Someone For You

As soon as Izzy opened the door to her sister’s house an excited Grover rushed over to greet her. She couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her face, the little puppy was just too cute. She bent down and scratched Grove’s head before walking into the living room with the dog trailing behind her.

Isolde had spent all day walking around the city. She wanted to explore Chicago as much as possible before making any decisions. Izzy didn’t want her desire for a new beginning to cloud her judgment, she wanted to do things right this time around and picking a random place just to get away from LA wasn’t exactly the best way to start over. However, she had a feeling Chicago could really work out for her.

“Aims! I’m home!” she shouted announcing her presence.

“In the kitchen!”

Izzy left her purse on the living room couch before making her way to the kitchen with Grover still following her. Whatever Aimee was cooking smelled delicious. The pure scent made Izzy hungry, she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch and her stomach was loudly demanding food.

“I knew there was a reason why I missed you,” Izzy said once she was in the kitchen. “Your food is incredible.”

“It’s my secret talent,” Aimee responded not looking up at her sister, too busy mixing something in a pot.

“I whish I had that secret talent, I’ve been living on take out for the last two years,” Isolde added. It was truth acknowledge by everyone who ever attempted to eat Izzy’s cooking that she was the worlds most terrible cook.

Aimee turned to her sister and was instantly shocked by the sight in front of her. “What did you do to your hair?!” she asked scandalized. Izzy’s long and beautiful blond hair was now short and black, making her deep green eyes pop even more.

“It’s just part of my transformation, I look more mature this way,” she said as if it wasn’t a big deal when it clearly was. Isolde’s gorgeous blond locks had defined her for years; the one thing people always remembered about her was her hair. And it had taken just a little over an hour at a local salon to destroy all of that.

“But…” Aims was out of words. “You don’t look like you,” she concluded in a very ineloquent way.

“This is the new me. You’ll get used to it.”

“I’m not letting you out of the house alone again,” Aimee said half serious. “I don’t want you to come home next time with a tattoo covering your arm or with piercings all over your face.”

“It’s just hair,” Izzy assured her sister. “I was bored and decided I need to change my image a little bit. I happen to think that it looks quite good.”

“I never said you didn’t look good,” Aimee defended herself. “I was a little surprised,” she added. “And just so you know, when people get bored they go to the movies or go out with friends, they don’t get makeovers.”

“I don’t have any friends here. They only one I’ve got is in Buffalo and is totally ignoring my texts,” Izzy said talking about Patrick.

A couple of days after the boys had been golfing Pat decided to go back home and see his
family. Isolde was tempted to ask him to stay, but she hadn’t known him for that long and she didn’t want to come out as a stalker.

“Knowing him, he probably broke his phone or something like that,” Aimme said trying to reassure her sister even thou she knew the real reason Pat had gone away. Jon had told her about Kaner’s intentions and they both agreed that it was better if Patrick stayed out of town for a while. Both Pat and Izzy were kind of a mess individually, and them being together could only create chaos.

“I kind of miss him,” Izzy confessed. “He makes me laugh.”

“It’s not that hard to make you laugh Iz,” Aims tried to reason.

“It’s different with him,” she said sounding like an infatuated schoolgirl. “We have a similar sense of humor,” Isolde continued with a less smitten tone. “I feel like he really gets me, you know?”

Aimee didn’t know what to say to that. She was almost certain that they were doing the right thing by keeping Patrick away from Izzy, but it was undeniable that those two had a connection.

“You barely know him sis,” the brunette girl tried.

“I know! It’s so weird,” she explained. “Maybe it’s just that I like his bluntness, it’s exactly what I need in a friend after being around fake people for so long. He doesn’t pretend, he admits he is not perfect, and that’s really refreshing.”

“If I didn’t know better I would say you have a crush on him,” Aimee said teasingly. She knew her sister didn’t do romance, she was too caught up living in the moment for dates and relationships.

“Not at all, I just like hanging out with him,” Izzy sentenced. She hadn’t had a crush since she was a teen, she couldn’t even remember how it been like.

“Don’t worry he’ll be back soon,” Aimee said hoping to put an end to that conversation. If she kept hearing her sister talking so highly of Pat, like possible no other girl ever had, she could end up spilling the truth about why Kane was in Buffalo.

“I hope so, because as much as I love hanging out with you and your perfect boyfriend, I’m starting to feel like the worst third wheel in history,” Isolde concluded.

The conversation drifted to other matters then. Aimee was concerned with Izzy’s plans for the future. She hadn’t even informed her father of her intention of leaving UCLA and moving to Chicago. Isolde was certain that her dad wouldn’t object, after all, he’d been the one that said she needed to make some changes in her life.

The rest of the day was spent in an uneventful peace. Jonathan came home after a meeting with his agent and the three of them just relaxed and killed time together. It was a bit of a calm before the storm.

