Mirrors

Chapter Thirty

She screamed as she dropped her bag to the ground. "Benny! What the fuck?!"

She turned around and saw Benny standing in her living room. Having moved, she didn't yet see him. He watched her though, as she entered the living room area. She was dressed in a really tight, short dress with sky high heels on. Had he not been so concerned he would've done a more thorough job of checking her out.

"Niall..." Benny said, turning in his direction.

"Niall?" she asked before she turned and saw him standing there. "What the fuck? What are you doing here? What the fuck is going on here?"

"Edie..." Niall started.

"Get out!"

"He's not going anywhere, Edie. You owe us an explanation as to where the hell you are going on Tuesday nights when you aren't showing up for your meeting."

Edie turned to Niall, "So now you're telling on me?"

"I didn't mean to--"

"Shut the fuck up and get out."

"Why haven't you been going to your meetings, Edie?" Benny asked.

"I haven't needed to. I'm fine. Get out, Niall."

"He's not going anywhere. He's here with me, I brought him here, he leaves when I leave."

"Then leave," she hissed.

Niall couldn't believe the girl standing in front of him was the same girl he had grown to care for and had worried about the past month.

"Why haven't you been going to the meetings, Edie?" Benny insisted, "You told me you were picking him up and going. You've been lying to me. We're both concerned."

"I'm fine. I just haven't felt like going. I needed a break."

"Why are you wearing that?" Niall softly asked, his curiosity once again getting to him. Something was off with the way she was acting and the way she was dressed. The girl he knew wouldn't dress like that, at least not yet. She was too fearful.

"Because I was out, Niall. Living my life." She shot daggers at him.

"The Edie I know wouldn't wear that," Niall said.

She turned to him and walked over to him. She got so close to his face, his eyes almost crossed trying to focus on her. Any other time before this moment, he may have actually tried to kiss her, but this was not that girl he had grown so accustomed to; the girl he had grown to being very fond of. He could smell alcohol on her breath.

Once she felt herself to be close enough to him, she spat out, "You don't know me."

Niall's heart dropped but he found the guts to say in as harsh a tone as he could muster, "You're right. I don't know this version of you. I know a much better version of you."

Niall didn't have time to react when he felt her hand hit his face, "Get out."

"Edie!" Benny yelled as he pulled her away from him. "Niall, maybe you better go. Let me talk to my sister, alone." Benny helped push him out the door, whispering, "I'll let you know. She didn't mean that. That's not my sister in there."

Niall heard her start to yell as the door was shut behind him. But he found that he couldn't move any further.

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"What the fuck, Benny? Why was he in here?" Edie yelled as her brother shut the door behind Niall. "Why did you let him in here?"

"Because I ran into him this afternoon and he asked how I was doing and was happy to think you'd be back at the meetings tomorrow. I was confused and we both figured out you've been lying and dodging your meetings. What the fuck are you doing, Edie? And, while you answer that, answer Niall's questions, too. Why are you wearing that? My sister doesn't dress like that."

"Benny, you don't know everything about me, okay."

"Clearly."

Edie took her shoes off and tossed them to the side. "I'm trying, Benny. I just needed a break from the meetings, is all. I'll go back. I will."

"Yes you will because I'm going to start taking you again."

"Benny!"

"No, Edie, from now on, either I take you or Niall does."

"You and Niall become best pals all of a sudden?"

"No, but he clearly cares about you and you're pushing him away, just like you've done to everyone else the past seven months."

Edie laughed. "He doesn't care about me, Ben."

"No, I think he does."

"No, he doesn't," she said, harshly, tired of this discussion. "I'm tired, Benny. I'm going to bed."

"Not until we're done."

"We are done." She answered as she slammed the door to her bedroom and locked it.

Edie crumpled to the floor as her brother knocked on her bedroom door. "Edie, come on, it's me," he started in a much softer tone, "Please, I'm scared for you."

"Please, go away," she whispered, before a soft sob escaped her lips.

She couldn't believe she had just spoken to the two people who care the most about her the way she had just done. Despite the darkness, she could see Niall's face as she told him to get out; as she told him he didn't know a thing about her. And, yet, he did. He knew more than her brother did these days. She saw his face drop; the hope in his eyes disappear.

Edie shook her head. "No. You will not cry. You have a mission to complete. No one else can help you, Edie. No one."

She was about to go into her bathroom and turn on the shower when she heard the door to her flat open and shut. She went and peeked out the door to see if he had only pretended to leave. As she was about to turn back towards the shower, she heard their voices.

She crept up to the other side of the door and listened in as best she could.

"She okay?" She could hear Niall ask. He hadn't left.

"No, not at all. She just...I don't know. That's not my sister in there. She's never been like that."

"Has she ever dressed like that? She reeks of alcohol."

"Yeah, I could smell her as she walked in. Yeah, I mean, she's worn things like that before whenever she'd go out to a club. I always hated it because obviously she's my sister and I don't need a billion different guys drooling over her but she always liked to remind me that she was an adult and she did it for herself, not some lousy guy...ha, as she would say."

"So what do you think should be done?" She could hear the concern in Niall's voice and it broke her a little.

"I don't know. I told her I'd be taking her to these meetings again. It would be me or you."

"I don't think she wants me to do it."

"Yeah, well, she doesn't want me to do it either but I'm not giving her a choice." There was a pause. She peeked out the peephole that she just remembered she had and saw Niall nodding his head, running his hand through his hair, messing it up. "I think you better go, though, for now. I've got your number now. I'll let you know if anything changes with her and you can do the same since you'll be on the inside with her."

"Yeah, of course." She watched as Niall turned to leave but before he started down the steps he turned back, "Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. And, uh,..." he hesitated, "could you let her know I'm keeping my promise to her about something she had asked of me the last time I saw her?"

"Yeah sure. What was it?"

"Um, it's sort of a personal matter. She probably doesn't want my help anymore but I promised her and want her to know that."

"Yeah, of course. Thanks, Niall, for caring so much about her."

All he could do was nod. Edie felt terrible but only for a moment. She realized her brother wasn't leaving so she hurried back into her room and locked the door. She wiped the tears that had somehow formed from her face as she stripped down to nothing. She went into her bathroom, turning on the lights and wincing slightly as her bare feet hit the broken glass. In the month since she broke it, she hadn't cleaned it up. Somehow the pain made it easier.