Close Your Eyes to See

Once Edie was sound asleep, Eric waited for John to come back to the hotel room. He knew there was more to the story that Edie was telling. When he could hear distant footsteps coming down the hallway, he opened up the hotel room door and stopped John in his path.

“Did you say anything to Edie today?” John took in his friend's question and knew something was wrong with her. He immediately regretted saying anything or doing anything to hurt her today. The talk they had while Eric was in the shower, the fans that were swarming them tonight and the girls at the bar – he shouldn't have done any of that. He only flirted with those girls because he didn't want to be rude to them, they claimed they were fans of his music – he didn't want to be mean to them in any way.

“What's wrong with her?” John tried to move past Eric, but it didn't work. Eric blocked the white door with his body, shielding John from doing any more damage to Edie than he has already done.

“She is fine now, she's sleeping. But when I got back she was a mess. What is going on between you two? She won't say anything, not like I would expect her to, but I want you to tell me.” The look in his best friend's eye was digging into John's soul. He didn't want to lie to him, but he didn't want to make Edie or Eric mad either.

“You're my best friend dude, please tell me,” Eric said again, “I feel like since you two have become friends, she has been more extreme. She is either super happy or super sad. She's like my sister and I don't like seeing her like this. And I don't want to be lied to. I know you guys have gotten close these past few weeks and thats what I wanted, you two are my best friends, but you've gotta give me some answers.”

Eric couldn't stand seeing Edie this upset about something. Her words still pained his soul as he thought about them over and over again. He knew Edie well enough to know that she wasn't going to be the one to confess about anything between her and John, it had to be John. Eric was praying that everything was in his head, that there was nothing going on. John was like a brother to him, but he knew how to fuck around with girls and Eric didn't want Edie to be one of them. She was so much more than that. But by the looks of John who was avoiding eye contact with him and running his fingers through his hair, something was up.

John didn't know what to say. He couldn't lie to Eric anymore, the more he waited the worse it was going to get. Edie was going to be mad at him, but maybe it would help the two of them understand what was going on with her. So John just said it,

“I kissed her last week.” His heart immediately fell into his stomach as Eric's entire face dropped and turned from concern to almost anger. He took a step back from John in disbelief. With the current state that Edie was in, he already knew that things had gone south and terribly wrong between the two of them.

“You kissed Edie?” John nodded his head, it looking down at the ground in shame. Eric at that moment didn't know how to feel. John knew what kind of a girl she was. How she didn't know very many people and it was hard for her to trust anymore and then John went and did that.

“Then what happened?” Eric needed answers.

“I was still with Aly and didn't know how to talk to Edie or react to anything so we didn't talk. I didn't want you to be mad at me because I know I shouldn't have kissed her, but I wanted to.”

“So you were still with Aly when all of this happened? Fuck man.” John could tell my Eric's tone that he was pissed off and ready to start a fight, something that Halvo rarely did.

“Eric, man, I thought you would have been happy. You were always saying how you wanted me and her to be friends-”

“YES JOHN, FRIENDS. Friends don't kiss each other. You know how hard it is for her to get to know someone and then you went and did that and now she is like this. Why did you have to go and fuck it up?”

John didn't know how to respond to anything his friend was saying, guilt filling his entire body. He just wanted to go into the hotel room and be with Edie and make things better. He didn't mean to fuck up this much, he was just stuck.

Eric felt like his head with going to explode, but he just wanted to hit the sack and get back home in the morning. He reached for the hotel room door handle and turned it, but stopped with John was trying to follow him in. Eric reached in the door and grabbed John's suitcase, handing it to him in almost pure disgust.

“Find a different room to sleep in tonight.” And he shut the door, leaving John standing in the middle of the hallway feeling as worse as he ever has. As he rolled my suitcase towards the elevator, preparing to get a separate hotel room for the night, he knew two things were true. One, he may or may not have just lost his best friend. And two, he had lost Edie.

-----------------------

Eric wasn't singing in the car the next morning. When Edie woke up after her terrible night, she was quite honestly surprised to see John no where in sight. Eric was fuming and looked tired as hell, clearly not getting enough sleep the night before.

Edie knew something was wrong between the two boys, but didn't want to ask why. Everything was so messed up. She was really looking forward to a good weekend with Eric and everything was ruined.

Eric's hand gripped the steering wheel hard as he kept his eyes on the road, refraining from punching John in the seat next to him. He was lucky they even waited for him. Eric wanted John to fucking hitchhike home. Edie was seated in the back seat once again, her hands resting in her lap as she tried to close her eyes and sleep for a little longer.

John was having the weekend from fucking hell. After getting a separate hotel room, he couldn't sleep a wink. He was fighting with his best friend and with Edie, a girl he was really beginning to like. He knew that the kiss was going to cause so much tension between the three of them, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted Edie.

And there she was, sitting right behind him – a few feet apart. And he couldn't have her. She felt worlds away from him when they were so close. He was bursting at the seams, he needed to talk to Eric about this and he needed to apologize to Eric.

“Eric, I need to-”

“Stop talking or you can walk home.” Eric spat from across the car. He was still too angry to even think about talking to John. Eric needed time to process everything before he could speak to John. The words stung John's skin and startled Edie. She had never heard Eric talk so harshly before to anyone. The fact that it was his best friend made it worse.

She did this. She ruined two best friends. Edie knew from the very beginning she shouldn't have listened to Eric and get to know John, she had caused so much to happen.

Edie watched as John slowly craned his neck around the tan leather seat to look at her. His eyes were so sad, almost pleading for her to break and forgive him.

“Edie, I-” before he could even finish, Eric had harshly turned off the road to the side and slammed on the brakes.

“Don't fucking talk to her, dude.” Eric was playing the brother card. John was the one that made her cry in his arms last night, even though Edie wouldn't admit it.

“Eric.” Edie whispered to him gently, not wanting this yelling to go on in the car. Her head already hurt from all of the thoughts that were crammed inside.

“No, stop it. Both of you! I don't want to talk about what is going on right now, I want to get the fuck home and out of his car, alright?!” Eric shouted with frustration at his two best friends, he couldn't hold it in any longer.

John's lips parted as he went to say more about what was happening, but he refrained, he didn't want to be hitch hiking home. The two of them kept their mouth shut. Eric had never shouted at either of them like that before, things were really starting to get to him.

The two of them watched as Eric looked out the windshield and cursed under his breath for a few moments before gearing the car into drive and merging back onto the road. The car ride wasn't going to end soon enough.