Citrus [completed]

Chapter 2

Our apartment is on the 12th floor. The apartment is spacious and I can't help a grin stealing across my face when I take it in. When we walk in, a small foyer guides us deeper into the apartment. To the right is a large kitchen with an island and a steel fridge. Stools are already sitting at the breakfast bar. To the left, there's a living room, the walls a light charcoal gray.

Blair has already started decorating the living room. A large loveseat sits in the middle of the room in front of a large T.V. She's placed colorful throw pillows onto the couch artfully and already has a bowl of fruit in the middle of the coffee table. Off to the side is a set of doors that lead to the balcony. I can see plants resting on the railing underneath the sunlight.

I breathe in the stagnant air. It smells like the earth from all the plants Blair has brought and a hint of the humid summer air. It makes me feel energized after being confined to my house in California for the last few months. This smells like freedom and new chances.

We're only an hour into unpacking when a knock on the doorjamb grabs both Blair's and I's attention. There in the open door frame, with a wide mischievous grin, stands Eden Cummins.

Eden is one of those lucky men born with classic looks. He has a thick head of dark hair that's cropped at the sides but left curly at the front. His brown eyes have always been wide and expressive. Eden's face was one with almost no faults. His body was on the lean side, but he consistently worked on it and it showed when his flannel shirt stretched across his chest.

I dropped the bag I was holding on the floor and flew towards him. He prepares himself as I barrel into him and squeeze him with all my strength. Eden chuckles as he returns it, lifting me off my feet. His face nuzzles into my hair and I shove mine into his shirt.

"I thought I was going to have a peaceful day to unpack," I say into his chest. I don't mean it, ecstatic to see Eden. I almost choke up in his arms.

"Where's the fun in that?" His deep voice rumbled. Eden was my second closest friend. He was the person you met and instantly connected with. It felt like I had known him for years when we had met in freshman year.

"How was your spring semester?" I say as I draw back and finally let him breathe. He smiles softly as he tweaks my nose in a way that I hate.

"It was boring without you here." He replies just as softly. His eyes ran across my face and I let him take me in. Blair, Eden, and I were like the three musketeers. It wasn't the same when one was away from the others.

"You just wanted someone to go to gay clubs with you." I tease him as I usher him farther into our apartment.

Eden makes a sound of agreement. "You know what they say. One gay is a sad sight."

"Blair could have kept you company." I laugh. The thought of Blair going to a gay club sent me into hysterics.

Her blonde head, as if summoned, pops out her door as she glares at Eden. "To be fair to me, I offered after all his complaining. He wouldn't go with me."

"It's not the same when you take a straight person," Eden says aghast, like the mere suggestion of taking Blair would cramp his style. I immediately put Eden to work, handing him one of my bags and gesturing towards my room.

"Congrats on making primary gossip columnists," I yell at him from the kitchen where I drag a box labeled 'kitchen' towards me to open. I unpack a few pots and pans into their spot as Eden appears above me at the counter.

"Thank you, Jamie. I will rule with an iron fist." Since I met Eden, he has been the type to know everything and everybody, which is why he and Blair were both Journalism majors. They were thick as thieves and I had a feeling their professors dread having their names on the rosters.