EVERGREEN, elijah hewson

end of it all

EPILOGUE
"end of it all"

EDEN STROLLED ALONG THE WELL-WORN PATH, WIND TUGGING AT HER SCARF.

December really wasn't as beautiful as it had been countless years before — trees solemnly waved at her as she stared at the snow, christmas lights flickered on and off, her shoes would slip against the icy ground, gingerbread lattes tasted bitter, the flavour had diluted before it even reached her mouth, her scarf was itchy and wouldn't stay in place.

Everything had gone to shit.

She'd enrolled in Trinity college, Dublin, now studying medicine. Lectures were boring but they were a way to take her mind off of other things, things that had been driving her completely mad. From being cut off by the boys to the random cancellation of their show, she garnered a habit of making it out that it was her fault, that somehow she was the reason they'd blocked her out. Did she say something wrong as she called Elijah for hours on end? A word slipped out of her mouth, a sentence that made him lose interest? Had he decided it would be for the better to move on and forget about her completely? She was lost and confused in the whole dilemma. Her thinking time was no longer going to be wasted on the matter.

Arriving at her apartment, she started to tidy up each room. Shoved away the random post-it notes on the counter, her massive binders filled to the brim with notes, dirty cups of tea which she placed into the sink. Her roommate provided the majority of the mess. Amelie never wanted to clean up after herself. Eden usually didn't mind. However, today was important. She'd been waiting for weeks. Chewing her nails as she glanced at the calendar, the red crosses she'd drawn getting ever so close to December 11th.

A knock at the door. Another.

Eden scrambled herself away from the kitchen, plucked her keys from her pockets and shoved open the door.

There they were, Min-Hee and Belle, grinning.

Eden was trapped in a group hug before she could utter a word, a hello, a 'thank you for coming'. A bouquet of flowers was forced inbetween her hands and two boxes of chocolates were dunked down on her kitchen table. Roses and Heroes.

"How long has it been? Over four months? Feels like yesterday since I last saw you," Min-Hee said, eyes gliding across the apartment, taking in the furniture, the view outside the window, "This is beautiful. Really, really beautiful."

"Thank you." Eden already felt as ease with them. She was making them two cups of hot chocolate in no time. The two girls explored the unchartered territory. The vast array of posters on her bedroom walls, the vinyl player on her desk and her record collection stacked neatly on the shelves just above.

"I still can't believe we're doing this," Belle said as she picked up Eden's 'I Want You' vinyl which was now dusty, after sitting untouched for a long while, "How do you think they'll react?"

The plan was this: go to their Dublin gig which was in exactly two days, and figure out what actually happened.

Robert and Belle had broken up, two weeks after they left. Long distance wasn't working out for them. It wasn't too terrible of a break up. Although, Belle cried for hours on a zoom call with Eden. It wasn't out of spite though, or for any of the wrong reasons. They just could never see one another. Robert did try to visit her when they had a show in London, Belle was busy with work. It was a mess. They decided it was better to end things.