just left the house. Maybe they really didn't know what was going on in Patrick's head - hopefully the pretty redhead in the white dress would help him figure it out better than any of them could.

...

"So I was thinking about getting a bikini wax tomorrow, wanna come?" Zac inquired while flipping through a Cosmo while Samantha pretended to know how to bleach the tips of his hair.

"Hell yes I want to go hear you scream bloody murder." Samantha laughed while haphazardly brushing bleach onto his head.

"You don't want one too?" He stopped reading to look up at her.
Samantha started laughing at him before pushing his head back down into the magazine.
"C'mon it doesn't hurt that bad!" Zac's whining was overshadowed by a knock on the door.

Samantha put down the dye brush and walked over to the door.
"You don't even know how bad it hurts, let me castrate you with a spork and see how much that doesn't hurt. Seriously Zac." She yelled over her shoulder while pulling open the door.

"That sounds like so many kinds of unfun." Patrick replied with a frown.

"Patrick!" Samantha gasped surprised as she closed the door slightly behind her so he couldn't see inside.
"Oh my God. What are you, what are you doing here?" She whispered.

"Is this a bad time?" He replied while shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking on the balls of his feet.

"Uhm, no. No, uhm kind of." Samantha continued to whisper, confusion masking her features.

"Is that the Chinese? Suki Suki five dollar, you give us foo, we give you money fo fried lice." Zac could be heard yelling from inside.

Samantha closed her eyes in embarrassment and Patrick raised his eyes inquisitively at the sound of a male inside her apartment.
"No shut up!" She yelled over her shoulder smiling at Patrick apologetically as she did so.

"That's ok then I was just in the neighborhood and figured I'd stop to see if you wanted to go get something to eat but I see you already have company so I'll just -"

"Who is it then? Is it the guy that wouldn't fuck you?" Zac cut him off from inside. "Fuck. Sammy what was his name? Something with a P. Paul, Peter - haha Peter and Paul," he paused for a second to laugh.

Samantha's cheeks matched her hair as she quickly tried to close the door in an attempt to silence Zac but Patrick put his foot in the doorway not allowing it to completely close.

"Samantha what is it? Philip, Pierre, PARKER!" Zac stood up excited before throwing himself back down into the chair, "No that's not right."

"Zackary shut up!" Samantha pleaded as she pressed her back firmly against the door trying to block Patrick's entrance, but he easily lifted her tiny frame up moving her aside as he walked into the door.

"Patrick?" Patrick questioned curiously as Zac flipped the pages in the Cosmo still trying to think of the name of the man who 'wouldn't fuck Samantha.'

"Yes! Patrick!" Zac squealed excitedly while looking up to see the lead singer of Fall Out Boy standing there shyly with his hands in his pockets as a mortified Samantha pressed herself up against the wall dramatically.
Immediately Zac was on his feet, he let out a shrill scream before dropping the Cosmo on the floor and leaping onto Patrick.
"Samantha oh my God, Patrick from Fall Out Boy is in your apartment!" Zac loudly whispered over Patrick's head as he grabbed the singer's face squishing his cheeks together as he did so. He then proceeded to hug Patrick's head while bouncing up and down excitedly.
"Did you get Pete for me too? Oh my God!"

"Zac, stop it! Stop it stop it stop it!" Samantha was immediately shooing Zac away from molesting Patrick anymore.

Pulling him behind her privacy curtain she smacked him and Zac whimpered.
"What is wrong with you?" She questioned forcefully.

"Patrick from Fall Out Boy is in your apartment!" Zac whispered back quickly before covering his mouth with his hands excitedly.

"Chill out, he's just a guy who can sing and play guitar." Samantha gestured to the other side of the privacy curtain causing Zac to gasp as if Samantha had just committed a mortal sin.

Patrick smiled at her response, he could hear them clearly though apparently they thought he couldn't. He wasn't sure why her saying that made him so happy, but then again when it came to Samantha he didn't understand half of the things that were going on in his head and for that matter why his body was reacting so weirdly to being in her general vicinity.

"He is NOT just a guy who can sing and play guitar, Patrick Stump is a musical genius! You take that back you dirty whore!"

Samantha rolled her eyes as Zac glared at her.
"Oh ok then. Well you just met a 'musical genius' wrapped in a towel with bleach in your hair."

Zac gasped once more before quickly scurrying around, draping the towel over his head and walking out the front door without another word.

Samantha covered her face absolutely mortified and walked around her privacy curtain half expecting him not to still be standing in her living room. Patrick could see that she was surprised and laughed at her.
"What?"

"I am SO sorry." She exclaimed with her hands on the side of her face.

"For what?" He questioned while reflexively reaching out and attempting to remove some paint from her face. Quickly he let his hand fall back, hiding them in his pockets as he backed away from her and into the kitchen.
"I'm still hungry if you know, you wanna come eat." He replied while studying the ceiling in her kitchen.
This couldn't be happening to him - she was just a friend.
He didn't want to be anything more.
She didn't want him to be anything more.
They were JUST friends - if that were true why did he once again drive all the way out here to ask if she wanted to come eat with him?
Because that's what friends do, friends go to dinner all the time.
And what was that gay man saying about not fucking Samantha?
Surely they couldn't have been talking about him.

"Uhm actually, Zac and I ordered food and it should be here -" Samantha started only to be cut off.

"Oh yeah, uhm ok. I'm just going to leave then." Patrick replied hastily while almost running towards the door.

"Well I mean you could stay, Zac left and I don't really eat all that much." She interjected quickly as his hand gripped the door handle.

He should leave.
He should most definitely leave but instead,
"Ok."

"Ok, great." She smiled.