Face Down ✓ | Patrick Stump

Chapter Seven

Dedicated to flopastump_fob for discovering this and being  my most recent reader!

"Honey if you stay, you'll be forgiven, nothing you can stay can stop me going home."

I sighed as I completed my final song for the day. For the past week, I had been doing the same thing, waking up, thanking Patrick more times than I can count for food and a place to live, and then going to the subway station. Much to Patrick's consent, I did choose a new station, one that was only a two minute walk from his apartment. I checked my case, after five hours of playing, I only had three dollars. I couldn't do this for much longer, I needed an actual job.

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"I need a job." I called into the apartment the second I got home. Patrick was on the couch, attempting to entertain my brother and sister. But Ryan was asleep on the couch, and Rose kept playing with her hair.

"What?" He said. He stood and turned around to face me. "Why?"

"Patrick, as much as I love what you've been doing for us for the past week, we can't stay here forever. You've been feeding us, giving us a place to live, and supporting us. But I need to get back on my feet, and I wouldn't want to be a burden and live here forever." I explained.

He sighed. "Skye, you know that you're always welcome here, you'll never be a-"

"Patrick, it's just a job. It's not like I'll be immediately moving out." Why does he even care?

"You know that I'll always care about you." I felt my face get red.

"Did I say that out loud?" He gave a nod. "Oops."

He let out a small chuckle. "Hey, do you remember the music store where I ran into you last week? I think they're hiring. You would like that place, Pete used to work there when Fall Out Boy was just starting out."

"Oh my God, that's perfect, thank you Patrick!" I gave him a hug. Normally, I wasn't one for hugs. I was always the introvert, I never fully trusted anyone other than my father. But Patrick was an exception. I hadn't opened up to Pete, or Joe, or Andy. Just Patrick. He was.... special.

"Do you mid watching over them for a bit more?" I pulled away and pointed to my siblings. "I'm gonna go there now, and see if there's still an opening, and if they have applications or whatever." I turned around but immediately froze.

"Skye, what's wrong?" He turned me back around so I could face him.

"It's just..." I shook off the thought. I was just being paranoid. "Nevermind, it's stupid."

"Please tell me. If it was stupid, you wouldn't have frozen up like that." His face was full of concern.

"It's, they're only a music store, right? They won't run a background check or anything, they won't find out I'm missing right?" He was silent. "Shit, Patrick, I can't go back to her!"

He instantly pulled me into a hug, and started whispering in my ear. He knew that if he didn't, then I would have a flashback. He was right, I had been getting them almost every time I thought of her, and that if he didn't act quickly, I would end up curled up into a ball on the floor, kicking and screaming until something brought me back.

I would get them in the form of nightmares, too. Almost every night, I would wake up screaming at three in the morning. I would be caught in a cold sweat, hyperventilating, shooting up out of my bed. Patrick would hear, and coming running down the hall. I once went a single night without a nightmare, and he was still worried. When I woke up on my own that morning, he asked if everything was okay. He woke up right around the time when I would wake from my nightmares, and he checked on me, but I was sleeping peacefully.