Page 28 of There's No Us Without You
Going in for round two, I keep my face away from any flying limbs, and give her shoulders another shake.
“No!” Eden’s voice is high-pitched, and she thrashes around again, her face contorting as though she’s in pain.
Bloody hell.
With no other option, I climb on top of her, straddling her hips, and pin her hands above her head. “Eden, wake the fuck up.”
I’m tempted to slap her soft pink cheeks, but that seems a little aggressive considering the position I’m in.
This time, her eyes fly open and she blinks rapidly, then her gaze widens and an ear-piercing scream replaces her sobs.
“Emerson? What... what are you doing?” Her throat bobs, her eyes frantic as she takes in my position on top of her.
Right. I didn’t think about this very well, did I?
“Fuck.” I release her wrists and climb from the bed, my hands up in surrender. “You were... crying in your sleep. I tried to wake you, but you punched me in the face.”
Eden covers her mouth. “Oh god, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?” she says, her voice muffled by her hand.
A smirk lifts one side of my mouth. “Nothing I haven’t experienced before. Besides, I probably deserve it for straddling you in your sleep.”
She shakes her head, this time covering her entire face as she groans. “I’m so embarrassed.”
With my grin fading, I plant myself on the side of the bed. “Want to talk about it?”
She sighs and drops her hands into her lap, staring at them for a moment. “I just never saw myself here, you know?”
“Yeah, I know what that feels like,” I say, my voice thick from the painful lump forming in my throat.
I never imagined I’d be nursing an injury right before finals and lying to everyone about it.
“Are you okay?” Eden reaches out and grabs one of my hands, giving it a gentle squeeze.
She’s asking about me? Why? She’s the one breaking down in her sleep.
I give her a small smile. “We aren’t talking about me. We’re talking about you.”
“I don’t enjoy talking about myself.” She sniffs as she wipes her eyes with the heel of her free hand.
Brushing her matted hair from her forehead, I sigh. “I do.”
Eden searches my face, her eyebrows pulled in. “Why? There’s nothing great about me.”
“That’s not true.” I shuffle closer and nudge her with my elbow. “For one, I just found you crying, and you’re asking if I’m okay. That tells me you still give a shit, even when people have shown you they don’t give a shit about you.”
I’m only guessing the person she was supposed to marry is a total fucking waste of oxygen.
She flashes me a smile that doesn’t meet her eyes. “Not everyone in my life has been like that,” she says. “I received so much love from my nanna and my dad, because I definitely didn’t get it from my mother. Or Kent.” She gets choked up on the last words and clears her throat. “I thought I meant more to him than that.”
Kent? That’s the fuckwit’s name?
“What happened? I mean, I have a vague idea, considering I met you in a bar in your wedding dress.”
She huffs out a laugh. “Not my finest hour.”
I lift a shoulder. “Happens to the best of us.”
“You caught your fiancé cheating on you on your wedding day too?”
