And She Made the Shape of My Heart With Her Hands

The longest elevator ride of a lifetime finally ended on floor four. The hallways were completely silent because of the late hour we had checked in at, and all that could be seen were the bright lights that were perfectly aligned above the green ugly-patterned carpet.

As we continued trudging down the deserted corridors, looking for our specific room numbers, I just had to be lazy and drag my bag on the floor, thus making me trip. And of course, since I was so dead tired, I just had to trip right into John, my body molding against the back of his. When I realized what had just happened, I quickly backed up away from him and slung my bag high over my shoulder, definitely making sure that I didn’t make myself look retarded again. As I blushed and hid behind my wave of hair, I could still hear John chuckle a little from the other side of the hallway now.

“U-Uh…” I stuttered stupidly. “I think this is mine.” I looked down at my pockets and automatically remembered that I never got my card. I looked over at Kennedy expectantly, waiting for him to hand it over.

He blankly stared at me until he realized what just I was exactly looking for. “Oh, I don’t have it. I gave it to Garrett.” Our gazes averted to my brother immediately.

“What? I don’t have it!”

“Oh my God…” I muttered, leaning against the white doorframe of the locked bedroom door.

“Oh wait,” Garrett started patting down his pockets after dropping his stuff to the ground. “Uh… here,” he said as he passed the slim white card over.

“Nice job,” I sarcastically complimented him. I slid the card in and waited for the small light to finally flash green. I then flung open the door to my temporary heaven. “Later.” I waved my hand a few times before practically slamming the door.

“What the hell? I freaking know that my brush is in this damn bag! I put it in there the last show! Or was it the one before?” I leaned over and further examined my duffle bag for possibly the fifth time. I suddenly shot up straight from frustration, making my head dizzy and me let out a small, pained groan as I stumbled a few steps heavily. That’s when the door unexpectedly burst opened in front of me.

“Cara! Are you alright?” It was Pat, his hand still on the bathroom door’s gold handle.

I looked up at him with my hand still rested firmly on my head. “Oh. I didn’t even know you were here, Pat.” I chuckled. “Um, yeah, I’m fine. I just got up too fast and my head sort of went ballistic for a moment.” I smiled brightly at him, though I soon noticed that I was only in a red bra and yellow cotton shorts that were folded once at the top.

I was pretty sure that Pat had finally noticed it too, for his eyes had dropped down below my neck and collarbone and his face’s normal color had completely been readjusted to a bashful red, much resembling the shade of crimson my bra was at the moment. “U-Uh… Sorry, Cara.” Pat slammed the door shut.

I giggled extremely softly as I, too, felt some blush rising to my freshly washed cheeks. I then turned around and happened to find my stupid brush lying on the end of the white bathtub. “A-hole,” I scolded it quietly as I worked the brush through my clean, wet hair.

When I was finished brushing my wet hair, brushing my teeth thoroughly, and I pulled a black t-shirt over my head, I cleaned up my bathroom items and sauntered out to the beds. That’s where I spotted Pat lying with a wet head, too. He was on his back and had his arms and legs sprawled out all over the bed as he blankly stared up at the white ceiling. He looked like he was sacrificing himself.

This made me laugh a little, and then I remembered our little bathroom fiasco from only moments before. “Heh. Sorry for that whole thing in the bathroom…”

I noticed that the left corner of Pat’s mouth slightly twitched up, as if he were trying to refrain from grinning, perhaps somewhat amused or triumphant. This made me smile, too. “No, no. It was totally my fault. I’m sorry.”

I giggled and sat on the bed next to him, my one leg bent underneath me comfortably as the other hung from the edge. “Nah. It was sweet that you were concerned about me,” I mentioned to him as I kissed his cheek. “And besides,” I added, “it’s not like I was completely topless or anything. And you’ve seen me in a bathing suit before, so… Yeah.” I smiled down at him reassuringly.

“Yeah, but I feel… like I did something bad. Like I feel like I shouldn’t have felt all nice and glad when I saw you like that,” he said, as if deep in thought. His stare was still lingering within the depths of the white ceiling.

I loudly gasped. “Patrick Kirch! Are you telling me that you, a teenage boy, actually enjoyed seeing me, a teenage girl, half naked?” I asked incredulously in mock horror. “What a strange and perverted pig, you are!”

Pat looked up at me for the first time since the bra incident, and smiled. I, too, couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Can I ask you something?”

I laid down beside Pat and rested my broken arm on Pat’s stomach and my head on his chest. “If you’re going to ask me if I’m a professional pancake wrangler, then your answer is yes, I most certainly am.” After we both chuckled, I stopped and sincerely answered, “No, seriously now. Yes, you can ask me anything.” I then started to worry about what if, for some strange and odd reason, Pat happened to ask me something about John… I just hoped to God that he wouldn’t.

“Okay.” He blinked a few times and sighed, my anticipation growing higher. Then he asked, “Cara… What do you want to do in life?”

The building suspense and negative anticipation left my body and mind like air coming loose from a deflating balloon. Thank God. But still, Pat’s actual question was sort of hard. “Uh… As pathetic as this sounds… I have no idea. I mean I know that I probably want to get like married and have kids and stuff, but when it comes to a profession or something like that… I don’t know,” I admitted to him. “I’m not really good at anything,” I added somewhat grimly. I closed my eyes for a moment.

