The front door banged shut again and I was roused from sleep, I sat up and rubbed my eyes before I threw the sheet away and slowly climbed out of Eric's bed, I put my ear to the door and listened, I heard two people talking so I realised I couldn't leave yet. Next thing I knew the door was being opened and I was shoved backwards, Eric opened the door fully and stood aside so that I could come past him "you can come out" my eyes shifted to the second man in the room and back to Eric, I was asking a wordless question "it's okay, this is Drake, one of your leaders"
Drake smiled at me, it was odd at first to see such an intimidating looking man smile, like seeing Eric smile only scarier. Drake was a large man, his muscles were obvious under his clothes and were bigger than Eric's, he had tanned skin, a dark beard hanging from the bottom of his face and a mop of shoulder-length scraggly hair growing from the top, his eyebrows seemed constantly raised even when his face was relaxed and there was a cut through the left one "I'm not as scary as I look, I promise" he said in a gruff voice.
"I thought..." I started, not knowing how to finish.
"Don't worry, I'm one of the cool leaders, I won't tell anyone" he turned to Eric "you didn't say anything about a girlfriend, I'm offended"
"She's not-"
"I'm not-"
Eric and I both looked at each other, I tried my hardest not to blush but it was extremely difficult "so why- you know what, dude, I don't even want to know" Drake moved towards the door with heavy feet and looked back at Eric "in future, until initiation is over, perhaps no more house calls, hmm?" Eric said nothing "nice meeting you"
"And you" I smiled. Eric and I really needed to talk.
Before Eric could say anything that would deter me from the mission I had given myself only seconds before, I turned to him and blurted out "we need to talk, like, right now"
Certainly he was quiet for a moment, he blinked at me and gestured to the sofas, I sat down on the sofa facing away from the bedroom and put my hands in my lap, I had just insisted we talk, and now I had no idea what I wanted to say. Eric sat on the opposite sofa and stared at me with an intense gaze, neither of us were comfortable, neither of us wanted to have this conversation, but it had to be done eventually.
I looked to the exposed brick wall to my left, where I had cleaned the blood from "there was blood on your wall, you know"
"Drake and I had a bet, I won" he said simply, his grey eyes still trained on me "is that what you wanted to talk about?"
I stared at my hands in my lap, smoothing my thumb over my hand a few times "no" I looked up, remembering the way he had held me in that corridor, the way his hands felt on my body, the way his pillow smelled, the fabric of his shirts between my fingers "what are we doing, Eric? What is this?"
He thought on this for a moment, never releasing my eyes from his "a giant 'fuck you' to the rules"
My mouth released a breathy laugh, it did rather feel that way "I don't know how to ask you this, I don't know how to tell you- whatever this is, I'm certain it has to stop"
"You're probably right" my heart jumped as I looked up at him, I wished he disagreed with me.
Our eyes were locked for only moments before we were both off the sofas and rushing towards each other, time slowed and the seconds it took for me to get up off the sofa turned into hours, but then, as Eric stepped up on the table and jumped down in front of me time sped up again, I laughed and before I knew it his hands were holding both sides of my head and pulling me to him.
I didn't attempt to fight him, I welcomed his lips onto mine and felt a delicious fire burst through me, he kissed me as though he had been waiting to do so for years, and I reciprocated with the type of passion that told him I needed him too.
My arms wrapped around his shoulders and one of my hands rested at the back of his head, I would never have guessed at the beginning of initiation that this would have ended up happening, but if every step I had taken since then lead me to this point then I didn't regret one of them, I would take every step as I had again and ten fold if it meant I always ended up in Eric's arms.
Eventually we had to pull apart for oxygen, my forehead rested against his and my eyes were closed, I wanted to remember this moment, I wanted to sear it into my brain so that I would never forget it "how much trouble will you get into?" I whispered.
"A whole lot" I opened my eyes to see him smiling, and I laughed as I realised how much he didn't care.
"We'll keep it secret then, until after initiation, that way they can't say anything"
As he nodded I felt his forehead rub against mine "fuck. It's gonna be so hard to keep my hands off you"
I smiled and bit my lip, had he always been like this? Were the past weeks of cruel instruction a dream? Was there something I missed? "Just keep doing whatever you were doing before, and then you can put your hands wherever you like" the new question I was asking myself was, had I always been this way? Capable of... flirting.
"Is that a promise?" He groaned.
"One I intend to keep" I leant up to kiss him again, I was already missing the taste of him on my lips.
*
Adam had been staring at me over the dinner table for at least half an hour, his fork mindlessly pushing his food around his tray "this has been a really long bloody day" I muttered before throwing my fork down and turning all of my focus onto him "what?"
"Where'd you go after the sim?"
"To accommodation" that was half true, it was the first place I went.
"And after that?"
"Honestly, you're as bad as Alyssa" I heard Alyssa exclaim something from the side of me but I was hardly listening "what does it matter?"
His eyes narrowed around me and it felt like I was being scanned "you're different" he finally mumbled out.
"How am I different?"
"You've been smiling since you sat down" Z said to the side of Adam, oh great, were they ganging up on me?
Eric walked in at that moment as if on cue, his face was emotionless and his eyes never wandered to me, it was almost plausible to think that what happened in his apartment never did, he was pretending so well that I doubted we ever kissed "fucking hell" Z gasped "you didn't?"
"What?"
"YES! FINALLY!" Everyone in the cafeteria looked around at Z who was banging her water cup on the table, even Eric looked round and a panicked thought glossed over his eyes.
I reached for her cup and pulled it away from her "please, shut up! No one can know" I made the desperation obvious in my eyes, Z caught this and quickly composed herself.
"What can't anyone know?" Adam asked as though it was urgent he know the answer "oh come on you can tell me! Prue! This is me we're talking about, you can tell me anything"
"Not this, Adam, but I can tell you after initiation" I felt Alyssa's eyes burning into the side of my head, she must have gathered this was to do with the last conversation we had "both of you" I said to her.
Eli finished chewing something in his mouth and leant towards me "is this about, you know who?"
Z kicked him under the table and gave an unnoticeable nod, Eli groaned in agony before Adam burst again "who? And why does Eli know when I don't?"
"Because I'm awesome"
"But-"
"Adam" I grabbed his hand "I'm happy, that's all you need to know for now and it should be enough"
His eyes scanned mine, he saw the sincerity and nodded slowly "okay, as long as you're happy, then I'm happy"
"I am"
It literally took 4 fucking chapters to write one day 😂 execute me.