Run To You (The Love in Motion #2)

Chapter 1 Eden

Eden

My heart tries to leave my body through my nose as the door to my bedroom slams against the internal wall. Whipping my head around, I stare at the tiny demon hovering menacingly in the door frame, perfectly backlit by the hallway light.

“Bella,” I hiss. I knew she’d come. I just wasn’t expecting it at…Christ, two-thirty in the morning. She waited until I was deep in a REM cycle before launching her attack. I should’ve known!

“Eden,” she chuckles menacingly. “It’s time!”

Slowly, I turn my body towards her and haul myself up into a sitting position. “Bella…you don’t have to do this,” I plead.

“But I do, Eden. It’s for the good of humanity.”

I narrow my eyes and watch her body language, looking for signs of change. Bella’s a slippery little shit, and she bites. As I observe her, I notice the trash bag sticking out of her pants pocket. She’s serious this time.

In a flash of movement that takes me completely by surprise, Bella releases a war cry and launches herself at the gym bag located near the foot of my bed. How could I have been stupid enough to leave it in plain sight?

My legs tangle in the sheets as I scramble to catch her before she grabs the bag. Even though I’m considerably taller than Bella, she still has the advantage and reaches my gym bag before I’m even clear of my bedding.

“Bella!” I shout as she cackles and dodges my attempt at grabbing her. Bag in hand, she turns back towards the door. “Don’t do anything stupid!”

Falling to the floor, I moan, but don’t stop my pursuit. I must get to her before she reaches the trash chute. The apartment door is wide open…I’m too late.

“Bella, stop,” I yell, running down the corridor. If I were inclined to give a shit what people thought of me, I might be concerned I’m only in Liquorice Man boxer shorts and a raggedy old tank top.

Bella’s bright pink hair swishes as she turns her head to me.

My gym bag lies open on the floor by her feet.

I can see my running shorts and sport top, but that’s all.

My eyes snap to the once-empty trash bag that no longer resides in her pocket.

The bulge tells me it’s holding my prized possession, the one she wants to throw in the garbage.

“Too late, Eden. This is for the best.”

Stretching out my arm, I swipe at the bag. My fingers graze the plastic, but I fail to grab a hold. The thud of the bag hitting the trash chute as it falls is the last thing I hear before Bella shuts the chute door.

“No,” I cry dramatically, dropping to my knees. Bella stands over me with hands on hips, shaking her head.

As she passes me, I feel an empathetic pat on my shoulder. I should be mad at her, but she did warn me, and deep down I know she was right to do what she did. Scooping myself off the floor, I pad back to the apartment with my head hanging down.

“Oh, honey,” Becca says with a decent amount of humour laced in her words. “It was time.”

Grumbling, I huff and head to the kitchen.

There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep again now.

With a hot chocolate in the making, I turn when I hear groaning not unsimilar to mine.

Amy, the girl I’ve been dating for six weeks, is standing in my doorway suitably ruffled and pissed off at the intrusion to her night’s rest.

“Eden,” she croaks. “What the fuck?”

What can I say? Bella does whatever she wants to do, when she wants to do it.

“Sorry.”

Amy shakes her head. “I’m so done with this. I’m going home.”

Nodding, I turn back to my hot chocolate. I hear Amy huff and curse me out, but I don’t follow. If she wants to go home, that’s fine.

“Where’s Amy going?” Bella asks, standing next to me. She’s changed into punk unicorn nightwear.

“Home,” I mumble.

Bella’s small arm snakes around my waist, and her head leans on the side of my boob. “Are you mad at me?”

Sighing, I rest my head on top of hers. “No, you were right.”

“We got a smell complaint, Eden. The sneakers had holes in them and no longer supported your ankles. They had to go.”

I understand everything she’s saying, but she still trashed the pair of sneakers my parents bought me four and a half years ago, which got me across the finish line of the very first charity run I ever completed. Back in high school…with Sloane.

I grit my teeth and wait for the usual wave of nausea to pass.

The sneakers were the last link to my high school girlfriend.

I haven’t seen or heard from Sloane Bishop in two years now.

