Eden (9 page)

10

It was too late to hide from her, by the time I had noticed her, Eden had already been rising from my front steps and was making her way over to me and we met on her front lawn. I could already see the anger flashing behind her eyes.

“What happened to Family Night?” she asked through gritted teeth.

“Um, it got canceled,” I tried to improvise.

“Stop it,” she practically screamed, “I talked to your mother and she told me that there was no such thing as Family Night in your house.”

I could feel my stomach lurch.

“The funny thing is,” she continued, even though her face revealed that there was, in fact, nothing funny about anything, “your mother thought that you were spending tonight with me.”

She paused, waiting for me to say something. I opened my mouth to defend myself, but I couldn’t make a sound.

“Where would she get an idea like that, hmm?” Eden placed her hands on her hips and, again, waited for my reply.

“Um, I didn’t want her to think that we weren’t seeing each other because we were fighting or anything,” I mumbled with my head down.

“But we weren’t fighting,” she almost screamed, throwing her arms up in despair, “Now we are fighting!”

I didn’t say anything and in the silence, I could see that she was calming down. When she finally spoke again, her voice was normal.

“Why didn’t you want to see me tonight?” she asked with such hurt in her eyes that my heart sunk.

“I don’t know,” I replied, not wanting to talk about it.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” she asked her voice still even.

“I just didn’t want to,” I stalled.

“Why not, I thought that you liked me,” she stated, the hurt still evident in her eyes.

“I do,” I reassured her, “it’s just that…” I stopped before I could finish my sentence.

“Just what?” she pressed.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said turning away.

“Well, too bad,” she said walking around to face me again, “because we are going to talk about it.”

By this time I was getting angry, this was her fault, after all, not mine; I wasn’t the one keeping secrets.

“Fine,” I said under my breath, “we’ll talk about it.”

“Good,” she said, placing her hands back on her hips, waiting, “so talk.”

“I know your secret,” I blurted out.

“What are you talking about?” she said, although the fear in her eyes told me that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

“The other night when I spilled the popcorn under your couch,” I began, throwing caution to the wind, “I felt guilty and went back to your house to help and I saw…” I didn’t want to say anymore.

“You saw what?” she pressed, wanting to hear the rest.

“I saw you lift the couch over your head with one hand,” I revealed.

Her response to that knowledge was totally unexpected; she laughed.

“You saw me lift my couch over my head with one hand?” she repeated between fits of laughter, “You do know that is impossible, don’t you?”

“I know what I saw,” I said, getting angry at her laughter, “You lifted the couch over your head and vacuumed up the popcorn.”

“Even if I did,” she said, trying to be reasonable, “why would that make you want to not see me?”

“Because normal people can’t lift heavy couches with one hand like it was nothing,” I mumbled.

“Oh, so I get it,” she said, getting angry, “you don’t date freaks, is that it?”

“I have no problems with freaks,” I practically screamed, getting angry myself, “but I do have a problem when government agents come searching for them!”

“What are you talking about?” she asked in confusion.

“Look,” I began, “I don’t know what secret lab you escaped from, but I don’t want to be found with you when the Feds come to take you back.”

A smile bloomed across her face. Normally it would have been enough to melt my heart, but now it just infuriated me further.

“So you think that federal agents are looking for me to bring me back to some secret government laboratory that I escaped from because they gave me, what, super powers or something?” She stated in astonishment, “You do realize how ridiculous that sounds, don’t you?”

“I don’t care,” I said, “I know what I saw.”

“Wait a second,” she said seriously as if something just occurred to her, “did you say that someone came looking for me?”

“Just forget about it,” I said walking away in disgust, “You, obviously, aren’t going to ‘fess up to anything, so there’s no point in wasting my time anymore.”

Eden called after me, trying to continue this conversation, but I ignored her. Even though she never acknowledged that what I had witnessed the other night took place, she hadn’t denied it either; I was right back where I had started, but at least I had now broken things off with her. I wasn’t sure whether I should feel relieved or miserable; I guess I felt a little bit of both.

Slamming the front door behind me, I stormed into my house. My mother had been waiting for me, most likely waiting to ask me about Eden.

“How was your night?” she asked innocently.

“Great, can’t you tell?” I shot back.

“Eden stopped by,” she informed me.

“Obviously,” I told her, making my way to the stairs.

“Anything you want to talk about?” she pressed.

“Not really,” I fumed heading up the stairs to my bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

I flopped down on my bed and heaved a sigh. It was done. I didn’t have to worry about Eden anymore. If scientists or government agents came looking for her, it was no longer my business.

That was the problem. Even though we had broken things off, I still cared about her, it was still my business. I couldn’t ignore the dangers that she could be facing. How can I just sit here and let whatever scenario play out without interfering? Sure I had to think about protecting my friends and my family; but how could I just abandon Eden like that?

In reality, what could I do against the government if they wanted to take Eden back? Nothing. It was frustrating to feel so powerless, but I could find no other option that would guarantee the safety of my family.

There was also the fact that Eden felt that she couldn’t trust me with the truth about her. All she did was practically call me crazy for telling her about the couch incident. If she would have just confessed and told me her story, maybe I would have tried to help her in any way I could. The point was moot now; it was over between us.

It was well after eleven when my brain finally shut down and I fell asleep.

