Until We Lose Ourselves

23

Eden pulled off his shirt, letting her hands roam his body, but he pulled away softly, knowing what they both wanted, yet he had to say, "I don't have-"

Eden took out the small packet that she had hidden, and pushed it into his hand discreetly, tilting her head and asking, "What don't you have?"

Jonah felt what she had given him and smirked. "Nothing." He pulled her into another kiss, moving her closer to the bed. Before he could push her onto it, she turned them around and made Jonah sit down, pulling away, before pushing him down on the bed.

Eden moved slowly above him, until their eyes were levelled. Jonah's eyes admired the red silk nightdress she adorned, but wouldn't in a while. One of her hands moved towards his jeans, first trailing down his body, and she hooked a finger under the waistband of his jeans. "This needs to come off." She whispered.

.

The next morning, everyone woke at different times, the guests who had stayed over leaving the house for whatever matters they had. Eden woke early and slipped on her clothes, before leaving Jonah's room. She helped some of the people with their hangovers, before going back to her own room. She remembered the online interview she was to have at 2 pm. She cleaned up her room, set up the laptop and the required devices, and made herself look presentable. She had woken up at noon, after all. It had been the first time in a long while that she had had a proper sleep. Sex really did make her thoughts go away.

She wore clothes that hid the marks on her body, including the tattoos, and left her hair open.

She sent a quick text to Emilia to let everyone know. She didn't need any interruptions. Her door locked and everything in place, she accepted the call that came to her from her interviewer.

It was beforehand discussed what was not to be talked about during the interview, and it progressed alright. Eden would be lying if she said that her mind didn't often go back to the events of the previous night. It did, several times in fact.

The questions came over to the topic of her friendship with Jonah.

"Certainly, a change like that was not expected."

"Well, he was going through a bad time. It's human decency to be nice. If you can't even be there for someone, entirely due to your frivolous anger towards them, you're way too immature."

"So was that what it was? Human decency? You felt sorry for him?"

Eden felt her words being twisted at that moment. "Well, originally I did, but as time went by, I got to know him, the real him, and what I had thought of him was just an outsider's opinion, as I hadn't known him at all."

"So what now? Are you guys friends?"

"Don't know if you could call it a friendship, but we don't hate each other anymore."

"And do you know what happened to his girlfriend? Valerie Donelle?"

Eden was caught off guard. She had no idea what happened between Jonah and her. She hadn't visited him once, ever since his parents had died. "I'm not in the position to tell." She went with that.

.

The last of the guests had left. Jonah rubbed the table with the wet cloth as best as he could. His attention was absent, but he was still cleaning up.

That night that he had shared with Eden was a little more than just a night to him. He had no idea if Eden felt the same way, or still saw him as a house arrest fling, something to spend time with so as to not get bored. He felt it was the latter, and he wasn't glad.

He hadn't seen the fierce redhead that day, and Emilia had informed them of her interview. It still didn't help the fact that she had left that morning before he woke up.

Emilia was much more silent than she normally was. She spent more time with Lili, and the two girls vented to each other about Millie, one in a friendly manner, other in a more-than-friendly manner.

It was also noticed that Dean hadn't left his room at all, that day. It was a regular assumption that he was trying to skip cleaning up, but it didn't seem like it was the case.

Eden eventually, did come downstairs. A nagging voice in her head told her to talk to Jonah, but each time she considered doing it, she had a strange sort of straining feeling in her chest. Nonetheless, once she had had what she wanted to, she went further downstairs to the music room.

Jonah wished to follow her, but he didn't. He would give her time. He needed time, himself, before he could confront her. But he wouldn't go to her.

Eden, as she sat on a chair, with her guitar, sorted her thoughts. She didn't need for things with Jonah to get confusing. Friends with benefits, that's what they had decided. Feelings weren't supposed to come with. And Eden didn't want him to like a wreck like her anyway. Not that he would want to anyway. She still didn't know what had happened with Valerie either.

So that night, she snuck into his room again, much to his surprise. "I was thinking, maybe we could talk, a bit."

There was a short pause, before he said, "Sure. About what?"

"Everything. We've been so lost, we've barely talked about anything other than those silly chats we have. Like, maybe we should try to know each other more." Eden felt bad for telling him that she wanted to get to know him, just to get the truth about Valerie out of him.

"You're right, I guess. What do you wanna know?"

"Where did you grow up?"

"Canada. You?"

"USA."

And thus their conversation went on, with occasional laughs, and the topic turned to romantic partners.

"I've had... numerous one-night stands." Eden said.

"Same. Probably more than you."

"Really doubt it, Radford." Eden chuckled. "You had a girlfriend anyway, where'd she go?"

"She broke up with me."

"When?" Eden furrowed her eyebrows.

"Sixteenth May."

Eden got up from the bed. She turned to look at him. "But that's the day your parents..."

"Yeah." Jonah's eyes suddenly found the bed sheet design very interesting.

Eden moved over the bed towards him. She placed a hand around his shoulders. "I'm sorry. I didn't know." She whispered softly.

"It's alright." Jonah didn't look up.

Two of Eden's fingers moved under his chin and pushed his face up. His eyes met hers and she admired the hazel in them. He, on the other hand, had begun to love the green of her eyes. It was bright, and watching him, he felt warm yet he had to stop himself from shuddering.