Fix You ~Completed~

Act Seventy-Four

A whole table full of food was waiting for us when we returned from the hike. Both Gale and his dad plopped down hard in their chairs and immediately started piling whatever they could grab into their mouths. Augustus chuckled and went off to take a quick shower. "I trust Joel can watch you lot well enough," he said, his hand resting on Eddie and I's shoulders. I didn't even tremble at this. "Don't eat yourselves into a coma."

I was pretty sure Gale was already halfway there. Joel was right on the border.

Eddie started piling his own plate the minute he sat down. I awkwardly reached and took a single roll, admiring how soft it was. "Did your moms make these themselves?" I asked Eddie, holding the baked good up to him.

"Yeah! Our moms are baker buddies," he informed me.

The closest thing my mom ever came to baking was buying a box of Betty Crocker brownies one year for my birthday. I mean that; she didn't even make the brownies. If you went into my parents' pantry, that box would still be there. Her and dad left two days before my twelfth birthday and weren't back until I was already a week into being a preteen.

Honestly, how they never had social services called on them is beyond me.

I took a hesitant bite out of the roll without butter or anything and nearly squealed. "Good grief," I sighed, leaning towards Eddie. He nudged his shoulder against my own. "How? Ed, how are your moms not professionals?"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure Aria went to culinary school," he responded, turning to the men opposite us. "Hey, Asher, didn't your mom-"

"Yes, sir! My mom did two years of hard time at some special school for bakers. She ran this local bakery for a while when I was a kid, but it shut down about seven years ago," Gale responded, quick as always. Finally, he was slowing down on his food intake. "Too bad you couldn't have tried it, Lem. They had muffins that would make the café's taste stale."

"That's a little far!" Eddie chuckled, taking a huge bite out of his own roll.

I did the same, smiling up at him with a slight hint of pride. I'm still eating well, I wanted to point out. No, I wasn't eating as much as I needed to be, but I was getting better. The guys was helping me get better every day.

Our late lunch ended abruptly when the front door slammed and a thunderous sound of footsteps that would rival that of a charging herd of cows filled the house. I snapped straight up, away from Eddie, and stared at the open door of the kitchen. A group of maybe six kids, all around our age, were standing there.

"Guys!"

"Oh my god, look at you two!"

"Still as ginger as ever."

"Have you been lifting weights?"

"Gale, you're so pale. Why?"

"Hey, Joel. How're you doing?"

Four girls and two boys were fawning over my best friends, hugging and poking them and kissing their cheeks. The girls especially seemed to linger with Eddie. Maybe it was just paranoia. He didn't seem bothered by it.

"Kids, it's swell to see you again!" Joel chuckled, shaking the hand of a tan boy with a ring through his left eye. The two began talking, despite it being obvious the guy came for Gale and Eddie.

One of the girls, a blonde cheerleader type, was still holding onto Eddie's neck, sighing awkwardly loud. "Oh, it has been too long! Why haven't you come to visit us, Eddie?" she sighed in a soft, inviting voice. It wasn't the kind of inviting I was really comfortable with someone using around my boyfriend.