FRIENDS ➳ jean kirstein

020. WHAT HAPPENED LAST SUMMER

Eren — August 10, 2019
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It must have been almost midnight but, truth be told, Eren had lost track of time hours ago. Street lamps pierced the dense darkness, illuminating their late-night walk to the pizza place. With their arms slung around one another's shoulders, Eren, Armin, Charlie and Mikasa stumbled tipsily up the sidewalk, cackling loudly and most definitely waking the sleeping residents on the street.

They had opted to leave the party at Hitch Dreyse's house early, all four of them agreeing that gorging themselves on pizza while watching an old movie together sounded much better than spending the rest of their night getting black-out drunk at Hitch's place. Not to mention the fact that a total of three fights had broken out throughout the duration of the party, and the atmosphere in the house had gotten much too tense.

Their brilliant plan, however, did not take into account just how long the walk from Hitch's house to the pizza place was. They had only left Hitch's place about fifteen minutes ago. They weren't even out of her neighbourhood yet, and already Eren could feel Charlie buckling against him, losing strength in her legs and struggling to deal with the pain of walking in heeled boots.

"Eren." Charlie's whine cut through the group's chorus of laughter. "My feet hurt."

"We'll be there soon," Eren assured her.

She grumbled something under her breath that he didn't quite catch, wriggling out from under his arm and stepping up behind him. Her hands gripped his shoulders and he realised what was happening just in time—Charlie jumped onto Eren's back and his hands latched onto her legs to support her. She squealed in delight, making him chuckle, meanwhile Armin glanced back at them with a dramatic roll of his eyes. But Eren did not miss the smile that was playing at his mouth.

Mikasa looked suggestively to Armin, who understood what she was insinuating immediately. He got to work on shutting down her ideas at once.

"No, no, no," he said quickly, firmly. "Absolutely not. You're way taller than me."

But Mikasa wasn't listening. She slipped behind Armin just as Charlie had done to Eren mere moments before, grabbing him by the shoulders. Laughing nervously, Armin tried to swerve out of Mikasa's grasp.

"Mikasa," he warned, despite the undertone of amusement to his voice. "No, Mikasa, seriously—"

He was silenced by his own huff as Mikasa hitched herself onto his back. He stumbled, knees buckling, but he quickly regained his balance and secured a firm grip on Mikasa's legs. With one hand clutching Eren's shoulder to steady herself, Charlie reached out with her second hand, lacing her fingers through Mikasa's with a grin. A cool breeze ruffled Eren's already disheveled shock of brown hair, and a warm feeling of pleasant happiness swelled in his core.

Because in that moment, life was pretty damn good. He was seventeen and it was the summer before junior year, so he did not yet have to worry about his future; he was mildly inebriated, enough to be giddy, and was laughing in the street under the stars with his three best friends, one of which was slung over his shoulders and giggling crazily in his ears.

Mikasa looked sideways at Eren, catching his eye, and a mischievous grin split her face.

"Race you to the pizza place?" Mikasa challenged.

Armin winced. "Absolutely not—"

"It's on," Charlie said.

With a groan of frustration, Armin tightened his grip on Mikasa's legs, boosted her higher to ensure that she wasn't going to fall, and then he broke into a run without another word. Competitiveness dulling all senses of reason, Eren tore after him, desperate to win the race.