ROSÉ -corpse husband-

LOST (6)

    CORPSE / PAST: AUGUST 2020

    He could hear her walking around in the kitchen, humming softly.

    Hesitantly, he left his room, walking quietly, his head down.

    Corpse hated this. He hated feeling like he was walking on egg shells in his own apartment. It's been months. They should be over this by now.

    "Hey," he tried to greet her, his voice raspier and deeper than either of them expected. When was the last time he had spoken? He couldn't remember the last time he had talked to anyone.

    "Hi," Eden greeted, adding butter to whatever she was cooking on the stove.

    Corpse hadn't expected to get this far. What could he say now?

    "Um, have you paid your part of the rent yet?" He said, awkwardly.

    Shit, he hadn't meant to ask that.

    Eden glanced at him, eyebrows furrowed. "Uh, is talking about the rent like talking about weather now?" And Corpse could tell she had an attitude.

    Well, he already fucked up.

    "Yeah, I have, is that all?" Eden said sharply, dismissing him before he even had the chance to apologize.

    Corpse couldn't force himself to speak, opting to nod his head instead, even if she wasn't looking at him.

    He left the room in a rush, retreating to his comforting bedroom, trying to stop his brain from convincing himself he was as stupid as he felt.

    Corpse had meant to try to figure things out, not make it worse.

    He woke up this morning, convinced he would do better today than he had been when it came to Eden. He had admittedly given up on her until now, but after thinking about it, and considering his options, he knew he wanted her to stay with him. If she would just forgive him, he could start working towards change.

    His thoughts were interrupted by Eden knocking on his bedroom door. He scrambled out of his bed quickly, sitting at his desk, trying his best to look more productive than he had actually been.

    "Come in," he grunted.

    Eden opened the door, glancing around the room before her eyes landed on Corpse in his chair. She tried not to think too much about it.

    "We need to talk," Eden said, something deeper in her tone that Corpse didn't quite recognize.

    It was incredibly awkward for him, breaking up with his best friend, and love of his life, after nearly five years of dating, and living together for months afterwards. He knew Eden better than he knew himself, honestly, and on days when he couldn't raise a finger she had been there to help him with it all.

    He was going to marry her. He was planning on it, when they got financially stable, but everything about what used to be felt ages away. He couldn't remember the last time he had looked into her eyes, let alone touched her, and yet, he was still so completely in love.

    He didn't write songs about girls he didn't care about, and Eden had been the only girl on his mind since he was 18.

    Losing her felt like losing part of himself.

    "Okay, about?" Corpse asked nervously, trying to hide the anxiety of this behind a false confidence he didn't have.

    Eden stepped further into the room, being as bold as to sit on his bed, directly across from him. "C.."

    Corpse could see the pain in her eyes. He wanted to scoot the chair closer to her, and hold her in his arms to make this all go away. He knew they were too far gone.

    He hummed in acknowledgment, reminding her that he was listening.

    "I'm not renewing the lease."

    "What?" Corpse asked, wondering if he heard that right.

    "I... the lease is up next month. I'm not renewing my portion," Eden elaborated, eyes dancing over his face, searching for anything.

    Corpse felt like he was going to have a panic attack.

    "Eden... baby," he said, pained. His throat was closing, eyes welling up with tears. He pushed his chair close to her, grabbing her hands in his own. "What can I do?" Corpse offered, desperately, squeezing her hands gently.

She looked up at him, tears dripping down her own cheeks. This was vulnerability neither of them had shown in months, not since March, and now it felt like the progress of moving on was reversed.

"Nothing, Corpse. You can't..." Eden sighed. "You can't do anything. I need to do what's best for-"

"For you," Corpse sighed, hands releasing hers, and falling into his lap. "You have to do what's best for you. And I'm not best for you."

"Corpse, you know that's not entirely what I mean."

"But it is, isn't it? Come on, Eden. You haven't talked to me since March! You moved your shit out of our room while I wasn't even home, and just expected I would get the memo-"

"That's not how that happened, and you know it. You broke up with me. Not the other way around!" Eden was trying hard not to yell.

"Oh come on, Eden. You knew if you had tried to talk to me after, I would've accepted you with open arms," Corpse tried to defend.

"No! I shouldn't have to beg you to be with me! You should want to work through issues, not immediately turn to breaking up over stupid shit!"

"So my health issues are stupid?"

Eden groaned dramatically. "You're being manipulative and you know it. You're trying to put words in my mouth that I didn't say. Your health issues are not stupid, but it is stupid to break up with your girlfriend of four and a half years because you're scared of dying," she called him out.

"Eden... I don't want to talk about it," Corpse spun his chair back around towards his desk. She had struck a nerve, crossed a line, and they both knew it.

If Corpse was good at anything, it was running from his problems. Ignoring them, until it eventually came to bite him in the ass.

"I don't care what you want, Corpse," Eden spun him around herself, tugging the chair as she did it so their knees were touching. "We need to be a-adults."

Corpse could tell she was getting emotional now, and crying. The confidence and anger she had held only moments prior had dissipated. He hated that, but struggled to want to do anything about it. He was detaching himself from his own emotions, from her, and from this conversation. She wouldn't get effort out of him now; Corpse had given up.

NOTE!!
okay so that's what's going on.... next chapter will be back to the present and it might stay that way for awhile.... who knows!
how are you liking it so far? the more it develops, the more it'll make sense, just give me a chance!!!!!!!!