Metronome (FOB FanFic ft. Tyler Joseph)

Chapter 23

I pushed open the classroom door and saw Patrick standing at the piano, organizing papers on top of it. He lifted his head when he heard the door click open and noticed me. A prominent scowl appeared on his face before he looked back down.

"Well, well look who it is," He mumbled under his breath coldly, "Miss Evelyn. Just the person I didn't want to see."

I clasped my hands behind my back and stepped further into the classroom, resisting the urge to retaliate with a witty, snarky remark, opting for a sincere, "I'm sorry to hear about your job."

He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't care. Being a teacher's never been something I've wanted to be, anyways."

"Hey, I already told you, you don't have to keep the tough act up around me. I know you're-"

"I'm not a fucking softie!" He snapped at me, slamming the papers he was gathering down and glancing up at me. "Goddammit, Evelyn, just because I was drunk and opened up to you one night, you think you know me. But you don't! And you never will!"

I swallowed hard, startled by his sudden change of behavior.

Maybe he was bipolar.

"I should've never agreed to teach you to play," He grumbled angrily, returning his attention to the pieces of paper marked with his handwriting, "The minute Joe brought it up, I knew it wasn't going to end well. I knew I was in a bad place and I knew that this was only going to make things worse. And what did it do? Exactly that."

I crossed my arms over my chest and heaved a sigh, knowing that whatever I was going to say was just going to go in one of his ears and out the other. My being there was pointless, but Joe said I needed to clear things up with him. And that's what I was going to do, even if I had to let him vent first.

Patrick stacked up the piles of papers and brought them over to his desk, dropping them into the box with everything else.

"Why are you even here?" He acrimoniously questioned.

"I just wanted to tell you I was sorry." Nine words that I was almost positive never slipped past Patrick's lips.

He chuckled, "You're sorry. You're fucking sorry. Like that's going to change anything."

I hung my head, biting my lip and keeping my mouth shut. A blanket of silence fell upon the large room, the sound of muffled student conversations just outside the door as they made their way to their classes.

"Why don't you just go?" He suggested, his bitter voice just above a whisper. "Make it easier on both of us..."

I glanced back at him, "Make what easier?"

"This," He mumbled, pulling open a drawer and taking something out. He walked around his desk and up to me, grabbing my hand and placing the heavy metronome in my palm.

"Why are you giving me this?" I inquired.

He slipped his hands into his pockets and sighed, "Because...this is the last time you and I will probably see each other, and I want you to remember me..." His voice trailed off and his gaze shifted down to his feet, "...I want you to remember to keep practicing. You have a lot of potential I didn't give you credit for and-"

"No," I cut him off, shoving the device back at him, "No, I don't want this."

Patrick's eyebrows furrowed together, "What do you mean you don't want it?" He shoved it back at me, "Take it."

"No!" I smacked the metronome out of his hands, causing it to crash on the ground without breaking it. He gasped. "No, I won't take it!"

I already lost one person I cared about. I wasn't going to lose another.

"You're just being dramatic!" I continued.

"I'm being dramatic?" He repeated, "Evelyn, are you unaware that I lost my job because of this? Because of you?" I clenched my jaw, staring into his glistening eyes. "I was finally starting to like this job. I was finally thinking that not all hope was lost for me. And then...then you came along." He shook his head, the corner of his lips perking upward ever so slightly, "You came along and changed it all. You...You became the only thing I could think about. In the morning, during the day, at night. I couldn't get you out of my head. I drove myself mad thinking about you!"

"But...But you hated me!" I cried, my mind spinning.

"I hated you because I didn't want to fall for someone again!" He shouted, immediately regretting it and a deep blush crawling up in his cheeks. He muttered an apology and rubbed the back of his neck nervously before confessing, "I didn't just take this job because Elisa wanted me to be home more. I took it because...because being a musician and being a professor are nothing alike. When you're a musician, girls are practically throwing themselves at you, almost dying for a chance to be with you. But when you're a professor? The only attention girls can pay you are smirks and winks, because that's all they can do. They can't be with you. So I thought that...that maybe if I became a professor, I...I wouldn't be tempted to...you know."

I shook my head, "You're making absolutely no sense, Patrick."

He brought his hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Sometimes, Evelyn, you're so stupid." He dropped his hand to his side and sighed, "I like you. Okay?"

I found myself struck silent.

"I like you a lot. But, you know, it doesn't matter, because as I said before..." He bent down and picked the metronome up, "...this is the last time you and I will probably see each other." He held out the ticker for me take.

"W-Why does it have to be the last?" I questioned, refusing to touch the device.

"Because I'm going back home for a little while and I'm probably not coming back."

My eyes trailed down from his to the metronome. I bit my lip as tears began to waver in my eyes.

"Just take it, Evie," He mumbled, once again placing the device in my hands and folding my fingers over it, "I won't be needing it anymore."

Patrick turned on his heel and walked back over to his desk, where he extracted the last of his things from the desk and stored them, folding the box up and scooping it up in his arms with a slight grunt.

"You should really work on your timing," He commented as he made his way over to the classroom door, "Because yours is horrific."

I turned my head and met his gaze, a single tear falling from my eye and rolling down my cheek.

"Really horrific," He tacked on before abandoning me, before leaving me alone, confused, and hurt.

I already lost one person I cared about.

And I just lost another.