A Handful Of Moments You Wish You Could Change (Patrick Stump Imagine Story)

It's Not Like He Cares...

Patrick walks through the front door after returning home from a nearly year-long tour the band just went on and is immediately intercepted by his now four and half year old daughter. "Daddy!"

"Gabby!" He exclaims as enthusiastically as he can manage, picking her up (with a little bit of difficulty) and showering her face with kisses. "Oh, I missed you so so so so so much! Did you miss me?"

Gabby nods her head, smiling widely at her dad. She was definitely more of a daddy's girl than a mommy's girl, even if he's been away for most of her growing up.

You walk upstairs from the basement, a basket of laundry in your arms, and notice Patrick standing in the front entryway. "Hey, you're home," You greet, walking over to him as a smile appears on your face.

He sets Gabby down on the ground and gives you a kiss on the cheek.

"How was the rest of the tour?" You question as Gabby clings onto her dad's leg. 

"It was fine," He answers, looking down at Gabby and ruffling her curly blonde hair.

You stare at Patrick, waiting for him to elaborate, but he says nothing. You swallow hard before saying, "Guess who graduated from Kindergarten a week ago?"

"Uh...let me think...was it Ethan?" He jokingly guesses.

"No, Daddy, Ethan's in high school! It was me, Daddy!" Gabby giggles.

He gasps, "Really? Gabby? Graduated Kindergarten?"

"Yeah! I had a cap and gown and everything! Mommy took a picture, let me go get it!" She detaches herself from her dad's legs and runs away to retrieve the picture. You look at Patrick and watch as he takes off his jacket, hanging it up on the coat rack.

You sigh.

You don't know what it's been lately, but Patrick seems to be growing distant again. Not just from you, but from the whole family. His calls home while he was away became less frequent as time went on, they also became shorter and shorter, as if he didn't know what to say to you, or as if he didn't want talk to you or the kids.

You don't know why that is, because things have been going great for you guys. The band's doing great and your son and daughter are growing up to be wonderful kids. Ethan acts up ever so often, but it's because he feels like you and Patrick care more about Gabby than you do him (which you've told him isn't true, time and time again).

Patrick doesn't understand why he would feel that way, but you do. You had to deal with your step-dad's annoying daughter who got whatever she ever wanted by whining until she made whoever she was whining to to reach their breaking point. So Gabby to Ethan was like your annoying little step-sister to you. He used to be yours and Patrick's top priority, but now that Gabby's there, he has to share that top priority and he's not much of a sharer. He spends a lot of time in his room, only coming out if there's food or if he's leaving to hang out with his friends.

But other than that, things have been good. So you have no idea why Patrick's acting like this.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Gabby squeals, racing back down the stairs and up to Patrick, waving the photograph in the air. Patrick takes the picture into his possession and smiles at it. "See? I'm right there in the front. Do you see me?" She asks, bouncing with excitement.

"Yes I do. You're the prettiest Kindergartener there." He stares at it for a little more before saying, "Wish I was there to see you..."

You bite your lip before making your way upstairs, where you set the clothes basket down on the floor in the hallway and knock on your son's closed bedroom door. The music playing in there comes to a halt and you hear footsteps. The door opens and your son pops his head out.

"What do you want, Mom?" He questions, crossing his arms.

"Just brought up your clothes," You reply, bending down and picking up his pile of folded clothes out of the basket. You hand them to him and he takes them, disappearing back into his room. You push his door open fully and inform him that his dad's home.

"Yeah? And?" He tosses his clothes into his messy closet and stalks back over to his desk, going back to scribbling in his notebook.

"Aren't you going to say hi?"  You cross your arms.

"It's not like he cares..." Your son mumbles under his breath.

You frown and sit down on the foot of his bed, "Ethan, he cares a lot."

"No he doesn't..." His scribbling becomes heavier, the angrier he gets. "He wasn't there to see Gabby graduate and he wasn't there for my first day of high school. He wasn't even there when you had Gabby! He came afterwards because he was away at the studio!"

"Ethan..."

"All I'm saying is that if he cared, he would've been there all those times." He sets his pencil down and glances over his shoulder at you, "Now can you please get out? I was kind of in the middle of doing something."

"He does care Ethan," You say, rising to your feet and walking over to him, placing a gentle kiss on his head. "He just...isn't around all the time to show it." You stand there for a little before turning around and leaving.