And it feels like I am just too close to love you,
So I'll be on my way
-------------
Eden's head pounded. Her heart was in her throat and her stomach turned. She sat up, scooting against the headrest of the bed she was on, clutching her stomach with her hand. She wasn't even sure whose bed it was. Her eyesight was too blurry to do much with what little she could see. She could barely remember any of last night. She hadn't drank that much in years. Okay, probably months.
Evein's death was really taking a toll on her. Not that she could ever admit that to anyone. It was as Atticus had said, she was the soldier. No one could see her falter. Hiding behind liquor and men was her thing.
She dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her eyes viciously, trying to come to reality at least a little bit. She blinked a few times, her hands finally becoming clear in her vision. As she moved them aside, she recognized the blankets of her own bed.
When had that happened? How did she get home? She had been at a party, hadn't she? She trailed her eyes along the sleeping form next to her, raising an eyebrow. Since fucking when did her conquests stay in her bed? The answer to that was 'never'. Her features turned into a scowl and she reached over with both hands, shoving whoever it was off her bed onto the floor.
They let out a quiet yelp, taking the blankets with them on their descent. Eden smirked, getting to her hands and knees and crawling to the edge, looking over at whoever it was. She caught the bright hair and her smile instantly vanished.
"Nico, what the fuck?"
She grabbed a pillow from behind her and threw it at his face, narrowing her eyes.
"Why the hell are you in my bed?!"
He sat up, brushing his hair out of his face, looking just as disoriented as Eden had felt.
"You fucking passed out in the middle of a hallway in someone's house we didn't know. I thought I'd be a good friend and bring you home. Sorry about that."
His voice was contemptuous which just pissed Eden off more. She grabbed the last pillow on the bed and threw it at his head, narrowing her eyes.
"That's great and all, but that doesn't even answer my question. Why are you in my bed? "
Nico's sigh was loud, carrying a hint of annoyance and something else. He tossed both of her pillows back onto the bed behind her, missing her by inches. As he stood, he placed the blanket next to her and grabbed his pants off the floor, pulling them on. He remained silent, gathering the rest of his stuff. Finally, he turned to face her, running a hand through his hair.
"You woke up when we got here, we had sex, you asked me to stay. Thought for once, maybe, you actually meant something you said. But I guess the alcohol and whatever fucking drugs you took did the talking for you."
He grabbed his cell phone off her shelf next to the bed and slipped it in his pocket, opening her door.
"Something really bad is going to happen to you someday, you know. You can't even remember being with me, who knows what the hell you could end up doing, Eden."
She shrugged, glaring at him, still irked at the entire situation.
"And I guess, someday, I might care. Also looks like today is not that day. So you can go, Nico."
She smiled, pulling a cigarette out of the chest next to her bed. Nico rolled his eyes, the door almost shut behind him when Eden's voice cut through the quiet.
"Oh and hey,"
He opened the door a crack, leaning in to catch her eyes with his own.
"Next time I ask you to stay? Please be smart enough to don't."
His expression hardened and he nodded once, curtly, slamming the door behind him. Eden's grin widened and she lit the cigarette, the toxins seeping into her lungs.
He'd never learn.
But something in the back of her mind was whispering. Reminding her that lately, when she was drinking, she was sending all kinds of mixed signals. Letting him get too many kinds of close. Clearly, last night was a shining example. She hadn't been meaning to, but she was drinking to escape all this shit she was going through with Evein. With coping. Which she wasn't exactly doing.
And even if he was an asshole who had too many feelings, Nico was a great escape.
Fuck.
------------
Eden boosted herself onto the counter, grabbing an apple from the bowl next to her. The house was quiet. Weird, because it was almost noon, and even in a house this massive, usually there was some kind of noise. Someone was usually home. But she was not about to complain. After Nico left, she had taken a shower, trying to wash some sort of awareness and feeling back into her body. Into her brain.
