The Distance Between Us | Eric Coulter

twenty-seven

"No fucking way!" Shauna threw her head back and cackled when I told her what I did, "You did not!" She then leans forward and hooks a finger on the neckline of my nightgown as if she's about to take a peek, "Let me see them, girl!"

"Whoa!" Zeke yells covering his eyes as Four quickly looks away, "Listen, I like tits as much as the next guy, but I don't want to risk looking at Rory's if it means I'll get my eyes gouged out by Eric, okay?"

I chuckle at his comment. Truth be told, the boys were quickly becoming like older brothers to me, and Shauna an older sister. And no one wants to see their sibling naked. Ever.

Shauna had dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night to hang out with them on the roof, not even giving me time to change into something more appropriate. And the moment the guys saw me in my nightgown, Zeke called me an idiot claiming I was going to freeze to death with my getup and Four immediately offered up his jacket to me like the gentleman that he was.

"Please, you'd be lucky if you ever got to see my tits," I shot back at Zeke, "They look fucking amazing! Even more so now that they're all bedazzled."

Thankfully, my boobs didn't hurt all too bad. My piercer was telling me about some gel that she'd put on me to speed up the healing, but to be honest, I wasn't really listening because the pain at the moment was so intense.

"True," Shauna agrees, "I only got a glimpse once, but the girls look beautiful. Coulter is one lucky son of a bitch."

"I would agree, except his mum is a total sweetheart," I tell her, "So, his mum isn't the problem. He is."

"It still blows my mind that you guys were best friends once," Zeke says with a forced shudder, "Can't imagine being friends with...that."

"Well, I know it's hard to believe, but he was actually nice once." I popped a piece of the chocolate chip muffin Shauna and I had managed to snap from the dining hall on our way here.

I can see Four trying hard not to pull a face at the thought of Eric being nice and laughing.

"He broke a few faces for me in our Erudite days," I tell him.

For some reason, I still couldn't help but jump to Eric's defence. He may have been a huge dick now, but he was once the boy who saved me, and I guess a part of me wanted to believe that that boy was still somewhere inside him...albeit, deep, deep inside him, but still there.

I snicker at how inappropriate the sentence sounded and Zeke frowns at me like he thinks I've gone crazy.

"You're a weird one," He points between me and Shauna, "I see why you two get along so well now."

"You're just realising that now?" Four snickered into his beer bottle.

"Woah, woah, woah," I stop them with a hand up, "When I let Shauna convince me to hang out with you guys, this was not part of the deal. I did not come here to get bashed by you two puny-looking shitheads." Well, even I have to admit that calling Four and Zeke 'puny' was a (huge) bit of a stretch. Neither of them was even close to looking puny.

Pushing myself to my feet, I folded my arms and glared at them in faux disappointment. "I'm leaving, but the next time I see you guys, you both better have your shit straight. I am not weird!"

The guys laugh at my dramatic departure and Shauna blows me a kiss, promising that they'll see me tomorrow at breakfast.

I blow a kiss back, throwing one last "goodnight" over my shoulder before taking my leave.

The hallways in these parts of the compound are always mostly empty except for in the day when people go to the roof for target practice.

Unfortunately, tonight seemed to be an exception, because the next thing I knew, I was running right into a hard chest...one that I knew too well. Just my fucking luck, I guess.

"For fuck's sake, why are you everywhere?" I snap at Eric as I recover from our (literal) run-in.

"What the fuck are you wearing?" Instead of speaking like a normal person, Eric demands as soon as his eyes land on me.

I look down at my nightgown and frowned in faux confusion, "What's wrong with it? I thought you liked it?"

He ignores my snappy comeback and instead asks, "Whose jacket is that?"

I feel myself smiling before I even realise it. I didn't mean to leave with Four's jacket and had every intention on returning it before I headed back. But now, I'm glad that I didn't.

"Oh! This old thing?" I let out a wistful sigh, "It's Four's. He's such a sweetheart for letting me wear it. I get cold easily. You remember, right?"

"Take it off," He orders next.

"What? Why?" I continued with the confused act, "I thought you said the nightgown looked too slutty on its own? I think this makes it a little better, don't you?" Just to rub it into Eric's face a little more, I added, "Plus, I think I look rather good in Four's clothes."

He looks past my shoulder and into the empty hallway as he grinds his teeth so hard I was surprised they haven't turned into dust yet.

"Were you with him?"

Raising my chin haughtily I replied, "So what if I was?"

"If I find out he's touched you in anyway, Rory, I swear to fucking-"

"Hey, girlie!" Shauna's voice sounds from behind me, interrupting Eric's insufferable 'alpha-male' rant and I turn to see that Zeke and Four were also with her. "I thought you already left! It was getting boring without you, so we thought we-" She pauses abruptly, "Uh-oh."

Uh-fucking-oh, indeed.

The next thing I knew, Eric was charging towards Four and punches him straight in the jaw.

Four stumbles back at the unexpected attack, looking stunned for a moment before his fist goes flying through the air to return a hit.

As soon as I recovered from my shock-induced haze, I rushed forward to grab my crazy ex-best-friend's arm. "Eric, what the fuck is wrong with you? Get off of him!"

Zeke doesn't seem to share my panic though, because the next thing I hear is his laughter from behind me and his wheezing voice saying, "Shit, someone get me some popcorn!"

"Zeke, seriously?" I turned to shoot him a glare over my shoulder to see both him and Shauna looking unbothered while the two continue to go at it.

"Oh, what party-pooper, Rory," He sulks, "Way to ruin my fun."

He shoves himself away from the wall before stepping in to help me peel Four away from Eric while I held the latter back.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" I whirled on Eric as soon as the two were separated.

He doesn't pay any attention to my scolding though. Instead, he points a finger at Four and warns, "You stay the fuck away from her." Then, without another glance at the rest of us, he turns on his heels and stomps off as if the world had wronged him.

All of us stare in silence as he walks away, and I throw my hands in the air in exasperation after a beat, "What the fuck?" Turning to Four, I winced at his cut-up lip. "I'm so fucking sorry, Four. I was just trying to mess with him."

Instead of being rightfully pissed off, Four does the last thing I thought he would've; he fucking smiles.

"Don't be," He says with an easy shrug, "I've always wanted to hit him."

There's another beat of silence before Zeke doubles over in laughter, laughing so hard his face turns red from the lack of oxygen.

Then, he straightens up when he was done, his shoulders still shaking slightly with silent laughter as he drapes his arm over my shoulder. "Damn, Rory. That was really something. I'm so glad we're friends."