Who Else Will Love You?

*One month after Eden met Echo*

Eden pressed the phone against her ear. Her body was wracked with nerves, she had always hated calling people. The phone rang and rang and rang. She thought it was just going to go to voicemail, so she was surprised when someone picked up at the very last second.

"Hello?" Answered a deep voice.

"Hey, is this Echo?" Eden asked, unsure this was even the right number.

"Yeah, who's this?" Asked Echo.

"It's Eden... You gave me your Ipod like a month ago after you shattered my phone." Eden stated.

"Oh yeah. Got a new phone finally?" Echo laughed a bit.

"Yeah, I was just calling to give you your Ipod back." Eden siad.

"Sweet. Uh, meet me in the library tomorrow morning?" Echo suggested.

"What part of the library? It's huge."

"Uh, the fiction section, by author initial F." Echo clarified.

"Why author initial F?" Eden questioned.

"Cause a lot of great words start with F." Echo explained with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Okay then. See you tomorrow, Echo." Eden dismissed with a roll of her eyes.

"See ya, Eden."

And with that, Eden ended the phone call. That was way less awkward than she had expected. She sighed and gently threw her new phone onto her bed before plopping down on the floor. She pulled her laptop out from under her bed, opening it and began mindlessly browsing the internet.

~

"Eden!" Eden's mother cried from downstairs.

"Yeah?" Eden shouted.

"Get your ass down here!"

"Coming!"

"NOW!"

Eden got up from her comfy position on the floor, gently setting aside her laptop, and running through her house and down the stairs as fast as she could without falling.

"What?" Eden asked as she ran into the living room.

"Look who's here!" Her mother squealed.

She looked past her mother and saw her father sitting in the arm chair situated in the far corner of the room.

"Dad?" Eden said in disbelief.

"Hey honey." He smiled warmly.

Eden didn't know what to think. She hadn't seen her father since she was a kid. He hadn't even gone to Hayden's funeral. That asshole. Eden turned around, flipping off her father before leaving the room and running back up to her room. Why her mother was so excited, she had no idea. Maybe it was because her mother never wanted him to leave, and she cried for months, praying he would come back. After a while, she realized he wouldn't come back, but she still hoped and now he was sitting in their living room. Quite frankly, Eden loathed her father. He abandoned her and her brother and didn't even have the balls to show up to his son's funeral. It made Eden sick.

She could hear her parents laughing downstairs, and she wanted to throw up at the sound of their happiness. Her father was an asshole and her mother was a drunk, so as far as Eden was concerned, neither of them deserved to be happy. She popped in her ear buds and drowned out her parents with the loud music, which eventually lolled her to sleep.

~

*the next day*

Eden woke up at 4 a.m. due to her loud music still playing. Instead of turning it off and rolling over to go back to sleep like a normal teenager, she got up and went downstairs to make herself some tea. She drank it slowly as she watched the sun peak over the horizon from the window in her kitchen. After setting her cup in the sink, she traipsed upstairs and took a long hot shower before lazily getting dressed in her signature hoodie and jeans. She brushed her ginger hair back into a ponytail and put on her daily makeup. Once finished with that she slid on a pair of shoes, grabbed her school bag and began the short journey to school. She would be really early, but in all honesty who cares? She dug her hands into her pockets as the bitter morning air whipped around her. She walked briskly through the wind.

"How odd. Sunny yet bitter and windy." She thought to herself.

When she finally arrived at the brick prison, she immediately headed for the recreation wing, which held the library. She walked into the familiar library and headed towards the fiction section, more specifically the author initial F part of the fiction section. Eden grabbed a novel with an interesting title and carefully sat down, leaning against a shelf. She opened the book and began reading.

"Hey." A deep voice called from a few feet away.

Eden jumped, startled by the voice and whipped her head to see who had said that.

"Echo." Eden sighed as her eyes swept over the boy in front of her.

