Bubblegum

Part 12

The next night, Eden sat at the table in the dining room of her home, looking around at the faces of the four angry young men around her. She'd only been home a few minutes, picking at the prepared dinner left by the chef Bryan had hired when a knock at the backdoor sounded. Jake and his brothers were standing there, pizza boxes in hand.

"This is bullshit." Sam finally spoke, tapping his fingertips against the oak table agitatedly. "I can't believe they would stoop this low."

"I'm sorry, guys." Eden looked around at all of them. "This is all my fault. If I'd just read what I was signing all those months ago, we wouldn't be here in this mess."

"Jake signed papers too, you know." Danny reached over, resting his hand on top of hers. "But it's neither of your guys' fault. Especially what they're doing now."

"But-"

"Listen, this involves all of us now." Josh piped up, crumpling his napkin in his hands. "And so all of us together are going to find a way to fix this."

"How? Did your lawyers ever find any sort of loophole?" Eden asked.

"No," Jake spoke, looking timid. "But...after that car date, I may have told them to quit looking." everyone's heads napped towards him at the head of the table.

"You what?!" Josh gasped.

"I started to have feelings for Edie, I didn't want to get out of the contract so badly anymore." Jake smiled sheepishly over to Eden, who blushed. "We can always rehire them!"

"Eden, do you have a copy of your original recording contract anywhere?" Eden nodded at Danny's question.

"I do, it's upstairs in my closet."

"Good. We're going to take it to our lawyer and see if they can find anything in that." Danny let go of Edens' hand and picked up his drink, taking a sip. She still couldn't let go of the guilt she felt, and worried that most of their anger was aimed at her.

"It's the situation." Sam murmured to her, taking a second slice of pizza out of the box in front of him and placing it on her plate. "Not you."

"I just..." Eden shook her head with a small smile at the realization. "I feel like that first night I met all of you. When Bryan sent us the article from our date at the restaurant..I felt so outnumbered and the cause of all your trouble."

"You're trouble alright." Jake nodded. "But you're my trouble." Sam cleared his throat, tossing you a wink. "Fine, our trouble." Eden smiled and lifted up the slice of pizza, taking a large bite of it. The boys talked as she chewed, the still-warm, melty cheese lulling her tired body into a near sleep state. The noise of them talking became fuzzy, almost like they were in a completely different room.

"Edie, you good?" she hadn't realized she closed her eyes until they popped open. Sam had dipped his fingers into his water glass, flicking the cold droplets at her. She took the dry crust of her first piece of pizza and tossed it at him, making him laugh.

"I'm just tired." she shrugged, yawning. She glanced up at the clock, seeing it was nearing one in the morning. "I didn't even realize how late it was. God I have like four hours to sleep."

"Okay, let's get you to bed." Jake stood up from his place at the table, picking up his plate, and coming around and taking yours. Danny stood up as well, beginning to close the pizza boxes and gather them up to put in the fridge. Eden walked them to the door, and hugged her friends goodbye, feeling more and more tired with the effort of physical touch.

"See you later, guys." Jake said goodbye to his brothers, starting to close the door behind them and Eden stopped him.

"You should go too, Jake." she murmured. "If anyone finds out you were here, any of you, it's all over." Jake waved the guys off, and finished closing the door, himself firmly on the inside of her home.