“Yeah huh. I’m sure you are,” Pat reassured. “And even if you’re not, you just might be one of those people that are good at a whole bunch of smaller things, but you’re still great nonetheless.” I giggled. “And it’s okay if you don’t know what you want in life. I’m lucky that I have this band, because I’d probably be stuck in life right now. I really wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

“Well you could’ve started a pet-sitting service. Oh, wait! I’ve got it! Pat’s Doggie Daycare!” I smiled as Pat laughed out loud a few times, the bed shaking lightly under us.

“That’d be fun. I like puppy-dogs,” he stated with a small smile.

“Pat,” I started, grinning, “You are a puppy-dog.” He turned his head and smiled widely before licking my cheek a little. I giggled and playfully pushed his face away.

“Oh, jeez,” Pat mumbled, looking away to across the room. He started to sit up, as did I. “It’s 2:15 in the morning.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and started to stand up.

“You’re leaving?” I asked him, the disappointment clearly varnishing my voice.

Pat turned around and looked at me, studying my tone and state. “I…” His dark, thick eyebrows pulled together for a second until they slowly relaxed again. “Well, I am rooming with Kennedy… He’s probably unconscious right now, so…”

“So you’ll stay with me?” I hopefully asked him. I was sitting on my knees, leaning forward, waiting for his answer.

“Yeah. Okay,” Pat answered, giving in. His arms distanced away from his body a small bit to keep his balance as he slipped his shoes off his feet. “I’ll have to leave early in the morning though so…”

I giggled and then finished his thought for him, “So that no one, as in Garrett, finds out?”

“Exactly,” he laughed gently, sliding under the stiff covers. I copied his actions as he pulled his phone out from under the blankets, coming from his jeans’ pocket. He clicked a few buttons here and there before staring at the screen for a moment and finally placing it on the wooden nightstand next to him.

I continued to watch Pat as he ran his hand through his damp hair once or twice. I was staring up at him tiredly, yet still somehow focused, my head lying on the plump pillow with my hands folded flat under my jaw and chin. I then noticed that Pat looked like he didn’t exactly know what to do next. He was still sitting up straight. This made me grin, amused with his tense behavior. “Are you nervous, Pat?”

His head slightly snapped over to my voice, down towards my direction. “Me?” He didn’t wait for me to answer before he replied after swiftly licking his dry lips, “Nope! Why?”

I giggled softly, the white cushion behind my head coming into contact with my still-wet hair, the coolness giving me chills. I shook them off by ignoring them as I responded, “I don’t know… You seem like you don’t know what to do with yourself.” Another grin slowly made its way across my lips.

“Oh,” Pat said with a small, embarrassed smile, scooting down into the bed just a little more. His face was still a way away from me. “Well, um… Yeah,” he trailed off aimlessly with a sunny smile pointed down at me. I chortled softly as he continued to gaze downwards at me. His eyes weren’t beyond bloodshot anymore, the unwholesome crimson washed away. Within each of Pat’s eyes held that warm, familiar, dark chocolate brown that never seized to make me smile. And because of his steady breathing, the light would just sometimes grab hold of his eyes perfectly, making them flash a divine twinkle my way.

That beyond recognizable feeling in my stomach brought me out of any further observation. My instincts took over me from then. I, somehow miraculously, smoothly lifted my upper body up from the bed, moving closer to Pat’s face. When there was only a mere four inches that separated our mouths, I started to slowly fill that gap. The instant our lips touched one another, a serge of rapid voltage shocked throughout my entire body. When the wonderful sensation reached my curling toes, I pulled away, feeling slight heat on the back of my neck, and softly smiled, biting on my bottom lip slightly. I blinked my heavy eyelids once, as we were quiet.

Pat’s mouth was just slightly agape and his beautiful brown eyes showed off his excitement with just that shinning spark. The corners of his opened mouth started curving their ways up his face, making a lovely white smile.

I snuggled back down into the covers of the bed, yet still maintained eye contact with Pat, whom was also staring somewhat intensely back at me what that grin. As the relaxation overwhelmed my body once again, so did the exhaustion. “Pat?”

I saw his smile relax back into a normal line once again. I took notice to his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, just slightly and only once. “Yeah?” His whisper was higher than usual.

I broadly smiled up at him before I replied innocently, “Can you turn the light off?”

Pat blinked twice before snapping out of his little daze. “U-Uh, yeah,” he answered, stumbling over his few words. It made me giggled mutedly. I also became aware of the sudden redness his cheeks were colored with. When the little lamp was off with a click after Pat extended his body, he retracted back and scooted down next to me.

I squirmed closer to him a little more and kissed a random part of his skin, blindly moving my face towards his direction. Amazingly, the sweet goodnight kiss landed on the flesh of his forehead. After my success, I rolled over to my other side, my back hitting Pat’s chest lightly. I felt his arm slide across my side and stop around my midriff. I pulled him under my arm so that I could lay my hand along his. It was really comfortable. I could feel Pat’s chest in unison with mine and then his sweet breath against my damp hair.

And that’s how we fell asleep.