FicWad

Patrick groaned from under the abyss of comforters adorning his bed as the light of his bedroom was switched on far too enthusiastically. "What are you doing?" He inquired as Pete came trampling in, heading straight for his closet and rummaging around until he was satisfied with what he had found. Pulling out stray pieces of luggage, Pete spread them out on the floor before making his way to the side of Patrick's bed.

"Get up, get pack, get showered!" Were his instructions as he yanked the blankets off of Patrick's lethargic body and threw them in a pile on the floor with one swift motion before exiting the bedroom.

"What are you talking about?" Patrick pulled himself out of bed and followed Pete, "Where are we going?" Scratching his head he stood in the door way and watched Pete enter again, now with his recently abandoned laptop in hand.

"You're going home"

"I am home?" Patrick raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"No you're other home silly boy" Pete explained simply as he searched Patrick's bedroom for his laptop case. "If you're going to be all sad and depressed, moping around all the time we're going to go home so we can play that game again where you consume yourself in your work, so you're at least somewhat useful."

"It's in the desk in the office" Patrick nodded as Pete placed the laptop on the end of the bed before shuffling Patrick towards the bathroom.

"We're making masterpieces out of heartache Mr. Stump" Pete clapped his hands together before continuing his luggage search, "Trust me, you'll thank me some day."

Patrick huffed in severe frustration but shuffled himself into the bathroom; work was probably what he needed and in LA, he would force himself to make use of his free time.

"She still won't answer, you know." Patrick sighed sadly as they boarded a plane some time later that afternoon, heading off to the city of angels.

"I know" Pete sighed, nearly as sad. After three weeks of ignored phone calls and Ana avoiding Patrick in any way she possibly could, Patrick was a mess and Pete was ready to do anything in his power to make it work, even if it meant getting down on his knees and groveling for her forgiveness himself.

"What if she decides to come around?" Patrick began panicking now, "What if she all of a sudden forgives me and I'm not around, I'm half-way across the country and I lose my chance?"

"You won't lose your chance, man, I promise." Pete tried his best to assure his broken hearted friend, knowing exactly what was best for the situation, ignoring the potential downside that it may have, "We'll work on mastering the album, we've got some press to do, we'll shoot the album cover and you'll be distracted just long enough. Trust me, LA is where you need to be."

Patrick sighed to himself and slouched down in his seat, he would never admit that it was a good idea for him to be away, to busy himself for a while, but then again, he would never admit that Pete ever had any good ideas.

Lugging her equipment through studio doors exactly nine days after Patrick and Pete arrived in Los Angeles, Ana huffed to herself, Janelle happily skipping ahead to the set, humming a tune off key to herself.

"A little help would have been nice" Ana huffed again as she caught up to where Janelle stood at the foot of the set, dropping her bags at her feet and cocking her head at the scene that had been created before her. "It's beautiful but, what is it?"

"I don't know" Janelle shrugged, "It wasn't my idea."

Ana apprehensively began setting up her camera around the present lighting stands, adjusting her equipment for the lighting of the studio, before stumbling along the major flaw of the situation.

"Will you tell me what I'm shooting now so I can at least know what adjustments I'll need to make?" Ana raised an eye brow at her best friend as Janelle nervously but on the edge of her finger nail. Janelle insisted on booking a photo shoot for Ana, insisting that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that would make or break every aspect of her life but as Ana began to realize that the set should be buzzing with far more activity, Janelle felt her nerves heat up.

Without giving her best friend a verbal answer, Janelle just took Ana by the hand and led her down a narrow hallway, voices floating from a door that stood ajar near the end, echoing off of the dark walls. Stopping in front of the open door, Janelle dropped Ana's hand and inhaled sharply.

"What's going on?" Ana inquired suspiciously.

"Please don't hate me" Janelle sighed as she nervously pushed the door open to reveal a room full of familiar strangers, all turning in unison to look at her.

"Hey ... its you!" Echoed through her ears from the corner of the room as her eyes frantically searched the scene before her, unable to place the familiar face she was afraid of finding. Seconds later a very large, very intimidating looking man began to approach her, offering his hand.

