Do You Have Faith in Me?

Patton knew he was making progress when it came to not being easily distracted. He knew that focus was important. He just wished he worked on his other weak areas, too. He was driving to the store with the intention of getting some groceries. However, he noticed that there was a smaller car behind him and switched lanes to give the car room. The driver moved lanes as well and stalked Patton to the point of running him off the road and making him hit a tree.

The moment Patton came to, he felt his head against the steering wheel and noticed a silhouette of a man that looked so familiar to him that he couldn't put his finger on it. The man punched the window open and grabbed Patton's neck.

"You've overpowered me for too long! If you dare tell anyone this was intentional, your boyfriend's next!" the man growled before letting go of a terrified, injured Patton.

Patton took in his surroundings: the store wasn't too far away, there was blood on the steering wheel, his car was wrecked from the crash. He did the best he could to back out of the tree and finish his errands.

As Patton was bringing in the groceries, Logan was coming out to help, but froze when he saw the condition of the car. Logan looked at his battered boyfriend and scowled.

"Were you trying to protect a squirrel or were you distracted by someone walking their dog?" Logan angrily asked the zookeeper.

Patton wanted to tell Logan that it wasn't his fault. He wanted to remind Logan he was doing better. However, the words of his attacker were still echoing in his mind. He grabbed the rest of the grocery bags and brought them in as Logan chewed him out over something that wasn't his fault. As he was putting away the groceries, his glasses were fogging up and his eyes were stinging. After all the years of unintentionally annoying Logan, Patton didn't believe that his boyfriend would actually have faith in him to at least act normal, but he still loved the teacher too much to want anything bad to happen to him.

The next morning, the two of them were silently getting ready for their jobs. As Patton was about to grab the car keys to get to the zoo, Logan snatched them away.

"I...think It's best if I had the car today," Logan told his boyfriend.

Patton didn't feel like arguing. Fortunately for him, he could just take the bus to the zoo. As they went separate ways for the day, Patton saw out the window that they passed the tree where the accident happened. A small part of Patton wished he could just tell Logan what really happened without caring about what might happen to him, but he reminded himself that relationships aren't always happy.

Logan spent his work day feeling a multitude of emotions. Sure, he was concerned about Patton's health, but the concern was infinitesimal compared to the frustration he felt towards Patton and the assumption that he won't get rid of certain traits about himself so easily. When he exited the school, he saw an officer approach him before he could get in the car.

"Excuse me, are you the owner of this car?" the officer asked.

"Yes and I'm planning on getting it fixed right now," Logan answered.

He wasn't technically lying since he had the car long before he got together with Patton. Though, the idea of bringing up Patton brought his frustration back, so he decided against mentioning him out loud.

"That won't be necessary yet. Although, I need you to come with me so we can see if you can identify the culprit and press charges," the officer retorted.

Logan was confused when he heard the officer speak. Why would Patton have the option to press charges if he was at fault for the accident? He silently followed the officer to the police station and kept his questions to himself.

As Logan met up with the other police officers, they showed him footage from one of the street surveillance cameras. He saw his car, but he saw a different car follow his car for a while and it hit the back of his car causing it to hit the nearby tree. As he continued to watch what was happening, he remembered that the car that hit his car belonged to a coworker of Patton's who made Facebook posts ranting about a promotion being stolen from him. He also remembered that same coworker making up lies every now and then to get his way when he visited the zoo. He felt frustration as he saw the coworker punch the window and reach into the car and do who-knows-what to Patton. As he eagerly gave information on who the attacker was and where he works, he couldn't help but think that maybe there was another bad trait of Patton's that was involved and not even the cause of the accident: gullibility.

That evening, Logan drove home in a loner car from the mechanic. He went inside and prepared dinner for both of them. After a long while, he heard the front door open and footsteps approach the living room. He set up two plates of dinner and went into the living room to see Patton with a dull expression on his face. Logan felt relief from seeing Patton, but as he was about to hug and greet the latter, he found himself pushed away by the zookeeper.

"Leave me alone!" Patton told him.

Logan was surprised by this uncharacteristic reaction from his lover. He soon recognized that he felt awkward actually talking to Patton that evening.

"Umm...the cops showed me some interesting stuff that happened yesterday," Logan said.

Patton's eyes widened in shock that the cops knew even though he kept his mouth shut. Even when the cops stopped by and escorted his coworker out of the zoo close to the end of the day, he was too scared to say what he knew once he remembered why his attacker looked familiar. Even with that knowledge, though, he was far from happy.

"I need to know, Patton, what did he say to you that kept you from telling me?" Logan asked.

Patton took a deep breath and looked at Logan with furious eyes.

"He said if I told anyone it was unintentional, you'd be next. Well, it was clearly easy since you clearly had no faith in me changing for the better, did you?" Patton retorted.

Logan couldn't believe what he was hearing. As he was trying to console Patton, be backed away and ran off to another part of the house. He knew Patton worked hard to rid himself of his bad traits. He wished he spent the evening telling Patton how proud he was of him instead of treating him like someone who found himself escorted home by the cops again and again. He had an idea, but he didn't have high hopes in the outcome.

Logan had a piece of paper in his hand and walked around until he heard faint crying coming from behind a bathroom door. Logan sat against it and took a deep breath before reading from the paper.

Patton,

Maybe I didn't experience love at first sight, but I did eventually take notice of the fact that I wouldn't dare take a life without you. I know you have flaws, but who doesn't really? I could mention the flaws I need to work on, but this isn't about me. No matter what flaws you might need help overcoming or living with, they will never keep you from being the beautiful, funny, caring, clever man I would never regret falling in love with. I don't need to wish on a shooting star to allow us to spend our life together. Here's to the rest of our lives.

Logan stood up with the intention of going back to the bedroom, but stopped when he heard the bathroom door open. He saw Patton with red eyes and tear-stroked cheeks and continued to feel guilty.

"What did you read?" Patton asked.

"Oh, these were intended to be my wedding vows for the future," Logan said while looking over the paper.

Patton would be lying if he said he wasn't flattered, but he couldn't bring himself to be happy.

"Logan...you do know that a marriage would have to include you trusting me as much as I trust you, right?" Patton responded while looking down.

"I know, I know. I shouldn't have focused so much on the past to blame you. If you want us to take a break in case you think this isn't working, I won't stop you, but it's best that you know I do love you," Logan explained.

Patton looked at Logan with a softer gaze.

"Logan, I love you so much, but we're going to have spend a longer time just dating than initially planned if we want to be certain you'll actually have faith in me by the time we actually get married."

"However long it takes, Patton, I just want you to be in my life."

Logan brought Patton downstairs so he could do all that he should've done the prior day; he prepared a makeshift ice pack for Patton's head and neck and checked the rest of his body for any injuries as well as prepared a movie night dedicated to him and saying comforting words to Patton to remind him he wouldn't be hurt by his attacker anymore. Their relationship remained slow for a while, but it gave them time to maintain faith in each other.