You're a Hot Mess (Peterick)

Chapter Five - Summer Evenings

Patrick swipes his keycard in the slot and opens the door as I laugh at some stupid joke he made.

"You played really well tonight." I tell him as the room quiets down. He looks over his shoulder at me and has a pleasantly surprised expression on his face.

He sets his bag down and his mouth twitches upwards into a smirk. "You know," Patrick turns to face me, a few feet away but feeling closer all of a sudden.

"You're the eleventh person to tell me that tonight, and it's the only time it feels genuine." He laughs a little at this and then shrugs.

I don't know what to say to that.

"Anyway," He says after I only smile at him, "We should probably go to bed, its late and this could be the last proper bed we sleep in for a couple of weeks." He grins like it's the best news he's had in a long time and heads off to his, or I guess our bedroom.

I follow him a moment after.

Patrick's digging through his suitcase, and I ask him what he's looking for. He looks up and chuckles before showing me.

"Pyjamas. Pretty punk of me, huh?"

He throws them on the bed and then he's pulling his t-shirt off and I'm pretty sure my eyes have become permanently fixated onto him.

All that smooth, untainted skin; pale white and just there within my reach, but simultaneously further than it's ever been.

I can't tell if that's a good thing or not.

"You're staring." He informs me, grinning as he says it. I snap out of my apparent stare and I feel a blush creep up on my face that I haven't felt in a long time.

"Am not." I smile sheepishly as he laughs.

"Where have I heard that before?" He asks jokingly as his fingers latch around his belt buckle.

Patrick stops to look at me again, his lip suddenly captured between his teeth. He blinks with wide, seemingly innocent eyes. Dark blue pools with yellow rings.

"Aren't you going to get changed?"

I shake my head, reduced to stammering, as I say "I uh, sleep in boxers so.."

His belt unbuckles and I force myself to look somewhere else.

"So? I've seen you naked. Half won't surprise me anymore, I'm sure." He winks, chuckling carefully, as if he's not sure where the line is.

Is he looking to cross it or just fall short?

I throw my hands onto my hips, knowing I'm probably scarlet by now. "Shut up!"

He laughs, pulling down his jeans just as I'm about to say something. But then I shut up.

"What?" He asks, feigned oblivion in his voice. My eyes rebel, scaling up and down his body. Black boxer briefs standout against the skin of his thighs, like a warning sign.

I shake my head, utterly bewitched by him. Seeing him again, like this. It's overwhelming and painful and completely fucking mesmerising.

God, I don't even know how I feel anymore.

"I'm going to bed." I tell him, defiantly deciding to sleep in my clothes tonight.

* * * * *

"Hey, get up we need to go."

I pry open my eyes to see a blurred head of brown hair towering disorientatingly high above me. As I blink a few times I see Dallon clearly. He grins and straightens up, giving my hair a ruffle before waltzing out the door.