DAYSLEEPER |

05| hush hush

"Black heart, black eyes, oh I feel alive. But there's chaos hiding in my eye."

ARIZONA | ARE YOU

• • •

Eden woke up at three in the morning.

As she did every morning for no apparent reason. It became the routine of the past two years to wake up at three, lay in bed and watch her ceiling, maybe check her instagram that she was so inactive on, and fall asleep exactly at four-fifty.

But she woke up to a sound.

On her street, most houses were tightly-knit but nonetheless different. All shapes and sizes. Some were one stories, two stories, or even three, but they were close. She heard a clammer and then a thud from next door.

Eden sat up from her single bed and searched around her dark room for the source of the sound. She pried open her blinds and was met with nothing but the obsidian streets and the faint glow of what she was certain was the Everett's garage. Who could possibly be awake in a garage at this time?

The Everett's house was about three times the size of her own, but the darkness it exuded at this time made it look a lot smaller than it was. Eden wondered what Smith's family looked like. She'd never seen anyone leave the house, but then again their jobs would explain that. Did Smith have siblings? A dog?

She continued to watch his garage and followed the shadow of the footsteps. A pulse of fear spiked her heart, was it a thief? Suddenly, the garage door slowly rolled open, but not mechanically but by someone's strength. Eden's eyes widened as she watched Smith slither under the garage door with an object she was too far away from to see.

He crawled out and ran out of the driveway and onto the road.

Eden whispered. "What the hell?"

• • •

She would've been lying if she didn't say that Caleb's girlfriend, Nash, didn't scare her sometimes.

Eden sat in her economics class, her head on her desk as she struggled to understand what possessed her to think that she didn't need concealer for the bags under her eyes. Meanwhile, Nash sashayed into class and instead of taking her regular seat at the very front, she plopped right next to Eden's seat by the window.

Nash tossed back her brown curls and her raven eyes twinkled with curiosity. "Hey," she whispered.

Eden sat up slightly. The last time she had spoken to Nash was freshman year of high school, and somehow the two found a way to never cross paths again.

"Hi," Eden said, reluctantly. She opened her laptop and typed away her notes, trying her best to ignore the jiggly spacebar.

"How are you?" Nash asked in a low voice, she knew that Mr. Jackson would have an aneurism if anyone spoke during his lectures.

"I'm pretty decent, you?"

Nash nodded, her gold hoops followed her head. "Same."

Eden despised small talk, so all she wanted was to end the conversation as soon as it began. Nash turned away from her for a brief moment, and then gave Eden a brief empty smile.

"It's so weird that we haven't spoken in what? Two years?" she wondered.

Eden hummed and looked away.

"I just feel like we should talk more, since you're good friends with Caleb I thought it only made sense," Nash continued.

"Caleb and I are definitely not good friends," Eden snickered. "What made you think that?"