Temptations | ✔️

1

~Eden's POV~

I looked down at the watch on my wrist as I sat in the park with my best friend, Aspen, eating lunch on one of the park benches. "You keep on checking your watch, E." Aspen stated with an amused tone. "Waiting on something?" She asked, cocking her head to the side.

Shrugging my shoulders, I took a bite out of my sandwich and kicked my leg absentmindedly through the air. "Well, Silas comes home tomorrow." I told her after I'd swallowed the food in my mouth, taking a sip of water. She giggled softly and bumped her shoulder against mine, a smile on her lips. "It's only been about two weeks, dummy. Not too long." She teased, to which I just rolled my eyes and laughed softly. "I know, I'm just glad he's done with college now, so he maybe will be home more often." I said.

Because Silas had been at college for the past few years, I generally only got to see him every couple of weeks if I was lucky, which left me alone in our apartment a lot of the time. As our dad had passed away when I was seventeen and Si was twenty two, I ended up moving into his apartment since our mom had left when I was three, so I was now left with just Silas. He was the only family I had anymore, and it got kind of lonely being by myself in our apartment.

"What time is he supposed to get back?" She wondered, popping a chip into her mouth. I hummed and leaned my head back, looking up at the blue sky above as I tried to recall the time. "Mmm, I think he said it was about three PM." I said, glancing over at her once more, a smile of excitement on my face. Aspen took another chip and popped it into her mouth, a gust of wind blowing my dark black hair into my face. "Got it, so you'll be occupied tomorrow." She responded, probably knowing that I would want tomorrow to be able to hang out with my brother. He and I were very close, so it wasn't unusual for us to hang out. "Yep, most likely." I chirped, taking another sip of water.

I finished off my food and then tossed my trash into the trash can nearby, curling my legs up on the bench with me when I sat down again. "Okay," I said, looking over at Aspen. "Now, what were we talking about before?"

**

The next day I woke up at around noon to clean the apartment before Silas would get home, as I doubted he wanted to come back to see a mess. It wasn't terrible or anything, but I needed to sweep and mop, take out the trash again, fold laundry, and re-clean the kitchen again since I didn't do it yesterday.

I took a quick shower and then blow dried my hair, squeezing my eyes shut as the hot air blasted me in the face. When my hair was dry I brushed through it, letting it fall down my back in its natural state because I didn't really feel like doing anything with it. I entered my room again and first began to look through my closet for something to wear, eventually deciding on a yellow crop top with little flowers on it and a pair of apple red colored denim jeans with monarch butterflies on them. My feet often got cold, so I put on some socks lastly.

With a quick check of the time, I rushed out of my room to start cleaning because I knew it would probably take me a while to get it all done, and Silas was supposed to be home in less than three hours. First I started with the kitchen and taking out the trash, which ended up taking me only about thirty minutes to do, thankfully. Then I moved onto doing laundry, and I found when I actually began to fold it all that I had definitely underestimated how much laundry there was. Silas had left a lot of dirty clothes here from the last time he was here around three weeks ago that I had washed, and I had completely forgotten to fold any of it. On top of that, I had my own clothes to put up as well. I put Silas' clothes in his room and mine in mine, making sure to put all the laundry baskets in the laundry room again.

Sweeping and mopping the floors was what took me the longest since I had to do the entire apartment, and by the time that I finished I only had about fifteen minutes before Si was getting home, according to the text he sent me. I ran into my room and sat down in the little vanity table I had just outside of my closet door, right up against the wall.

My bed was up against the wall right beside my bedroom window, the white blankets having a cute green and yellow floral pattern that matched my pillow cases. There were a bunch of different pictures and posters on the walls above and beside my bed, my laptop laying where I'd left it on the end of my bed. In the middle of the floor was a big fluffy rug that was a sunflower design, and my dresser was against the wall beside my front door with my TV attached to the wall above it.

I began to do my makeup the way I always did, glancing at myself in the mirror attached to my vanity. First I put on a little bit of concealer and then dusted some blush across my cheeks and the tip of my nose, not putting very much product on my face simply because I didn't like the way it made my face feel when I did. The liner I did was a tiny, light brown colored wing that contrasted nicely with the blue-green color of my eyes. I put on some mascara and then penciled in my brows before I lastly grabbed my go to lipstick that was a nude peach color. As I was putting all my makeup and things away I heard a knock on the front door, causing me to scramble to put everything away faster.

Once I put everything away I hurried out of my room and to the front door, bouncing excitedly on my feet as I unlocked the front door and swung it open. "Si!" I exclaimed, but then I paused, a frown of confusion forming on my lips when I saw that it wasn't Silas standing in front of the door. "You're not Silas." I said, frowning up at the man. He looked vaguely familiar to me, causing me to narrow my eyes at him as I tried to recall if I had seen him somewhere before.

"He's out at the car. I'm just helping bring stuff in." The man told me, and I found when I glanced down that he was holding two bags that I recognized as Silas' bags. "I can help." I said, and he arched up a singular brow. "We've got it just fine." He assured, pushing past me into the apartment. I crossed my arms over my chest and turned around, crossing my arms over my chest. "Hey! You can't just barge in here." I told him, causing him to glance at me over his shoulder. "I know you might be Silas' friend, but I don't even know your name. It's rude to come barging in like that."

An amused smile formed on the man's lips. "Aw, you don't recognize me, Eden?" He asked, the sudden use of my name catching me off guard. I frowned and furrowed my brows, staring up at him as I tried hopelessly to remember.

"It's Jagger, birdie. Remember?" He said eventually, taking me by surprise. I gaped up at him, somewhat embarrassed about the fact that I hadn't recognized him at all, but he just looked so different and I hadn't seen him since I was eighteen when he and Silas had gone off to college together. He must've been about twenty seven now, whereas I was now twenty two as of two months ago.

"O-Oh." I stammered. "I...I didn't recognize you." I said sheepishly, deciding that I could probably relax now. Jagger and Silas had been friends since I was fourteen, and I recalled that Jagger used to come over to our house a lot when we lived with my dad, but eventually they started spending more time elsewhere together so I didn't see him very often. I'd only seen him when I was helping Silas decide what to take to college with him, as Jagger had been helping as well, but that was a little over four years ago now.

Since then, he had grown taller, more muscular and overall more intimidating looking. His eyes were still the same dark shade of grey as they always had been and his brows still just as weirdly nicely shaped as I remembered. The sharp shape of his slightly stubbled jaw and his full lips and straight nose were all the same, but I noticed his hairstyle had changed. Though the last time I had seen Jagger his brown hair was slightly longer, his hair was now a little shorter and more messy styled, falling over his forehead.

"You just look different." I told him, rubbing the back of my neck. He snorted, raising a brow at me. "I could say the same for you." He responded.

"Eden!" I heard Silas' voice exclaim excitedly, catching me off guard when he tackled me into a hug from behind. I groaned in surprise, stumbling slightly as I looked at him over my shoulder. "Silas!" I huffed, turning to face him. He chuckled and wrapped me in a hug, patting me on the back. "I see you and Jagger remember each other still." He said, slinging his arm around my shoulder when he turned me towards Jagger. I nodded my head and glanced up at Silas, raising a brow at him. "Yeah, but you should've told me you had a friend coming with you. I thought you were the only one supposed to be here." I scolded him.

Silas just grinned, ruffling my hair as if I was a little kid. "You can't be mad at me." He teased. "My coming home forbids it."