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These hands had to let it go free, and this love came back to me

I. He Who Is Good With Swords, Fatimah Asghar. II. The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). III. What Was There To Bring Me To Delight But To Love And Be Loved. Featured In When She Named Fire: An Anthology, Paisley Rekdal. IV. Reckless, Lauren Roberts. V. The Notebook (2004). VI. A Letter Maureen Keller Never Sent to Patrick Verona.

Good Riddance / © 2024.

I wish he was dead. I wish he would run himself over with his stupid car and his stupid leather seats. I want him to suffer, to writhe in rage and end up completely sunk in endless misery. I decided to hate Patrick Verona because it was easier to hate him than to miss him, his stupid hair, his playful smile and his very witty remarks, everything he made me feel, the way he talked to me and whispered in my ear. Maybe I wasn't in love with him, maybe I fell in love with the idea I had of him and made up a whole charade inside my head that ended badly. And I partly should have known better, but I still took the risk and paid dearly for it.

He will be the end of me. And, in a way, my beginning too.

No, you know what? Fuck Patrick. Forget everything I said. Forgiveness is for idiots.

Maureen's Journal, (1999)

It's easier to hate than forget.

Maureen Keller and Patrick Verona have history. Volatile and complex, so much for their ambiguous taste, but that's a whole separate issue. Because in a haze of agony and petulance they both ended up breaking each other's hearts on a heated Fourth of July night, with fireworks adorning the starry sky and people too drunk and too busy staying on their feet to pay attention to a pair of reckless teenagers yelling and screaming at each other and hurling hate-filled, resentful jams at one another. As if every brush had been declassified and vacillating between something she believed to be real, then Patrick abandoned her on the street and with him went the sins that disappeared through their tongues.

She loved him. With everything her thoughtless heart would allow. In the wind and in the mist, in little whispers and escapades, in an ineffably beautiful fall with the act of a gaze that it was impossible not to fall in love the way they were in love. Everyone knew it, everyone wondered what it would be like to be loved by him and the golden rush that settled in amidst the teenage pedantry. Her love was carnivorous and mayhem, and it was evident from the instant his long fingers stroked the line of her jaw with such tenderness, descended to the tip of her lips and lingered there as if he remembered their shape and how they were always red, and when he came home he smiled at the sight of her lipstick smudges on his neck and cheeks. Because that was Maureen. She was the girl you didn't know what she would do, who dwarfed you with her interstellar smiles and made your brain melt in deep, instinctive delight, it was only a matter of time before Patrick noticed her and fell to his knees as soon as his gaze went straight to her mouth.

They allowed each other to know their fears, shattering the personal housing they both had, to know their future aspirations even if they were superficial like buying a bike or visiting an aquarium, and overnight Patrick and Maureen shared a bond that no one else understood. And he broke it. Perhaps it was the impulsivity they both possessed and denied having, or simply, anything divine they touched would inevitably end in ashes.

The clues of their affection dissolved amidst the usual confusion surrounding their age and morphed into pure anger and resentment, she hated that he always looked at her in the school even if he didn't know she noticed, hated how funny he was, hated still having that cigarettes they shared together in the back seat of his car, hated his pretty face. And, most of all, she hated that she didn't. The grace that mattered ceased to be, in tragedy, pain and sorrow. Maureen will curse Patrick Verona's name until her skin erases all traces of him.

Yet with the news of their inevitable breakup, rumors spread through the wrathful halls of Padua High School, and with it, the downfall of a reputation that failed to reach the top. With the last year it was foreseen to change the grief with indifference but as it was thought, this would be no more than an impossible task, because certain entities existing in their surroundings had an evil card up their sleeves, and would not hesitate to use it in order to profit from it.

Just as Maureen and Patrick couldn't spend too much time avoiding each other.

It's easy to know for certainly ways to hate, but it's much easier to forget with a kiss.

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LIV TYLER / MAUREEN KELLER.
EIGHTEEN. UNREQUITED LOVE. THE CRANBERRIES.

I still burn for you, but you don't see me!

HEATH LEDGER / PATRICK VERONA.
EIGHTEEN. SINGS AT THE SHOWER. THE CLASH.

I've been seeing you since ever, what the hell are you taking about?

WITH

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN / GRAHAM KELLER.
EIGHTEEN. BLACK SHEEP. LOVES JOHNNY ROTTEN.

You have no idea, me either but maybe I'm falling in love with her and that shit freaks me out. 

MICHELLE WILLIAMS / BARBARA POTTER.
SEVENTEEN. SHE KNOWS ARISTOTLE. THE CARDIGANS.

Sadness is my speciality, and being corrupted by you two is just a big plus of my highschool cycle.

And Others Characters as Described.

Helloooo, ITS HERE AGAIN.

Let's get something straight before we start. I took the liberty of changing a lot of things in the plot of the movie, like, a lot, I'm kinda scared bc 10 things i hate about you it's such an iconic film and I don't wanna mess it up 😭 

These changes, in theory, I saw necessary to somehow implement two stories in one. The bet on Kat will be a bit altered in order to cope with everything I have planned so far. On the other hand I firmly believe that the dynamic between Patrick and Maureen doesn't go beyond "I pretend to dislike you just to pretend I don't love you and miss you" which is funny to me, mostly on Maureen's part. Patrick is too tamed by her still to do it too lmao.

The reason why they broke up was because of miscommunication and a collision of opinions about each other's lives. I'll leave it at that. Just don't expect something too instropective and deep (in a certain way, of course) I wanted to write this because 1. I love Patrick Verona and Heath Ledger (he has my heart since I was a kid) and 2. I wanted to do something cute and funny full of fluff and teenage angst! ofc I still run the risk that very few people will read it because I looked at the tag and I didn't see any fanfic of him ??? WHY.

I'll put the dts in the comments since Wattpad has been a bit shitty these days, but thanks for reading! hope you like "good riddance" <3