+++++

Isolde woke up to the sound of loud voices coming from somewhere in the house. She looked at the clock in the bedside table and realized it was just eight o’clock in the morning on a Saturday. Izzy was never a morning person so she was tempted to grab her Ipod to isolate the noise and go back to sleep, but in the end she got up and headed down stairs to figure out what was going on.

As she got closer she started to distinguish the voices. It was Pat and Jonathan. They were arguing, which wasn’t new, they always disagreed about one thing or another. But this time the playful tone that usually was present in their little discussions was missing. And that really worried Izzy.

“Just go home Kaner!” Jonathan ordered in his Capitan voice.

“You were the one who put this ideas in my head in the first place,” Patrick countered. “And now you act like I’m the pest or something.”

The boys were in Jon’s office, a room adjacent to the living room. Isolde didn’t know what to do; she suspected that just barging in wasn’t the right move. So she sat down at the bottom of the stairs and picked up an oblivious Grover that trotted over to her. She knew that she probably should’ve just gone back to her room, but she was intrigued and a little concerned with the fight.

“That’s because you’re being an even bigger pain the ass than you usually are,” Jonathan continued the argument. “I’m not putting my relationship with Aimee in the line for one of your whims.”

“Dude! You’re being a drama queen!” Kane exclaimed. “And it’s not just a whim.”

“How do I know that?” Jonathan asked seriously. “You aren’t exactly the most reliable person.”

“We are supposed to be friends, right?” Patrick said sounding sad, almost as if he was giving up.

“Yeah, you’re my best friend,” Jon admitted in far more pleasant tone, like the fight had gone right out of him.

“Then trust me,” Patrick sentenced. “I haven’t been this serious about something in my entire life, not even about hockey.”

There was a long silence then, and Izzy decided to go back to her room. They hadn’t killed each other and that’s what mattered. She could find out about what the whole thing had been about later.

She tried going back to sleep but it was impossible, she kept turning in her bed until she decided it was enough and decided to just take a shower and start her day. She took her time getting ready and by the time she went downstairs it was almost ten in the morning.

“Hello sleeping beauty,” Aimee greeted her with a smile. “Here, just the way you like it,” she said handing her a cup of coffee.

“Where’s Jon?”

“He’s out with Kaner.”

“Patrick is back?” Izzy asked pretending that she didn’t hear him that morning.

“Yeah, they’ll back soon,” Aims said. She was well aware of everything that had occurred that morning, from Patrick showing up at seven, straight from the airport, to the boys’ little discussion.

Aimee made some breakfast for her sister and they chatted about mindless stuff, like stuff they wanted to buy or the latest movie that came out. No so long after that Jon and Pat arrived.

“Patrick! You’re back!” Izzy said excitedly the moment the man was through the front door and rushed to hug him. “I can’t believe you left me alone with the lovebirds and didn’t even texted me back.”

“Sorry, my phone kind of died,” he explained with a sheepish smile.

“Told you,” Aimee cut in.

“Aims and I have to go out,” Jon said grabbing his girlfriend’s hand and practically dragging her out. “Don’t burn down the house.”

“And take care of Grove!” Aimee added before disappearing out the door.

“Is it just me or they are acting weird?” Izzy asked skeptically. Her sister hadn’t even taken her purse.

“Tazer has always been a little strange,” Pat joked. “We have a theory that he isn’t even from this planet.”

She smiled and shook her head at Patrick’s comment. “What do you want to do? A Mario Kart tournament?”

“Actually,” He said hoping this would be the last time he’d had to turn down videogames with Izzy, “I kind of wanted to talk to you.”

“About?” she asked honestly curious. She suspected it had to do with the fight she’d overheard that morning.

“As you may have realized I’m not exactly a genius,” he started, “and since I really don’t want to screw up this time I’m just going to read this.” He pulled a little piece of paper from his jean’s pocket and stared at it before finally speaking again. “I’ve met a lot of different people in my life, and tons of different girls but I’ve never been genuinely interested in any of them. My teammates call me a manwhore, and I have to admit that I kind of am one.” There was pause then, both laughing quietly at his statement. “But I’m over that… I’m not really good with feelings but I think I’m ready to try this love thing everyone is so obsessed about.”

“Wow,” Izzy exclaimed, honestly impressed. “Why are you telling me this?”

“You are lot like me Iz,” Patrick answered hoping that he wouldn’t fuck up now that the rehearsed part was over. “You’re trying to change too, and I’m not saying that just because you got a new hair cut, I know you really want to be a better version of yourself, and that’s exactly what I want to do too,” he tried to explain but he had a feeling he wasn’t getting his point across. “I want us to do that together.”

“I don’t think I understand,” Isolde said honestly confused. No one had ever said anything remotely similar to her before.

Patrick sighed, exasperated. He felt like an idiot, even when he was trying really hard to do things right he ended up failing miserably.

“Would you go out on date with me?” he ended up blurting out. He was certain that was the worst possible thing he could’ve say to a girl that didn’t do relationships.

Izzy smiled happily at him and said, “You should’ve just started with that.”