Categories > Celebrities > Fall Out Boy > Dead On Arrival
With her refilled glass of wine balanced so carefully in her hand, Ana kicked the refrigerator door shut before returning to her seat on the wooden stool at the kitchen counter, which was positioned so intricately near the television that sat comfortably on the tile counter top, neatly resting between the toaster oven and rotisserie machine. It was sad to say that this was the beginning of her fourth round of watching A Christmas Story within the past 24 hours, but if it meant freedom from mingling with her family and friends, she was more than happy with this lonesome accommodation.
“Hey Bella!” The voice of her brother Eric rose above the movie dialogue as he called out to her from the living room, “Would it be cool if the baby called you Auntie Ann?”
An eruption of laughter rose from the company gathered in the adjacent room and Ana frowned heavily before responding between sips of her homemade red wine, “Like the pretzel stand in the mall? No, thank you!”
“I think that Uncle Patty and Auntie Ann have the cutest ring to them!” Eric laughed along with much of the Stumotrolazera family and the Stump’s that had yet to filter home.
“I object to that!” Patrick interjected with a chuckle as more hearty laughter filled the air, causing Ana to frown deeper as she reached for the remote to the television, desperate to drown out the happy party chatter. The news of an addition to the family was all that rolled off of the lips of each party guest, desperate to congratulate Eric and Karrie on their upcoming bundle of joy.
It was surprisingly relieving to hear the sound of his voice through the laughter as he leaned against the doorway of the kitchen with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at the television between stolen glances of Ana out of the corner of his eye; “I’ll never understand how you can tolerate this movie so many times a day, year after year – it drives me insane.”
“I guess it’s just one of the only talents you do not possess, my dear.” Ana responded coolly, sipping from her glass before offering it in Patrick’s direction, an offer he graciously denied before uncrossing his arms and standing up straight, posing an offer of his own.
“Want to take a walk with me? I want to show you something.”
Ana frowned heavily at the sound of another burst of laughter echoing through the house before taking one last swing of her wine and accepting his offer, agreeing without a moment of hesitation; desperate to escape the confinement of this particular family function. Voices hushed to nearly whispered chatter as Ana and Patrick retrieved their jackets from the closet in the den and Ana couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the curious eyes peeking out from the living room as they shuffled out through the door.
“Your parents think I’m being selfish” Ana commented nonchalantly as she zipped her jacket up tight, digging her hands deep in the pockets and smiling wildly at the visible breath that rose from her lips into the cold winter air.
“Your parents think I’m a jackass” Patrick replied in the same casual tone as he pulled his coat tighter around his body, descending the front steps of the Stumotrolazera compound, venturing carefully around the back of the house. Patrick wasn’t sure if this was an awkward conversation waiting to happen or just comments they needed desperately to verbally express to each other, so without a second guess, he changed the subject before any awkward silence could settle.
“So, Auntie Ann, huh? That’s crazy.”
“I know, right?” Amusement was apparent in her voice, “Who would have thought Eric would ever successfully procreate?”
“They’re great; it’ll be good for them. Plus, now you’ll get to be a kick ass aunt.” Patrick commented with a smile, burying his hands in pocket of his dress pants as they casually strolled over the frozen grass of her grandparent’s backyard.
Ana smiled inwardly at his comments as Patrick stopped near the miniature hill leading to the river, offering quite instructions for he to close her eyes, earning him an odd, suspicious glance.
“Don’t look at me like that; I’m not going to throw you in the water!” Patrick smirked innocently as Ana hesitantly obliged to his request. “It’s a surprise; you just have to close your eyes.” As he carefully led her down the cold hill, he placed his cold fingers over her eyes, her chuckle informing him of just how predictable his actions really were.
“I know you’ll sneak a peak!” Patrick laughed, stopping her several careful steps away from the water; the feeling of his breathe warm against her ear as he pulled his hands away and whispered a gentle “Merry Christmas.”
An extravagantly beautiful ice sculpture of a snowman stood contently on the frozen ground near the old wooden bench, complete with top hat and a broom leaning against the cold, frozen body. Ana’s eyes grew wide at the sight before her, a quiet gasp escaping past her lips as Patrick explained his motives.
“You were so bummed out about not having a snowman on Christmas, so I got you one.”
Ana’s eyes were shining brightly as she stepped closer to the creation, touching the cold, perfectly sculpted face and fidgeting with the hat adorning the frozen head and for the first time all night the smile that Patrick had been dreaming about for months appeared unforced, without hesitation. “This is beautiful. Thank you so much, I love it.”
