Page 114 of Break the Rule
“Ally, please.”
“It’s so nice to meet you, Eden,” Alec says, plastering on what is clearly a fake smile. “Charlie has told me absolutely nothing about you.”
“Alec,” Charlie hisses.
“I’m going inside to check on the food.”
With that, he stalks inside, his friends following after him like overgrown ducklings, leaving Eden to gape after him.
“That could’ve gone worse,” Charlie sighs.
“What the fuck, Charlie?”
“So uh, did I ever mention that one of the reasons—the main reason actually—that I didn’t want Theo and Alec together, aside from blaming him for Alec’s accident at first, was because I thought Theo was too old for him?”
Eden turns around to look at Theo, trying to guess his age. “How much older is he?”
“Eight years.”
Well, that explains a few things.
“So he hates me,” Eden surmises.
“He doesn’t hate you. He’s pissed off at me. I uh, I didn’t tell him about you—anything about you—until about two hours ago.”
Eden slaps Charlie’s arm. “Asshole.”
“Fuck, you and Alec are ganging up on me.”
“Don’t be a dick. Go tell him you’re sorry.”
“I did,” Charlie frowns. “He doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“When has someone not wanting to talk to you ever stopped you from opening your big fucking mouth?”
Charlie opens his mouth then closes it. “You’re right.”
“Obviously.” Eden rolls his eyes. “Go fix things.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay alone?”
“Sure, I’ll hang with Andrew.”
Following Charlie towards the house, Eden stops and drops into one of the empty chairs by Andrew, perfectly content to simply observe. To his surprise, he’s immediately drawn into conversation.
“Do you do your own makeup?” Amanda asks.
“Uh, yeah.” Eden tugs on the sleeves of Addy’s sweater, pulling them over his wrists and hands. This is the last time he ever wears something that’s not oversized. There’s nowhere to fucking hide.
“Well it looks amazing. Maybe you can teach me some time. I’d kill to be able to do my liner that sharp.”
“Sure,” Eden mumbles, entirely unsure if she’s serious or making polite conversation. She doesn’t look like she needs any makeup tips, but her smile is unexpectedly genuine.
Slowly but surely, the conversation naturally shifts to some movie Denise and Amanda saw over the weekend. Not one to watch movies or television, Eden has no idea what they’re talking about and zones out, surprised when Andrew draws him into a new conversation. How the conversation jumped from an indie movie to favorite energy drinks, he has no idea, but he strongly suspects it was Andrew’s doing from the smile he shoots Eden.
He’d expected to feel horribly unwanted without Charlie around, but he doesn’t. It’s not only Andrew who makes an effort to include him. Eden might not be a people person or an extrovert, but Charlie’s friends arenice. Talking to them is nice. Being around people who are like Eden is really fucking nice. Sure, he doesn’t think he has anything in common with any of them, but there’s something to be said for not having to tone himself down or pretend that makes it easier to follow along with the conversation.
Even listening to them talk, the sounds of happy kids and adults alike, whose conversations shift from art and queer theory to food and clothes makes it almost easy to forget that if it weren't for Charlie, he wouldn’t be here.
