Pat

Family

“Babe, are you okay?” it always felt like Pat was always asking how I was and sometimes, I couldn't tell her the truth.

“Yeah, I’m good,”

“You don’t look good. You barely touched your food at the restaurant and you keep zoning in and out of your thoughts not to add that, that is the second blunt you’re smoking in less than thirty minutes,”

“I’m just tired and I was thinking of everything that has been happening in my life,”

“So it has nothing to do with your family?” I got startled.

“No, it has nothing to do with them,”

“What did they want anyway?”

“Just some project they were telling us about, if me and the others would be interested,”

“If you need my input just let me know,”

“Pat,”

“Yes baby,”

“Promise you’ll never leave me again no matter what happens,”

“The only way I’m leaving you is if I stop breathing,” she said giving me a kiss. That may have been true but I knew Pat and I knew that if she found out my parents had an issue with our “friendship” she’d leave in an instant and that’s why I chose not to tell her about what had transpired that day.

A few days later my sister came to visit. I knew she had come to reprimand me for what I had done the other day but I still welcomed her in. We talked about other things before she brought Pat into the conversation.

“Please let’s not talk about Pat because I’m not changing my mind,”

“What does this woman have on you that you chose her over your family?”

“I didn’t chose anyone, I chose not to choose,”

“You left us and live with her, if that’s not choosing I don’t know what is,”

“I don’t live with her yet. She comes and goes as she pleases and if I had chosen her I wouldn’t have let you in my house,”

“Liz, dad has been having headaches since that day and mom hasn’t been feeling well either. Do you want to see them die so you could change your mind? People will think that you are in a relationship with her,”

“What if I am in a relationship with her? What if I use friendship as a cover up to be with her?”

“You can’t be serious right now,”

“One of you has to know the truth. Before the accident I was in a relationship with Pat, she cheated on me and that’s why I got into an accident. I met her a few years later and I had an affair with her until Gabe found out and I had to end it, that’s why we moved here.

After the blast my memories started coming back to me and I realised that I never stopped loving her. She’s the love of my life and Gabe knew it too and before he died he gave me his blessings to get back with her if we ever crossed paths again. I found out about it a few weeks before his anniversary but she and I were already together,”

“This is crazy Eliza, mom and dad will go mad if they heard such an absurd thing,”

“I’ll not be the one to tell them. If you choose to tell them and something happens to them it’ll be on you and not me because you'll have chosen to tell them news that you know may hurt them,”

“Why are you doing this to yourself?”

“Doing what? Loving back a human that loves me unconditionally? I love Pat and I’m not going to be the one to leave her. If she decides she’s had enough of me, you know I’ve never been one to force things, I’ll let her go but if she’s okay with having me until our dying day, I’m not going to be the one to break that promise,”