FicWad

I got home from shopping to find 2 dozen light pink roses on my kitchen counter. They were my favorite flower.

I gasped in and grabbed the note that had my name on the outside.

Happy Birthday Baby,

I'm sorry if I caused you any pain earlier. I never meant to hurt you. Dinner. 6:30. Be Ready.

Love,
Peter

I smiled and looked at the mass of flowers. I grabbed them and ran upstairs to my room to get ready. I decided to take a shower since my hair was all over the place from shopping.

I jumped in the shower quickly. As I was standing in the shower, I noticed a continuous pain on my thighs. I looked down and saw that Pete had bruised me from earlier this morning. I gasped in loudly. I inspected the dark spots on my inner thighs.

Last time I had bruises in that area was when I was raped. Suddenly I had severe flashbacks of that night and I felt sick to my stomach and lightheaded. I turned the shower off and grabbed a towel quickly before throwing up into the toilet.

I don't know how long I laid on the bathroom floor crying. I couldn't get the images out of my mind, and now his face was mixing with Pete's. I curled into the fetal position tighter and closed my eyes tightly. I needed my thoughts to clear.

"Babe? Are you ok?" I heard from the door of the bathroom. It was his voice.

"Get away from me!" I screamed trying to push the man off of me.

"Izzy. What's going on?"

"Stay away from me, Mark! I'll call the police! Leave me alone!" I screamed and slapped as best as I could.

"Mark? Izzy. Look at me. It's me. Peter," Pete said grabbing at my flailing arms. As soon as I heard his name I looked at him in the eyes. Pete had a look of concern and shock.

"Oh my god. Pete," I said wrapping my arms around him and crying into his shoulder.

"It's ok. You are safe," he said rocking me on the bathroom floor.

I just sobbed into his shoulder. It had been years since my last flashback. I knew exactly what the trigger was, which made me cry more because it was Pete.

"Come on," he said picking me up and carrying me to my bed.

He set me down and grabbed my pajamas and helped me get dressed in them. I had stopped crying and just sat there in shock. I couldn't believe this was happening.

"Better?" he asked kneeling down in front of me once I was dressed.

I looked into his eyes and saw the most perfect person in front of me with so much love and so much care. Why was this person the cause of my flashbacks? I loved him back with all that I had. He was my addiction.

"Yeah," I said quietly and nodded.

"Good," he smiled and stood up.

"I'm sorry," I said as tears threatened to spill.

"Sorry? For what?" he asked sitting down next to me now.

"We were supposed to go out tonight, and I ruined it," I said laying my head on his shoulder.

"Oh, it's ok. These things happen. Don't ever be sorry about it, ok?" he said rocking us back and forth.

It was so comforting. I knew he knew what I was going through. I knew that he had flashbacks too. We were the perfect messed up couple.

-------

I laid my head in Pete's lap and stretched out across the rest of the couch in Andy's garage. We were sharing a tootsie pop and just enjoying one another's company. It had been a month since my flashback episode and I haven't been able to sleep with Pete since. He's been very understanding with everything. He has been in a better mood lately as well. He and Patrick had been writing songs together with the scribbles that Pete had in his notebooks. It seemed to make him happy, so I was happy.

"Hey, Pete. Check this out," Patrick came into the garage looking down at a sheet of paper and began to sing some lyrics in an awesome melody.

His voice sounded amazing. Pete and I just stopped what we were doing and stared at Patrick with our mouths hanging open. Patrick looked up when we didn't say anything.

"What?" he asked feeling very self-conscious. Pete's sucker fell out of his mouth and landed on my face.

"Eww! Peter!" I said sitting up quickly and smacking him in the arm.

"Sorry!" Pete said back shrugging. Patrick just giggled. Pete stood up quickly.

"That's it! Patrick! You are it!" Pete said almost pacing the garage.

"What's it?" Patrick asked.

"Patrick, your voice. It's amazing," Pete said walking up to him and putting his hands on his shoulders.

"My voice? It's not very hard-core," he said looking at Pete as though he was crazy.

"No way. This is the sound we need! It's new and kicks ass!" Pete said almost jumping up and down now.

"Patrick, he's right. Your voice is perfect," I said sitting on the couch still sucking on the tootsie-pop.

"You guys are crazy," Patrick said turning to go back to where he was working.

"Who's crazy?" Joe asked walking into the garage with Andy.

"These two think I should be the singer of our band. Crazy, right," he said pointing at me and Pete. Andy looked over and saw the look in Pete's eyes.

"Well, are you any good?" he asked.

"No!" Patrick said laughing.

"Yes he is!" Pete said sounding frustrated.

"Well, let's here ya," Joe said walking over to his guitar.

"No way!" Patrick said shaking his head.

"Yeah, come on Patrick. Let's find out if Pete and Izzy really are crazy," Andy said going back behind his drums.

Pete all but skipped over to his bass. They played a song that everyone knew and Patrick looked over at me with apprehension before he began to sing. I just nodded over at him and smiled. After the song was over Pete was shaking his head in amazement. It was silent and I was starting to think Andy and Joe hated the idea of Patrick singing.

"Well, that's that," Andy was the first to speak.

"Crazy, right," Patrick said nodding.

"Nope. You're it man. That was amazing," Andy said calmly.

"Amazing!? You fucking kicked ass!" Joe said galloping over to him. Pete joined in.

"This is it guys! This is it!" Pete said jumping up and down with Joe. Patrick and Andy just stared at them with shock.

I laughed from my seat on the couch. They looked like school girls after finding out the captain of the football team liked one of them.

"Alright, I guess this is it," Patrick said back not sounding so sure.