𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 • steven conklin

𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

she was a quick reader, so she had gotten up to the part where achilles and patroclus sleep with each other by the time everyone had gotten home.

laurel, susannah, and her brothers greeted her in which she returned the favor, but the other three ignored her.

not surprising.

she did do something shitty, but what taylor did was arguably worse.

they all went their separate ways, but eden stayed right where she was.

later on, jeremiah and steve came downstairs to play video games.

eden looked up at them, then back at her book.

she had just gotten past the middle of the book when they arrived in the living room.

"can we play video games?" jeremiah asked.

"sure. as long as you don't mind sitting on the floor. i just wanna read my book on the couch." eden replied.

"that's fine. you seem a lot calmer now. you were pretty violent earlier." jere said, nonchalantly.

she knew how he meant it, but how he worded it made it sound like he was making a mean joke.

"jere." steven scolded, quietly.

jeremiah just shrugged him off before sitting down on the floor.

eden flashed him a thankful look before turning back to her book.

steven say i'm the floor beside jeremiah and they set up the game.

they were playing silently while eden was reading, the only noises in the room were the sounds of the video game in the background.

"jere, you have to come to the party tonight, man. it's gonna be sick. shayla told me liam ordered an ice luge." steven spoke up.

a party?

eden was interested now.

it wasn't cause she wanted to go, she just wanted to hear all the details.

"sounds cool." was all jere said.

now she was even more interested after that response.

what was jere's problem?

"what's wrong with you?" steven questioned.

"nothing, i just don't really feel like going out tonight." jeremiah replied.

"what?" steven exclaimed. "no. no, no, no, no. dude. i need you, man. it's not gonna be fun without you."

"dude, shayla will be there, alright?" jere reminded.

eden looked up from her book and down at the two boys sitting on the floor.

steven looked over to her, then back to jeremiah.

"you know shayla's not the one i wanna see." steven whispered.

jere looked between them and sighed.

"i've got some stuff to do. have fun."

jeremiah put the controller down and put some shoes on before going outside.

that's when conrad stepped into the room.

"what's up with him?" conrad asked steven.

"i don't know, man. he's being weird." steven answered. "but he's not coming tonight, so it's just gonna be you and me."

"yeah, about that bro. i might bail too."

conrad went over and sat next to his little sister.

"no. no. bro, you haven't hung out all summer. conrad, come on, man. i'm gonna be so mad at you if you don't come to the party tonight." steven whined.