It took me a year before I accepted our relationship was really over.

Sloane asked to go on a break in her sophomore year of college, and I couldn’t deny her.

She’d been so overwhelmed and stressed out, it was painful to watch her suffer.

I’d hoped she would’ve come to me, let me help her like I did in our senior year, but no matter what I did, Sloane pulled away.

In the end she needed to focus solely on college, and not on our long-distance relationship. Even though the break hurt, I still held out hope Sloane would come back to me when she felt her anxiety was under control again.

She didn’t.

I purged my life of everything that reminded me of her, except for the sneakers.

There were simply too many memories attached to them to throw out.

Hell, who am I kidding? I didn’t throw anything out.

I shoved everything in a box and put it in storage, where it torments me on a daily basis.

I doubt my mum has tossed it. She knows what the memories mean to me.

Fuck, she knows what Sloane means to me… still.

Anyway, back to the point: now the sneakers are in the trash, and I finally have to let go and move on. Not with Amy, though. She’s not the right person for me, and we both know it. Our six weeks of dating consisted of a few pizza dates and sex. Not exactly romantic or intimate.

“Bye, Eden,” Amy calls as she leaves. I turn, but she’s already out the door. I think that’s the end of that, then.

“Shit, sorry, E.” Bella winces. “Is she leaving because of me?”

Snorting out a laugh, I shuffle over to our couch and fling myself down. “Well, yeah. You busted into my room in the middle of the night.”

Bella rolls her eyes. “And? Where’s her sense of humour?”

“She didn’t have one,” I state. “Whatever, it wasn’t working anyway.”

Becca comes out of her and Bella’s room and sits on her girlfriend’s knee. “Eden, maybe it’s time to start picking women you actually like.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Becca glares at me. “Come on, you know exactly what I mean. Ever since you dipped your toe back into the dating pool, you’ve chosen women totally wrong for you.”

“Babe,” Bella warns. “I’m the blunt one.”

Becca shrugs. “One of us has to say something, babe. Enough is enough.”

“I’m sitting right here!” I complain.

“We know,” they answer in unison.

“Creepy,” I mumble.

Becca climbs off Bella and comes over to me, where she unashamedly sits on my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I know you’re still hurting, E,” she says softly. “I wish to fuck I could help or tell you why Sloane disappeared on us all.”

I see tears shine in her eyes. I’m not the only one Sloane pulled away from. Becca has been Sloane’s best friend forever, but since they were in different colleges, Sloane didn’t reach out to her as she usually would. The distance allowed Sloane to slip out of all our lives.

“I know,” I reply, sighing.

“Eden, it’s time you moved on, for real.”

I swallow. “I know. I promise I’m trying.”

All I’ve been doing for two years is trying.

2 years ago.

“Eden, what are you doing here?”

Not the loving embrace I was expecting, but okay. “Hey, babe, surprise!”

Sloane nibbles her lip. “Yeah, I can see that.”

Wow, okay, I’m properly striking out here. We’ve not seen each other in over four months, and Sloane has missed the past three video chats. I figured hopping on a plane and visiting was a sure bet. Clearly not.

“Am I interrupting?” I ask, feeling totally out of sync with my girlfriend. I’ve never felt so disconnected from her, and we’ve been together for over two years.

“No, of course not. Come in.”

Yeah, something is dodgy. My sixth sense is lighting up like the fucking northern lights. Stepping through the door, I take in her dorm room. My eyes go instantly to the butch sitting on Sloane’s bed.

“Alex, hi,” I say cordially.

“Eden, good to see you. I didn’t know you were visiting.”

“Wanted to surprise Sloane,” I reply not wanting to invite any more conversation with her. Alex is Sloane’s friend from class. She’s also been openly after my girlfriend since day one. As with Kiera, when she tried it on in high school, I paid no attention…until recently.

Sloane’s been pulling away, and I’m convinced Alex hasn’t exactly been encouraging her to call me when she needs me.

Oh no, Alex is happy to take over that role, and for once, I’m pissed off.