Almost as soon as she was finished being thankful for the silence, the front door opened and voices poured inside. From the sounds of it, it was Cassius and his group of little friends, and they were heading her way. She looked down at her shorts and tank top, her hair wet and messy on top of her head. This would be a great meeting.
"No, I don't think anyone is here. My mom keeps all her liquor in the kitchen, it's like she's too stupid to realize that we take it."
Cassius' voice got louder and louder, mixed in with a couple voices she couldn't quite make out. But they all three crashed into the kitchen and she sighed. Kyle and Xavier were with him. Truly her favorite three people in the entire world, really.
"What the fuck are you doing home?"
Cassius' voice was snide, and his glare matched his tone. Eden held the apple up, twisting it in the air.
"Looks like I'm eating. I mean, I know you're a neanderthal, but I would think you know what eating is."
His glare iced over even more and he glanced at his friends. Kyle crossed his arms over his chest, and Xavier rocked back on his heels, looking very out of place. Wasn't he a good kid? What was he doing hanging out with her pathetic brother anyway?
"Well, can you move? I need to get in that cabinet."
Cassius asking permission? Was hell freezing over?
Eden considered it for a second and then shook her head, biting into the apple.
"Nah. I think I'll stay right here. Although, if one of you somehow manages to get behind me, you can have all the alcohol you want."
She pulled her legs up onto the counter, crossing them. Her eyes locked on Xavier's and she grinned, tilting her head. Kyle snorted, walking over to her. He placed his hands on her knees and leaned into her face, his tone malicious.
"Come on now, Eden. Everyone knows it's never been hard to get behind you, and it never will be."
Eden's eyes dropped to his hands, her expression going blank. She looked up at his face and dropped the apple into the sink beside her. Without another word, her hands shoved against his chest, and he stumbled back, releasing his grip on her legs.
She slid off the counter, shoving past him towards the exit and her brother. She stopped next to him, ignoring Xavier's presence completely.
"Take whatever you want, Cassius."
She enunciated the syllables, looking back over at Kyle, his face red.
"But you should probably remind your stupid friends that they can't.
You know. If you care about anything other than yourself at all.
Because next time, I'll cut his fingers off."
She pushed the two boys away from each other and exited the kitchen, her ears ringing with her own words. The muffled noises of the three of them followed her all the way to the staircase, but she didn't make out anything. Didn't want to. Letting guys touch her when she gave them permission was one thing. What Kyle just did was a completely different level altogether.
Maybe she had given herself a reputation, she couldn't deny that, but that didn't give every single guy in this fucking town the right to do whatever they wanted.
Nico's warning echoed in her head.
'Someday something really bad is going to happen to you'
Guys like Kyle are the reason why those alarms exist. She'd heard stories. Rumors. Yet, Cassius kept him around. Xavier clearly was less of a guy than she had assumed he was too. Hanging out with that crowd. Eden was learning more and more who not to trust in this town. Being drugged at a party didn't help her trust issues either.
She slammed her bedroom door and crawled under her blankets, her eyes on the ceiling. Her bed still smelled like Nico's cologne and cigarette smoke. And the fucked up thing was, that's who she wanted right now. Even just a touch of feeling upset and she was knocking at Nico's stupid door. Like somehow he could make her feelings go away with his overabundance of them.
Maybe she'd never learn either.
---------------
Red, white and blue flashing lights cut through the smoky haze in Sarah's apartment windows. Another night, another party. It was the same thing as it always was. Sarah had just moved out of her brother's house into her own place (that her world traveling parents were still paying for) and it gave everyone an excuse to do what they always did.
Eden scrambled off of Max's lap and over to the window, pushing the window open just enough to look out. Fuck. It was definitely Carter's car. But he was nowhere around it. She couldn't see Dalton anywhere either. So what the hell was going on?
Eden felt Max's hand on her back as he leaned over to look out the window too, and her skin crawled just a little. Sex was one thing, but lately, he'd been acting like she belonged to him. Like she wasn't sleeping with Nico too. Like this was exclusive, and yeah, no.
