"Why are you calling me?" You played it cool, responding as you normally would for someone who was trying to act like you weren't panicking.
"Are you actually coming to the house thing I invited Connie to or were you just fucking around?"
"Well, Connie is the one who invited me—" you answered and there was a long pause before he just hung up the phone suddenly, he didn't say anything at all and you shrugged it off and continued tearing your room apart for the box but you couldn't find it.
Honestly, you were freaking out but pretended you didn't care at all until you eventually forgot about it. You stopped trashing your room and put everything back in place, sure, you could pretend that this wasn't on your mind but a small part of you had it running in your mind on loop the rest of the day.
If something was out of place or not going how you wanted them to go, it's all you'd think about no matter how hard you tried not to.
He wasn't your problem and neither was whatever what was in the box, right?
"Y/nnnn! I'm going to the park do you wanna come?!" Sasha shouted from downstairs after you finished cleaning up.
"Sure! Give me a sec," you shouted back and opened your closet to grab black leggings and a casual tee, you and Sasha liked to roll down hills at the park so you didn't put effort into your outfit.
You met with her downstairs and realized very quickly that she didn't mean a "walk in the park" but rather a full-on workout. She was in her sports bra and gym leggings with tennis shoes, you don't say anything until you got to the park and she started jogging.
"You tricked me again! When you brought up the park I thought you meant we could roll down the hills not go for a run!" You accused at the start of the sidewalk, it was just evening time so the sun was setting and the weather was perfectly cool.
Sasha's ponytail was moving side to side but it came to a stop after you accused her.
"We can still roll down the hill but I wanted to go on a quick run! It's nice out—"
Your phone buzzed in the middle of her sentence, you grabbed it out of your pocket and checked the notification. It was an email for the photography program you were in, there was some sort of get-together to showcase your photos and it was a last-minute type of thing.
"Saved by the bell. Bye Sasha!" You smiled as the building the event was in was just across the street, she shrugged and you ran off to get into the building quickly.
It wasn't a planned event so you didn't care that you were in rather casual clothing, when you entered the museum-like building, the others were dressed similar to you as well so you just checked yourself in at the table set up with a sheet of paper on the clipboard.
"Y/n! Glad you could make it on such short notice. I've prepped your photos right over there," the main instructor of the program spoke calmly and pointed to where your area was, you nodded after signing yourself in and headed over there.
You all were free to walk around and look at everyone else's photos, along with photos there were sculptures and paintings too so you got to get inspiration from others while people came into the building to look at everyone's art.
Photography was something that started as a hobby and continued to be one, you did have people who bought a couple of your pieces but nothing major. Recently, you'd been looking for a job to stabilize your expenses and in all honesty, you didn't mind your job being something in the creative field but that obviously wasn't much of a possibility.
The art gallery was a cold dim gray, with dark gray walls and a white trim and glosses cement floors that you could see your own reflection in. The gallery was like a maze, you were closer to the front which you appreciated but you decided to walk around a bit to look at all the art up on the walls.
You were strolling and taking your time, Sasha took really long runs as she had a lot of endurance and was training for a marathon so you knew you'd have time to look around as much as you wanted.
The whole gallery was so silent you kind of enjoyed it, living with someone like Sasha meant there was a lot of noise and she had her quiet moments of course but still.
"Doesn't this shit look familiar?" A slight rasped voice caught your attention while walking past the intersection, it was coming from your right.
"Nah man, I've never seen something like this before."
You turned your head and your face immediately became burning hot to the touch. You clenched your jaw and made a fist with your hands, Eren and Connie.
There they were.
Standing there casually and staring at a pretty medium-sized photograph on the wall. They were the only ones in that part of the hall and you clearly didn't think to move because Eren turned his head fairly quickly into you staring at them both.
Then you decided to look at the photo they were looking at and there must've been some sort've mistake.
It was your photo.
You thought all your photos were in the front, all in the same place but you remember exactly where you took that very photo that they were both staring up at on the wall. Connie was in grey sweats and a matching grey hoodie, Eren wore his typical all-black outfit with basic black jeans and a basic black tee along with a simple leather jacket paired over top.
