Until We Lose Ourselves

5

"Here's a latte for you."

"How'd you know which-"

"I remember you always ordering this whenever the group went out for coffee." Eden placed down the cup on the table, in front of Jonah.

"Thanks." Jonah said, as he grabbed the drink and took a cautious sip of the hot liquid.

"Just a heads up, I let the rest of the cast know about you being here." Eden to him, as she took out her phone.

"When did you tell them?"

"Well, I told the girls the day after I came back from New York, and I informed the guys, like, day before yesterday."

"Oh, okay."

Eden smiled. "Hey, Cullen is coming over today. Since we are house mates, I thought I should tell you, he'll be here often."

"That's alright."

"I know it is. I was just informing you." Eden heard her phone ring and picked it up. "Hello?"

"What is your deal? Why can't you do the damn shoot?" It was Hade.

"I already told you. I'm not wearing nothing for the camera." She walked away from Jonah before he could hear.

"You will be wearing a bikini."

Eden's hand went to above her abdomen, on her left side. "No can do, Hade. I'll make it up to you some other way, but I'm not doing the shoot." She remembered there once was a time she didn't mind showing her skin, when she could wear a bikini as she wanted to.

"You make it hard to be angry at you." Eden grimaced at those words. "It's alright. But you better have a good song for me by next month."

"Alright." Eden said softly. She didn't like such kind of bargaining when she didn't get any freedom whatsoever.

She hung up the call and heard the front door open. Cullen walked inside and gave her a big grin.

"Hey." Eden said as she hugged him.

"Hey." He returned the hug.

"Did you drink?" Eden whispered.

"Yeah, last night. Also got a girl for the night, hopefully she won't go tattle tailing."

"Well, I can smell the alcohol, and even if she does, we'll do what we always do." Eden smiled.

"This fake dating thing really has many benefits." He laughed.

"Troublemakers don't get in trouble." She grinned.

He smirked. "Let's go for milkshake, girlfriend."

"Let me put on some shoes first, boyfriend." She giggled.

"It's actually really cringe." He scrunched up his face.

"Honestly, dude." She laughed.

.

A few days had passed. Cullen and Eden were caught together in Cullen's car.

"Why are you getting angry?"

"That just sends off the wrong message!" Eden said.

"A reminder, our relationship is not real."

"I know that, shithead. And that is not why I'm upset." She stormed out of the car and made her way inside her house.

"I don't see any reason for you to be upset." He followed her inside.

"Because you are a fucking idiot. We defend each other's scandals in case one comes out. You literally kissed a model on a damn show." She hissed.

"Just let it go! There's no need to make a big deal out of this..." he said in a low tone, "Unless you really have fallen for me."

"Absurd. You are so fucking conceited. I have fans, Cullen. People that look up to me. You have that too. Difference is, if there are people who see me as a role model, I care that it's not a good message to them, that if your boyfriend kisses other girls, you should ignore it and stay with him. It paints the image that loyalty does not matter, cheating is okay, and I'm certainly not trying to tell people that they should stay in relationships where your partner can't even be faithful, and doesn't respect you. It's just bullshit." Eden glared at him. They were now in the living room.

"Well, what do you want to do?" He took a deep breath and asked.

"It's done, we're over. We're broken up. You hear me?" She told him.

"What? Dude, you can't-"

"I can, and I fucking am. Get out of my house."

Cullen stared at her, waiting for mercy, but she didn't care. She never tolerated disrespect.

He finally sighed, turned around and made his way to the front door, where Jonah was standing. Millie, Chase, Emilia and Dean were in the kitchen, watching the scene unfold. Lili and Liam were leaning over the railing to see what was going on. Jonah's band members were also present, and were standing with him near the door. Cullen ignored them and went out the door.

Everyone turned to look at Eden, who just sat down on the couch and rested her head against her hand. Jonah came to sit down on the other couch, along with his band mates.

"What was that?" He asked.

"Nothing important." Her eyes quickly scanned him. "Where are you all coming from?"

"We went to see Raven, his sister, in the hospital." Fiona said, standing beside Damien, Lindsey and Oscar.

"Oh."

Millie came over. "You wanna come upstairs and talk about it, hun?"

"Not right now. I have to make some calls." With that, she stood up and went upstairs, leaving them confused.

.

"So, now what?" Emilia asked.

"You must be upset." Millie looked over Eden.

Lili looked at Eden, "It's really awful he'd do that to you?"

"You guys." Eden sighed.

"What?" Emilia frowned.

"Here's a secret ya'll are going to keep for me." She took a deep breath, "We were only dating for cover up. So that, all of our scandals and one night stands didn't get us in trouble." Eden revealed.

"What?" Millie was confused.

"We didn't want our scandals to cause problems in our career, so we just, put up a show."

"Makes sense. You said yourself that you are the hump and dump kind of person." Millie nodded with Emilia.

"Right."

The conversation dragged on.

The girls slept peacefully that night, except Eden, who was restless. How was she to save her career when she didn't have a cover up?

The next morning, she voiced her worries to Hade, her music manager.

Hade stood up and let his hand rub hers up and down. She stared at the ground. "You can't let this get in your way. Your fans love your music. Anything else you do, they need not be a part of. You can even restart drinking, and they wouldn't be able to put their two cents in. Do whatever you fucking want, Eden." He whispered softly. "It's your life, and you have me to count on."

"You're partially right..." She trailed off, her eyes travelled to his hand that was or her arm. She hid her discomfort. "I just remembered, Claire had called in today. I need to go."