The Will of Love and Life (Peterick)

Chapter Two

April 30, 2016

"Patrick? Hey, dude, pay attention," Joe said, snapping his fingers in Patrick's face.

Patrick blinked, barely focusing again.

"What is with you today?"

"I don't know."

"You've been zoning out a lot. What're you thinking about?" Joe asked, setting the papers they were working on aside.

Patrick sighed. "I met this guy last night and. . . I don't know. He wanted to talk to me."

"Talk? To you?" Joe raised his eyebrows. "Considering that you're, no offence, the least approachable person in the world, that strikes me as odd."

"I know," Patrick said, frowning slightly. "The weird part was, though, that he liked me."

"Come on Patrick, that's---" But Patrick just gave Joe a bored look, and he sighed. "Maybe. Do you like him though?"

Patrick shrugged, twirling his pen between his fingers.

"What's his name?"

"I don't remember," Patrick said. "Can we just finish this?"

But Patrick did remember Pete's name. He remembered everything about the nineteen year-old who literally dropped into his life the night before. He remembered the black hair framing brown eyes. The way he smiled with his top teeth jutting out over his plump pink lips. Maybe he only remembered because barley a day had passed, but Patrick didn't like to remember things. Usually he didn't. Pete was the exception.

*****

It was a Saturday evening, and Patrick was sitting alone against the fence in his yard, reading an old family law book that Joe asked him to look over. He was barley paying attention to it. He couldn't even remember what he was looking for. He was more interested in the small patch of red grass he must've gotten paint on the night before. He poked a fee blades with the toe of his shoe, wondering how he got the grass completely colored, when he had a slight heart attack from the sudden voice behind him.

"Hey, Tricky."

He caught his breath and turned his head to see Pete standing on the other side of the fence, looking slightly guilty.

"Sorry," Pete said, climbing over the fence to sit on the ground next to Patrick. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," Patrick said, fixing the fedora on his head.

"Whatcha reading?" Pete asked, nodding towards the opened book on the lawyer's lap.

Patrick looked down. He had forgotten the book was even there. "It's a law book."

Pete's brown eyes widened. "Sorry, I'm bothering you then, aren't I? I didn't mean to. I can go, if you'd like me to."

"No, you're not bothering me," the lawyer said before the younger man could get up. "I wasn't reading it, anyway."

And as if to prove it, he shut the book and set it next to him on the ground. Pete smiled and shifted to lean back on the fence, close enough that their shoulders were almost touching. If Patrick moved so much as a centimeter to the right, they would be pressed together.

"You know, it's a Saturday night," Pete said, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Why are you sitting out here pretending to read a law book?"

"It's not like I have anything better to do," Patrick sighed. "I could ask why you're out here with me."

"Are you going to?"