Eric ended up staying longer than usual. Usually, he slept when he knew he had to, but he was too paranoid to shut his eyes unless he needed to blink. Eric's anxiety was through the roof at the moment and he couldn't even focus on himself.
He simply stared at the door that led to that lead to the hallway, and to the guest room that belonged to Peter and Ace at the moment. He had some sort of an off vibe from them the second Peter stepped into the car but brushed it off as him paranoid.
He was all over the place that day and didn't need this type of mindset at the moment. He stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours until he finally shut his eyes for a few hours.
.
.
.
Eric woke up the next day, still feeling sleep-deprived. Usually, he would feel fine the second he woke up, but the paranoia, anxiety, and stress were still there. Ace and Peter had to leave. Now. But he couldn't just tell them to leave, and he couldn't tell Vinnie to kick them out.
His options were limited, but he eventually figured he'd at least tell Vinnie about his suspicion. Eric couldn't just keep his mouth shut about his suspicion. He knew better than to keep his mouth shut when he was feeling anxious or even scared.
Eric knew that he could tell Vinnie anything, no matter how bad it was. He also knew that anyone who knew him well enough could see right through his lies or whenever he was nervous.
He quickly sat up and forced himself to run down the stairs to Vinnie's room, stumbling about 4 times on the way there. He quickly opened the door and shook Vinnie awake as if he were a child waking their parents up.
Eric kept shaking Vinnie, desperate to get him to wake up. The task was hard since Vinnie was an extremely heavy sleeper. It took a while for Vinnie to start stirring and he eventually woke up to see Eric picking at his nails.
"Eric?.." Vinnie muttered in confusion tiredly. "I need to tell you something.. Now.." Eric muttered quietly and shyly. "I feel like Ace and Peter are like... I dunno hiding something." Eric quickly said, making sure to quiet.
"Eric come on don't say that. You know that they're having a hard time don't just assume things now." Vinnie said in a defensive tone. He seemed annoyed at the fact that Eric would just automatically assume that something was going on between Ace and Peter.
Eric seemed a bit upset at Vinnie's tone. He knew that Vinnie thought Eric overthought things all the time, but Eric was genuinely afraid and concerned. Vinnie eventually realized this was serious and decided to hear Eric this time.
"What makes you think that?" Vinnie asked, his tone becoming calmer, enough to truly convince Eric that he would hear him out this time. Eric hesitated for a moment, looking everywhere else besides Vinnie.
Eric continued to pick at his nails and didn't look at Vinnie. "I just feel like they know something." Eric's tone was still somewhat hesitant. "I was listening in on you and Ace's conversation and I feel like he knows something that no one else knows."
Vinnie gave Eric an odd look. He was debating whether or not to scold him for assuming such a thing, but at the same time, he knew Eric couldn't help it whenever he felt suspicious of somebody.
Usually, his suspicion was accurate, but to think Ace and Peter would have something to do with it seemed impossible to Vinnie. It was odd to Vinnie because Ace and Eric are best friends. The more he thought about the more suspicious Vinnie became of Eric.
Vinnie decided he'd lay low on his suspicion at the moment and listen to Eric. He sat up and fixed his hair out of his face. "What would make you think that when you were listening?" Eric became hesitant again.
"He just seemed less... I dunno less chatty or something..." Eric muttered. "I get that Gene and Paul are dead but I would at least think he would have teared up at least a tiny bit when he was talking about it."
Vinnie did find Eric's reason accurate and seemed to make sense. Ace did crack a lot of jokes, but he knew when to be serious and he did tend to be emotional. Vinnie also noticed how genuine and afraid Eric seemed.
He let out a soft sigh and rubbed his eyes. "If that's what you really think then we can talk about it later."
