Hellfire Legacy

Chapter 5

-Freshman Year 2008-

Dean

It's the first day of school after New Years and I kind of wish our break was a little longer. It was fun, just my family and Eden's family all week. I mean, sure it's like that all the time, but at least there's no homework over the break. We get to just relax.

I'm standing in the hallway waiting for Eden to finish in the bathroom before we head to class when Samantha spots me. She comes running down the hall towards me. Her arms wrap around my neck and she hugs me tight, planting a kiss on my cheek.

"Dean! I missed you so much over the break!" She takes a small step back.

I'm trying to think of what to say back to her when a familiar hand slips into mine, still hanging at my side.

"Bear? Everything okay?" Eden asks sweetly as she wraps her other hand around my upper arm.

I can't help but meet her gaze and smile down at her. Samantha takes another couple of steps backwards and looks at Eden's hand in mine. She clears her throat when she looks back at me, pulling me back into a reality I didn't even realize I'd left.

"Uhm, hi Eden. I was just telling Dean how much I'd missed him over the break. I was going to see if he had our next date planned." Samantha bats her eyelashes at me.

I go to answer when Eden beats me to it. 

"Oh... I'm sorry Samantha, but he doesn't. He said he told you that it wasn't working out between the two of you, but that he'd still gladly be your friend but uhm..." Eden's grip on my arm tightens slightly. "We actually started dating over the break."

My gaze snaps to her, question and apology written in those blue eyes of hers.

She wants to make sure I'm okay with this. Curious if I want to go along with it. The answer, yes I'm okay with it and yes I wanna play along. But most of all, I really wish it were real.

"Wait... really?" Samantha asks me quietly.

All I manage is a nod and an apologetic smile. She simply nods back, allowing all the pieces to fall into place.

"I should've seen it coming honestly. Congratulations you two." She pats my arm then walks away.

I quickly turn to face Eden fully, neither one of us letting go of the other's hand.

"Eden?"

Her eyes snap to mine at the sound of her name, and then words come spewing out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry! You just looked so uncomfortable and I knew she wasn't going to leave you alone. That was the first thing that came to mind, I knew that if she thought you were off the market then she'd leave you alone so that's what I did."

She's panicking. I honestly can't blame her because I kind of am too, just not in the same way. I just wanna know what this means.

"We don't have to keep this up if you don't want to, I just figured that you wouldn't have to hurt anyone's feelings this way. We would only have to pretend we're together when we're at school and if we seen anyone from school in person. Then we can go back to normal when we're at home. Nobody will have to know that this is fake." Eden is speaking the words so fast that I almost can't keep up.

I need her to know that I'm not upset with her, and that I am okay with, even appreciate her plan. I still wish it were real, but hey, this'll do for now. Then I can show her how much I truly care about her and how good it would be to be with me for real.