I pride myself on not letting jealousy play a part in my life, but I’m only human.

The woman I love is stepping away from me and towards someone else.

“Me and Sloane were about to grab some ice cream, you wanna come?”

Flexing my jaw, I send her a thinned lip smile. “I was sort of hoping to have some alone time with Sloane.”

Alex smacks a palm against her head. “Duh, obviously. Ignore me. I’ll head out.” She jumps up from Sloane’s bed and grabs her shoes. I step back and wait for her to leave. I don’t like how she rests a hand on Sloane’s hip, or that Sloane doesn’t seem fazed by it.

“Text ya later,” Alex says, kissing her on the cheek.

Sloane walks her out and shuts the door but doesn’t immediately turn around.

“There’s something wrong, isn’t there?”

Sloane sniffs, and my heart clenches. I know she’s been struggling lately with school.

None of our friendship group, apart from Bella, has found college easy, but Sloane has struggled more than all of us.

Her perfectionism had ramped up her anxiety to the point her parents had to be called in to intervene.

I only found out after Becca told me last week during our monthly friend call. A call Sloane missed…again.

Placing my backpack down by her bed, I take a step towards her and place my hands on her shoulders. It hurts that she flinches, but I don’t pull back. This is Sloane…my Sloane. I can’t pull away from her when she’s hurting.

“Baby, please. Just talk to me.”

Finally she turns, and I bite my cheek when I see her eyes are red-rimmed and glassy. “We need to talk,” she stutters through a broken voice.

Scratching the back of my head, I nod and brace myself. “Okay, let’s talk.”

Taking her hand, I lead her over to the bed, and we sit down. I want nothing more than to take her in my arms, but Sloane’s body language is closed off, and my affections won’t do what I hope.

“Sloane, you can tell me anything, you know that, right?”

She sniffs and wipes her nose with the sleeve of her hoodie. My old hoodie she’s always worn when feeling insecure or stressed.

“Eden, I…” She looks up from her lap and into my eyes. “Baby, I need us to take a break.”

“Okay, how long for?” I have so many other questions, but that’s the only one I desperately need an answer to.

“I…I don’t know,” she chokes. “I’m drowning, Eden. It feels like I’m juggling a hundred balls, but I just keep dropping them. The more I try to make everything work, the worse it is.”

Running my palms up and down my thighs, I try to calm myself. “And am I one of those balls?”

If this wasn’t such a serious conversation I’d make a joke, but it is serious. Possibly one of the most serious conversations of my young life.

Sloane is everything to me. I promised myself in high school that she and I would be a part of the two percent of couples who made it, and I want to believe we can still be those people.

“We are one of those balls. Every time I have a paper due I’m panicking because I know you’re expecting my call, but I need the time to work. This year has only gotten harder, and I’m expected to start looking for work placements for my senior year. I…I just can’t…”

Her breaths are coming in fast, and I can see her entering a panic attack. Dropping to the floor, I place my hands on her knees and dip my head until she’s looking at me. “Just breathe, baby. Nice and slow, in and out.”

It takes a few minutes before Sloane breathes normally again. She looks so lost, and it’s then I know what I have to do. I gotta give her the space she needs, just like I did in senior year. All I can hope is that she comes back to me again.

“If you need a break I can do that, Sloane. I’d do anything for you.”

She sobs and pulls me into a hug. “I’m sorry, Eden. I’m so, so sorry.”

I’ve only been here for an hour at most, and I hate it, but I’m about to leave. Pulling away, I swipe her hair behind her ears and cup her cheek. “I love you, baby, and I’m here for you however you need. You know I’ll wait for you, Sloane.”

She shakes her head, and bile rises in my throat. “No, don’t, Eden. All you’ve done since we got together is wait for me to sort my shit out. I don’t want to hold you back.”

“Sloane—“

“Please, Eden. I want you to go back to California and enjoy college. I need time to deal with…everything.”

There is nothing about this conversation that I like or want to abide by, but Sloane has her mind set, and I know when she’s in this mind frame I need to back off.

She kisses me sweetly, and then I leave. Broken-hearted.