| published! under the new title MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE | Eden knows she can't love Truman, the boy with the angelic smile and devilish eyes. Why? He's her best friend Katie's older brother, who she strictly promised she'd stay away from.
But when a...
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T R U M A N
The hotel was a dumb idea.
I realized that much when Eden woke up and her eyes met mine, showing that familiar look of disgust. With the loud slam of the door, she was gone. Only the bunched up blanket and rumpled pillows proved that she was ever in this room.
The hotel may have been stupid, but I couldn't take a drunk, slurring Eden back to my apartment last night where Santana—my girlfriend—was fast asleep in my bed.
For a second I wondered what I would have done if Santana wasn't in my bed. . . No. I still wouldn't bring her there. Strictly because Eden most likely would have woken up and kneed me in the balls.
I sighed and sat back in the chair, glancing around the hotel room. My eyes kept traveling back to the door, waiting to see if she'd open it and walk back in.
She didn't.
I was holding the magazine she made fun of, about to throw it in the garbage when my phone rang. I placed the magazine on the bed instead, picked up my phone and pressed it to my ear, already knowing what my mom was going to ask.
"Hey, Mom."
"Truman!" Her voice was drowned out by traffic, horns honking in the background. "Can you go stay with Katie, hun? I got called into work."
I was glad this conversation was taking place over the phone, so she couldn't see the fear on my face. Or maybe it was guilt. I struggled to tell the two apart nowadays.
"Sure," I answered, already making my way to the door. "Anything else?"
"Pick up fresh flowers. You know how she loves them, and the ones in her room are starting to wilt." She hung up before I could get another word in.
My heart was beginning to do that thing it always did when I went to see my sister. This weird, burning pain shot its way through my chest until I felt like I couldn't breathe. My hands began to shake. My breathing came slower, short and quick.
Turns out guilt and regret are indeed a deadly fucking combination.
I could see it on my own face every time I looked in the mirror. It was haunting my eyes, withering away at my lips until they were drawn into a permanent frown. The smiles were replaced with cigarettes and my heart felt like it was replaced with metal. It was cold now, dead.
And as badly as I wanted to forget how I failed to protect Katie that night, I couldn't. Forgetting was a luxury I no longer deserved. I should have to live with what I had done—choosing to be kissing Eden instead of watching Katie like I promised my parents I would.
