Hush, Hush, Chapter 9
ZeldaQueen: You all remember how horrible last chapter is? Um...it gets worse
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 9
ZeldaQueen: Nora and Patch return to the arcade and find, surprise, surprise, that Vee, Elliot, and Jules have all left. Nora searches the entire place and then searches the parking lot for Vee's car, before finally being forced to admit that they left without her. Patch smirks and basically makes fun of her for being upset that her friends left her, and I wish to kill him. Oh, but Nora's not pissed at him. You see, he offers her a drink from his soda can and "Just because my blood warmed at the thought of putting my mouth where his had been didn't mean I had to tell him". Lord.
Amazingly enough, Nora does have a cell phone and remembers to pull it out and check for any messages from Vee. Much to her surprise though, the screen is black and it won't turn on. She muses about how odd this is, seeing as she just charged it up that morning. Why yes, dear viewers, this is pretty much going to be what you think it is. Sure enough, Patch offers Nora a ride home. Even though she clearly doesn't want to, she finally is forced to take him up on the offer and he takes her to his ride - a motorcycle which Nora describes as a "glossy black death trap". Apparently she doesn't want to ever ride a motorcycle, but really has no choice. Did I mention that I hate Patch?
Patch gives Nora the helmet to wear, which is possibly the only decent thing he does this entire chapter. He then has the balls to tell Nora that she's too tense and has to relax. Yes Nora, how dare you be tense about riding on a motorcycle with a freaky, stalker-ish young man after you just hallucinated falling to your death off of a roller coaster and then found you were abandoned by your friends? Get over it, girl!
We get a lot of emphasis about how Nora has to be very clingy to Patch as they ride along, and I'm disgusted. When they reach Nora's house, it's more than obvious that she intends to send him directly on his way, but instead he follows her up onto her porch and...unlocks the door.
What.
"I climbed the porch after him and found him at the door. I watched, divided between confusion and escalating concern, as he drew a set of familiar keys from his pocket and inserted my house key into the bolt. I lowered my handbag down my shoulder and unzipped the compartment where I stored my keys. They weren't inside.
'Give me back my keys,' I said, disconcerted at not knowing how my keys had come into his possession.
'You dropped them in the arcade when you were hunting for your cell,' he said.
'I don't care where I dropped them. Give them back.'
Patch held up his hands, claiming innocence, and backed away from the door. He leaned one shoulder against the bricks and watched me step up to the lock. I attempted to turn the key. It wouldn't budge.
'You jammed it,' I said, rattling the key. I dropped back a step. 'Go ahead. Try it. It's stuck.'
With a sharp click, he turned the key. Hand poised on the handle, he arched his eyebrows as if to say May I?
I swallowed, burying a surge of mutual fascination and disquiet"
ZeldaQueen: This guy just is determined to out-creepy Edward Cullen in every way possible, isn't he?
I mean, alright let's pretend that he's telling the truth and really did just pick up her keys at the arcade. I personally don't find that very believable, but I don't think we're ever told otherwise, so fine. That means that instead of picking up her keys and giving them right back to her, like a decent person would have done, he pockets them. And then he uses her house keys, which let's face it were freaking stolen, to waltz on up and let himself into her house, bold as brass. And when Nora calls him out on his shit (although not enough, in my opinion) and demands he gives the keys back, he jams the lock so she can't open her own house without him letting her in. In other words, when she tries to assert any sort of power over him, including an extremely justified request to give her her own house keys and let her open her own damned door, he performs a dick move so she can't just go in the house and lock him out. And when he opens the door, he has the balls to think he'd be allowed to just waltz on in.
Although Nora doesn't exactly come off too well here either. I must ask, what exactly is so fascinating about a guy who steals your house key, opens your own door, and then tries to go inside even though you clearly don't want him to? This is no better than Bella being impressed that Edward could find her car keys, even though she ought to have known that finding them involved him breaking into her house and shifting through her dirty laundry.
Oh, and after all of that? Nora tells Patch to go right on inside
ZeldaQueen: But wait, it gets even better! Her invitation is, and I quote, "Go ahead. You're not going to walk in on anyone. I'm home alone".
After all she went on about how scary this guy is, after all she went on about how he possibly was stalking her, after all she's done nothing but try to send him home, she just up and says "Yeah, there's no one in the house at all, if you have any ideas"
ZeldaQueen: I've got nothing, folks. Nothing.
