I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy ...

Chapter 25 - I Wanna See You Be Brave

I climbed the familiar stairs to Maddie's apartment on Saturday morning. Her parents were going to be stopping by for brunch and Maddie seemed hectic about it when we talked yesterday. 'I need you to be good, Patrick' she had hissed. It was like I was talking to my mother, and she was scolding me before Thanksgiving dinner.

I rapped on the door and Josie answered quickly. "Oh, you showed up," she said flatly.

"Sorry to disappoint, Josie," I chimed moving my way past her and into the apartment. Josie gave a snort as a reply and shut the door behind me. "Where is she?" I asked searching the room for Maddie. I had butterflies just thinking about seeing her again.

"Back in her room," Josie nodded. "But tread lightly. She's testy today."

I acknowledged the warning feeling as if maybe Josie and I actually had a moment. The fear of letting Maddie down was our bonding ties. "Thanks Josie. How have you been?" I asked nicely.

She gave a short laugh and turned towards the kitchen. Maybe I got ahead of myself about the whole 'friendship with Josie' thing. I let it go and cautiously made my way to the hallway and back to Maddie's bedroom.

I smelled her scent before actually seeing her, and I felt weak. The past few weeks seemed distant now and the only thing that mattered was making this right. I stood at the doorway and found her sitting on the floor with her backed turned to me. A long mirror stood in front of her and various beauty products accompanied her on the floor. Her gorgeous blond hair cascaded down her back in loose ringlets. She wore black tights and a loose fitting pink polka-dotted blouse. Suddenly, I caught her shining blue eyes in the mirror staring back at me, and I felt my body heat rise.

"Hi," I squeaked.

"Hi," she answered and twisted her body around to climb up off the floor. As she did, I caught a glimpse of her bulging bump under her blouse, clearly bigger than I remembered. "You made it," she said coming to stand in front of me.

I gave a small chuckle. "Did you both think I wasn't going to show?" I questioned.

Instead of answering she unexpectedly grabbed my hand and led me to the bed. She sat down and indicated I do the same. I sat down with the grace I had and turned to her. "I know we've been taking some time," she began looking at me with pure courage. "but I had to ask you to be here. I hope that's ok."

"Yeah," I bumbled. "I want to be." I tried to reassure her.

She seemed to brush off my statement and continued. "I just want, no I need my parents to believe there's a united front on this pregnancy. I screwed up things in my life that my parents never seemed to get over, like college. If they really knew how this," she said indicating the bump under her blouse, "came to be, I'm sure they'll peg it as another way that I messed up."

I wish I could refute her statement, but the reality was we had both been careless in this. "Look Maddie," I started. "I just want to apologize for this summer."

She quickly held up her hand to my mouth and covered it gently. "No Patrick," she said staring into my eyes. God, her skin smelled amazing. "I don't want to talk about that now," she continued lowering her hand. "Let's just get through this without those emotions playing out."