She brushed his hand away and walked over to the door, looking through the peephole before opening it and slipping outside. The sound of clicking heels on tile let her know the girls were following her too. The lights reflected on every surface, but still, neither one of the actual officers were in range of sight.
"What the fuck, Eden. Did you tell your dad where you were going?"
"Do I ever tell my dad anything? No. I don't know why the hell he's here, but thanks for blaming me."
Her guard was still up with Sarah, even though she had told her she forgave her. She had pulled a crying apologetic hissy fit in the middle of school, and Eden had told her what she wanted to hear to shut her up. Something about not having Evein anymore and Eden being all she had, blah blah. It was more than likely all a lie. But what is it they say? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?
Yeah. So, that.
"Eden, seriously?"
Oh, God. No. She turned around to face her father, her eyes squeezed shut. She opened them, but was extremely surprised that he didn't look angry. Just... concerned.
"Yeah, hi. Study group."
"Yeah, of course. With around ten cars here?"
He sighed and pointed at Sarah, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"You're Sarah Kirkpatrick?"
She nodded slowly.
"Yeah... Why?"
He nodded toward the cruiser, motioning for her to follow him.
"Don't worry, you're not in trouble. I just have a few questions."
Her dad wasn't even in uniform. How could this be a routine police questioning? What the fuck was Sarah even being questioned for? And why the cop act like he didn't know who she was? Like she hadn't grown up with Eden and been at her house for a million sleepovers...
"What the hell was that?"
Nico asked. He and Max were across the room from each other, and they both looked less than happy about being left alone together. It would have been comical had Eden not been trying to figure out what the hell Sarah could have done. The room was still shrouded in the siren lighting and no one had even bothered turning real ones back on.
"No idea. But he said she wasn't in trouble? I don't know. What he's doing right now doesn't even seem legal. Not that my dad has ever been the best fucking cop."
Honestly, he was probably the worst cop in existence, and somehow he had moved up so far in rank he was a detective now. A really piss poor excuse for one, but. Max was still hovering by the window as Kiara and Eden fell onto the couch and a few people spilled back into the room. It was much more quiet than it had been just half an hour before.
"Fuck it."
Eden grabbed the bottle off the ground in front of the couch and took a drink, holding it out to Kiara. She didn't really care enough about Sarah anymore to worry about this.
An hour or so passed before anyone even acknowledged what had just happened again. The room slowly filled back up and the music returned to the earlier volume, like no one remembered Eden's police officer father was just outside the walls. Eden had continued drinking anyway though, her and Kiara making jokes about the blonde girls from the Christian all girls school in the city.
"Uh, Eden... You might want to come over here."
Max's voice was different enough to make her stop giggling at Kiara's latest joke almost instantly. He never sounded that serious. She hadn't even realized he'd stayed there the entire time. Observing. She got to her feet and walked over to the window, pulling the curtain aside. She couldn't see much, but what she could was enough.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me."
She turned towards the door, but Max grabbed her arm, pulling her to him.
"Eden, don't do anything stupid. It was all just talking but then she started crying. I d-"
Eden pulled her arm out of his grip and turned back to the door, throwing it open. Her throat constricted and all she could think about was destroying Sarah's existence. Probably the alcohol talking.
"I don't want to hear it, Max. I've had more than enough of her shit. This is kind of taking it a little too far."
He crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged.
"Whatever, just thought you might want to know it didn't look like your dad reciprocated."
Eden snorted, the cold air from outside soaking through her dress, goosebumps dancing across her skin.
"Do you really think I'm stupid enough to believe that? I saw it too, Max. Damn sure looked like he was kissing her back to me."
But when she turned back to face the spot where her dad's car had sat, it wasn't there. The only sign that any kind of altercation had taken place was Sarah, tears running down her face, shivering in the wind. Eden walked over to her, tipping a little with her vision.
"I'm sorry, Eden. I'm so sorry."
Eden thought about hitting her. She really did. It just didn't seem like the real answer to this situation.
