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37. It ain´t over until the short chubby kid sings


THIS VERY LAST CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO /CODEWORDLOVE/. BASICALLY BECAUSE I´M NOT SMART ENOUGH TO WORK HER NAME INTO THE STORY.*

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Summer had passed as if it had been just two days long.**

I had accompanied the guys to some of the shows of their tour. Sometimes I had even played roadie or merch girl, later being replaced by some hygiene-challenged caveman who referred to himself as Dirty. And, let me tell you, that was still flattering.

Shortly before school started again Patrick and I were hanging out at his place to celebrate the success of the band and the return of value packages of /Pixied Secrets/. Actually, that was just me.

"And once again it´s the two of us. The ones that noone´s willing to make out with," I let out a theatrical sigh and grinned at Patrick.

He formed a fist and pounded it against the left side of his chest two times as he said, "Ignored by love, overlooked by romance. That´s us, all the way." Then he smiled back at me.

"So what are we gonna do?"

Patrick took off his hat, straightened out his hair underneath it and put it back on. I let out a hearty laughter.

"What is it?" he inquired, looking confused.

"Man, Patrick," I said giggling. "I´ve been pulling myself together pretty much since day one I met you but now I just had to let it out. You look so funny when you´re fidgeting around with your caps all the time."

The guy raised one eyebrow, "All the time? Do I do that often?"

"Aaaahh... YEAH," I nodded wildly.

"I was not aware of that."

"Yeah, in fact, I think it´s probably some obsessive-compulsive disorder," I teased him.

He shook his head slighty and adjusted his hat (AGAIN), smirking, "I can see why noone wants to date you, you insensitive layman psychologist."

I poked his arm softly, "And you´re a geek."

"I´ll take that as a compliment, missy."

I looked around in his and Joe´s apartment. "Back to my question: What are we gonna do now?"

"I have no idea? What do you wanna do?"

I shrugged, "What can you offer me?"

"Mh, lemme think... We have a decent movie collection... there´s computer games, approved by Joeman... We could always jam out some, too."

"I think I´ll pass on that one. What else, Stump?"

"Don´t call me Stump," he faked being annoyed.

That, of course, amused me to no end, "Why not? It´s your name."

He pouted, "I don´t like it."

"Come on. It´s like the cutest last name I´ve ever heard," I was feeling a bit flirtatious.*

"Exactly. It´s CUTE," he rolled his eyes.

I checked my watch with ostentation, put on a pondering face and glanced at the guy.

"What´s the matter?"

"It´s been like three minutes and you haven´t fumbled around with your hat again."

He leaned over to me and nudged my side, "Dude, drop the hat thing already."

Being so terribly ticklish I had to laugh, "If you refer to me as ´dude´ you sound like Joe."

Patrick tried to imitate Joe´s voice, "Dude, what about the no-chicks-in-the-band rule?"

I laughed harder. It wasn´t that his impression of our friend was that good, it wasn´t in the slightest convincing. But for some reason I thought he was hilarious.

"You remember when he was telling you to ´FUCK-ing simmer down!´?", he asked with an amused squeak in his voice.

As a reply I laughed some more. He just looked at me, a bit puzzled. "I´m not actually that funny, now am I?"

I calmed down a bit, "No, not really. I think I´m just in a super good mood so I find everything rather entertaining."

"You really know how to make a guy feel good about himself, dontcha?" Then he patted me on the knee and added, "But it´s good to see you happy like that. I can´t remember ever having seen you like this before."

Neither could I.**

I looked him in the eyes, "It´s just feels really good hanging out with you, Patrick."

His hand wandered to his cap again.

"You´re just such an amazing person," I was surprised how easily those words had escaped my lips. It just felt like the right thing to say at the moment.

"For God´s sake. Stop it, you´re making me blush," he said, blushing.

I just smiled at him. He looked at the floor and then up at me for a split second and smiled back.

"I´ll tell you what," he got up and handed me several loose sheets. "I´ll grab us something to eat and in the meantime you can look through the crappy stuff I´ve worked on lately. When I get back, we´ll have lunch and then we´ll think of something to do. How´s that sound?"

