“Jesus Christ,” Snake says. “The fuck is wrong with you guys?” He gets to his feet, glaring at me as though it’s all my fault as he drags himself over to the kitchen. He’s not all that well balanced and there’s a slight possibility that he might still be drunk. Through all the commotion, however, Alex doesn’t appear to have even flinched. He’s still asleep.
“Tyler’s a liar, that’s what’s wrong,” I mutter. Snake’s eyes never leave mine as he lingers by the coffee machine. He squints back at me curiously, as though he’s expecting me to update him on what’s happened. It’s an explanation he’s not going to get. “Snake,” I say, “please, please make me some coffee before I die.”
“Eden?”
I flash my eyes in the direction of Emily’s voice. She’s hovering by the door of Tyler’s room, only now she’s pulled on some clothes. Tyler’s clothes. The shirt he was wearing last night. It only pisses me off even more.
“What?” I fold my arms across my chest, over my creased little black dress that no longer looks appealing.
Emily touches the tips of her hair, twirling strands around her fingers. “Can I talk to you?” Admittedly, she does look mortified and her voice is trembling a little. It doesn’t make me feel any sympathy. In fact, it only makes her appear guilty, too.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can say that’s gonna justify you,” I state, loud and firm, just to ensure she gets the memo that I’m far from happy. I can hear the coffee machine churning in the background and I’m aware of Snake’s eyes on us, so I make the decision right then that I’d rather he didn’t get involved. Pressing my lips together into a firm line, I add, “But fine.”
With my arms still folded, I march back across the living room and into Tyler’s room, brushing against Emily as I squeeze past her. Thankfully, she has the common sense to shut the door to give us some privacy, and she flicks on the lights. This time, no one is complaining.
“Eden,” she starts, “I know what it looked like and I know why you’re mad. Like, he’s your brother, so it’s weird for you, isn’t it?” Her hands move as she talks and her eyes are wide and it seems like she’s trying to trick me into believing she’s innocent, but I stand my ground, only blinking back at her. “We didn’t sleep together,” she says quietly. “Honestly, we didn’t. We’re just mates.”
I think I could stand here and argue with her all day, but her words start to sink in and I take a moment to collect my thoughts. He’s your brother, so it’s weird for you. That’s what it seems like to her. I must come across as the crazy stepsibling who’s way too overprotective, and I realize then that for the past ten minutes I’ve totally forgotten that none of them know. Alex from the couch doesn’t know. Snake doesn’t know. Emily doesn’t know. None of them know that I’m in love with Tyler. None of them have any idea.
And now, I just seem insane.
I know I need to chill out, whether they did or didn’t hook up, otherwise my anger will seem uncalled for. Guilty or not, I need to let them off the hook. I can’t tell yet if they’re telling the truth or if they’re lying through their teeth, but I sigh, anyway. “Whatever,” I say. It’s hard to force myself to seem nonchalant, to look as though it doesn’t bother me, but I do it. I do it because keeping my secret with Tyler is more important. “I know it’s not really any of my business. You know, it’s just weird with this being my room while I’m here.”
“Honestly, Eden, I’d never go there,” she says.
Part of me wonders if she’s lying, but a stepsister wouldn’t question it, so I keep quiet. It seems like every day it gets harder and harder to keep pretending that there’s nothing going on. I forget to remind myself that to everyone else we’re just stepsiblings. To Tyler and me, we’re so much more.
There’s the tapping of knuckles against Tyler’s door and Snake swings it open without waiting for us to give him the all-clear. He wanders in with three mugs of steaming coffee and passes one to Emily and one to me, keeping the third for himself.
“Seems like you guys needed it,” he says with a nod. He’s still wearing his clothes from last night too, only the buttons on his shirt are undone. There’s a tattoo of a sun on his chest and he notices both Emily and me staring at it. “It’s ’cause I’m just as hot,” he answers before we can even ask. I can’t tell if he’s kidding or not.
Anyway, my head is still pounding and I wrap my hands tightly around the mug of coffee as I steal my way back into the living room without so much as a glance back in Emily’s direction. There’s still that awful waft of booze that seems to be clinging to the air throughout the apartment, and as I perch myself down on the couch, I stare across the coffee table at Alex for a while. He still hasn’t moved an inch.
As Snake stumbles across the room to sit down next to me, I shoot him a sideways glance and then nod to the guy who’s spent the night here. “Can you wake him?”