“I wanted to put it closer to the house, so you could see it from your window, but then it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise.”
“It’s fantastic where it is!” Ana beamed happily, embracing him in a less awkward hug than you would imagine for such broken lovers. When her arms released him from the hug, he stepped back as she admired the surprise, taking a seat on the old wooden bench that held so much of their past.
After a moment of admiration, Ana joined him on the cold wood bench, her smile still glowing in the night, lighting up the Christmas evening that hung heavily around them. A silence lingered as they studied their visible breaths, rising so perfectly into the night before Patrick sighed absently.
“I should head home; I’ve got an early flight.”
“New York?” Ana questioned, stealing a glance out of the corner of her eye as she continued to admire the snowman Patrick had gotten for her.
“Unfortunately” Patrick nodded, “stardom calls.”
Ana allowed a quiet laugh to escape past her lips as she joked lightly, hoping happily up from the bench, “You’re the worst rock star I know!”
“I oddly enough, don’t take offense to that.” Patrick smiled as he stood, stealing a final glance at his frozen purchase before heading back to through the yard.
Ana stopped abruptly as they reached the hill back to the house, her eyes immediately darting up to the night sky, questioning excitedly, “Was that just a snowflake?”
Patrick paused momentarily to pull his eyes to the sky as a single snowflake fell from the sky and landed on the shoulder of his jacket. “Yes, yes it is.”
“Finally!” Ana exclaimed with a smile as several more white flakes danced from the sky, landing gracefully on her cheeks. Both Patrick and Ana laughed at the unforeseen precipitation as the abundance of falling flakes began to grow quickly.
“It’s no Chicago blizzard but it’ll do” Patrick laughed as he jokingly brushed a flake from Ana’s nose before continuing the walk back to the warmth in the now rapidly falling winter precipitation, laughing heartily when Ana skipped ahead like a child in a toy store, twirling happily in the falling snow.
A few clumsy, joyful spins later Ana bumped into Patrick, falling dizzily in his arms as her laughter echoed through the barren night air. With a happy sigh, she caught her balance with a hand on his shoulder as the world stopped turning at her hair began to weigh heavy from the falling flakes.
“You’re nuts” Patrick laughed cheerfully as he steadied her with his hands on her waist; his chuckling ceasing as her arms wrapped carefully around his neck. Their lips met a split second later and his grip around her tiny waist tightened as their lips danced perfectly together just as they were meant to, but as quickly as it began, it ended and Ana’s arms fell from his shoulders, biting her lip anxiously as she stepped out of his grip.
“We should get back before it really starts to pile up” Ana suggested quietly, wrinkling her face in amusement as several flakes tickled the tip of her nose.
Patrick nodded in agreement as they shuffled their way through the dusty white covering that had taken home on the sidewalk along the house. The party was still going strong when they returned to the house, bursting through the door as Ana exclaimed “it’s snowing!” before brushing the snow off of her jacket and returning it to the closet.
Conversation hushed as they entered the living room and all eyes where on the snow covered couple as Patrick broke the momentarily silence, “I’m going to head out, I’ve got an early flight in the morning. It was great to see everyone and congratulations again you guys!”
Goodbyes were exchanged as Patrick made his way around the room and Ana hugged her grandparents and father before announcing that she was going to call it an early night, shuffling back out to the den with Patrick on her heels.
Standing awkwardly at the door together Ana anxiously bit her lip while Patrick studied the shoes on his feet, hoping for the right words to say, settling on a simple request. “Let me know when you get to New York, okay?”
“Will do” Ana smiled cheerfully as she embraced him in a hesitant hug, “Have a safe flight.”
“You too” Patrick smiled, opening the front door and peering out at the falling snow; stopping as he stepped onto the front porch he quickly turned back to Ana with a spark of thought shining in his eye, “I almost forgot; I put something for you up on your dresser.”
“Okay” Ana nodded in understanding, unsure of what he could be referring to, offering him a warm smile and a cheerful goodnight before shutting the door and blocking out the cold.
As Ana opened the door to her bedroom, her phone began ringing which she immediately picked up from the corner of her bed.
“Merry Christmas, my love!” Janelle’s chipper voice echoed through her ear, causing a smile to grow on her lips as she eyed the box on the corner of her dresser, wrapped perfectly in gold wrapping paper and accented with a perfectly tied red bow.
“Merry Chrismahanukah to you!” Ana beamed, “How does the extended family like Gabriel?”
