Ever Since the Day I Saw You - Jane Eyre Oneshot - Eliza and Eric

Oneshot - Eric and Eliza

"Georgiana, will you quit being so annoying!" I yelled from across the wall.

Let me explain. I'm currently hiding in the bathroom from my sister as she recently bought a new set of makeup and just couldn't dare risk damaging her perfect porcelain skin with something unproven. She kindly volunteered me to be her test subject but, I would rather die, hence my current predicament.

"Girls, quit fooling around, and make yourselves decent," our mom hollered. "Mrs. Baldwin's coming over and I want her to have a good impression of us." "Oh and Eliza, Eric's back in town now."

Yikes. Double trouble. Eric was my brother's childhood friend and thus the sidekick of my nemesis. While John was just plain mean to me, Eric perpetually pranked me. I'll give it to him - he was innovative and he always helped me up. I actually came to have feelings, or whatever you can have for a boy at 10, before he left but he immediately shot my confession down. Don't get me started about his mom, Claire Baldwin. I'm still young and I don't know who I'll be, what I'll say or how I'll say it, but no matter what, you can trust that Mrs. Baldwin will always hate me. No matter what I did growing up, Mrs. Baldwin had a critique, comment, or complaint. All internal voices were once external voices and Mrs. Baldwin is the reason I'll always find something wrong with myself. I think that the main reason my mom is so buddy-buddy with her is that she's rich; she's so rich it's almost vulgar, but my status obsessed mom eats it all up.

Georgiana backed off and I was able to finally exit the lavatory. We both got ourselves ready and as we were coming down the stairs, Mrs. Baldwin's carriage arrived. I haven't seen her years as she stopped having a reason to come after Eric went to boarding school.

"Eliza, it's so nice to see after all these years," she said. "I see you've finally become comfortable in your own skin...that's nice."

Ugh. I hate her. Ten seconds in and she's already making back-handed comments. Mrs. Baldwin came, sat down for tea and got right to the point.

"Mrs. Reed," she said, "I wanted to formally invite Georgiana and Eliza to a ball I'm hosting at my estate." "You see Erics just came back from Moody's and we're looking to find a bride for him." Kill me now. The last thing I wanted to do is give up my entire day and parade myself around a crowded ballroom just to make five seconds of eye contact with a guy who doesn't even like me.

"Oh, that sounds just excellent," my mom replied! She was absolutely elated at the idea of stringing it up with the real high society folks. I mean we were rich, but we were nowhere near Baldwin rich. Mrs. Baldwin wrapped up with some pleasantries and made her way to the next manor.

"Mom, please don't make me go," I said. "Can't we make up some excuse for why I'm not there."

"Eliza Mary Reed," my mom exclaimed! "Stop this foolishness at once. You are a member of this household and you will not embarrass yourself, and more importantly me by skipping this. Mrs. Baldwin saw you in perfect health here and that's that; I don't want to hear anymore of it. Now, your Cousin Camilla is gonna be here any minute so compose yourself."

Oh my god. Oh my lord. Oh my goodness. Cousin Camilla! Camilla is my favorite person in the world. She is so nice and funny and smart and pretty; she is the "it girl" of our town but her voice is really the best part of her. Camilla uses her words like the sea uses waves: to ebb and to flow. She can talk for hours and hours about anything and still keep me entertained.

"Hello Hello, how's everyone doing?" Camilla said as she entered the room. I immediately ran up to her and gave her a hug.

"It's nice to see you, Camilla and actually you have great timing," my mom said. "Can you tell Eliza that she's being silly and that she needs to go to Eric's ball?"