Present Day
My neck is stiff in the morning, so I roll it until it cracks as I’m walking downstairs. Not only did I sleep on the floor, I also slept upright.Upright.I’m suffering for it now, but I’m headed to the gym with Dean so I’m hoping to loosen up the stiffness with a workout. He’s running late, so I make my way down into the kitchen to grab some water, ignoring Dave as I pass him in the hall, and then I see Eden slamming the dishwasher shut. “Morning,” I say as I approach her.
She straightens up and turns around, wrinkling her nose at me, wearing her usual expression of repulsion. “Ugh.”
“You’re supposed to say good morning back,” I say, purposely brushing my shoulder against hers and nudging her out of my way as I walk over to the refrigerator. I pull open the door and stick my head inside.
“You kept me up all night,” Eden states.
I steal a glance back at her. I’m not sure what she’s talking about. “Huh?”
“The knocking.” She squints a little, her eyes locked on mine.
Oh, that. She heard it? Why didn’t she knock back? “I wasn’t knocking,” I lie, letting out a laugh. “Didn’t your dad tell you the house ishaunted? Demons everywhere.”
“Oh, shut up,” she says, but I hear her almost laugh too. “Couldn’t you get to sleep or something?”
“Not exactly,” I say, grabbing a bottle of water and spinning back around. I push the door shut behind me and take a step forward, folding my arms and raising an eyebrow at her. “I was hoping you’d wake up and knock back.”
“Sorry. I wasn’t in the mood for communicating with you through the wall at 4:00 a.m.,” she deadpans. I can see her gaze traveling all over my body, studying me.
“Ouch,” I say, and I keep my eyes focused on her face until she glances up again. Then, more because I’m curious rather than just trying to be playful, I ask, “What about tonight?”
Her eyes slowly lower to my chest. “What?”
“Tonight,” I repeat. My eyebrow arches even higher, my head tilted to one side. “Will you knock back?”
“No, Tyler,” she says slowly, her eyes flashing back to mine, “I don’t want to knock back and forth. It’s just weird.”
“Damn.” I glance down at my watch to check the time, but just as I’m about to sigh at Deanstillnot being here, I hear him in the hall, greeting Mom.
He enters the kitchen a few seconds later, spinning his car keys around his index finger. “Ready?”
“Dude, you’re twenty minutes late,” I say, setting my eyes on him. Our gym always gets super packed after ten. And it’s now after ten.
“My bad,” Dean apologizes. “I had to stop for gas.”
When I steal a glance at Eden, I realize I’ve been doing it again. Slipping up. But now that Dean’s here, I can’t afford to do that. That’s why I glare at her and mutter to Dean, “You left me to hang with thisfucking loser. Let’s just bail already.” I feel like such an asshole, but Tyler Bruceisan asshole. Tyler Bruceisa jerk. Neither Eden nor Dean is impressed though. They both stare at me in silence, Eden glaring while Dean gives me a more scolding shake of his head. “Chill, guys,” I say quickly. “Just a little sibling rivalry, right, Eden?” The word slips off the end of my tongue, but it doesn’t taste right.Sibling.
“We’re not siblings,” Eden says.
“And thank God for that,” I shoot back. I’m glad she agrees, because honestly, I don’t know if it’s just me who’s finding it impossible to think of her in that way. I can’t look at her the same way I look at Jamie and Chase. It’s different. She’s just…she’s just a girl to me. And a pretty cool one.
She exhales and walks away, slipping outside into the backyard through the patio doors until she’s out of sight.
“Dude,” Dean says. When I turn to look at him, he’s shaking his head slowly at me as he leans back against the countertop. “Why did you talk to her like that?”
“I talk to everyone like that,” I say, my tone defensive. I unscrew the cap of my water and take a sip, not quite meeting his eyes. I know I shouldn’t have said what I just did, but Tyler Bruce is ruthless.
“Yeah, but…c’mon.” Dean sighs. After Eden, he probably comes in as a close second on the list of people who seem to actually call me out on all my shit. There have been a lot of times when he’s sat me down and asked if I was alright. I’ve always lied and said, yeah, of course I’m alright, I’m Tyler Bruce, the guy with the hot girlfriend and the nice car. “She’s cool, you know.”
“And how wouldyouknow?” I ask, my tone aggressive. I don’t mean to be a jerk to Dean, but I can’t help it. How does he know Eden’s cool? He doesn’t even know her. Neither do I, really, but I’ve at least spenttime with her.
“I took her home last weekend. Afteryouwere a dick to her at Austin’s party,” Dean says. He shoves his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. “And we hung out on Saturday night at the La Breve Vita concert. Again, afteryoutook her to Declan’s place. I mean, seriously? Jake had to rescue her.”
“Yeah, I already figured that,” I mutter. I didn’t know Eden had gone to some concert with Jake and Dean, but I do know she eventually ended up with Jake the entire night. “He brought her home in the morning.”
Dean’s eyes widen. “Woah. He did?” He looks away, blinking at the patio doors for a few seconds. “Damn, I knew she left with him after the show, but I…I didn’t know she’d stayed the night.” His voice goes quiet. “Seems like Jake’s already got her in his clutches then. Whatever. Let’s just go.”