To her slight credit, Nora does quickly realize what she said and tries to backpeddle by saying that Dorothea will be returning very soon. Patch very clearly does not buy this. She tries to slip past Patch to get in the house, but he blocks her from going in
ZeldaQueen: Nora finally gets the key off of Patch and gets in the house, but before she can slam the door in his face, he grabs the doorframe and braces himself in the doorway. He asks if Nora is going to invite him in and while she rightly freaks out at the idea of letting this fucker in while she's alone, he says he's going to fix her dinner and enters the house. While she's obviously scared and unwilling
ZeldaQueen: WHAT IS WITH THIS BOOK?
*rubs head* Soooo, while Nora stammers and tries to make sense of this all, Patch closes the front door and makes himself at home and tells her that he's going to make tacos for her. Oh how sweet, he's going to make her something to eat! That totally justifies him slipping into her house against her wishes!
Patch strolls off into the kitchen and starts helping himself to the various ingredients. Nora begins to get very concerned when Patch takes out a large knife, but is promptly distracted from the crazy guy in her house with a sharp implement when she catches her reflection in a skillet and sees how mussed her hair is. Priorities, girls!
There's some random banter as Patch and Nora can't decide if her hair is brown or red, and she makes yet another effort to assert herself and order him to leave. Patch refuses on the grounds that he's almost done with the tacos (oh yes, that is a fine justification! *snarls*) and Nora notes with some nervousness that Patch is now wielding an even larger knife. And if you think this is creepy enough, yet again I must ask you to keep this all in mind for later chapters.
Anyway, as soon as Nora notices this, Patch takes the huge knife and starts very obviously examining it and oh my fucking God, was Fitzpatrick cribbing from some teen slasher movie? Because this is reading exactly like one! Nora works up the nerve to order him to set down the knife and he does so, telling her that he'll never hurt her.
I know this is a bit of a spoiler, but it must be said.
YOU FUCKING LIAR!
That's a bit better. Patch brings Nora over for a hands-on taco-making lesson, and she isn't very sure about all of this
"I didn't move. There was a glint to his eye that made me think I should be frightened of him ... and I was. But that fright was equal part allure.
There was something extremely unsettling about being near him. In his presence, I didn't trust myself"
ZeldaQueen: You know, I'm not sure what's worse about all of this. That Fitzpatrick constantly has Nora ignore her common sense in favor of some inexplicable attraction, or that we continue to get the implication that girls automatically have zero self control in the presence of a hot guy. I keep expecting Patch to smile and tell Nora that she's so human, ruled by her hormones.
And speaking of Twilight emulations, Patch offers Nora a deal. If she makes tacos with him, he'll answer some of her questions. She agrees, and there's the usual spiel where Patch gets all touch-feely and Nora's heart goes a-flutter and Patch makes various innuendos about how cooking is inherent like chemistry and "You think you're ready for
chemistry?" Buddy, you two aren't even past biology yet. *rim shot*
Them actually eating dinner is really glossed over, and we jump ahead to them washing the dishes. Nora starts to ask Patch her questions, namely if he followed her to the library that one time, and he stops this by dazzling her. No really
"I trailed off. Patch leaned lazily against the counter. Dark hair flipped out from under his ball cap. A smile tugged at his mouth. My thoughts dissolved and just like that, a new thought broke the surface of my mind.
I wanted to kiss him. Right now"
ZeldaQueen: This is a reoccurring theme in the book, ladies and gentlemen. Every time Nora tries to assert herself against Patch or stand up to him, he either flat-out ignores her or looks all hot and gets her horny enough to forget whatever she was doing. Ah well, she's just a silly wimmuns who is programmed to want a Strong Man to protect her.
So yeah, needless to say Nora never does get those questions of hers. Instead, she and Patch find themselves snuggled up next to each other at the sink. She finally gives him a very stupid confession as to how she simultaneously is uncomfortable around him, but is attracted to him. The only thing I'd see attracted to him is the thick end of a baseball bat, but that's just me. I suppose I'm one of those odd women who likes guys that actually respect me.
Anyway, Patch is a grinning viper at this confession. Nora pushes him back, telling him that he's too cocky, and Patch grabs her wrist and then grabs her other wrist and pulls her against him. Ummmmmm...
