Painting Monochrome ||Ereri/Riren||

Late Night Calls

Saturday. I took the opportunity to get together with the rest of the gang: Mikasa, Connie, Sasha, Jean, Reiner, Bert, and of course, Armin. That night we decided to go bar hopping downtown and just relax.

"You wanna know something, Jaeger?" Reiner looked to me.

"What's that, Reiner?"

"I always admired you. You're a hardworking and dependable guy."

"Are you hitting on me, Reindeer?" I laughed and playfully shoved him back away from me. Underneath his breath, I could hear Armin mutter 'Eren x Reiner 2kForever,' causing everyone to break out into a fit of laughter. After hanging around in The Training Room, which was the name of the first bar, we decided to head down the street to The Wall. There, the alcohol finally started to catch up to a few of us, especially Jean. As soon as he got a good amount of alcohol in his system, he turned into that bipolar drunk that we all knew so well. One moment he was laughing and trying to get Armin to go home with him, the next moment he was angrily screaming at the bartender to bring more shots of tequila.

"Marco would've really enjoyed this," he rested his head on one hand and swirled the ice in his drink with a straw using the other hand. Everything went downhill from there faster than I could process.

"You were supposed to save him, Jaeger..." Jean's voice was low and full of anger, hostility, resentment, pure hatred.

"Jean, don't do this right now," Mikasa rested a hand on his shoulder.

"It's your fault that he's dead!" he shouted suddenly, startling all of us. The noise in the bar began to die down as people turned their heads in confusion, looking to see what the shouting was about. "YOU SHOULD'VE SAVED HIM!"

Before I could open my mouth to respond, Jean grabbed me by the front of my shirt and shoved me back onto the ground.

"IT WAS YOUR JOB TO SAVE HIM! HE NEEDED YOU, JAEGER! AND YOU FAILED HIM! YOU FAILED ALL OF US, DAMMIT!" he screamed into my face.

"Jean! Stop it!" Mikasa screamed. Together, she and Reiner grabbed Jean and snatched him off of me.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" he continued to scream. Armin and Connie pulled me to my feet, dusting me off, and then walked me out to my car. Everyone figured it was time to go home after that episode.

"It's okay, Eren. Don't stress yourself. Jean's just drunk...you know what alcohol does to him," Connie patted me in the back as I slid into the passenger seat. Armin, being the one out of us to not drink that night, got into the driver's seat, buckled up, and proceeded to take us home. As he drove, he continued to cast side glances at me ever so often.

"If you want to say something, just say it, Armin...don't stare..." I muttered angrily.

"I can see that you're stressing yourself out again. It's written all over your face, Eren. It's not your fault....no matter what Jean says. He just misses Marco."

"Whatever, Armin. Let's just hurry up and get home. I just wanna take my Xanax and go to bed.." I rested my head against the window and watched the streets of Shiganshina go by. At one in the morning, the streets of Shiganshina were usually dead. The street lights illuminated the dark streets, leaving some dark corners however, and you could spot the occasional group of teenagers out on the prowl looking for a party to crash.

Once we got inside, I went straight to my room and locked the door. In the safety of those four walls, I stripped down to my boxers, popped my Xanax, and crawled into bed, letting the sleep overcome me. I desperately wanted to forget the events of that night...and the image of Marco laying on the bed that was forever burned into my mind.