Page 172 of Built to Fall
It doesn’t matter now. She’s here and concerned about Meredith. And of course every issue happening in our apartment has to happen all at once.
“I’ll check,” I say quickly, glad for the distraction. As I move, Eden walks in, cradling one of the blankets that usually resides on the back of the couch.
“Hey,” she says gently, eyes flicking between us. “Everything alright?”
Kara snorts. “Depends on who you ask.”
I head into Meredith’s room, no longer wanting to bother with Kara. I knock on her bathroom door. “Mer?”
After a pause, the sink turns off and the door opens. Meredith steps out slowly, sweater sleeves pulled halfway over her hands.
“Sorry. My contacts were bugging me,” she says. Her voice is off. Too light.
Does Meredith wear contacts? I glance down. The sink is spotless, the hand towel folded perfectly. But she doesn’t meet my eyes.
Before I can press, Kara’s voice cuts across the hall, slicing through the silence like a blade. “I guess we’re all lying today, aren’t we?”
I expect her gaze to be fixed on Meredith, but when we exit her bedroom and cross the hall back into Kara’s, she’s looking directly at Eden.
What the fuck is going on right now? I just got home, and within the two days I’ve been gone, our apartment turned into a powder keg getting ready to blow up.
“You want to take a guess at what I’m referring to?” Kara asks Eden.
Eden’s face pales. “I?—”
“Actually, I change my mind.” Kara pushes past her and into the kitchen. “I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”
My eyes trace back and forth between the two of them, eventually narrowing on Eden.“What is happening?”I mouth to her.
She has a guilty look on her face. We all know that whatever it is, she won’t be able to deny it.
“You’re fucking Jack,” Kara says with her normal calculated demeanor, despite how her accusation drops like a bomb.
Everyone freezes. Including me.
“Wait,” Savannah says, holding a hand up, “Jack? As in, Kara’s ex-boyfriend,Jack?”
It’s a rhetorical question. We all already know the answer. Savannah simply isn’t comfortable with silence and had to fill it withsomething.
Eden opens her mouth like there might be an apology forming on her tongue, but it closes again. She just stands there, her eyes brimming with shame as she wraps the blanket tighter around herself.
Kara doesn’t scream. She doesn’t throw anything. Somehow, her silence is louder.
Meredith and Savannah fall further into Meredith’s bedroom, whispering to each other. I can’t say anything because I’m still focused on Eden.
Eden, who has spent every minute I’ve known her caring for other people. Who takes care of the dishes that get left out and folds our laundry for us when we leave it in the dryer.
It makes no sense why it would be her—why she would be the one to commit such an act of betrayal.
I don’t want to think like that yet. I can’t immediately condemn her because right now, I’m only receiving facts. I need context to understand.
After all, humans need narrative to survive. It’s why most people remember stories and not facts. While that may not apply to me, it doesn’t take away from the fact that I need the full story to understand the insanity unfolding in front of me.
She finally speaks, her voice wrecked. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like this.”
Kara laughs, except it’s completely hollow. Sharp and humorless. “Oh great!” She claps. “I guess that takes away the fact that you hopped on my ex-boyfriend’s dick thesecondwe broke up.”
Eden flinches at that. We all do.
