East Of Eden

Chapter 6

Its almost about to be four o' clock and Jen and I are driving with me at the wheel through the streets of Washington. "Alright." I say looking at the street names. "What are we looking for?" Jen asks. "5th street Capitol Hill." I answer her. She turns her head at me with her mouth opened and an eyebrow arched. "What?" "We're going to Eric's town house, aren't we?" She accuses me. Well she is right, we are. I don't answer her, I let her take my silence as in a yes, but I don't want you to ask me a bunch of questions of why. She still asks questions. "Why? Why would we go there? He will tell your parents and mine that we were here!" "Jen stop!" I shout in the truck pulling onto 5th street. "Here it is." I pull into the road in front of his house. His car is right in front, so I know he's home. "Wait!" Jen yells as I open the door to get out. "What?" "What are we doing here, Holly!?" I groan and slide my legs back in and close the door. "Jen, I know Eric. He's my brother. I know for fact that he won't tell mine or your parents about our visit. Trust me." I explain. She sighs, "Fine." We both get out of the truck and I click the keys to lock my truck. "Look how gorgeous my truck looks there on the road." I tell Jen. "Holly." she laughs. We walk up the front steps of the townhouse and I knock on the door. Once the door opens Eric is in a hoody and gym shorts. I haven't seen him in 6 months and the sight of my favorite brother in the flesh is deliciously wonderful. "Eric!" I smile. His face is surprised as I thought it would be. "Hey Eric." Jen states. "Oh my God, get in here." He beckons as he pulls the door wide open and we both walk in.

I've only been in his house once before, so its still new to me. Right when you walk in the small stair case that leads to the upstairs is right there and the living room is next to it with the kitchen in the back. "Holly, do you know that mom and dad, and your parents," he gestures to Jenna, "are going crazy, right now?" He says worry in his tone. "I would like to think so." I tell him and me and Jenna laugh. "What the hell, Holly?!" He's angry. "Eric, please listen to me." I tell him, hoping he will calm down. "I'm going to call dad." He pulls out his iPhone from his shorts. I snatch it out of his grip before he does anything. "Eric, listen!" I shout, now I'm angry.

I finally get all three of us to sit at the dining table. I tell him why we left, every single reason causing me to cry from my barely wounded heart from Nathan's declaration for Jozlyn in front of me. I hope that me and Jen both sobbing in his townhouse will cause sympathy from him and understand why we're doing what we're doing and leaving town. "I had no idea." He guilt gets the best of him. He doesn't make eye contact with me. "I should've noticed, how...... unhappy you were...are." "Eric, its totally fine." I assure him. "No! Its not! I shouldn't have left to the Air Force." "Eric, stop. I'm fine, now." I grab his hand and he looks at me. "Seeing you and Jen in the span of two days just made all my sorrow dissolve. I'm happy and I've never been so excited for whats to come." I tell him. "What's to come?" he dares to ask. I inhale a deep breathe and exhale before saying, "Eric, I need you to do me a favor." I state. He just confirms that he is the best brother when he just nods yes. "I'm not going to tell you where we are going, but when we leave, tomorrow, I will call you from my new number, here." I write my new number on a piece of paper and hand it to him. "I will call you maybe in a few days, when we get to where we're going and tell you that we're safe and we're alright. That day I need you to call mom and dad and tell them that you heard from us, tell them why we left town, tell them that we're going to be 100% okay. Tell them that we are beyond happy and excited, tell them that I am going to call you every single day to tell you that we're okay. Tell them that it will be fine and everything is going as planned and that they need to stop looking for us because we're are going to be happy and......okay." I explain. "Then, say if they're not okay we will come straight back, but if nothing goes wrong don't expect them to come back before May 29th." I finish. "May 29th? So specific." He teases. "Its the last day of school. Me and Jen only plan to be gone for a whole school year." I tell him. "Why?" he asks. "Thats just what we want."

"We don't expect to be gone forever. My family is still there, my friends,......Nathan is still there. I know after what I told you, you may think that I don't care if he's there or not, but I do. I'm still in love with him and I care about him." I look down at the pot of flowers at the center of the table. "Where? How are you going to pay for all of this, gas, food, a place to live." He says quickly wanting to know all the details. I turn my head to Jen and she's already smirking and I smile. I look up at my frantic brother and admit, "Eric, I won the lottery." He eyes go wide and his mouth parts, "What?" "I won the lottery." I repeat my self as I pull the ticket out from my back pocket at slide it to him. He eyes go over the green paper. "Oh my God." He looks up at me. "You won $10 million." He says with the most shocked expression on his face. He hands it back to me and I slide back in my pocket.  "Eric?" I say and he looks up at me. "Are you going to do this for me,.....us?" I ask. He takes a deep breath and lets it out and nods yes. I smile and stand up, "Thank you, thank you so much Eric." I hug him.

"Me and Jen are going to go get dinner. Do you want to come?" I ask him. "No thanks. I'm just going to go lie down." He says still speechless. "Alright, do you want something to drink or need anything before we leave." I ask making sure that he's okay. "No I'm fine. Will you come back?" I nod my head no. "Just wait by the phone for the next few days." I smile. "Yeah okay." He chuckles. I hug him and take in that I won't see him for a while. "Bye, Holl." He says into my hair. "Bye, Eric." My eyes on the brim of tears. "Bye Jen." He hugs her. "I'll call you." I tell him once again. He nods his head and he walks us out of the front door. As we walk down the steps, I notice the sun setting and I look at the time. Its about to be 6 and my stomach rumbles realizing that me and Jen haven't eaten anything all day.

"Ugh we haven't eaten all day, let's go." Jen whines as we both get inside my truck. I put the key in the ignition. "Well Jen, the best kind of eating is when you're really hungry." I tell her. "Ha, poetic." Jen laughs. "Well I just made that up, but its true." We both laugh as I pull out onto the street and turn the corner trying to find a damn restaurant in this huge city.

Author's Note: I know this Chapter is really short, but I just wanted to update. I will update on Wednesday or Thursday and it will surely be long! I really like where this is going! I already know exactly what is going to happen in the end and I plan on writing a second book and I already know what the beginning of the book is going to be about. I really hope this book gets big because I love the story and meaning behind this journey and I really work hard and put a lot of effort in writing this book.