"You can save it Sarah. I'm done with you. I don't want you anywhere near me. Near my family. My house. You might as well pretend I don't exist."
She ran a hand through her hair, her cheeks flaring from the anger she was trying so hard to contain. She dropped the bottle she had been drinking out of at Sarah's feet and it shattered, covering the ground and most of Sarah's jeans with whiskey. She made to leave, to walk over to her car, but turned around instead, getting as close to Sarah's face as she could.
"And you know, they like to say I'm a whore in this town, but at least I didn't try to do shit with someone's fucking father. Someone's husband. You're disgusting."
Kiara's voice was fiery, and her words wrapped around the hilt of Eden's proverbial knife, driving it in deeper.
"You're lucky that that wasn't my dad, because if it had been, I would light that whiskey at your feet on fire."
What the hell was she supposed to do now? Tell her mom? Was Max even right?
From what Eden had seen, Carter didn't look like he was pushing her away, so what was the real story?
She slammed the passenger door to her car and groaned as Kiara slid behind the wheel.
"Why is this town so fucked up?
The entire thing and every single person in it. We're like a walking soap opera."
Kiara shrugged, pulling the car out of the parking lot back towards Eden's house.
"I don't know, but, I am pretty sure every teenager in this town just saw that go down. You sure as hell know how to make a name for yourself, Eden."
She couldn't tell if Kiara meant that as a good thing or a bad thing, but she didn't much care. She hoped Sarah's name was ruined for good. That's exactly what she deserved.
So I'll be on my way
-------------
Eden's head pounded. Her heart was in her throat and her stomach turned. She sat up, scooting against the headrest of the bed she was on, clutching her stomach with her hand. She wasn't even sure whose bed it was. Her eyesight was too blurry to do much with what little she could see. She could barely remember any of last night. She hadn't drank that much in years. Okay, probably months.
Evein's death was really taking a toll on her. Not that she could ever admit that to anyone. It was as Atticus had said, she was the soldier. No one could see her falter. Hiding behind liquor and men was her thing.
She dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her eyes viciously, trying to come to reality at least a little bit. She blinked a few times, her hands finally becoming clear in her vision. As she moved them aside, she recognized the blankets of her own bed.
When had that happened? How did she get home? She had been at a party, hadn't she? She trailed her eyes along the sleeping form next to her, raising an eyebrow. Since fucking when did her conquests stay in her bed? The answer to that was 'never'. Her features turned into a scowl and she reached over with both hands, shoving whoever it was off her bed onto the floor.
They let out a quiet yelp, taking the blankets with them on their descent. Eden smirked, getting to her hands and knees and crawling to the edge, looking over at whoever it was. She caught the bright hair and her smile instantly vanished.
"Nico, what the fuck?"
She grabbed a pillow from behind her and threw it at his face, narrowing her eyes.
"Why the hell are you in my bed?!"
He sat up, brushing his hair out of his face, looking just as disoriented as Eden had felt.
"You fucking passed out in the middle of a hallway in someone's house we didn't know. I thought I'd be a good friend and bring you home. Sorry about that."
His voice was contemptuous which just pissed Eden off more. She grabbed the last pillow on the bed and threw it at his head, narrowing her eyes.
"That's great and all, but that doesn't even answer my question. Why are you in my bed? "
Nico's sigh was loud, carrying a hint of annoyance and something else. He tossed both of her pillows back onto the bed behind her, missing her by inches. As he stood, he placed the blanket next to her and grabbed his pants off the floor, pulling them on. He remained silent, gathering the rest of his stuff. Finally, he turned to face her, running a hand through his hair.
"You woke up when we got here, we had sex, you asked me to stay. Thought for once, maybe, you actually meant something you said. But I guess the alcohol and whatever fucking drugs you took did the talking for you."
He grabbed his cell phone off her shelf next to the bed and slipped it in his pocket, opening her door.