He was always dressed like a stereotypical biker and you just now picked up on it.
"Hey! It's her photo!" Connie pointed to your name underneath the photo engraved on a little metal plate screwed into the wall, he whipped his head around, and now they were both staring at you from down the hall.
You raised both your eyebrows and quickly turned the other way, this place was like a maze so speed walking in whichever direction was not your smartest choice but you did it anyway.
You kept looking back to make sure they didn't follow you and when you turned down some other all you did the same thing, you never told anyone aside from Sasha about your hobby and it's not like you were embarrassed but it wasn't anyone's business but yours.
"Watch it." Eren planted his entire hand over your whole face and kept you from bumping head-on into him, his arm was stretched out and he was stopping you like a man in street traffic stopping cars from going.
"How do you keep appearing?! Are you a magician?!" You snapped in frustration and moved your face from his heavy hand.
"I don't just keep "appearing", you just don't pay attention...clearly." He scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest in front of you, you were at the end of the hall and it was just the two of you.
His hair was very obviously messily thrown back into a bun, he had stray hairs all over the place and you found yourself staring at each of the hairs sticking out in the back. Not to mention something was different about him...you couldn't put your finger on it until you realized that the piercing on the side of his lip was new.
"Fuck are you staring at?"
"Fuck are you so rude for?" You mocked and rolled your eyes, you moved around him and made a turn to the right where you found yourself back into the main area of the gallery that was a lot more space out and no more hallways.
"Where did you take that photo?" He questioned and oddly enough, he began following behind you but still keeping a distance.
"I didn't take it."
"Your name was tagged underneath it. Tell me where you took the photo." He demanded sternly, you rolled your eyes again and ignored his demands.
"It's photoshopped. I got the image off Google—"
"Why are you so difficult?!" He complained as he continued walking behind you.
"Why are you so demanding?! You demand things like I owe you anything." You objected, you didn't bother looking at him because you kept trying to avoid him but he wouldn't let up.
You turned and finally made it back to the front, you were hoping he'd just leave you alone after that and part ways.
He didn't.
You walked back over to your area with photos and to your surprise, there were lots of people admiring the ones you took, you didn't hear him behind you so you assumed he was gone.
You turned your body to the side, staring forward and you could see him out the corner of your eye observing one of your photos right next to you.
He didn't say a word, he didn't even look like he was breathing and you didn't think he could be so quiet. You thought he was going to continue to pester you about the location of the photo but instead, he stared at the photo and you could tell just by the look on his face that he was critiquing you and the photo.
"This one...you took it last summer." He blurts ever so calmly, your throat closed up just at the basic mouth reading of the words "summer", you grew to hate that word and that season and hated the fact that he knew about it even more.
This was the only photo you took during that period of your life, he moved exactly one step to the side and pointed to the very edge of the photo.
"That's your leg. You didn't mean to take a photo of it but you did—"
"Stop. You said you wouldn't say anything so don't." You interrupted and clenched your fist, you were facing forward and he was shoulder to shoulder with you but facing the opposite way toward the wall behind you.
"I don't remember where I took the photo. It's from years ago so you can leave now." You answered truthfully, he clicked his tongue against his mouth and turned, he left swiftly and Connie suddenly appeared and followed right behind to leave together.
How much did he know? Was it just an odd coincidence that he was able to spot that in the photo or did he know more than he was letting on?
There was a mystery to him that you hadn't decided if you wanted to uncover.
EREN POV:
"What was that about?" Connie questioned whilst stuffing his face with the complimentary donuts he grabbed on the way out.
"She's weird. I know little to nothing about her yet more about her than she knows about herself."
"The fuck does that mean? That's not how you talk to women bro, you'll get no pu—"
"Shut up. Whatever, just don't invite anymore people to things I invite you to, yeah?" I remarked and sighed just before we turned the corner walking quite quickly for whatever reason.
"Whaaaat? Y/n's chill and Sasha knows how to have a great time, you're letting Jean invite Historia so what's the big deal??" Connie bickered while chewing loudly.
"That's different. That's his girlfriend or whatever the hell she is to him,"