Away From Prying Eyes

Chapter 4

INK

"Pat just come with us. One night won't hurt."

Ink has been trying to convince him for the better part of 30 minutes to get out of the house and hang out with her and Pa.

She crossed her arms, leaned against the door frame of Pat's home office, and watched as he kept typing away while ignoring her presence. He's doing it again, she said to herself. She's worried about him, but she knows if she mentions it directly, Pat will continue to dismiss her.

Ever since he mentioned that he might have met his dream guy, he's changed. His responses lately have been short and distant. She took a surveying look at her best friend and couldn't help but feel sad. To others he may look put together, but she knew better. She eyed his fingers moving swiftly over the keyboard and noticed that he's picking at the skin around his fingernails again. A tell-tale sign that he is not alright. This is not the Pat she knows and loves.

Correction, this is a Pat she knows unfortunately. She's only met him twice, once when he came to America and the other time was when he couldn't meet his dream guy anymore. After that she vowed to never allow anyone to reduce her best friend to this state again. So, dream Pran, lookalike Pran, whoever you are if I ever meet you, I will strangle you with my bare hands. Ink thought angrily.

"Pa's worried about you Pat." As soon as she mentioned Pa's name, Pat froze. "Korn, too" she added.

He finally looked up at her with glassy eyes and she quickly walked to his desk. She pleaded with him some more. "Please don't do this to Pa again."

Pat's eyes instantly filled with guilt. He looked down, grasped his hands together. She hated to have to use Pa's name, but it was the truth.

"Is she really?" Pat whispered. Ink recalled how Pa came home last week.

Pa came home one day face bright red, full of tears and collapsed in her arms. Ink immediately went into panic mode. It took her an hour to calm Pa down enough so that she could understand what was going on. "P'Ink you have to help him." Pa begged her and then a fresh round of tears fell down her face. Ink pulled her into her arms to console her. She whispered comforting words to her hoping that it would be enough.

After she was able to calm Pa down for a second time, Ink left her sleeping girlfriend on the couch, grabbed her phone, and left the apartment. When she reached the car, she took out her phone and saw that she was getting a call from Korn. Speak of the devil, Ink thought.

"Ink we have to do something about him." Korn said as soon as she picked up.

She immediately knew who he was referring to. Pat.

"What do you mean?"

"He's working long hours and then he comes home to work some more. Then he calls me randomly in the middle of the night to work out. Then gets upset with me when I don't want to continue working out for 3 hours straight." Korn complained.

"I figured something was wrong. Pa came home crying."

"How is she?" Korn asked.

"She just cried herself to sleep." Ink said quietly.

Korn let out a sigh. They sat on the phone not saying a thing, but the message was understood between them. They couldn't let Pat revert to his old self.

Pat looked up at her apologetically and said, "Sorry, I'll go. Let me go shower and I'll meet you downstairs."

When Pat left the office, Ink pulled out her phone to send a quick text.