He wasn't much taller than her, nor was he very muscular. His skinny legs were clad in black skin tight jeans and he wore a baggy shirt that read "Get your vegan on!" His messy hair swept haphazardly across his forehead, and those blue eyes seemed to glow. With his hands shoved in his pockets, he chewed on his lower lip as he traipsed towards Eden.

"How are you?" He asked.

"Fine, and you?" Eden responded politely.

"Peachy." Echo replied with a hint of sass.

Eden fished the iPod out of her school bag and handed the shiny little device over to Echo. He took it and flipped it over in his hands.

"Thanks." He said as he looked over the device, most likely to make sure it wasn't damaged.

"No problem. Thanks for letting me borrow it."

"Yeah anytime."

Eden began to walk away and inhaled sharply when she felt Echo grab her upper arm.

"We have forty-five more minutes until the warning bell rings. Hang with me?" He offered.

"Uh, sure?"

"Cool." He said as he began to drag her by the arm out of the library.

"Where?"

"You'll find out."

He dragged her through a maze of hallways and down a couple flights of stair. He stopped at a door next to the teacher's lounge that was marked with a red sticker reading "Staff only."

"We shouldn't go in there." Eden warned.

"Yeah we really should." Echo countered.

He opened the door with ease and led her into the dark space.

"Watch your step." He said as they began to descend a flight of stairs.

The further down the stair case they went, the lighter it got and Eden could actually see where she was stepping. When they reached the bottom, Echo immediately began walking towards the source of the light which happened to be in the back left corner of the room (well, basement). There were lanterns littering the back corner, illuminating the space. A bunch of seats, ranging from old metal chairs to office rolling chairs, encircled a wooden table. And to think all of this was hidden behind rows and rows of dusty, unused equipment and supplies.

"What is this?" Eden asked in awe as she took in her surroundings.

"This is where the king (me) and my subjects (who should be here any minute now) reside." Echo spoke.

Just then they heard murmuring and the patter of footsteps heading towards them.

"Speak of the devil." Echo whispered to himself.

A group of four people, two girls and two guys, emerged from the darkness and into the cool little hang spot.

"Who's this?" One of the girls asked.

"Guys, meet Eden."

"Yo." Greeted one of the guys. His lips curled into a smile revealing white, crooked teeth.

Eden waved politely and quietly said hello.

"Oh now speak up. Name, favorite color. Go!" Echo enthused.

"Uh, I'm Eden and my favorite color is purple." Eden spoke softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear her.

"The one with the blue hair is Iris. The one with black and blonde hair split right down the middle, that's Rhiannon. Mr. Smilely over there with the flippy hair is Uriah, and the brooding one with lots of hair is River." Echo explained while pointing out each person.

Eden nodded and sat down in one of the chairs as the others did.

"Look what I brought!" Rhiannon squealed. She grinned and held up a small baggie.

A collective sound of approval came from the group, well, everyone except Eden. Rhiannon fished out a piece of whatever was in the bag then passed the bag onto River, who took out a piece. He passed it Uriah who took several pieces, and Uriah passed it to Iris who took one. Iris handed the bag to Echo. Echo offered the bag to Eden.

"What is it?" Eden asked warily.

"It's fun, just take one."

Eden reluctantly took one, then Echo took one. Eden copied everyone around her and put the small square thing on the tip of her finger.

"Alright guys, ready?" Asked Rhiannon. "One, two three."

And with that, everyone put the square thing in their mouths, more specifically on the between their lower gums and their cheek. Eden followed suit.

"Wh--" Eden began but was met with a sound of disapproval from Echo.

Eden gave him a look of curiosity. He pulled his backpack onto his lap, unzipped it and pulled out a notebook and pen. He scribbled something down on a random page in the notebook and showed it to her. "Don't talk. Don't swallow your spit for at least 30 minutes to an hour." Eden gave him a look of confusion. He scribbled down something else then showed it to her. "Trust me. And have fun;)"