"Perfect," I held on tightly to the papers.

"Awesome," he replied. "See you in a bit then." Then he headed for the door and I heard it open and close.

Man, he sure had been in a hurry to get out of here.

I started looking through the sheets that I had been given. Some of them had musical notation on them, others were lyrics. Suddenly something red caught my attention. It was a crimson sheet of paper, folded neatly in half. It read "Sheena".

I placed the slim stack of papers onto the table in front of me and unfolded the red note. It said:


Sheena,


You´re probably thinking I´m a complete dork for writing you a letter. And chances are, you´re right. The thing is I don´t think I could tell you what I want to tell you face-to-face. (Pst, if you haven´t noticed, I´m a bit shy.) I´m sorry I´m such a coward but I´m trying hard. That´s why I wrote this letter. So I´ll just move on to the juicy part...

I can´t think of somebody else in my life who´s been as close to me as you. When I´m with you I have the feeling that I can talk about everything that´s on my mind. After sometime it didn't´even feel awkward to talk about Joyce with you because I know that you´re not judging me. Talking about my feelings for her helped me a big deal to finally get over her and move on.

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you much I value your musical talent. You´ve enriched our band more than words could ever express. (You´ve even made up for Joe´s sloppiness and Andy´s wish to add an extra drum roll to every other song. Seriously, how silly is that?)

So I guess, all in all I just want to thank you for being there for me and making my life so much more bearable.


Patrick

P. S.: I think I´m probably in love with you.

P. P. S.: If you don´t feel the same please be gone when I get back home. I realize this is lame but I couldn´t deal with having to look you in the face in this case. Thank you.

P. P. P. S.: Scratch the "I think" and "probably".



Whoa on the whoas.

I glanced at my watch. Patrick had been gone for about 10 minutes now. When would he be back?

It wasn´t until now that I noticed how fast my heart was pounding in my chest. I´m guessing it must have started about when I had found the crimson note. I was feeling slightly nervous at the thought of Patrick´s return.

I was not leaving, was I?

What a dork, to write me a love letter!

What an incredibly sweet dork.

Now what was I gonna say when he returned? "I read your note and I like you back?"

Um, I think not.

Or maybe just kiss him?

That would probably be awkward. Maybe he would be holding two boxes of pizza in his hands and then he would have to put them down and then he´d know what I was planning to do.

I still couldn´t believe he had gotten over Joyce. When had that happened? Why hadn´t I been informed of this by e-mail, text message or a billboard on the roadside?

Extra, extra! Patrick Stump got over Joyce Hurley! I found myself wondering if Satan was wearing gloves yet.

I heard the door open again. "Sheena?"

My heart was pounding so fast now that I was afraid it would burst any second.

Okay, I had to think up a plan really quick now.

"This is just great..." Patrick sighed sadly and entered the living room. I had forgotten to answer him. He stood there and stared at me for a moment.

"Oh, you are here," he said.

I nodded.

"Have you...?"

"Read the letter?" I finished his question.

He nodded.

I nodded.

Silence.

"You might wanna put the pizza boxes down," I suggested.

"Right." Patrick did so. "You hungry?"

"Yeah, I could eat some."

The guy disappeared in the kitchen and returned with a knife and napkins. Then he got comfy on the couch and we opened the boxes.

"I didn´t know what you liked. I got us a tuna and cheese one and one with pretty much all the crap they had there."

Yeah, I was not the only one nervous here. He adjusted his cap.

"Patrick?"

"Hm?" he looked up from the pizza, busy cutting it into slices.

"The thing you always do with your hats... I´d prefer watching you do that over Andy asking me out anytime."

He smirked at my comment, "What a weird thing to say... but thank you."

There he was, next to me on the couch. Cute as a button.

Pushing both boxes closer to me, he said, "Help yourself."

Then we ate. Chewed slowly. It was a good excuse for not talking.

Between two bites Patrick asked me, "Are we like dating now?"

"Sure. If you wanna."

"Cool."

We resorted back to eating pizza. Which, by the way, made me decide against a spontaneous kiss.