“They love him” Janelle questioned cheerfully, “How was the awkward night with the Stumotro-Stump clan?”
“Eh” Ana shrugged, balancing the phone against her ear and shoulder as she carefully untied the red ribbon adorning the box, “it was about as magical as I would have imagined. Eric and Karrie are having a baby.”
“Ugh, she really wants to bare his spawn?” Janelle joked, her lips curling up in fake disgust on the other end of the conversation.
“Apparently” Ana commented nonchalantly, pushing the conversation along, “Get anything good?”
“The usual things that my parents refuse to believe that I grew out of when I was 15.” Janelle sighed, “You?”
“Clothes, junk – a mysterious box from Patrick” Ana shrugged nonchalantly.
“Scandalous – maybe it’s something dirty!” Janelle exclaimed hopefully as Ana removed the glittering gold wrapping paper.
“Doubtful” Ana laughed, tapping lightly on the exposed white box.
“Open it already; I can hear you hesitating from a hundred miles away!” Janelle instructed with a smile.
Ana hesitated once more before opening the box to reveal a smaller white box sitting on top of a photo album, the photo album that was meant to be their wedding gift from her grandmother. Ana carefully placed the smaller box to side as she pulled out the photo album and scanned through the pages. Moments of silence passed as Ana inspected her gift and Janelle sighed impatiently on the other end of the phone line, “What is it, what is it?”
“A photo album with pictures of us and …” Ana explained, pausing momentarily to open the smaller white box to reveal a very important piece of jewelry hanging from a silver chain, “my ring.”
“What?” The surprise in Janelle’s voice was booming as Ana furrowed her eyebrows together, pulling out the chain and a folded piece of red paper.
“And a note” Was the added comment as Janelle waited patiently for further explanation.
“What does it say?”
Ana’s fingers were shaking lightly as she unfolded the paper in her hands, still balancing the phone against her shoulder and smiling down at Patrick’s chicken scratch handwriting, her eyes studying the words as silence filled the void on the phone line.
“Well?” Janelle pestered impatiently.
“It’s with my ring” Ana forced her voice to speak, “and it says ‘I’ll wait an eternity if that’s what it takes.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Janelle blurted out, confused and anxious.
“I—“ Ana began, still slightly stunned as she placed the note on the wooden dresser, “I told him that I needed time, and I think this means he’ll wait forever.”
“Well isn’t that special” Janelle sighed happily as Ana’s left hand clutched the silver chain holding Patrick’s eternal promise to their love, her free fingers lightly touching her lips as they curled up happily into a content smile.
“Hey Bella!” The voice of her brother Eric rose above the movie dialogue as he called out to her from the living room, “Would it be cool if the baby called you Auntie Ann?”
An eruption of laughter rose from the company gathered in the adjacent room and Ana frowned heavily before responding between sips of her homemade red wine, “Like the pretzel stand in the mall? No, thank you!”
“I think that Uncle Patty and Auntie Ann have the cutest ring to them!” Eric laughed along with much of the Stumotrolazera family and the Stump’s that had yet to filter home.
“I object to that!” Patrick interjected with a chuckle as more hearty laughter filled the air, causing Ana to frown deeper as she reached for the remote to the television, desperate to drown out the happy party chatter. The news of an addition to the family was all that rolled off of the lips of each party guest, desperate to congratulate Eric and Karrie on their upcoming bundle of joy.
It was surprisingly relieving to hear the sound of his voice through the laughter as he leaned against the doorway of the kitchen with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at the television between stolen glances of Ana out of the corner of his eye; “I’ll never understand how you can tolerate this movie so many times a day, year after year – it drives me insane.”
“I guess it’s just one of the only talents you do not possess, my dear.” Ana responded coolly, sipping from her glass before offering it in Patrick’s direction, an offer he graciously denied before uncrossing his arms and standing up straight, posing an offer of his own.
“Want to take a walk with me? I want to show you something.”
Ana frowned heavily at the sound of another burst of laughter echoing through the house before taking one last swing of her wine and accepting his offer, agreeing without a moment of hesitation; desperate to escape the confinement of this particular family function. Voices hushed to nearly whispered chatter as Ana and Patrick retrieved their jackets from the closet in the den and Ana couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the curious eyes peeking out from the living room as they shuffled out through the door.
“Your parents think I’m being selfish” Ana commented nonchalantly as she zipped her jacket up tight, digging her hands deep in the pockets and smiling wildly at the visible breath that rose from her lips into the cold winter air.
