popularity || sanders sides [DISCONTINUED]

15 | Patton

Chapter Fifteen: A Loaf of Bread Will Do
Patton Valentine

Logan had been worried for a while now about my being allergic to cats and also having a cat roaming around my house. And, while I had been brushing it off like it was nothing, I was beginning to worry myself. It seemed that now more than ever my allergic reactions acted up. It also didn't help that fall and Halloween, and soon to follow, winter, were on the way.

Truthfully, I did try to avoid Muffles as much as possible, but that was hard. I loved this cat, and it was hard to flat out ignore her. Even so, I did my best to keep myself healthy in terms of allergies.

Practices for Hamilton went by, as well as many, many school days. Though it had been around two months since we had first met Virgil, it still seemed like yesterday. That's what time can do to you; it makes you astound yourself with your inability to wrap your mind around it.

School would be let out for fall break just after Halloween, which was only a week-and-a-half away. This, of course, meant that I was starting to freak out regarding our costume choices. I wanted the five of us, me, Logan, Roman, Virgil, and Veronica to have coordinating costumes, so I decided to have a meeting about the topic.

"We could do a Harry Potter theme!" Veronica threw out, though I could tell that she was doing that simply to say something. She didn't read Harry Potter.

"I love that!" Roman added. "Or we could do a DISNEY theme!" He said, emphasizing 'DISNEY'

Virgil, who was only there due to his being able to FaceTime me, sighed, "Or we could not do that." He said, sounding obviously tired. I agreed with Virgil, but only because I didn't know what we could possibly do with 'Disney.'

"Hey, Virgil, how long are you supposed to be grounded?" I asked. "It's been a literal month."

Roman nodded, "Yeah, when I talked to your mom, she said it would only be a week."

He shrugged, "I don't know. I'm hoping it should be over by the time Halloween gets here."

"I HAVE ANOTHER IDEA!" Roman suddenly shouted after a while of absolute silence. We gave him our attention, and he went on to explain, "Since some of us are doing Hamilton, I figured we could do that or another musical. I think there are plenty to choose from."

My mind immediately drifted to musicals like Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen, and Be More Chill. Everyone else seemed to have the same ideas, except for Logan, who wasn't too educated in that form of musical theatre. So Veronica decided that we would take a vote on which of the three musicals we should do.

Veronica and Roman voted for Heathers, but the rest of us voted for Be More Chill. So the next part was us choosing which character each of us would portray. We eventually decided on this: Logan would be Jeremy due to that being the only sensible character left for him, I would be Michael, Veronica would be Christine, Roman would be Jake, and Virgil would be Rich.

Then, once that was decided, we agreed to meet up tomorrow, with Virgil having to be in phone form again if he wasn't ungrounded by then, to pick out our costumes. After that being done, they all went home, or in Virgil's case, ended the call, and Logan and I sat down on the couch to unwind from the somewhat craziness of choosing costumes.

I almost laid my head down on Logan's shoulder, but the sound of my mother's voice filled the room, making me unable to do so. She had just come home from wherever she had gone—judging by the bags in her hand, that would be McDonald's—and had a bright smile on her face, "Patton, guess what!"

"What?" I could tell that she was excited, and that made me excited as well. It was sad, sure, but it was the truth: very few things made my mom happy anymore. It had been that way for a while now, almost as long as my dad had been gone. She had to transition to raising two young kids by herself far too quickly; that wasn't healthy for her.

Her smile got wider, "Someone let me pet their dog on the way home!"—my mother liked to walk almost everywhere since she barely had enough money to pay for the car's gas and such—"It was the cutest thing; he was a little chihuahua named Roscoe!"

"Sounds adorable, mama!" I was happy that she was excited about such a thing. It was almost comparable to seeing a child excited. I was in no place to make that comparison, but it was true. And I knew that she deserved to be happy more often than she actually was.

—————

"Alright, so I just need to get milk and bread? That's all?" My father asked my mother as he was about to head out on a warm summer's day. She nodded, and the two shared a quick kiss before my father headed out.

Once he was gone, I could visibly see my mother break. She slid down the door and previously-held-in tears fell down her cheeks. Now, I was only eleven at the time, but I could comprehend what was going on.

By that time we had known about the other ladies that my dad had impregnated. It was awful, and he didn't deserve to be here anymore, but we didn't do anything. We just let him continue to be around us. It didn't seem dangerous, until later when he came back.

My parents got in another one of their fights, and I was upstairs in my room with Peyton, who was only a few months old at the time. I had assumed like a dummy that it would simply end and they would make up, just as they always did. But that, unfortunately, wasn't the case.

Soon, they were both in my room, and my father was pulling me off of my bed, leaving Peyton stranded. Before I was aware of it, I was pressed against my father's chest, his arm around me and a kitchen knife to my neck. It was traumatic, especially as an eleven year old.

"Now, you can back off, Katelyn, or you will pay." The blade dug into my skin, and I felt as if I couldn't breathe any longer. My mother broke in that moment, "Okay! I give up! Just let him go! Why don't you go torture one of your other children?!"

She slapped her hand over her mouth and my dad's eyes went wide. He dropped the knife and ran, presumably out of the entire house. Then, my mom ran to my side and lifted up my chin to check on my neck. She saw that there was only some minor bleeding and wrapped me in a huge hug.

That was the last time I had seen my father.

—————

By the time I had snapped out of my flashback, my mom had went into the other room. Logan was still sitting by me; I was glad that he didn't leave while I was spacing out.

"Patton," He said quietly. I looked up at him, and he went on with what he intended to say. "What were you thinking about?"

I didn't want Logan to worry about my past than he already did, so I just shrugged and replied shortly, "Nothing important, Logie." And before he could protest, my mom called us in to eat.

—————

Okay, okay, so: there won't be an update next week, and possibly not one for a few weeks after that. This is because I want to finish writing some more one shots so I can stock pile those up, and then I want to focus on chapter two of Track One. Once chapter two is completely written and the release date is up for that, then I'll start focusing on this book again. I don't want to juggle too many things at once.

I hope you understand! Until next time!
-River