I kept on eating, even when I noticed that I was reasonably full. After Patrick had grabbed and finished off the last slice he said, "Now we´d have to eat the cardboad if we wanna avoid a conversation."

I smiled forcedly.

Popping some chewing gum into his mouth, he asked if I wanted some too. Something told me he had this part better planned than me.

"Sure," I replied and helped myself.

There we sat, chewing again.

"This tastes good. Is that cinnamon or something?" I wondered aloud.

"Yep."

"I really like it."

"Me too."

Hey, dear readers. Remind me again, how old were we?

Then Patrick jumped up from the couch and left the room. He hadn´t said a word. One minute later he reappeared with a white rose in his hands.

He handed it over to me, "I got you this earlier. Just forgot it, sorry."

I just smiled at him like a fool. He smiled back.

"You really shouldn´t have, Patrick."

"It´s nothing, really."

I placed the flower in front of me on the table.

"Let´s watch a movie," the guy suggested. After he had popped in a DVD I grabbed his hand and held it softly. He squeezed it tightly for a moment and then placed our intertwined hands on his thigh. We remained like this for the next 90 minutes, staring at the screen and holding hands.

When the film was over Patrick asked me if I wanted to check out the bonus features.

I looked at the DVD menu on the TV screen, "Ah, there are no extra features."

"Yes, there are," then he leaned over and placed his lips on mine, ever so gently. They felt warm and smooth. As I parted my lips slightly he moved one of his hands onto my cheek and we started frenching, slowly.

How did it feel? Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. And that´s probably an understatement.

When we pulled away from each other Patrick looked like a kid in a candy store (that also sold extraordinary hats). It just made my day.

"So we safely got over that obstacle," I cooed.

"Ha ha, yeah."

With the first kiss out of the way, both of us were able to relax again. We behaved pretty much like we had always done when we were together.

Later Patrick walked me home and we kissed again before I went up the stairs to my apartment.

_ _ _ _ _


"Hey, do you remember when I walked in on you when you were undressing to take a shower?" Patrick giggled.

"Are you gonna tell me you planned this or something?"

He shook his head, "No... But I was wondering if we could do that every day now?"

"You´re so silly."

"And you´re so amazing." Then he raised an eyebrow and looked at me sharply, "Even though there must be something wrong with you for wanting to be with me."

I smirked, "You´re just fishing for compliments now."

In the meantime we had arrived at his place and I turned off the engine of my car. "You in for the obligatory making out before saying good night, Hatrick?"

"If you keep picking on me about my hats, I´ll be wearing one in bed too." He gave me his best impression of hurt Patrick.

"Oh, so we´re getting bold now, are we?"

He blushed slighty. The cuteness of it!

I nudged him, "And I´m liking it."

He leaned in to me, "So, what was that about the obligatory making out session?" While we were kissing one of his hands rested on my thigh and the other one on my neck, I had mine on his shoulders. I inhaled his smell. I was positive I discovered something that just might possibly outdo the smell of cookies straight out of the oven.

He moaned softly. That made me grin. It also made me feel all fuzzy inside. Without having eaten spoilt pot roast or drunken too much plonk.

His kisses became more passionate and I responded accordingly. After about five minutes*** he pulled away all of a sudden and stared at me with a straight face.

"You wanna come upstairs with me?"

Laugh you not. Ever since us hooking up in Patrick´s apartment we hadn´t been at either his or my place.

I had to think about this for a second. In my state of undersexedness it was quite certain what coming upstairs with him would lead to. And how often it would lead to it.

I nodded. Patrick smiled at me and grabbed my hand, "Let´s go."

I laughed, "Silly, you have to let go of my hand or I can´t get out of the car."




DAS ENDE


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* And because she (I guess?) leaves simple, yet kick-ass reviews.

* checks the date of the last update* That is about right, Sheena.

* I´m feeling a bit nauseous.

** I take credit for that, thank you.

*** That´s the truth behind the missing time so-called alien abductees are talking about: The time´s not really missing, it was just spent on hardcore making out that messed with your senses.