"You must be the photographer, I'm assuming. I'm Bob, the manager." Ana wearily shook his hand as her eyes continued to dart around the room. "Pete insisted on working with a photographer close to them, and you come highly recommended from the art department over here." Pete flashed Janelle a cheeky grin that Janelle happily returned far too casually for Ana's liking.

"Yeah it ... it should uh ... it should be a lot of fun." Ana stammered as her heart beat frantically in her chest, her lungs contracting from the heat that seemed to have suddenly filled the room around her, "I should probably uh, get set up though, it was uh ... it was nice to meet you."

"See you soon Ana!" Pete called out happily as Ana grabbed Janelle's arm, frantically pulling her back into the hallway.

"What the FUCK were you thinking?" Ana screeched as they hurried down the hallway, back to the set.

"I'm sorry, please don't hate me, it wasn't my idea!" Janelle frowned, pleading for forgiveness, "I was called in to do the album design, at first I had no idea who they were until I met them and I remembered Pete from the coffee shop that day in the city. It was really his idea, they hadn't hired a photographer yet, and he remembered hearing how talented you were, so I just played along, all I had to do what convince you to take the job."

Ana sighed in frustration and desperation, absently rubbing her eyes and inhaling sharply before reiterating to herself, multiple times, "Professional not personal."

"Ana, honestly, it's been over a month, you have to talk to him. You can't just keep pushing it aside like it isn't a problem because you cannot tell me that you are not miserable without him. I didn't know him before this but even I can tell the boy is for sure a wreck without you." Janelle sighed as she watched her disheveled friend fiddle with her camera.

"This isn't a particularly inviting way of approaching the situation."

"He has absolutely no idea who I am" Janelle admitted, "He's going to be even more surprised than you were and he's probably going to freak."

"Fantastic" Ana rolled her eyes.

"Maybe if you see him, you can forgive him. I know what happened was harsh, but you can't hold grudges forever if they're going to break your heart."

Familiar voices echoed through the studio a few minutes later as Janelle struck ridiculous poses around the set, assisting Ana with lighting adjustments, hoping to lighten the mood some how. "Just come see the finished product, it's so much better than I hope it would be; I couldn't even imagine it this beautiful." Pete explained enthusiastically, coaxing an apprehensive Patrick out to see the set.

"Obviously you two are creative soul ma--" Patrick laughed half-heartidly, attempting to relax his tense demeanor, a laugh that was quickly silenced, his words trailing off as he stopped dead several feet from a visibly tense Ana.

As his voice trailed off, Ana felt her breath hitch in her throat as tears began to well up behind her eyes. Patrick grabbed Pete's arm and pulled him back a few steps, lowering his voice to a whisper that was more audible to the rest of the room than he had hoped. "Why did you do this? She isn't going to want to see me. Dude, I don't know how you tricked her into this but I can't do it, I can't pretend that everything is okay."

Ana couldn't bring herself to face him as his words echoed through her ears; all she wanted was to see him, to run to him and feel his arms around her, but what he said broke her heart more than she ever imagined he could. Struggling to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill now, she inhaled sharply before spinning quickly on the balls of her feet and making a b-line for the studio door, bursting through to the parking lot. She was getting worse at holding up her emotional guard.

"See, now she's crying!" Patrick shouted angrily at Pete as the sound of the studio door slamming shut echoed off of the walls around them, "Do you think I like being left behind with the slam of a door?"

Pete shot Janelle a concerned glance as the three near-strangers stood awkwardly in the middle of the studio, Patrick straining to attempt to read the glance between this girl, and his best friend.

"Who the fuck are you?" Patrick now inquired, pointing a finger angrily at Janelle, who stood awkwardly with a confused and innocent frown on her face. "You agreed with Pete on choosing her, who the fuck are you?"

"Patrick" Pete forced a smile, introducing the two strangers, "This is Janelle, Ana's best friend from college."

"Oh God" Patrick muttered, now pacing the studio floor, his hands fidgeting with the hat on his head, "It's a set up."