"Something really bad is going to happen to you someday, you know. You can't even remember being with me, who knows what the hell you could end up doing, Eden."
She shrugged, glaring at him, still irked at the entire situation.
"And I guess, someday, I might care. Also looks like today is not that day. So you can go, Nico."
She smiled, pulling a cigarette out of the chest next to her bed. Nico rolled his eyes, the door almost shut behind him when Eden's voice cut through the quiet.
"Oh and hey,"
He opened the door a crack, leaning in to catch her eyes with his own.
"Next time I ask you to stay? Please be smart enough to don't."
His expression hardened and he nodded once, curtly, slamming the door behind him. Eden's grin widened and she lit the cigarette, the toxins seeping into her lungs.
He'd never learn.
But something in the back of her mind was whispering. Reminding her that lately, when she was drinking, she was sending all kinds of mixed signals. Letting him get too many kinds of close. Clearly, last night was a shining example. She hadn't been meaning to, but she was drinking to escape all this shit she was going through with Evein. With coping. Which she wasn't exactly doing.
And even if he was an asshole who had too many feelings, Nico was a great escape.
Fuck.
------------
Eden boosted herself onto the counter, grabbing an apple from the bowl next to her. The house was quiet. Weird, because it was almost noon, and even in a house this massive, usually there was some kind of noise. Someone was usually home. But she was not about to complain. After Nico left, she had taken a shower, trying to wash some sort of awareness and feeling back into her body. Into her brain.
Almost as soon as she was finished being thankful for the silence, the front door opened and voices poured inside. From the sounds of it, it was Cassius and his group of little friends, and they were heading her way. She looked down at her shorts and tank top, her hair wet and messy on top of her head. This would be a great meeting.
"No, I don't think anyone is here. My mom keeps all her liquor in the kitchen, it's like she's too stupid to realize that we take it."
Cassius' voice got louder and louder, mixed in with a couple voices she couldn't quite make out. But they all three crashed into the kitchen and she sighed. Kyle and Xavier were with him. Truly her favorite three people in the entire world, really.
"What the fuck are you doing home?"
Cassius' voice was snide, and his glare matched his tone. Eden held the apple up, twisting it in the air.
"Looks like I'm eating. I mean, I know you're a neanderthal, but I would think you know what eating is."
His glare iced over even more and he glanced at his friends. Kyle crossed his arms over his chest, and Xavier rocked back on his heels, looking very out of place. Wasn't he a good kid? What was he doing hanging out with her pathetic brother anyway?
None of my business.
"Well, can you move? I need to get in that cabinet."
Cassius asking permission? Was hell freezing over?
Eden considered it for a second and then shook her head, biting into the apple.
"Nah. I think I'll stay right here. Although, if one of you somehow manages to get behind me, you can have all the alcohol you want."
She pulled her legs up onto the counter, crossing them. Her eyes locked on Xavier's and she grinned, tilting her head. Kyle snorted, walking over to her. He placed his hands on her knees and leaned into her face, his tone malicious.
"Come on now, Eden. Everyone knows it's never been hard to get behind you, and it never will be."
Eden's eyes dropped to his hands, her expression going blank. She looked up at his face and dropped the apple into the sink beside her. Without another word, her hands shoved against his chest, and he stumbled back, releasing his grip on her legs.
"Funny enough, you've never fucking been anywhere near me, and you never will be. You don't get to fucking touch me Kyle, and everyone knows you've always wanted to."
She slid off the counter, shoving past him towards the exit and her brother. She stopped next to him, ignoring Xavier's presence completely.
"Take whatever you want, Cassius."
She enunciated the syllables, looking back over at Kyle, his face red.
"But you should probably remind your stupid friends that they can't.
You know. If you care about anything other than yourself at all.
Because next time, I'll cut his fingers off."
She pushed the two boys away from each other and exited the kitchen, her ears ringing with her own words. The muffled noises of the three of them followed her all the way to the staircase, but she didn't make out anything. Didn't want to. Letting guys touch her when she gave them permission was one thing. What Kyle just did was a completely different level altogether.
