Death Bite (Peterick)

Part 20: Falling For You

A/N: (Horribly written)Smut lies ahead. Btw there's just four more parts after this, and I've decided there won't be a sequel simply because I feel like I've taken too long on this book anyway and a sequel would complicate other stories I've got in the works. So the last couple parts may be rather long because I'm just tying up loose ends before I go back and edit everything.

Patrick's POV:

There was something about the way he would look at me that had me fidgeting in my seat and day dreaming about kissing him again. It was different between us. I wasn't quite certain exactly when I felt the change, but it was like we were strangers, playing this awful game of just waiting to see what the other would do next. The idea of him leaving tomorrow put a bigger strain on our friendship. We were acting like children simply staring at each other from across the table.

There was no smooth way to go about it anymore, and it worried me because I couldn't possibly handle all these urges eating me alive inside and threatening to ruin the platonic relationship Pete and I had. Joe noticed it first perhaps because Andy was too consumed in sharpening his knives to really care about anything other than how quickly and efficiently he could take down a vampire. Joe had asked me why I invited Pete over for dinner when he couldn't eat anything my mother cooked, and I wondered the same thing myself. I reasoned it was because I wanted to see him one last time before his departure, but Joe knew better. He followed me into the kitchen whilst my parents watched the awkward, odd-looking Pete and aggressively-focused Andy. They didn't wonder about my choice of friends when I told them that they all saved my life plenty of times.

"You've got a thing for him, don't you?" Joe questioned while handing me the dishes he'd gathered off the table.
"What makes you think that?"
"I'm not stupid. The signs are all there."
"Pete's just a really good friend."
"A really good friend you'd like to screw. You guys were ogling each other for a solid five minutes."

"Joe, please. Nothing's going on."
He rolled his eyes and began to wipe the dishes I'd placed in the drying rack. I didn't like to lie to one of my friends. Well, was it lying if I didn't even know if there was anything there to lie about?

"I won't judge you, y'know, if...if you like men," he muttered.
"I don't know what I like. Everything's too difficult to figure out when I'm much more concerned about losing those I care about."
"Doesn't mean you can't have a little fun and live it up while you can, while he's still here."
I glanced behind us through the doorway separating the kitchen and the dining room to see Pete laughing along at something amusing either my parents or Andy had said.

He looked away from them for a moment to look at me, still holding his gorgeous grin that was melting my heart each passing second. I matched his smile. Then I met Joe's eyes that had been watching me intently.
"Those are the signs, man," he chuckled before walking off back into the dining room.

***

The music flowed inside my bedroom and danced off the walls into my ears. Outside my bedroom window the world was a quiet, drab place, where everyone was in constant fear of being attacked or killed. I hated it. I hated every single part of the paranoia that had suddenly taken over the city, and here I was giving into the anxiety. It didn't serve Elisa justice to simply sit around and do nothing while the world was dying.

I glanced at Pete who had fallen asleep on my threadbare beanbag, the same one that had sat in this room throughout my teenage years. It wasn't often that I was able to witness him sleep. In fact, it was rare. Vampires didn't need a lot of sleep as Pete had told me once. I wondered about his mission, the danger that was involved in every part of it, but he was doing something, making a difference in his own way.