He then sits her on the counter and either the counter is way low or Patch is much taller than Nora than I pictured, because this is enough to put her at eye level with him. This all turns Nora on like never before, so she has Patch take off his baseball cap and, outright admitting that she's ignoring the voice of logic in her head telling her to stop, leans in close. She talks about how he smells like damp earth, and I'd like to point out that the only things I've ever heard of with that smell before are vampires and corpses brought back to life, neither of which have very pleasant connotations. Nora temporarily remembers that oh yeah, Patch is REALLY DANGEROUS, HELLO. She tells Patch to go and he... he starts kissing her shoulder and neck ACK! She...she just told him to leave and I ... what? Bzuh? I...blah!
Oh, and this is beautiful! Patch sucking on her neck makes her totally forget that he scares her and she wanted him out not two seconds ago!
"I inhaled two sharp breaths. No. This wasn't right. Not this, not with Patch. He was frightening. In a good way, yes. But also in a bad way. A very bad way.
'You should go,' I breathed. 'You should definitely go.'
'Go here?' His mouth was on my shoulder. 'Or here?' It moved up my neck.
My brain couldn't process one logical thought. Patch's mouth was roaming north, up over my jaw, gently sucking at my skin...
'My legs are falling asleep,' I blurted. It wasn't a total lie. I was experiencing tingling sensations all through my body, legs included.
'I could solve that.' Patch's hands closed on my hips"
ZeldaQueen: *screams*
Am I the only one getting rape-y vibes from this, a guy ignoring a girl telling him he makes her uncomfortable and making her forget she wants him gone by kissing her? This is just great! I'm going to be sick! How do people think this is all okay?
This is, thank God, cut off when Nora's cell phone goes off. You know, the cellphone with the dead batteries not so long ago? And to answer questions no, it's not a plot hole. Anyway, it's Nora's mother, calling to let her know...something. She basically forgets that her mother called. Instead, she finally sends Patch on his way, but not before me comments on her lack of make-up. He gives her the address to that party he asked her to, and asks her to come alone to it. *shivers* Patch finally leaves, and Nora hyperventilates and that's where we leave off
Onward to: Chapter 10
Back to: Chapter 8
Return to to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 9
ZeldaQueen: Nora and Patch return to the arcade and find, surprise, surprise, that Vee, Elliot, and Jules have all left. Nora searches the entire place and then searches the parking lot for Vee's car, before finally being forced to admit that they left without her. Patch smirks and basically makes fun of her for being upset that her friends left her, and I wish to kill him. Oh, but Nora's not pissed at him. You see, he offers her a drink from his soda can and "Just because my blood warmed at the thought of putting my mouth where his had been didn't mean I had to tell him". Lord.
Amazingly enough, Nora does have a cell phone and remembers to pull it out and check for any messages from Vee. Much to her surprise though, the screen is black and it won't turn on. She muses about how odd this is, seeing as she just charged it up that morning. Why yes, dear viewers, this is pretty much going to be what you think it is. Sure enough, Patch offers Nora a ride home. Even though she clearly doesn't want to, she finally is forced to take him up on the offer and he takes her to his ride - a motorcycle which Nora describes as a "glossy black death trap". Apparently she doesn't want to ever ride a motorcycle, but really has no choice. Did I mention that I hate Patch?
Patch gives Nora the helmet to wear, which is possibly the only decent thing he does this entire chapter. He then has the balls to tell Nora that she's too tense and has to relax. Yes Nora, how dare you be tense about riding on a motorcycle with a freaky, stalker-ish young man after you just hallucinated falling to your death off of a roller coaster and then found you were abandoned by your friends? Get over it, girl!
We get a lot of emphasis about how Nora has to be very clingy to Patch as they ride along, and I'm disgusted. When they reach Nora's house, it's more than obvious that she intends to send him directly on his way, but instead he follows her up onto her porch and...unlocks the door.
What.
"I climbed the porch after him and found him at the door. I watched, divided between confusion and escalating concern, as he drew a set of familiar keys from his pocket and inserted my house key into the bolt. I lowered my handbag down my shoulder and unzipped the compartment where I stored my keys. They weren't inside.
'Give me back my keys,' I said, disconcerted at not knowing how my keys had come into his possession.
'You dropped them in the arcade when you were hunting for your cell,' he said.