Maybe she had given herself a reputation, she couldn't deny that, but that didn't give every single guy in this fucking town the right to do whatever they wanted.
Nico's warning echoed in her head.
'Someday something really bad is going to happen to you'
Guys like Kyle are the reason why those alarms exist. She'd heard stories. Rumors. Yet, Cassius kept him around. Xavier clearly was less of a guy than she had assumed he was too. Hanging out with that crowd. Eden was learning more and more who not to trust in this town. Being drugged at a party didn't help her trust issues either.
She slammed her bedroom door and crawled under her blankets, her eyes on the ceiling. Her bed still smelled like Nico's cologne and cigarette smoke. And the fucked up thing was, that's who she wanted right now. Even just a touch of feeling upset and she was knocking at Nico's stupid door. Like somehow he could make her feelings go away with his overabundance of them.
Maybe she'd never learn either.
---------------
Red, white and blue flashing lights cut through the smoky haze in Sarah's apartment windows. Another night, another party. It was the same thing as it always was. Sarah had just moved out of her brother's house into her own place (that her world traveling parents were still paying for) and it gave everyone an excuse to do what they always did.
Eden scrambled off of Max's lap and over to the window, pushing the window open just enough to look out. Fuck. It was definitely Carter's car. But he was nowhere around it. She couldn't see Dalton anywhere either. So what the hell was going on?
The party guests scattered toward bedrooms and bathrooms, leaving just Eden, Sarah, Max, Nico and Kiara in the living room. The ones who were confident enough that they wouldn't go to jail if it really was a bust on this whole thing.
Eden felt Max's hand on her back as he leaned over to look out the window too, and her skin crawled just a little. Sex was one thing, but lately, he'd been acting like she belonged to him. Like she wasn't sleeping with Nico too. Like this was exclusive, and yeah, no.
She brushed his hand away and walked over to the door, looking through the peephole before opening it and slipping outside. The sound of clicking heels on tile let her know the girls were following her too. The lights reflected on every surface, but still, neither one of the actual officers were in range of sight.
"What the fuck, Eden. Did you tell your dad where you were going?"
Sarah's whisper was right next to Eden's ear and she jumped a little, turning to face her with a grimace.
"Do I ever tell my dad anything? No. I don't know why the hell he's here, but thanks for blaming me."
Her guard was still up with Sarah, even though she had told her she forgave her. She had pulled a crying apologetic hissy fit in the middle of school, and Eden had told her what she wanted to hear to shut her up. Something about not having Evein anymore and Eden being all she had, blah blah. It was more than likely all a lie. But what is it they say? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?
Yeah. So, that.
"Eden, seriously?"
Oh, God. No. She turned around to face her father, her eyes squeezed shut. She opened them, but was extremely surprised that he didn't look angry. Just... concerned.
"Yeah, hi. Study group."
She was a good liar on a good day, but this didn't feel like such a good day with the way his expression quickly turned incredulous. He shook his head slightly.
"Yeah, of course. With around ten cars here?"
He sighed and pointed at Sarah, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"You're Sarah Kirkpatrick?"
She nodded slowly.
"Yeah... Why?"
He nodded toward the cruiser, motioning for her to follow him.
"Don't worry, you're not in trouble. I just have a few questions."
Her dad wasn't even in uniform. How could this be a routine police questioning? What the fuck was Sarah even being questioned for? And why the cop act like he didn't know who she was? Like she hadn't grown up with Eden and been at her house for a million sleepovers...
She looked at her friend, raising an eyebrow. What did you do? She mouthed, but Sarah just shrugged. She looked just as clueless as Eden felt. She watched Sarah and her dad get into the car and the lights cut off, leaving spots in her vision. She turned to Kiara, grabbing her arm and pulling her back inside.
"What the hell was that?"
