I'm Addicted to the Thrill

“We’re getting married!” grinned Niki.

Patricklooked between Jonathan and Niki. I smirked knowing that I had found out about the actual engagement before him. He probably knew it would happen before I was even in the picture, but that didn’t matter. I gave Captain Serious and Niki another hug before stepping back.

“Sorry, Kaner. She found out before you because someone wouldn’t answer his phone,” laughed Jonny. In all the times I had seen him before, he’d never looked this happy. I stuck my tongue out at Patrick then laughed.

The pizza came, and we all ate to our hearts’, or well our stomaches’, content. Here, in the living room that I was leaving for a few days, in one night I’d caught my boyfriend cheating on me and I congratulated my closest friend’s engagement. The five of us chatted mostly about the wedding as we ate, some about the football game that was on, and none at all about the things that happened before Niki and Jonny showed up. The game ended, and our conversation died out.

“So, Christine, can I stay with you for a few days? I want some of the awkwardness to go away before I see Hope again,” I said as we turned on a movie. My guess was that my roommate wouldn’t be back for a while or maybe until the next morning. At least, I would have time before she showed up again. Staying somewhere else kept me from having to listen to her apologize, and it would keep me from likely telling her I didn’t care about her and Zach.

“You can stay at my place. I have some extra rooms for when my family visits,” chimed Patrick. “You don’t have to take the offer though.”

I stared at him in disbelief. The offer was nice, but I didn’t really think he meant it. I saw Jonny give Kaner a quick wink, and I could feel my face heating up. The two were in on this, and in made me feel almost excluded.

“I thought we weren’t friends,” I said. He started to turn red. It was apparent that he felt about about saying it now. I snickered then turned back to Christine. “Do you have a place I can stay?”

“Stay with him. My place is a mess,” said Christine. She held her hands up, and I shook my head.

Spending a few nights at a hotel didn’t appeal to me, but it was within my funds. Glancing at Patrick, I wondered if he actually wanted me to stay with him. Waking up with him had gotten us to where we were now, but I couldn’t help thinking that he had an ulterior motive. That seemed his style. We still were too fond of each other as far as I could tell. Or he didn’t seem fond of me; I liked him and couldn’t stand him at the same time.

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Patrick's POV

I waited for an answer. Dani could take it or leave it, but I wanted her to take it. My cheeks weren’t hot anymore, and I couldn’t believe she brought up me saying we weren’t friends. Anger and jealousy had gotten the best of me. An apology was needed, but it wasn’t gonna happen.

“Fine. I’ll stay with you for a few days,” sighed Dani. She seemed like she really didn’t want to stay with me, but I had a feeling she was interested in the idea.

The girls went back to Dani’s room to pack up the things that she would need for a few nights at my place. Jnny looked at me and smirked. He seemed happy before now, and in this moment, he seemed like he was more amused than anything. My best friend shook his head.

“Have fun with your new roommate,” smiled Jonny. “Niki’s thinking of her the maid of honor at the wedding. Her or Madi.”

“Well if David’s your best man, it doesn’t really matter,” I told him. He threw a pillow off the couch at me. Jonny was more likely to make his brother his best man than me, but it didn’t really matter.

“He’s my brother. You’ll be in the wedding party though. I’m thinking of asking Verbeauty to be one of the groomsmen,” said Jonny.

I laughed at the idea of Kris being in the wedding party. Really I thought that Kris Versteeg would be best suited at the wedding as the band at the reception. Jonny would invite him to the wedding no matter what. We were all cloes when he was in Chicago with us. The idea of it was weird though. My best friend was going to get married, and I was out of a wing man.

The girls came out of the room smiling and laughing. Jonny stood and gave Niki a hug picking her up. I was happy for them. Dani picked up her bags and brought them over to the couch holding one out to me. I took it and shook my head. She was doing this since she carried one of my bags to the car earlier. The weight of the bag made me almost drop it.

“Fuck, Dani. How long are you staying?” I asked her.

“A few days. Let’s go,” she said. The five of us left going in three different way.
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We got to his apartment after a nice drive. Pat and I discussed other sports and the wedding. I told him that Niki had asked me to be a bridesmaid. He wasn’t surprised at that. It made me wonder if she told Jonny who in turn told Patrick. He told me about how he was a groomsman. I laughed thinking about the dresses we would have to wer and prayed that Niki would make them anything but hideous.

We entered Patrick’s place and dropped the bags off in one of the rooms I guessed his sisters stayed in. There were pictures of a younger Patrick and his sisters. I smiled looking at them.

“Hey, Danielle, come here. I want you to see something,” called Patrick from the living room. He went back and forth between calling me Dani and Danielle. I rather liked it.

I put down the clothes that I was folding. What could he possibly want me to see? Pulling my gaze away from his pictures, I walked out to the living room then joined him out on the patio. It came to my attention that he was trying to show me the view from his apartment. I leaned next to him on the railing and sighed. He turned to look at me.

“Y’know, I come out here to think sometimes. Isn’t it great?” said Patrick. He motioned to the Chicago skyline.

I nodded. It didn’t really occur to me that he actually thought about things. He wasn’t the guy I really thought he would be. Wel, sometimes, he was exactly like I expected. Patrick was more than a lot of the sites gave him credit for. He had made mistakes, but he was allowed to because he was human. The hockey player was less of a nightmare than I had really thought he was when we met.

He stood closer to me after the wind began to pick up again. I rested my head on his shoulder. He put his arm around me, and we stood like that for a minute. Plenty of girls had been to this apartment before me, but I wondered how many of them had shared moments like this with him. For all the trouble we had given each other, this was rather nice.

As the cold drove us inside, I smiled at Patrick. He didn’t say anything but gave me a quick kiss. After that we went our separate ways for the night. I fell asleep smiling. W weren’t friends, but I had a feeling that we were something better. Forgiveness was what got us here. We were a lot more special than just friends, or we were going to be.