'I don't care where I dropped them. Give them back.'
Patch held up his hands, claiming innocence, and backed away from the door. He leaned one shoulder against the bricks and watched me step up to the lock. I attempted to turn the key. It wouldn't budge.
'You jammed it,' I said, rattling the key. I dropped back a step. 'Go ahead. Try it. It's stuck.'
With a sharp click, he turned the key. Hand poised on the handle, he arched his eyebrows as if to say May I?
I swallowed, burying a surge of mutual fascination and disquiet"
ZeldaQueen: This guy just is determined to out-creepy Edward Cullen in every way possible, isn't he?
I mean, alright let's pretend that he's telling the truth and really did just pick up her keys at the arcade. I personally don't find that very believable, but I don't think we're ever told otherwise, so fine. That means that instead of picking up her keys and giving them right back to her, like a decent person would have done, he pockets them. And then he uses her house keys, which let's face it were freaking stolen, to waltz on up and let himself into her house, bold as brass. And when Nora calls him out on his shit (although not enough, in my opinion) and demands he gives the keys back, he jams the lock so she can't open her own house without him letting her in. In other words, when she tries to assert any sort of power over him, including an extremely justified request to give her her own house keys and let her open her own damned door, he performs a dick move so she can't just go in the house and lock him out. And when he opens the door, he has the balls to think he'd be allowed to just waltz on in.
Although Nora doesn't exactly come off too well here either. I must ask, what exactly is so fascinating about a guy who steals your house key, opens your own door, and then tries to go inside even though you clearly don't want him to? This is no better than Bella being impressed that Edward could find her car keys, even though she ought to have known that finding them involved him breaking into her house and shifting through her dirty laundry.
Oh, and after all of that? Nora tells Patch to go right on inside
ZeldaQueen: But wait, it gets even better! Her invitation is, and I quote, "Go ahead. You're not going to walk in on anyone. I'm home alone".
After all she went on about how scary this guy is, after all she went on about how he possibly was stalking her, after all she's done nothing but try to send him home, she just up and says "Yeah, there's no one in the house at all, if you have any ideas"
ZeldaQueen: I've got nothing, folks. Nothing.
To her slight credit, Nora does quickly realize what she said and tries to backpeddle by saying that Dorothea will be returning very soon. Patch very clearly does not buy this. She tries to slip past Patch to get in the house, but he blocks her from going in
ZeldaQueen: Nora finally gets the key off of Patch and gets in the house, but before she can slam the door in his face, he grabs the doorframe and braces himself in the doorway. He asks if Nora is going to invite him in and while she rightly freaks out at the idea of letting this fucker in while she's alone, he says he's going to fix her dinner and enters the house. While she's obviously scared and unwilling
ZeldaQueen: WHAT IS WITH THIS BOOK?
*rubs head* Soooo, while Nora stammers and tries to make sense of this all, Patch closes the front door and makes himself at home and tells her that he's going to make tacos for her. Oh how sweet, he's going to make her something to eat! That totally justifies him slipping into her house against her wishes!
Patch strolls off into the kitchen and starts helping himself to the various ingredients. Nora begins to get very concerned when Patch takes out a large knife, but is promptly distracted from the crazy guy in her house with a sharp implement when she catches her reflection in a skillet and sees how mussed her hair is. Priorities, girls!
There's some random banter as Patch and Nora can't decide if her hair is brown or red, and she makes yet another effort to assert herself and order him to leave. Patch refuses on the grounds that he's almost done with the tacos (oh yes, that is a fine justification! *snarls*) and Nora notes with some nervousness that Patch is now wielding an even larger knife. And if you think this is creepy enough, yet again I must ask you to keep this all in mind for later chapters.
Anyway, as soon as Nora notices this, Patch takes the huge knife and starts very obviously examining it and oh my fucking God, was Fitzpatrick cribbing from some teen slasher movie? Because this is reading exactly like one! Nora works up the nerve to order him to set down the knife and he does so, telling her that he'll never hurt her.
I know this is a bit of a spoiler, but it must be said.
YOU FUCKING LIAR!
That's a bit better. Patch brings Nora over for a hands-on taco-making lesson, and she isn't very sure about all of this
"I didn't move. There was a glint to his eye that made me think I should be frightened of him ... and I was. But that fright was equal part allure.
