come back, be here, EDDIE ROUNDTREE.

TRACK 08 / NO WORDS.

WARREN: Finding out that Odette broke up with Eddie. . . Jesus, it was surprising to find out. We kinda thought that they'd be together until they were old, I mean, we placed bets on how long it would take for them to decide to get married. But then Romeo called, and Karen explained that Odette was staying in New York for a while, we realized why Eddie had been moping. Now that was made worse when Billy came back. )

Odette made a mental note that come Christmas, she would shower James Hannigan in as many expensive gifts as she could, as it was one thing for him to let her stay with him until he finally was able to move to L.A to live, but it was another to do so at such short notice. He barely asked any questions, and Romeo was right in saying that the second he'd find out that Romeo would be going with her and staying for a few weeks to ensure that she was settled, any annoyance he found to be woken up in the early hours of the morning had gone out the window. He didn't stay for long, something that was in part due to him needing to be back in L.A due to him beginning filming for a new spy movie he was excited about.

Once he did, it was just her and James; admittedly, it was awkward at first, considering she had never met him before. Romeo had met James after Odette had moved out. She always heard about him, especially since she asked about him; he was Romeo's first proper friend, of course she was curious about him, but for whatever reason, Odette had never met him. Never had a chance to when Romeo had admitted to her a few days after he had graduated and told her that James had gone back to New York after hating living in California for as long as he had. Odette knew that despite the distance, Romeo and James were close, but still, Odette had never once talked to him and now she was living with him.

It didn't help that Odette was still stuck in her head, still buried deep in her grief yet this time, not only for Lucy, but with her relationship with Eddie. She couldn't stop thinking about what had happened, couldn't get rid of the look on his face when she had ended things with him. Odette had been so determined not to ruin everything that in the end her methods of doing so what been what broke them.

What rabbit hole she had fallen into had only grown worse by the fact and it was hard for her to focus on anything. As a result, it only made her interactions with James somehow more awkward. It was very clear that he didn't know how to deal with someone who had lost someone who was more of a mother figure than her actual mother, relapsed with her eating disorder and broken up with her boyfriend and someone she was most likely in love within the span of a few weeks. She was thankful that at least James wasn't walking on eggshells around her due to it all, rambling away when she was quiet about an idea he had for a story, letting her have control over his record player on nights when she had found a small amount of motivation to pull out her sketch book, he was even willing to use his hands as models for them.

It took a week for Odette to finally find herself again, while she knew there were frayed edges to be stitched up again─ her main focus being her eating which had been a struggle she wasn't expecting, she couldn't get her mother's voice out of her head no matter how hard she tried─, one week of wallowing and she wanted to get better. And maybe then she'd be able to feel as if she deserved to be with someone, whether Eddie would be willing to give her a second chance when she was ready, or if it was with someone new.

"So, uh, Romeo mentioned something about you needing an artist for you debut book?" She asked, somewhat out of the blue, and even she knew that the question took James off guard by the fact that he dropped the plate he was washing into the sink.

"Uh, yeah, I was," he replied, turning around to face her, crossing his arms over his chest even though his hands were wet. "I'm taking that you're interested, unless I'm very wrong with my assumption?"

She nodded. "I think that it's time to pull myself out of this hole and considering that I've drawn countless of sketches of shit you've said to me, I think this will help."