EDEN'S KITCHEN - Carmen Berzatto

The Wake Up Call

SEPTEMBER, 2013 - CHICAGO, IL.

Ophelia Iver and Carmen Berzatto getting into a relationship was not an act of true love. Or Desire or any romance movie ever. It was truly out of convenience. The two would never admit that not even a decade in the future that it was a spiral of events that led the two of them to date.

The first was Carmy's break up with Claire, a girl he dated during his freshman and sophomore year of high school. The moment Carmy felt outside pressure about his two-year-long relationship with the girl, he jumped ship.

The next few were because of Eli. Despite being a full year younger than anybody else in her grade, Eli was not any more naive. In fact, she was much more strategic than her peers. At 15, Eli had a crush on Carmen Berzatto for the past couple of years. But she wasn't an asshole about it. She never let it get in the way of their friendship and when Carmen and Claire started dating, she didn't let herself feel jealous or make any actions against the couple.

Carmy could barely tell his right from his left at times. Despite his unknowing nature, he was aware that he felt something for his best friend. During his first relationship, he chalked it up to being nothing more than platonic love for Eli.

The first time he realised he was in love with Ophelia Iver, was the weekend after the second week of their junior year. Eli had been gone the whole summer, doing some intense college courses out of state and had disappeared the second school got out. The two had kept in touch, but not enough for Carmen to inform her that he and Claire had ended things at the beginning of the summer.

Eli's program ended two weeks into the school year, so the moment she had arrived back home a phone call from Sugar had been waiting. The two had gotten closer as Eli had been spending more time around the Berzatto family.

The invitation to a start-of-the-year party was not what she was expecting from the older girl. Eli only accepted after the confirmation that Carmy, somebody who had never attended a party before in his life, was going to be in attendance.

An oversized leather jacket, a short dress and one pair of run through Converses later, Eli was sitting in a random senior's backyard. People were either dancing, chatting or drinking. She was doing none of these, opting to people-watch the crowd until she found a familiar face to talk to.

Spotting the person who she thought was the current girlfriend of her best friend, she decided to go and catch up with Claire. She had barely made it four steps before getting pulled to the side by some person who had been in her Calculus class last year.

She had been a little taken aback,

"You're that kid Carmen's best friend right?"

"Yeah, Why" She yanked her hand out of the person's grasp.

"I wouldn't go over there if I were you unless you want to cause a scene"

"Why Not?"

"You didn't hear, Carmy and that girl broke up right after you left."

Instead of responding, she looked at her peer with a confused expression. Broken up, yeah they hadn't kept in the best touch but they talked enough for him to tell her that, right?

Eli gave a quick thank you before rushing inside to find her best friend. With a little hint from a girl who had seen Carmy climb the stairs three minutes ago, Eli found herself on the third floor of this home. The second had been a bust, with accidentally walking in on two seniors having sex in a closet and a group of kids getting high in the bathroom. The third floor only had two doors, one open and empty by the looks of it.