𝐁𝐀𝐆𝐒 | 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐌𝐈'𝐈𝐊𝐄

eighteen.

the whispers started the second eden stepped into homeroom the next morning. she'd left janis at her locker, unaware of the way that everyone was staring at them. now she was becoming aware of everyone's eyes on her, damian hadn't arrived yet and cady's seat was empty too, leaving eden to frown at the people around her in confusion. she thought she was being paranoid. everyone around her was simply deep in conversation as always and she was just on heightened alert with cady and her newfound popularity. but then she realised that she was in fact not being paranoid when one of the girls pointed at her, making the girl beside her burst into laughter.

miss norbury hadn't looked up from her phone, her mouth parted slightly as she scrolled through, the woman had gone extremely pale but no one seemed to have noticed. eden didn't have a singular clue what was going on around her and no one was about to tell her what they were finding so amusing. so instead she waited for janis and damian to show up. once she heard the bell ring and realised that janis and damian weren't planning on showing up and her stomach sank further. there was something happening around her and as usual, eden was the last to find out.

she watched as lizzie thurman who she didn't really know all that much past homeroom tried to hand miss norbury cash in a very unsubtle manner. "no!" the woman shook her head, motioning for her to leave. "no!" she took her glasses off and dropped her phone onto her desk, eden stalled momentarily. miss norbury had checked on her multiple times this year and she knew she was going to feel extremely bad if she just left the classroom. "is everything ok?" she asked as lightly as she possibly could, miss norbury looking up at her in shock, obviously thinking everyone had already left.

"yeah," miss norbury sighed. "everything's breezy except-" a hard knock came on the door, damian stuck his head around. "oh good, you're here," he motioned for her to join him. "there's a small issue." miss norbury hadn't even noticed that damian wasn't present in homeroom, although she seemed to have more pressing things on her mind. "go," miss norbury waved her off. "for the record, no one believes you're a drug pusher," damian said from the doorway, eden's brows furrowing. "thank you?" miss norbury faltered because how was she supposed to answer that statement normally?

"damian what the hell?" eden pushed him through the door. "have you seen janis?" he asked, leading her down the crowded corridors. no one seemed to be making their way to their classes, a couple of girls had broke into fights in the hallways, pushing and shoving as damian and eden tried to squeeze through. "not since before homeroom," eden shook her head. "she didn't show up, i thought she was with you." she stopped short, reaching out to grab damian. "wait," her eyes widened. "did you hear that?" she tugged damian down the hallways. "pyro les!" eden heard someone mock as janis rushed down the hallways. "found her," eden sighed.

she grabbed janis' arm, winding her arm around her waist protectively. "she doesn't want you!" one of the students called out before dissolving into laughter with the girl that was stood next to her. eden frowned. "what the hell is going on?" she asked, damian sighing as he pulled both of them into the empty storage closet. "you remember when cady was talking about the burn book?" damian asked, nausea bubbled within eden as she remembered how sketchy she thought cady was being about the book. "what about it?" she asked. she watched as damian pulled out his phone and flashed the screen at janis and eden.

a page with a photo of her, damian and janis glued right in the centre stared back at her from damian's phone screen. the words 'pyro les' were stamped under janis in bright red marker but to the side, a black pen had labelled both damian and eden. "desperate reject?" eden laughed. "what does that even mean?" damian gestured to the other side of the page. almost too gay to function. "wait-" eden glanced between them. "she wouldn't." damian shook his head. "she's the only person that could," he said. "unless you or janis secretly wrote it which i'm assuming you didn't."