Who Else Will Love You?

The next morning, Eden could only remember bits and pieces of the previous night. She remembered slow dancing with Echo to soft indie music in the middle of his room. She remembered them having a deep conversation while hugging, but she couldn't remember what about. The previous night was an overall haze to her.

Eden had just woken up and immediately cupped her head in her hands. The crippling headache she felt made her want to vomit. She got up and stumbled into the kitchen, searching for the aspirin. She found them and dry-swallowed two. (Echo had taught her to dry swallow when he had convinced her to ecstasy at a party a couple of weeks before they started dating). She then turned on the kitchen sink, and stuck her mouth right under the running stream of cold water. It simultaneously got her hydrated and woke her up.She went back to Echo's room and heard the sound of violent vomiting coming from the bathroom. She peaked in Echo's room only to find him missing. He was the one vomiting in the bathroom. Eden briskly walked towards the bathroom, pushing the door open to reveal a very hungover and pained Echo who was leaned unattractively over the toilet bowl. Eden moved to sit on the edge of the bathtub and began rubbing his back, hoping that it would soothe him at least a little. He let out another gagging sound and emptied some of the contents of his stomach into the toilet bowl. Eden tried to soothe him, but he snapped at her to leave him alone. She promptly left for his bedroom. She hated it when he snapped at her. She got back under his duvet, and curled up. She breathed in his scent on the sheets and it reminded her of all the good memories she had of him, making it much easier for her to not be upset about Echo snapping at her.

Echo walked, well, stumbled into the room to find Eden curled up in his bed. She was so fragile looking. So perfect. If wasn't as hungover as he was, he would've gone and gotten back in bed with her. But no, he was incredibly hungover and needed aspirin. He stumbled into the kitchen doing exactly what Eden had done (dry swallowing the pills then sticking his mouth under a running stream of cold water from the kitchen sink). He then attempted to walk normally back to his bedroom. He miserably failed at walking normal, he was too hungover. In that moment, he vowed to never drink so heavily ever again. Once he got back to his room, he slid into bed with Eden. He cuddled up to her and kissed the top of her head.

"Kit, you awake?"

"Yeah." She said with a small yawn.

"I love you."

"I love you too." She replied. "Do you remember what happened last night?"

"No. I was absolutely shit-faced."

"My fault, sorry Rabbit."

"Don't apologize. That's my fault. I should've paid attention to how much I was drinking."

After that statement, the pair sat silent in bed for what seemed like an eternity, and they probably would've spent all day like that had Chance not come in ruin their little moment.

"Hey, Ehco-- Oh, hey Eden." Chance said, obviously being caught by surprise. "Dad will be home in a couple hours. He wants to take all of us out."

"Really? Today?"

"Yeah."

"Ugh, okay."

And with that, Chance left Echo's room, being sure to shut the door behind her.

"What did she mean?" Eden asked.

"My dad takes all of us out to dinner at a really nice restaurant a couple times a year."

"That means I have to go home?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Kit."

"It's okay Rabbit." Eden said, peppering his smooth skin with gentle kisses.

Echo was the first to get out of bed. He threw on a pair of sweats and tossed Eden a pair as well. He instructed her to put them on because he was going to drive her home and she didn't have time to shower. Eden put on the sweat pants and followed Echo out to his car. She slid into the passenger seat, while he hopped into the drivers seat. Before he drove off, he looked at Eden, well more like stared.

"I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too." Eden said.

And with that Echo began to drive towards Eden's house. Her mother's car wasn't in the driveway and neither was her father's, so that was great news to her. After kissing Echo goodbye, she got out of her car and walked up to her house. Like usual, the front door was unlocked. She easily pushed the door open and stepped inside, taking a deep breath.

"What happened last night?" Eden thought aloud.

She racked her brain as she removed her shoes. She reached back into her subconscious memory trying to remember but she could only remember bits and pieces. Echo and her slow danced. The hugged and had a deep conversation. But what was it about? She thought. She asked him about his mom, the memory suddenly sprung in her head. And what else? There was one more thing she vaguely remembered talking about. It was about . . . Audrey Hixon? Who the hell was Audrey Hixon and why was that name flashing in her mind. She trotted up to her room keeping that name in her mind. Audrey Hixon. Eden grabbed her computer from under her bed and found a comfy spot on the floor. She typed that name into Google and found a bunch of shocking results. A young girl, no more than sixteen, had been hospitalized by her boyfriend. The pictures were disturbing. Too disturbing. So disturbing that Eden had to shut her laptop to avoid puking on it. Who was Audrey? Why was that name stuck in her head?

As much as Eden tried to figure out why Audrey Hixon's name appeared in her head, she simply couldn't figure out why. The question rang in her mind. why?