“Nothing,” Eden said sounding exasperated. “Cheryl’s just got a lot on her plate right now. She doesn’t want boy drama.”
He scowled. “This isn’t ‘boy drama.’ Cheryl and I said we’d be together in New Zealand and now she’s vanished and I have no idea why. Is it because I didn’t come back to Melbourne with her? Because I offered and she said I should stay. If I knew she’d be so hurt, of course I would have come with her. I just didn’t know what to do!”
The resulting silence said Eden was unimpressed.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry for being a whiny little bitch about this. I just… I can’t believe this is happening.”
“That makes sense,” Eden said in a frosty voice. He got the feeling he was missing something. Dancing around it and not getting close.
“Can’t you just tell me what I did wrong?”
Eden groaned. “Don’t you think this might be why Bernie doesn’t want to deal with you, Psycho?”
“Huh? What… what am I doing?”
She made a tutting sound. “Look, it’s not just about you. Cheryl’s got a fuckload to manage right now.”
“Her mum?”
“Her mum and the fact that she doesn’t have a job or a shot at buying her own place anymore, which was all she’s wanted for ages.”
“What!? Why won’t she be able to buy a place?”
“Because her mum needs to go into full-time care. Who do you think’s gonna pay for that?”
“The government? Medicare?”
“Yeah, if you want your mum to live in a place where there’s one nurse for twenty patients and bars over the fucking windows,” Eden snapped. “Jesus, you just don’t get it.”
“Because no one will tell me!”
“Use your brain! Cheryl’s going to spend her life savings on moving her mum into full-time care and she’s still going to die soon!”
“What? But… how? What?”
“People with ALS have really short life expectancies. Sharon’s got a few years left at most.”
“Shit.” He stared down at his feet. “I’ve never even met her.”
“Me, either,” Eden said miserably.
“But you’ve been friends…?”
“Since I was fourteen. It doesn’t matter.”
There was a beat and it finally felt like he and Eden were on the same page. Two people on the outside, unsure how to help Cheryl. Then Eden growled. “I don’t know why I told you that. I was rooting for you and fucked me. You’ve done nothing but make Cheryl’s life dogshit. She’s been crying her eyes out over you and—”
He gripped his phone. “She’s upset about me?”
“Of course, she’s fucking upset!” Eden screamed. “She finally gives you a chance to be her boyfriend and you bail on her to be all over that model, Daring Ballbag or whatever the fuck her name is. I saw the pictures. Her dangling off your arm, giving you the ‘fuck-me’ eyes, while Cheryl was flying home to care for her dying mother! How much of an incompetent nutsack can you be, Patrick? Could you be more of one? Is that even fucking possible?”
He was so shocked he jumped up onto his couch like a monkey. “I didn’t want Darling to give me the ‘fuck-me’ eyes! How is that my fault?”
“How is that my fault?” Eden repeated in a singsong voice. “Holy shit, you really are twenty-three.”
“Twenty-four.”
“Big fucking deal! This is why Cheryl doesn’t want to be your girlfriend, you idiot. She hit the wall at a hundred miles an hour and you just stood there whining about how you didn’t know how to get her flight changed or whether your liddle spwonsorship buddies would be mad at you for bailing on some meaningless awards circlejerk!”
