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22. They did, didn´t they?



We got into my car and I headed for the nearest diner. One our way there I asked Patrick how his day had been.

"Ah, quite alright. Thank you. Nothing worth mentioning really."

I nodded, "Really... How about your night then?"

He smiled slightly, "Yeah, I was expecting something like that."

"So..."

"Sheena, I just don´t spill the beans like that."

"Patrick, I´ll spill your brains if you keep beating around the bush."

I parked the car in front of the diner and we got out.

"I´ll tell you once we´ve ordered. I´m starving."

He didn´t exactly look like he was starving but I kept that to myself. For fear of not getting the information that I wanted, it´s not that I wasn´t in the mood for some rudeness.

After our food had arrived I picked up on the previous conversation, "So anything eventful happening last night?"

"Well, you saw us making out at the party..."

"SPIT IT OUT!" Half the diner was looking at me. I heard one elderly lady mumbling something like, "Harry? Does your pot roast taste funny too? I think the kids in the booth over there got spoilt food."

"Figuratively speaking," I said loud enough for her to hear. There were weird people running around in this town.

Patrick looked amused.

"Joyce drove us to her and Andy´s place where we spent the night."

"Patrick, I see you like to put your life in danger. All you´re giving me is stuff I already know. I´ll ask you a question and you´ll just answer truthfully. Maybe this will make things easier."

He smiled smugly to himself and shoved a potato into his mouth.

"Did you or did you not have sex with Joyce?"

"Not really, no."

What a relief. Hm, what does ´not really´ mean?

"What do you mean, ´not really´?"

"Well, once we got into her bed we were pretty dead beat from the alcohol. We started fooling around a bit and then we both passed out."

Thank God for alcohol. Wait, actually alcohol had started all of this. Nevermind.

"So then all you did was grabbing her ass and kissing?"

Patrick grimaced, "Yeah, that´s where we´ll draw the line now, Sheena. It´s my private life and yeah... but basically, you´re right."

"You weren´t like totally naked or anything?"

"Draw the line," he repeated.

I huffed. Alright. At least now I knew they didn´t do it.

"And what´s gonna happen now? Between the two of you I mean."

Patrick shrugged, "We´re meeting later."

"What about Pete?"

"They broke up."

"Does Pete know what´s going on?"

Patrick rolled his eyes, "How would I know?" Then he added, "And why should I care?"

I don´t know. Maybe because Pete looked like he could beat you up with one hand while fixing his hair with his other one?

"Well, I surely hope you know what you´re getting yourself into."

"I´m good," he smiled at me like he was convinced that things were going to work out for him.

I smiled back, "Alright." Still, I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. I poked around on my plate with the fork, wondering if they had used the same meat for my dish that they had used for the pot roast.

_ _ _ _ _


A week later ´Blue in the face´ had a show at the cafeteria of a local college. Andy, Joe and I had been quite content with our first show shortly before Christmas but Patrick wasn´t fully satisfied. Oh no, not the Lord of the Hats. This time he wanted us to deliver a more ´action-packed´ gig. In case you´re not familiar with Stump jargon, that simply meant that Joe, I and himself should be jumping and kicking around like epileptics having a seizure. Without the danger of dying, but of course at the very high risk of making complete jackasses out of ourselves. Not sure I wouldn´t have preferred the dying thing.

We came, we played, we conquered. Alright, that´s probably a bit of an exaggeration but at least we weren´t stabbed in the back by a brute to free Rome. Then again, it wasn´t March yet. After the show Joyce came over to congratulate us.

"You were totally awesome!" she beamed at Patrick.

He laughed shyly. (It made you wonder how he ever developed the balls to kiss that woman.)

"What about the rest of us?!" Andy semi-screamed at his sister. He was faking being jealous. ODD.

She nodded eagerly, "All of you were really good! Sheena, I never knew you could jump that high."

"Yeah, you´d be surprised at the things you can do once you bury the last little bit of self-respect you once had." Probably this even enabled you to get some poor soul´s hopes high by spending the night with them and pretending to take a genuine interest in them. If you detect a tiny bit of bitterness in my attitude towards Joyce, then let me assure you, you´re wrong. It was more the size of a pregnant sea cow. With a really fat ass.

"Huh, I thought you´d crack my skull open with the bass when you started rotating during the last song," Joe scratched his head.

"Guess we would have found a load of nothing in there anyways," Andy mocked him.

"I wouldn´t call the codes to all the moves of all the Tekken characters nothing," Joe grumbled.

After we had packed up our instruments we were on our way to the cars. Suddenly we heard someone yelling "STUMP! You fucking asshole!" behind us.

Okay... maybe the show hadn´t been pleasurable for everyone?

The five of us turned around, only to see Pete running at us like a madman, with a different look than usual on his face. (Usually it said "Yes, I´m actually that hot.", now it was more like "Yes, I´m actually going to kill someone to free Rome. And I´ll look really hot doing it.")

"Pete!" Joyce yelled.

"I´ll break your face!" Pete yelled and pounced on Patrick. Both guys ended up on the ground, the guitar Patrick had dropped a few inches away from them. Pete got on top of him and punched him into the face.

Joyce gasped. Andy and Joe stared at the scene with open mouths and unbelieving eyes. Joyce gasped again. I would have loved to throw her into the ocean, like a fish out of water that her behavior resembled.

While Patrick held his hands up in defence Pete hit him again, screaming, "That´ll teach you to mess with my girlfriend."

"Ex-girlfriend!" Joyce yelled. Nice thought but not really helpful.

Finally the other two guys had woken up from their trance and pulled Pete off of Patrick who got up slowly. His lip had burst open and he was bleeding pretty badly. He staggered a bit so I got next to him to support him.

Pete tried to wrestle himself free, "Let go of me! This is between my cousin and I."

Andy attempted to calm him down, "Pete, relax. How about you talk things over?"

The other guy formed fists, "I said everything there is to say."

I handed Patrick a tissue I found in my bag. "Thanks," he said and held it against his lip.

"Let´s get you home," I grabbed him by the shoulder and we started for my car.

Seconds later Patrick was broken away from my grip and fell to the ground. Pete was on top of him again.

I saw Joe, Andy and his sister running towards us.

"Godamnit, get off him!" I yelled and threw myself at Pete who fell off of Patrick. Half of me was on Patrick and the other half on Pete. I got up quickly. Andy and Joe got ahold of Pete. again. Joyce started talking to him, telling him that nothing had happened between Patrick and her. That they had just gone to the movies a few days ago.

"Sheena, take him home. We´ll take care of Pete," Andy told me.

I nodded and helped Patrick up again.

After we had entered my apartment (I didn´t know if Patrick had some iodine at his place) I took care of his lip. He winced at the first contact with the liquid on his skin but didn´t say anything. He hadn´t said anything during the drive either. Neither had I.

"How are you feeling?" I asked now.

"I´m ok."

"Ha, how´s that for ´action-packed´?"

He grimaced and then winced. Yeah, pulling faces is only for those with intact lips.

"Um, I have to grade some assignments but you can stay here a bit and rest. If you need anything just call me, I´m in my bedroom."

He nodded and smiled slightly, causing him to wince again.

"Try not to move your mouth, singer boy." With that I left the living room.

When I returned to check on him half an hour later he was asleep.