"We had to!" Janelle confessed, "At first, I didn't know that it was you, but I remembered meeting Pete and we couldn't stand it anymore, you two are a mess and you need to figure it out. We just had to."

"Get the fuck out there" Pete instructed, angrily pointing to the door that had recently been slammed shut in a fit of emotion, "I don't care what you have to say to make it right, but grow some balls, get the fuck out there and talk to her."

Patrick sighed nervously, the fear and sadness glowing in his eyes as he shoved his hands in his pockets and headed for the door. He would never admit that Pete was ever right, but he hated when it was true. Ana sat around the corner of the building, on the ground, with her back against the building and her knees pulled up to her chest. This is where Patrick found her, her face buried in her arms, muffling the sobs that racked her entire body and his heart broke with each step he took toward her.

Fumbling with the car keys in his pocket as he approached her, he didn't think she had noticed his presence until he stood next to her, leaning himself against the wall, his eyes searching the sky for the answers his heart couldn't provide.

"You forget that I can tell the way you drag your heels when you walk and how shuffle quickly when you're nervous" Ana's voice now piped up over the tears that were beginning to subside.

Patrick sighed heavily as he slid his back down against the wall, taking a seat on the pavement next to her. "I know you don't want to hear me say that I'm sorry ..."

"Then don't say it" Ana spat, the bitterness in her tone cutting through his heart like a dull knife as she stood up from her seat on the pavement. "It probably isn't worth your time."

Patrick sat momentarily in a completely bitter daze as he watched her walk back toward the door, before reality hit him and he sprung up from the ground, hurrying after her. "Please don't run away from me again." He pleaded, catching a loose grasp on her forearm. "If you won't accept I'm sorry, what do you want to hear me say? What can I say to make it right again?"

"Please don't touch me" Ana sighed, pulled her arm from his grip before continuing on her way.

"I love you" Were the three words that filled the air and filtered to her ears next, causing her breath to catch in her throat as she stopped dead in her tracks. Momentarily exuberant from the admittance of the three words she had longed to hear since the night he came back into her life, she had almost dismissed the problem at hand. But significant events, relationship milestones, Christmas and Valentine's Day all came and went without the utterance of the three words of commitment, so why should now be so special? Why should the three words they had both ignored for so long be able to weld their hearts back together?

"Don't lie to me" She spat, through now clenched teeth, angry at the card that he had just played, "That isn't going to win me back."

"It isn't a lie" Patrick sighed, taking three steps closer to her now, "I was too selfish to realize it before it was too late." Catching another grip on her arm, he forced her to face him; tears were spilling down her cheeks as she bit her lip in attempt to hold them back.

"I'm sorry, I love you" His eyes were full of sadness and Ana could feel them burning a hole in her heart, soddering him back into his rightful place, "If you can't give me another chance, and we're over then at least I got to say it."

Patrick's left hand grazed her cheek, his thumb slipping over her cheek bone in an attempt to dry her falling tears as she offered him a weak smile and relaxed against him, giving in to his touch. Picking up the pieces of her heart and handing them back to him, she proposed a deal, "I guess we can call it even now."

Playing gently on his lips now, a smile he had hidden since she walked out now broke through, cupping her face in his hands, he wiped away the last of her tears and offered constant apologies, "I make mistakes, I'm only human but I promise that as long as you'll forgive me, I won't break your heart."

Offering him a gentle smile, a silent sigh slipped over her lips as she relaxed against his chest, his arms wrapping around her shoulders.

"And I promise this is the last outburst of word vomit, okay?"

"Well I hope this is the last time ..." Ana's lips curled up to smile prematurely at her joke before his lips gently met hers, "I'd never say no to you."

"I can't believe you just said that!" Pete exclaimed from the doorway beyond the reunited couple, "I can't believe she just said that! That was so cliché, I could vomit." Shuffling a laughing Janelle back into the building, he sarcastically joked, "At least they're back together."

Sometimes the cliché moments in our lives are what make it all worth while.