Possession

The next month was strange - filled with Iris and Patrick meeting after work, sometimes with Marlene and Andy tagging along. It was a blur of movies, restaurants and on one memorable occasion, a club, which Iris and Patrick quickly had to vacate when Patrick spilt his drink on ‘The Hulk’ as Iris had described. They’d ran to the bus stop, still laughing about what had happened, with Patrick still glancing through the back window of the bus every now and then, just to check and see if a muscled, almost seven foot bald man was sprinting after the bus in order to exact his revenge.

They had kissed once the laughter had died down, and Patrick had been nervous enough to almost start shaking. Iris had held him closer, and he could feel the smile curling her lips. And he smiled back.

That night had also been the one month mark of them knowing each other, somehow it felt like less and more at the same time. Like they were old friends finally working up the courage to see one another romantically. Marlene and Andy had also grown close, but they moved faster - both of them admitting that they loved each other and both of them settling into seeing one another practically every night.

Marlene had the idea of throwing a party, just to have her friends mix with Andy’s in a laid-back environment. She pitched it to Iris during their day off whilst they were lazing around the house and watching TV.

‘’You mean - so you can smoke weed and know that no one is going to call the cops?’’ Iris laughed when Marlene explained to her.

‘’You and Patrick are invited, by the way.’’ Marlene spoke pointedly, but still with a smile.

‘’I live here, of course I’m invited. When is this party?’’ Iris toyed with the magazine she’d been reading.

‘’A week from now. On the Saturday. It’ll be awesome, Ris. And Andy really wants to show me off to his friends, and I want to show all of my friends that I finally landed a kind, sweet, ridiculously hot guy.’’ Marlene grinned once she’d finished. Iris looked over at her from her corner of the sofa;

‘’I’ll look forward to it.’’ she gave Marlene a smile. Things were better now that she wasn’t always alone, and Patrick would even walk her home from work sometimes so that she didn’t have to walk past the church by herself. Her feelings for him were growing more and more every day, to the point where she was fearful that she would rely too much on Patrick and then he wouldn’t reciprocate the same feelings. Not that he had given any incline that he was anything less than as crazy about her as she was about him.

But deep down Iris could feel that something was going to happen, and she wasn’t sure if it was bad or good. It was just a sense of foreboding surrounding her relationship with Patrick. Like it was meant to be, but cursed. She hated it, but wouldn’t let it defeat her. She’d surpassed odds before, and the second-guessing nature of her mind wasn’t about to take her down, or ruin the affection she had for Patrick. This was the first time that she had been experiencing these feelings, this foreboding and obscurity. Usually she just went with whatever happened.

She tried to ignore it as she talked with Marlene further, until Andy and Patrick showed up. Iris was still toying with the idea of telling Patrick how she felt at that point. It came to the point when Marlene and Andy had left to go out for dinner, and then Patrick and Iris had the house to themselves.

‘’So what’s up?’’ Patrick questioned almost as soon as they were alone. Iris was laying across the sofa with her feet on his lap. She focused on her socks, not meeting Patrick’s eyes as she spoke.
‘’I’ve just had a weird feeling lately. Weird feelings, actually.’’ she had to admit it. She didn’t want to keep it bottled inside any longer.

‘’Like what weird feelings?’’ Patrick questioned. When Iris looked up, he was staring at her with a concerned look.

‘’I’m not sure. It feels like something bad is going to happen. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.’’ her voice sounded so unsure, even in her own ears.

‘’Hmm...Well I think everything is going fine. Did I do something wrong? I thought we were okay.’’ Patrick sounded worried, it made Iris frown. She was causing his uneasiness, and it made her unhappy to have to break their usually happy and light conversation.

‘’You have done nothing wrong...it’s just me. I’m sorry I brought it up. It’s just me being weird.’’ Iris tried to laugh it off, and Patrick’s face didn’t drop its worried expression.

‘’You’re sure everything is okay?’’ he questioned further.

‘’One hundred percent. It’s just a weird feeling. Maybe I’m going to get the flu while I’m at work or something. It’s been going around for a while. Or maybe I’ve lost something and I haven’t realized yet.’’ Iris dismissed the voice in her head that told her she wasn’t making it all up. She moved to kiss Patrick, trying to wipe the concerned expression from his face. She could focus on him instead, and was slightly proud that she admitted her feelings to him and he responded with such concern.