There was something extremely unsettling about being near him. In his presence, I didn't trust myself"
ZeldaQueen: You know, I'm not sure what's worse about all of this. That Fitzpatrick constantly has Nora ignore her common sense in favor of some inexplicable attraction, or that we continue to get the implication that girls automatically have zero self control in the presence of a hot guy. I keep expecting Patch to smile and tell Nora that she's so human, ruled by her hormones.
And speaking of Twilight emulations, Patch offers Nora a deal. If she makes tacos with him, he'll answer some of her questions. She agrees, and there's the usual spiel where Patch gets all touch-feely and Nora's heart goes a-flutter and Patch makes various innuendos about how cooking is inherent like chemistry and "You think you're ready for
chemistry?" Buddy, you two aren't even past biology yet. *rim shot*
Them actually eating dinner is really glossed over, and we jump ahead to them washing the dishes. Nora starts to ask Patch her questions, namely if he followed her to the library that one time, and he stops this by dazzling her. No really
"I trailed off. Patch leaned lazily against the counter. Dark hair flipped out from under his ball cap. A smile tugged at his mouth. My thoughts dissolved and just like that, a new thought broke the surface of my mind.
I wanted to kiss him. Right now"
ZeldaQueen: This is a reoccurring theme in the book, ladies and gentlemen. Every time Nora tries to assert herself against Patch or stand up to him, he either flat-out ignores her or looks all hot and gets her horny enough to forget whatever she was doing. Ah well, she's just a silly wimmuns who is programmed to want a Strong Man to protect her.
So yeah, needless to say Nora never does get those questions of hers. Instead, she and Patch find themselves snuggled up next to each other at the sink. She finally gives him a very stupid confession as to how she simultaneously is uncomfortable around him, but is attracted to him. The only thing I'd see attracted to him is the thick end of a baseball bat, but that's just me. I suppose I'm one of those odd women who likes guys that actually respect me.
Anyway, Patch is a grinning viper at this confession. Nora pushes him back, telling him that he's too cocky, and Patch grabs her wrist and then grabs her other wrist and pulls her against him. Ummmmmm...
He then sits her on the counter and either the counter is way low or Patch is much taller than Nora than I pictured, because this is enough to put her at eye level with him. This all turns Nora on like never before, so she has Patch take off his baseball cap and, outright admitting that she's ignoring the voice of logic in her head telling her to stop, leans in close. She talks about how he smells like damp earth, and I'd like to point out that the only things I've ever heard of with that smell before are vampires and corpses brought back to life, neither of which have very pleasant connotations. Nora temporarily remembers that oh yeah, Patch is REALLY DANGEROUS, HELLO. She tells Patch to go and he... he starts kissing her shoulder and neck ACK! She...she just told him to leave and I ... what? Bzuh? I...blah!
Oh, and this is beautiful! Patch sucking on her neck makes her totally forget that he scares her and she wanted him out not two seconds ago!
"I inhaled two sharp breaths. No. This wasn't right. Not this, not with Patch. He was frightening. In a good way, yes. But also in a bad way. A very bad way.
'You should go,' I breathed. 'You should definitely go.'
'Go here?' His mouth was on my shoulder. 'Or here?' It moved up my neck.
My brain couldn't process one logical thought. Patch's mouth was roaming north, up over my jaw, gently sucking at my skin...
'My legs are falling asleep,' I blurted. It wasn't a total lie. I was experiencing tingling sensations all through my body, legs included.
'I could solve that.' Patch's hands closed on my hips"
ZeldaQueen: *screams*
Am I the only one getting rape-y vibes from this, a guy ignoring a girl telling him he makes her uncomfortable and making her forget she wants him gone by kissing her? This is just great! I'm going to be sick! How do people think this is all okay?
This is, thank God, cut off when Nora's cell phone goes off. You know, the cellphone with the dead batteries not so long ago? And to answer questions no, it's not a plot hole. Anyway, it's Nora's mother, calling to let her know...something. She basically forgets that her mother called. Instead, she finally sends Patch on his way, but not before me comments on her lack of make-up. He gives her the address to that party he asked her to, and asks her to come alone to it. *shivers* Patch finally leaves, and Nora hyperventilates and that's where we leave off
Onward to: Chapter 10
Back to: Chapter 8
Return to to: Table of Contents