Forbidden | Shedeur Sanders

12

Eden

Harlem and Dayna were tired of me being in the house moping, so they'd dragged me out to a bar. I sat there unamused as I watched them both dance with random men.

"I thought people came to the bar to have fun, why you looking so sad?" she looked up to see an unknown man now sitting down next to her, shrugging in response.

"I don't really want to be here." I said, "This must be a post-breakup outing." I chuckled a little at the comment.

"Something like that, yea."

"Well let me help you get over him, my names Shilo." He said extending a hand towards me which I shook, "Eden."

I wasn't healed enough to fully commit to a relationship, but I enjoyed spending time with Shilo. He was handsome, had good conversation, and made me laugh. It was nice to go out in public without worrying about public opinion, but my mind would still wander back to Shedeur. He made me feel ten times as special without us going out, so I can only imagine what he would've done if we would've made it to that stage of our relationship.

I'd been seeing Shilo for just a couple of weeks and we were currently at a restaurant, just talking and getting to know one another.

"You haven't really told me anything about your family." I said making him sigh, "Touchy subject...I can take you to meet them if you want?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at his response, "We're having a family Christmas dinner, you can be my plus one."

"I don't know about that Shilo, this is still pretty fresh." I explained, not wanting to get his hopes up for a relationship.

"Oh come on it'll be fun. Maybe with you there I'll actually make it through dinner." He chuckled and I forced a smile still uneasy.

"I'll think about it— " I started, "Just say yes. If you think about it too much you're going to psych yourself out."

Defeated I agreed. I figured nothing bad could come of it, and I wasn't really interested in spending Christmas with my family considering how Thanksgiving had gone.

The day came and Shilo drove us to his family home, it was really nice, one of the biggest houses I'd seen in a while. He escorted me inside and to the kitchen where his family was, greeting them individually.

"Eden this is my mom, dad, and little sister Shelomi. Everyone this is my friend Eden." I shook all their hands with a smile, I'd made sure to tell him not to introduce me as his girlfriend.

"Oh and here goes my little brother Shedeur." I was sure all the color had drained out of my face as the name exited his mouth. I was praying the name Shedeur was more common than I thought, but no. I turned around seeing him entering the kitchen, his arm in a sling. "Shedeur this my friend Eden."

We stared at each other for a while before I approached him "Hi, it's nice to meet you." I said extending my hand, he shook it slowly his eyes never leaving mine. I released his hand and cleared my throat, trying to hide the fact that I was screaming inside.

This was just my luck. Shedeur didn't say a word the entire dinner, only staring at me on multiple occasions. I was eager to leave shortly after dinner, so we said our goodbyes and he took me home.

I went back and forth on the idea for a while, but I felt like I needed to call him and explain. He answered the phone almost immediately.

"Wassup"

"Hey Shedeur...I just wanted you to know I didn't know he was your brother. I would never do something like that knowingly." I explained, fidgeting with my necklace nervously.

"That's it?"

His response caught me off guard, I wasn't used to him talking to me like that.

"Um, yea...you been doing okay?"

He scoffed at my response, "It's crazy how you been ignoring all my texts and calls all this time, didn't even bother checking on me when I got injured, but as soon as you fuck up and feel guilty now you care about how I been. What you thought telling me you didn't know he was my brother was supposed to make me feel better? Huh?"

I sat in silence, tears starting to roll down my face, "Shedeur I'm sorry..."

"Whatever."

He said hanging up the phone. I sighed as I quickly shot a message to Shilo stating I didn't think we should continue to see each other. I was glad our relationship had never gotten physical; all we'd done was hug.

As I sat now alone with my thoughts that familiar feeling of pain and sadness started to settle in, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.