Heartbreaker

T W E N T Y T H R E E

I put the car in park when we get to Jaeda's.

Eden and I both hop out, and after hearing her door close I lock the car. We both walk in silence towards the back of her house. We were having a fire. It was something that we always did once the weather started to get better. It was tradition.

It was after dinner now, but it was at the point of the year where our days were starting to get longer. It was almost six thirty and the sun was starting to set just now. It was nice supposed to be a nice night. The first one in a while.

Jaeda was sitting in one of the three chairs when we get to her backyard. She was on her phone, with no logs or small sticks in sight to start this fire. Eden and I both snicker as she glances up at us.

"Nice fire," Eden teases as we get closer.

"What do I look like, a girl scout?" Jaeda rolls her eyes. "I brought the chairs out that was enough of a challenge."

"They do look really nice," Eden plays along.

I chuckle, "I can do it. But Jaeda you're helping us gather sticks."

She nods, standing up from the folding chair. We all start to look around for small sticks that would go underneath the larger thick logs.

"I brought out newspaper too," Jaeda explains, "You guys said that would've been helpful last time."

"Yeah it will be," Eden says, pulling out her phone when she heard it go off. She rolls her eyes, sticking it back into her pocket a second later.

"You okay?" I ask, bending down to get lower to the ground. "Who was that?"

"It's Embry," She says, "He's been a dick lately, so I've been ignoring him. Now I guess he's just blowing up my phone until I answer." I watch her ignore another call.

"What's he been doing?" Jaeda asks from a couple feet away.

"He's been up my ass about everything," Eden says, "His anger is completely out of control. My mom thinks it's because he's developing his man period. But he's been yelling at both of us nonstop."

Jaeda and I both chuckle. But it was true, there was something going on with Embry lately. When I went to Emily's earlier in the week and Embry was there, he was talking about not having a choice to be there. Like Sam had trapped him into becoming a part of his cult. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should probably mention that Embry is apart of that.

"I went to Emily Young's house the other day," I explain, "And Embry was there."

"What?" Eden asks, dropping the sticks in her hands out of shock. "Why the hell was he there?"

"I don't know," I say, "I turned around and he was there. He got his hair cut E, and a tattoo."

"I know," She says, "I think I just refused to believe that he was one of them up until now."

"Maybe it's not as bad as it sounds," Jaeda says. "Maybe, I don't know, maybe it'll turn out different for him."

"How could it be different?"

"I don't know I'm just trying to think positively," Jaeda defends.

"Well no offense Jae, but there's nothing positive about this situation with Embry and Sam."

"Maybe they aren't as bad as we think they are," I speak up. They both look at me. "I mean think about it, they haven't gotten into any known trouble. Maybe they're just, a group."

"Defending our boyfriend are we now?" Jaeda teases with a smirk.

I roll my eyes, "He's not my boyfriend. But all I'm saying is that maybe they aren't as bad as we all thought."