The Middle - Volume Three ✔️

Chapter 65 (Patrick)

Patrick

"Patrick, it's Saturday night. Don't be so fucking boring. Take my boyfriend out and show him a nice time."

Erin's pushy voice is starting to grate on me. I wish he'd just fucking hang up on her already. Why did Jay need to come by my apartment to FaceTime his girlfriend, anyway? Can he never do fucking anything alone? We don't need to hang out all the god damn time.

"Erin, shut up. I don't wanna go out tonight, okay?" I snap back towards Jay where he's sitting on my couch holding his phone out to me. Erin's furious face can be seen on his phone screen. Don't care. Not going out.

"You're so boring!" She yells over the phone. "I thought you would have been treating Jay nice right now, you know, given everything you've put the guys through lately."

I frown, but I bite my tongue.

"Okay, that's enough, babe. I'll talk to you later, tell Joel we said hey. And Sarah. Bye, I love you." Jay says quickly.

"I love you too, bye. Oh, and tell Patrick I said he's an ass. Love you!" Erin clicks off and Jay laughs.

"Sorry, dude. You know how she is." He says to me light-heartedly. "I don't care about going out tonight. We can hang with Benji instead."

We? Why do I need to hang with Benji? He could do it on his fucking own!

But under normal circumstances, of course I would go over to Jamie's house and hang with Benji too. I can't get space at all. Why is this so fucking difficult!?

"Uh, I guess we could go out then." I relent. "If you want? I could ask Lindsay to come, she's been hating life at her mom's place today. Everyone's in mourning. She could probably use a few drinks."

"Yeah, sure. Invite her." Jay says casually, before eyeing me with interest. "Hang on. Lindsay Irvine, from grade school. She's not... You know? The one?"

I laugh. "No, dude. She's not. Just an old friend."

I've already told him about how I ran into Lindsay the other night and how I picked her up from Cornell last night.

"I didn't realise you talked to her that much in High School." Jay comments.

"Dude, she was my date to our Senior Prom." I remind him, and he screws up his face at me. He doesn't know what I'm talking about. "Remember? You took Erin and Joel took Jamie. Joel was going to go with India but they broke up, I was supposed to take Jamie..."

I trail off. Fuck. Shitty memory alert.

"That's right!" Jay snaps his fingers in remembrance. "Joel asked if he could take Jamie instead of you, so you took Lindsay Irvine because she had no better offers."

"Hey, don't put it like that." I snap. Lindsay is a pretty girl. I'm sure she had plenty better offers.

"That's pretty much how it went down though." Jay notes. He's not wrong.

I was meant to be taking Jamie to our Senior Year Prom. I was, well... Obviously I was happy about it. But I don't think Joel was. His break up with India couldn't have come at a better time. Convenient? Nah, I'm kidding. India called Jamie a 'tramp' one day, and that was it. Joel got rid of her there and then. So Joel asked if he could be the one to take Jamie. And she didn't mind, of course. I did, but it's not like I could have said anything. So I didn't, and I went to the dance with Lindsay instead.

"If Lindsay Irvine wants to tag along tonight, that's fine by me. I'm only having a few, anyway. I'm picking Jamie up at the airport late tomorrow night, don't wanna be hungover." Jay informs me. That's right. Jamie gets home tomorrow night. "I have a class first thing on Monday morning too. I don't wanna ditch, after how much school I missed when I fucked off to New York last week."