CHANGES [eric matthews]

An Affair To Forget

↳CHAPTER 4.10
An Affair To Forget.
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『 "Cooties!"』
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ERIC NEVER CLAIMED TO BE SMART, that was for sure. He was drowning at the idea of everyone going off to college, leaving him all alone. He didn't have any friends, besides Beckett, who was busy and, of course, ten times smarter then him. Every time they called or hung out, she talked about school, her job at the cafe, and those little journalism classes she took with April, from the news station.

And that's exactly why he knew something was wrong. He had great intuition, if nothing else, and he prided himself in it. He knew people and what made them tick. He knew Beckett liked to talk when she was comfortable around someone, and it made him happy that he was one of those people for her. Until recently.

The past few months she'd been acting very odd.

She was more tense, awkward, and more willing to put up with his incessant jokes towards her. It was like she was guilty of something. Like she was hiding something. And he was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Eric... why are you staring at me?" Cory blinked his eyes open warily, still bleary with sleep. Eric only then realized he had been watching his brother from his bed with intense eyes.

"Sorry," He wiped a hand down his face. He wasn't doing it on purpose!

"Alright." The younger boy licked his chapped lips, before a light bulb seemed to appear in his head. He sat up, looked at the cat calendar—which was a fuzzy little cat looking out a snowy window, observing a cardinal for January—above his bed, and let out a squeak, "It's Shawn day!!"

"You are so weird, dude." Eric sighed. Cory's face dropped,

"You've never had your best friend's girlfriend hog him for days on end and not let him out of her sight! This Jennifer lady is crazy."

Ah, Shawn's newest girlfriend. The tall, blonde, menacing Jennifer. If you got Cory started on it, he would never stop.

"Both of my best friends dated each other at the same time, that was bad enough." Eric finally sat up and stretched his legs out.

"Oh..." Cory raised an eyebrow, suspiciously, "And did that—I don't know, bother you?"

Eric scoffed and reached into his sock drawer, "Yeah, Jason was conferring with the enemy at that point."

Cory watched his brother put his socks on, and hummed, "She's only the enemy because she said you had cooties in preschool."

Eric wouldn't know this for a while, but his younger brother knew exactly what he was doing, and for once in his life, he hadn't exploded with the hidden knowledge he held. He was keeping his cool, and questioning his brother about the very thing that he thought about at night. He'd known Beckett's secret for about two months now. It was time to meddle, like he always did.

The older boy felt his face warm up ever so slightly, and bit his cheek, "You know she thinks we met in the sixth grade when Jason introduced us? I had to beg him to do that, and she didn't even remember me!"

Cory laughed. His plan was working. He wished he had a cat to pet menacingly. He shrugged, "Sorry your little crush wasn't reciprocated." His smile faded, which went unnoticed by his older brother, "How about now?"