The next day I woke up at my usual time and got ready for school. The conversation with my mother at breakfast was brief; I still wasn’t ready to talk about last night with her, but I did tell her that I had spent the evening at Kyle’s.

She seemed satisfied and didn’t push me for answers, for which I was grateful. I wasn’t sure when I would be ready to talk to her about Eden; or if I ever would. It would be too hard to piece together a plausible story without revealing Eden’s secrets and I didn’t want to endanger her with that knowledge.

After breakfast, I headed to the bus stop. I glanced over at Eden’s house, but saw no sign of life. I was surprised to realize that some part of me had been secretly hoping that maybe she would be outside waiting for me; wanting to talk things over. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling disappointed since I had been looking for an excuse to break things off with Eden, maybe I was just sad that I had been so easy for her to get over.

Arriving at the bus stop, I was immediately greeted by my friends.

“Tom, tell these guys how awesome ‘20 to Life’ was,” Kyle said turning from Drake and Matt, to face me.

“It was awesome,” I agreed, “You could do anything in that game – car jacking, mugging, run from the cops and crash cars. It really is a great game.”

“Can we play tonight?” Matt asked immediately.

“I think so,” Kyle replied, “but you guys will have to come over after dinner; there’s no way my mother is going to make dinner for all four of us.”

“We’ll come by after six,” Matt said, looking around in case any of us objected, “This is going to be great, I can’t wait.”

The guys were really enthused with the prospect of spending the night playing video games and I couldn’t say that I blamed them, ‘20 to Life’ was really fun to play and it would be a great distraction for me, so that I wouldn’t be thinking about Eden.

By the time that Howie arrived, we had already hammered out plans to meet at Kyle’s around 6:30 tonight. Kyle told me that after I had left last night, he read the instruction manual and found out that you can play online. After hearing that, even I was actually looking forward to tonight; what could be better than online drive-bys?

I wasn’t sure whether or not I was looking forward to seeing Eden in my classes. On one hand, she was aware that I knew about her secret and I was still breathing, so she wasn’t going to kill me over it; on the other hand, at least I didn’t have to pretend to talk to her like I had been.

Arriving at school I made my way to my homeroom class. Eden was already seated inside. Taking a deep breath, I took my usual seat next to her.

“Good morning,” I said politely. After all I didn’t have to ignore her completely.

“Good morning,” she said back with a cold smile.

I was expecting her to try to talk to me as usual; therefore I was surprised when she didn’t speak one more word to me the whole class. She didn’t even look at me. I should have felt relief over this, but I didn’t.

The rest of the day went the same; it was like we were strangers. I knew deep down that this was for the best, but a part of me had wanted her to at least try to patch things up with me.

During lunch Eden was no where to be found; our table was empty. I ate lunch with my friends instead, all the while wondering where Eden was.

“To what do we owe this honor?” Drake joked, waking me from my internal musings.

“What?” I said stupidly, shaking my head.

“Why are you eating lunch with us?” he asked.

Drake wasn’t speaking to me in an angry tone, it seemed like he was genuinely wondering why I was eating lunch with them instead of Eden.

“I don’t know where Eden is,” I answered truthfully, looking around.

She was still nowhere to be found in the cafeteria. I didn’t worry about it too much, if anyone could handle herself, it was Eden. I guess that I was feeling a little bit hurt; strange, I know. I was the one that had wanted to end things between us since I discovered her secret and now that things were over I was missing her.

It didn’t make any sense.

“Earth to loser,” it was Matt.

I guess he had been talking to me during my internal debate and had just realized that I hadn’t heard a thing he had said.

“What?” I asked, snapping back to my surroundings.

“I said,” Matt began irritated, “that before we go over to Kyle’s tonight, do you want to take a walk with me to the mall? If ‘20 to Life’ is as good as you guys say it is, I want to pick up the hint book.”

“Can’t you just enjoy a game?” I asked in exasperation, “Why do you always have to buy a hint book?”

“Because it helps me enjoy the game more,” he defended.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied, “I’ll go with you.”

“Great,” he said, “I’ll stop by your house around six. Do you think you’ll be done with dinner by then?”

“I should be,” I said.

My mother usually had dinner on the table by 5:30. I’ll have plenty of time to eat and be ready by six. It seemed like I would have a busy evening tonight and that was ok by me. I didn’t want to have any time to miss Eden; the sooner that I got over her, the better.

After lunch, I stopped off at my locker and picked up the books that I would need for my afternoon classes. I wondered if Eden would be in class. I hadn’t seen her at all during the lunch period and I was a little concerned.

Entering art class I was relieved to find Eden already seated at her regular station.

“Hi Eden,” I said as I sat down beside her.

“Hi,” she replied curtly, not even looking over at me.

She was upset, I got it. I wanted to ask her where she had been during lunch, but I felt that I didn’t have the right to question her. I made my decision and now I would have to live with it.

The rest of the class dragged, as did the rest of the day; I didn’t attempt to talk to Eden at all and she didn’t say anything to me, either. Even though she spent the whole afternoon seated beside me, I had never felt so alone before.

It was a relief to finally get on the bus home. Howie sent us off with a cheery good-bye and we all went our separate ways, heading to our homes.

Entering my house, I was consoled with the knowledge that I didn’t have a lot of homework tonight, so it shouldn’t take me too long to finish. I’ll have plenty of time to eat dinner before Matt came over at six.