𝙃𝙄𝙎 𝙌𝙐𝙀𝙀𝙉 (PATRICK HOCKSTETTER)

chapter twenty four

it's been a week.

no ted.

while eveline and her brother's worrying increased, the schools patience dropped, meaning eveline was eventually forced to shower and get dress.

she wore shorts and a tee shirt, leaving her hair down, she didn't want to do this.

of course the school knew of her brother's disappearance, they needed a reason why two of their students were gone for over a week, and that plus eveline's sweet demeanor should give her some leeway for her missing assignments.

she didn't bother with breakfast, she was barely hungry and just hugged stephen and dennis goodbye.

when she walked out to her porch, there was patrick, leaning against the house, the rest of the bowers gang in the blue trans am.

patrick gave eveline's temple a kiss, lips mumbling reassurance against her skin as he guided her to the truck.

patrick was over at her house everyday while she was gone, allowing their relationship to bloom and small kisses and skinship was the usual between the two, though it was still abnormal for the rest of the bowers gang, who were just seeing eveline for the first time since ted's disappearance.

"holy fuck-! holy fuck? did you see that? they're together-!" victor's slightly panicked voice was cut off by henry.

"obviously i saw it! stop being such a fucking dick toucher and relax, she's probably touchy with every dude she meets." he snapped, trying to look confident in his words.

before they could continue, patrick opened the door and both of them crawled in, eveline now in the middle where ted previously sat. the boys all sat in silence, waiting for someone to acknowledge the shift in the air as eveline felt her eyes water.

patrick hadn't even noticed before henry softened his gaze, "belch don't drive so fucking fast today, i almost spewed last time," he scowled.

he knew belch driving like a maniac wouldn't make eveline feel any better.

belch snapped back to reality and pulled his eyes away from eveline and onto the road, sparing her quick glances in the mirror.

school should've been a distraction, but with everyone staring at her and offering her soft smiles it was just a constant reminder of what was going on at home.

out of the corner of her eye, eveline saw bushy blonde hair and lit up.

she ran towards her best friend and hugged her, getting shoved back.

"eveline?" greta's shocked eyes stared at her.

"hi!"

greta smiled and pulled her back into a hug, "god you fucking bitch! i thought you were dead or something!"

eveline giggled, "i wouldn't die!" evelines smile dropped, "ted's-"

"-missing. i know, it's what everyone is talking about. he's probably just too scared to face me after what he did." greta scoffed.

"he wouldn't leave us voluntarily," eveline awkwardly laughed. he wouldn't do that.

greta rolled her eyes, "he's obviously doing this for attention, expecially with the denbrough boy going missing,"

eveline blinked back small tears. greta must be lying, right? she has to be, there's no way ted would just leave her.

"he was probably just hiding out at criss's house as a way to scare you, then he realized how serious it was with the cops and now he's scared. paige mayweather bet me five bucks that he's at the bottom of the quarry with maggots growing out of him, hopefully he'll come out of hiding soon so i can get my money but i don't know how stubborn he is- hey could you give me an estimate? i wanna see if i can spend some extra money this month or next because-"