Fracture

CHAPTER FIVE

☆ ♫ Patrick ♫ ☆

I was reeling after leaving Scarlett's house yesterday. It was supposed to be a normal tutoring session but it turned into her having a panic attack and begging me to leave.

And of course like the eejit I am, I left.

I wanted to stay but she was asking me to go and the girl hates me enough already. I didn't want to make her hate me more.

What was even weirder was the panic attack almost seemed like it stemmed from that random stuffed dog that fell out of her closet. Unless she was panicking over the math textbook.

I wanted to help her. I wanted her to be able to come to me.

But I knew she wouldn't.
Scarlett was not the type of girl to ask for help, especially not from me.

"What's got you so lost in thought?" My eldest sister, Savannah asked.

"I bet it's a girl," The youngest of my three sisters, Lacy, giggled.

"What girl?" My middle sister, Valerie, joined in.

I groaned.

As much as I loved my three sisters, I wished I had a brother at times. Or at least a younger sister. All three of my sisters were older than me, making me the baby and the only boy.

Otherwise known as the runt.

"Oh! So it is about a girl," Savannah teased me, making me glare at her.

"Come on Patty, tell us about her," Valerie ruffled my hair.

I rolled my eyes in response.
Being in a house surrounded by women made me a man of few words, my sisters talked enough on my behalf.

"There's no girl," I lied, hoping they couldn't tell.

"Bullshit! I've never seen you think so hard in my life," Valerie snorted, "it's got to be about a girl."

"Fine, it's about a girl," I gushed, "but not in the way you think."

"Who is she?!" Lacy squealed, clapping her hands together.

"What's her name!?" Valerie jumped up and down.

"How'd you meet her?!" Savannah beamed.

Great.
Now they'd never stop talking about my 'crush'.

"I just said, it's not like that," I hummed, placing my bowl into the sink.

"Well if you're sitting here pondering her, then you must like her at least a bit," Savannah gave me a genuine smile.

"I don't know how I feel about her," I sighed, "she's hard to read, and she hates my guts."

"Holy shit! Are you talking about Gibsie's little sister?" Lacy screamed, catching onto what I was saying.

"Oh my god! Yeah, what's her name," Valerie paused before blurting out, "Scarlett! That's her name."

"Right! Little Scarlett Gibson," Savannah laughed, "god, you were so crushed when she stopped talking to you back in sixth class."

"I was not," I furrowed my brow, refusing to give them the satisfaction of being right.

"Why are you thinking about her, if she hates you so much?" Lacy asked, shoving a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

"Because I'm tutoring her in maths," I sighed.

"That's got to be awkward," Valerie snorted.

"It's bugging me," I complained, "when I didn't have to see her all the time it was easy to ignore that she hated me, but now it's all I can think about."

"Have you by chance, tried, I don't know, talking to her about it?" Lacy rolled her eyes.

"No," I mumbled.

"See, that's your problem," Valerie shook her head, "boys just assume stuff without even trying to understand the problem."

"There's no 'problem', she's hated me since sixth class," I grimaced, "clearly she has it out for me."

"Did you do something? Like talk about her behind her back or something?" Savannah suggested, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"Not that I can think of," I shrugged.

Who was I kidding? I had tried to figure out what exactly went wrong between Scarlett and I for nearly seven years.

Talking to her wasn't going to help, it didn't back then and it wouldn't now.

But I wanted to know why she was hurting herself and having panic attacks over stuffed animals. The girl was a mystery to me, and I happened to like solving mystery's.

Besides, I may or may not have a soft spot for her and her beautiful grey eyes.

"I just," I struggled to explain, "she's clearly going through something, and I can't be there for her because she doesn't want me to be."

"What do you mean?" Savannah asked, immediately going into big sister mode.

"Nothing, it's hard to explain," I mumbled, "I just want to be there for her."

"Well Patty, actions speak louder than words," Valerie smiled, "if she's struggling take her mind off it."

"How?" I asked.

"Invite her out to the farm," Savannah offered, "Maybe she needs to get away from life for a bit. The farm is the perfect place to do that. You could take her riding or down to the creek."

I smiled at the thought. Maybe she did need to get away from her life.

But I doubt she'd ever come to my house willingly.

So I was pretty much back to square one.

"Make sure it's a day that we're home," Lacy giggled, "I haven't seen this girl since primary school and I'd like to make sure she's Feely approved."

"Alright, I'll make sure to do it when no one's home," I rolled my eyes, jokingly.

"Patrick Feely! You can't have a girl over with no one home," Savannah screeched.

"Why not? I'm seventeen years old," I glared at her.

"Ew! Stop talking about this," Lacy shouted, plugging her ears and running around the kitchen.

"All of you leave me alone, I've got to get to training," I groaned, shooting all three of my sisters a dirty look before leaving the kitchen.

Heading into my room I sat on my bed and tried to plan out how on earth I was going to get Scarlett to come hangout at my house.

Good fucking luck.