“Your parents think I’m a jackass” Patrick replied in the same casual tone as he pulled his coat tighter around his body, descending the front steps of the Stumotrolazera compound, venturing carefully around the back of the house. Patrick wasn’t sure if this was an awkward conversation waiting to happen or just comments they needed desperately to verbally express to each other, so without a second guess, he changed the subject before any awkward silence could settle.
“So, Auntie Ann, huh? That’s crazy.”
“I know, right?” Amusement was apparent in her voice, “Who would have thought Eric would ever successfully procreate?”
“They’re great; it’ll be good for them. Plus, now you’ll get to be a kick ass aunt.” Patrick commented with a smile, burying his hands in pocket of his dress pants as they casually strolled over the frozen grass of her grandparent’s backyard.
Ana smiled inwardly at his comments as Patrick stopped near the miniature hill leading to the river, offering quite instructions for he to close her eyes, earning him an odd, suspicious glance.
“Don’t look at me like that; I’m not going to throw you in the water!” Patrick smirked innocently as Ana hesitantly obliged to his request. “It’s a surprise; you just have to close your eyes.” As he carefully led her down the cold hill, he placed his cold fingers over her eyes, her chuckle informing him of just how predictable his actions really were.
“I know you’ll sneak a peak!” Patrick laughed, stopping her several careful steps away from the water; the feeling of his breathe warm against her ear as he pulled his hands away and whispered a gentle “Merry Christmas.”
An extravagantly beautiful ice sculpture of a snowman stood contently on the frozen ground near the old wooden bench, complete with top hat and a broom leaning against the cold, frozen body. Ana’s eyes grew wide at the sight before her, a quiet gasp escaping past her lips as Patrick explained his motives.
“You were so bummed out about not having a snowman on Christmas, so I got you one.”
Ana’s eyes were shining brightly as she stepped closer to the creation, touching the cold, perfectly sculpted face and fidgeting with the hat adorning the frozen head and for the first time all night the smile that Patrick had been dreaming about for months appeared unforced, without hesitation. “This is beautiful. Thank you so much, I love it.”
“I wanted to put it closer to the house, so you could see it from your window, but then it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise.”
“It’s fantastic where it is!” Ana beamed happily, embracing him in a less awkward hug than you would imagine for such broken lovers. When her arms released him from the hug, he stepped back as she admired the surprise, taking a seat on the old wooden bench that held so much of their past.
After a moment of admiration, Ana joined him on the cold wood bench, her smile still glowing in the night, lighting up the Christmas evening that hung heavily around them. A silence lingered as they studied their visible breaths, rising so perfectly into the night before Patrick sighed absently.
“I should head home; I’ve got an early flight.”
“New York?” Ana questioned, stealing a glance out of the corner of her eye as she continued to admire the snowman Patrick had gotten for her.
“Unfortunately” Patrick nodded, “stardom calls.”
Ana allowed a quiet laugh to escape past her lips as she joked lightly, hoping happily up from the bench, “You’re the worst rock star I know!”
“I oddly enough, don’t take offense to that.” Patrick smiled as he stood, stealing a final glance at his frozen purchase before heading back to through the yard.
Ana stopped abruptly as they reached the hill back to the house, her eyes immediately darting up to the night sky, questioning excitedly, “Was that just a snowflake?”
Patrick paused momentarily to pull his eyes to the sky as a single snowflake fell from the sky and landed on the shoulder of his jacket. “Yes, yes it is.”
“Finally!” Ana exclaimed with a smile as several more white flakes danced from the sky, landing gracefully on her cheeks. Both Patrick and Ana laughed at the unforeseen precipitation as the abundance of falling flakes began to grow quickly.
“It’s no Chicago blizzard but it’ll do” Patrick laughed as he jokingly brushed a flake from Ana’s nose before continuing the walk back to the warmth in the now rapidly falling winter precipitation, laughing heartily when Ana skipped ahead like a child in a toy store, twirling happily in the falling snow.
A few clumsy, joyful spins later Ana bumped into Patrick, falling dizzily in his arms as her laughter echoed through the barren night air. With a happy sigh, she caught her balance with a hand on his shoulder as the world stopped turning at her hair began to weigh heavy from the falling flakes.
“You’re nuts” Patrick laughed cheerfully as he steadied her with his hands on her waist; his chuckling ceasing as her arms wrapped carefully around his neck. Their lips met a split second later and his grip around her tiny waist tightened as their lips danced perfectly together just as they were meant to, but as quickly as it began, it ended and Ana’s arms fell from his shoulders, biting her lip anxiously as she stepped out of his grip.