Nico asked. He and Max were across the room from each other, and they both looked less than happy about being left alone together. It would have been comical had Eden not been trying to figure out what the hell Sarah could have done. The room was still shrouded in the siren lighting and no one had even bothered turning real ones back on.
"No idea. But he said she wasn't in trouble? I don't know. What he's doing right now doesn't even seem legal. Not that my dad has ever been the best fucking cop."
Honestly, he was probably the worst cop in existence, and somehow he had moved up so far in rank he was a detective now. A really piss poor excuse for one, but. Max was still hovering by the window as Kiara and Eden fell onto the couch and a few people spilled back into the room. It was much more quiet than it had been just half an hour before.
"Fuck it."
Eden grabbed the bottle off the ground in front of the couch and took a drink, holding it out to Kiara. She didn't really care enough about Sarah anymore to worry about this.
An hour or so passed before anyone even acknowledged what had just happened again. The room slowly filled back up and the music returned to the earlier volume, like no one remembered Eden's police officer father was just outside the walls. Eden had continued drinking anyway though, her and Kiara making jokes about the blonde girls from the Christian all girls school in the city.
"Uh, Eden... You might want to come over here."
Max's voice was different enough to make her stop giggling at Kiara's latest joke almost instantly. He never sounded that serious. She hadn't even realized he'd stayed there the entire time. Observing. She got to her feet and walked over to the window, pulling the curtain aside. She couldn't see much, but what she could was enough.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me."
She turned towards the door, but Max grabbed her arm, pulling her to him.
"Eden, don't do anything stupid. It was all just talking but then she started crying. I d-"
Eden pulled her arm out of his grip and turned back to the door, throwing it open. Her throat constricted and all she could think about was destroying Sarah's existence. Probably the alcohol talking.
"I don't want to hear it, Max. I've had more than enough of her shit. This is kind of taking it a little too far."
He crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged.
"Whatever, just thought you might want to know it didn't look like your dad reciprocated."
Eden snorted, the cold air from outside soaking through her dress, goosebumps dancing across her skin.
"Do you really think I'm stupid enough to believe that? I saw it too, Max. Damn sure looked like he was kissing her back to me."
But when she turned back to face the spot where her dad's car had sat, it wasn't there. The only sign that any kind of altercation had taken place was Sarah, tears running down her face, shivering in the wind. Eden walked over to her, tipping a little with her vision.
"I'm sorry, Eden. I'm so sorry."
Eden thought about hitting her. She really did. It just didn't seem like the real answer to this situation.
"You can save it Sarah. I'm done with you. I don't want you anywhere near me. Near my family. My house. You might as well pretend I don't exist."
She ran a hand through her hair, her cheeks flaring from the anger she was trying so hard to contain. She dropped the bottle she had been drinking out of at Sarah's feet and it shattered, covering the ground and most of Sarah's jeans with whiskey. She made to leave, to walk over to her car, but turned around instead, getting as close to Sarah's face as she could.
"And you know, they like to say I'm a whore in this town, but at least I didn't try to do shit with someone's fucking father. Someone's husband. You're disgusting."
Kiara's voice was fiery, and her words wrapped around the hilt of Eden's proverbial knife, driving it in deeper.
"You're lucky that that wasn't my dad, because if it had been, I would light that whiskey at your feet on fire."
She grabbed Eden's arm, pulling her away from Sarah, toward her car.
What the hell was she supposed to do now? Tell her mom? Was Max even right?
From what Eden had seen, Carter didn't look like he was pushing her away, so what was the real story?
She slammed the passenger door to her car and groaned as Kiara slid behind the wheel.
"Why is this town so fucked up?
The entire thing and every single person in it. We're like a walking soap opera."
Kiara shrugged, pulling the car out of the parking lot back towards Eden's house.
"I don't know, but, I am pretty sure every teenager in this town just saw that go down. You sure as hell know how to make a name for yourself, Eden."
She couldn't tell if Kiara meant that as a good thing or a bad thing, but she didn't much care. She hoped Sarah's name was ruined for good. That's exactly what she deserved.
