After what happened with Asyia earlier, I wasn’t in the mood to go anywhere anymore. I just wanted to go home and try to understand what had happened. Asiya hadneveracted this way toward me before; at least, I hadn’t noticed until now.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized something about our friendship, though I could’ve been exaggerating as well. Perhaps I was still in shock and a little confused, so I was trying to find all the bad things I possibly could.
But ever since we’d met, Asiya had been trying to get me out of my comfort zone, or so I thought. Yet if I looked at it from another angle, was shereallytrying to get me out of my comfort zone, or was she just trying to embarrass me?
Perhaps she needed someone by her side that made her look better, and I was the perfect victim. Easy to undermine. Easy to convince of things that might not have always been true.
I mean, the day I met Eden, for instance, she knew I hated the dress she picked. I thought I looked weird in it, but she insisted it looked good on me. I’d seen the pictures. I looked horrendously. She knew I hated parties, yet she still always dragged me to them and somehow found a way to make me genuinely regret going.
Asiya also knew that I wasn’t good at talking to strangers and that I didn’t want to go talk to the hockey guys because we both knew I was going to start stuttering. Yet she still walked up to them anyway.
Then again, there was a chance I was overanalyzing the whole situation right now.
But it wasn’t the first time she’d done something like this either. It wasn’t even the second or third. I couldn’t count all the times I felt humiliated at a party, because of something she dragged me into, anymore.
“Why would she have missed me?” I asked, turning on the faucet.
I didn’t realize Eden had gotten up or that he’d followed me to the sink. It only dawned on me when all of a sudden his arms wrapped around me from behind, and he decided it was a great idea to rest his chin on the top of my head.
Why did he have to be that much taller than me? It simply wasn’t fair. I couldn’t use him as a table, so how was he allowed to use me like that?
The worst part was that I didn’t really mind when he touched me. Actually, I kind of liked it when he hugged me, when he kissed me, or when he held my hand.
“Didn’t you used to doeverythingtogether?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Mostly because I had nobody else to turn to. Asiya had plenty of other friends.
“So, you’ve been hanging around each other every single day for God knows how long, and suddenly my perfect self?—”
I snorted. “Very humble.”
“—shows up and steals you away.”
“But that’s the thing, right? You didn’t steal me, Eden.”
“But I did.” He held me tighter against his body. “Because of me, you’ve been hanging around me and my friends for weeks. Your social media is filled with pictures ofusrather than you and her. You no longer go anywhere with her because I take you to these places instead. You even blew her off to pick me up from the arena after a game before. And you’re constantly canceling plans with her to hang out with me.”
Well, if he says it like that.
I never canceled plans with Asiya to hang out with Eden. I just always told her I already had plans when she asked, which was always the truth. Ialwayshad plans with Eden. Even if we’d only see each other for an hour that day, we’d somehow find time to be together. And recently, we wouldn’t even bake anymore.
“That’s still no reason to latch out on me the way she did.” As I finished cleaning the last few items in the sink, I quickly washed my hands and turned off the faucet. The second the water was turned off, Eden turned me around in his arms. His eyes met mine, his gaze so intense, it brought goosebumps to my skin.
With every passing day, those green eyes seemed to get more and more intense, pulling out more unexpected reactions from me. Suddenly, when he looked at me, I no longer wanted to roll my eyes. Instead, my stomach was fluttering with stupid butterflies.
His hands were on my jaw in a matter of a second, his thumbs brushing my cheeks softly. “That’s true. She could’ve easily tried talking to you about it instead of whatever she was trying to do. Communication is key, or whatever they say.”
I cocked my head at him, smiling lightly. “So, you always raise your concerns when something annoys you?”
“Of course, Ally-Bear,” he answered, sounding almost too confident. “I grew up in alet’s-talk-about-itkind of family. My parents made sure we could always express our feelings without being judged for it. I actually have a really funny story about that. Want to hear it?”
“Always.”
His hands moved from my jaw to my hips, yet somehow, he never stopped touching me.
“Little backstory, which you’re going to love. We have the same nickname. My dad used to call meThe Devilgrowing up because, apparently, I didn’t like him. He was just being dramatic; I loved my dad—still do, but the nickname turned out to be fitting.”
“The Devil?” I raised my eyebrows at him. “Now that doesn’t surprise me at all.”