“We should get back before it really starts to pile up” Ana suggested quietly, wrinkling her face in amusement as several flakes tickled the tip of her nose.
Patrick nodded in agreement as they shuffled their way through the dusty white covering that had taken home on the sidewalk along the house. The party was still going strong when they returned to the house, bursting through the door as Ana exclaimed “it’s snowing!” before brushing the snow off of her jacket and returning it to the closet.
Conversation hushed as they entered the living room and all eyes where on the snow covered couple as Patrick broke the momentarily silence, “I’m going to head out, I’ve got an early flight in the morning. It was great to see everyone and congratulations again you guys!”
Goodbyes were exchanged as Patrick made his way around the room and Ana hugged her grandparents and father before announcing that she was going to call it an early night, shuffling back out to the den with Patrick on her heels.
Standing awkwardly at the door together Ana anxiously bit her lip while Patrick studied the shoes on his feet, hoping for the right words to say, settling on a simple request. “Let me know when you get to New York, okay?”
“Will do” Ana smiled cheerfully as she embraced him in a hesitant hug, “Have a safe flight.”
“You too” Patrick smiled, opening the front door and peering out at the falling snow; stopping as he stepped onto the front porch he quickly turned back to Ana with a spark of thought shining in his eye, “I almost forgot; I put something for you up on your dresser.”
“Okay” Ana nodded in understanding, unsure of what he could be referring to, offering him a warm smile and a cheerful goodnight before shutting the door and blocking out the cold.
As Ana opened the door to her bedroom, her phone began ringing which she immediately picked up from the corner of her bed.
“Merry Christmas, my love!” Janelle’s chipper voice echoed through her ear, causing a smile to grow on her lips as she eyed the box on the corner of her dresser, wrapped perfectly in gold wrapping paper and accented with a perfectly tied red bow.
“Merry Chrismahanukah to you!” Ana beamed, “How does the extended family like Gabriel?”
“They love him” Janelle questioned cheerfully, “How was the awkward night with the Stumotro-Stump clan?”
“Eh” Ana shrugged, balancing the phone against her ear and shoulder as she carefully untied the red ribbon adorning the box, “it was about as magical as I would have imagined. Eric and Karrie are having a baby.”
“Ugh, she really wants to bare his spawn?” Janelle joked, her lips curling up in fake disgust on the other end of the conversation.
“Apparently” Ana commented nonchalantly, pushing the conversation along, “Get anything good?”
“The usual things that my parents refuse to believe that I grew out of when I was 15.” Janelle sighed, “You?”
“Clothes, junk – a mysterious box from Patrick” Ana shrugged nonchalantly.
“Scandalous – maybe it’s something dirty!” Janelle exclaimed hopefully as Ana removed the glittering gold wrapping paper.
“Doubtful” Ana laughed, tapping lightly on the exposed white box.
“Open it already; I can hear you hesitating from a hundred miles away!” Janelle instructed with a smile.
Ana hesitated once more before opening the box to reveal a smaller white box sitting on top of a photo album, the photo album that was meant to be their wedding gift from her grandmother. Ana carefully placed the smaller box to side as she pulled out the photo album and scanned through the pages. Moments of silence passed as Ana inspected her gift and Janelle sighed impatiently on the other end of the phone line, “What is it, what is it?”
“A photo album with pictures of us and …” Ana explained, pausing momentarily to open the smaller white box to reveal a very important piece of jewelry hanging from a silver chain, “my ring.”
“What?” The surprise in Janelle’s voice was booming as Ana furrowed her eyebrows together, pulling out the chain and a folded piece of red paper.
“And a note” Was the added comment as Janelle waited patiently for further explanation.
“What does it say?”
Ana’s fingers were shaking lightly as she unfolded the paper in her hands, still balancing the phone against her shoulder and smiling down at Patrick’s chicken scratch handwriting, her eyes studying the words as silence filled the void on the phone line.
“Well?” Janelle pestered impatiently.
“It’s with my ring” Ana forced her voice to speak, “and it says ‘I’ll wait an eternity if that’s what it takes.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Janelle blurted out, confused and anxious.
“I—“ Ana began, still slightly stunned as she placed the note on the wooden dresser, “I told him that I needed time, and I think this means he’ll wait forever.”
“Well isn’t that special” Janelle sighed happily as Ana’s left hand clutched the silver chain holding Patrick’s eternal promise to their love, her free fingers lightly touching her lips as they curled up happily into a content smile.
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