Brightside

21 | peace

Cruella had asked Axel what he was going to do now that he was 30, flirty, and thriving in New Orleans on his birthday. What did Eddie do? Spend her morning sending paragraphs upon paragraphs to everyone Giovanni decided to take down with her in his smear campaign article and hope they hadn't blocked her before she could apologize, of course. Money moves for her new decade.

It was one thing for Giovanni to come after Eddie on any given day, it was another for him to drag her friends into it. It was another thing entirely for him to decide to be biphobic and for a company to allow him to publish that article where he'd get paid per view. Even hate views to read it to yell at him—those, too. The world was a shitty, terrible place and somehow Giovanni always found a way to outdo his shittiness. (Eddie didn't know how to tell Axel that she'd smoked three cigarettes before breakfast when she'd read Giovanni's article.) (Then promptly threw up said breakfast and smoked two more cigarettes.) (Look at her go, unable to quit the vices as soon as things got terrible again.)

She had Cruella's number but she hadn't had the chance to text her since New Orleans. Maybe that was her mistake. Opening a conversation with an apology that Giovanni Perez existed at the same time as them was not the way Eddie wanted to make new friends. If they ever were friends after his smear campaign. Eddie wouldn't blame her if she never wanted to speak to her again—she wasn't sure she wanted to talk to anyone ever again once her apologies were sent.

Cruella replied before Eddie could put her phone on do not disturb and burrow into her blankets for the rest of eternity. It was short and sweet, more than Eddie deserved after dragging her friends into her bullshit. Maybe she should've agreed to talk to Giovanni on his podcast—none of the other shit would've happened. Fuck.

Oh, babe, it's okay. I've heard a lot worse in headlines. That man is nothing more than a bully using a smear campaign to cater to a group of people who will likely never accept him for who he is either. Are you okay? Shitty way to celebrate 30. Happy birthday, I hope you get to do something fun to forget about this.

Yeah, take her dog for a walk and hope nobody recognized her. Ring a ding ding.

laying low. Eddie wrote. i'm still sorry he dragged you into this. that's not fair.

(Stevie sent her a bunch of heart emojis and a quiet happy birthday.) (She didn't owe Eddie anything of the sort.)

I can deal with bullies. Cruella replied. And I can deal with biphobia. It's not your fault. You shouldn't have to apologize for men's bad behaviour.

But it was. Eddie knew it was. She pulled her blankets up a little higher. Up to her ears. Tried to ignore that her pillow was wet from tears all morning. Writing apologies was not her strong suit.

i hope you have a good day despite the shitty men of the world, Eddie said.

Can I ask you a question before you go do something fun? (And I need you to promise me you'll do something fun.)

you can ask me a question, Eddie said. i can't make promises right now, though.

Do you have a picture of Axel's kitchen? I have a delivery that needs to arrive soon but I don't know what it looks like. Also, his address would be great too.

Eddie didn't have it in her to bug her about how cryptically weird that was. Then again, Cruella Queen was a mirage of a person at any given time. She sent her a picture of Peter sitting in the kitchen a week prior; the nicotine patch night. Axel had held up a piece of rotisserie chicken behind Eddie so Peter looked like he was smiling in his photo. The messy kitchen behind him was merely the misé-en-scene of Axel Canterbury. She typed his address a little too quickly.