Tetra Pact

Chapter 13

A week passed, and her father seemed to have returned to his usual state. He didn't get off work to spend time with them, he didn't make an effort to talk to them, and he sure as hell didn't bring them out to eat again. Eden wasn't surprised - she knew it wasn't going to last. But she hadn't stopped wondering what made him do it at all. Maybe he actually did meet some woman and she changed his whole persona for a day.

Another thing that actually struck Eden's mind was that he hadn't asked her to come to the shop for a whole week. That was seven full days he hadn't demanded for her free labour. Which was definitely out of the ordinary, considering she'd always have to help out every three days since he'd open his first branch.

She shrugged it off, refocusing on the task at hand. She was stuck in the after school remedial group once again, but fortunately she didn't have to trouble Asbjørn with taking care of her brothers this time. She'd managed to hire an experienced helper for the next month or so.

The helper had agreed to bringing both her brothers to their respective appointments, which meant she finally had some time to herself at home. She decided she should start taking her school work a bit more seriously, since it was the year she had to take the A Levels, and she probably shouldn't actually flunk it as bad as she expected herself to. Although she wasn't really looking to go to university - for no particular reason, she just couldn't see herself studying any longer. And she wasn't interested in any college courses, or colleges, for that matter.

The bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson. Eden submitted her half empty worksheet to the teacher and sped out of the school building, getting on her bike and heading to the mall nearby. Kay had asked her out to Organico that evening, and she'd gladly agreed.

She opened the door to Organico and spotted her friend at her usual seat, sliding into the one next to her. "Some things never change," she said humorously, gesturing to the huge coconut in front of Kay's face.

"Some people never change," Kay corrected her. "It's me who keeps drinking the coconut water; the coconut can't change."

"All right," Eden replied. The first sentence had caught her off guard, because her mind immediately jumped to her father and how he'd changed that day. She pushed it to the back of her mind and looked at her friend. "I thought Mondays were your streetballing days."

"Well...I can reschedule my streetballing days."

"Sure you can. I'm just wondering why you would," Eden said, raising her chin in the direction of the counter, where Clyde was busy fulfilling another order.

Kay pointed an accusatory finger at her. "You stop wondering about that."

"Okay, okay." Just in time, the definite culprit behind her rescheduling came out from behind the counter and went over to their table. Eden smirked at him knowingly, and said, "Hello, Clyde."

"Hello, Eden," he repeated in the same tone, though he was clueless about the reason behind it.

"How is life?" she asked, to which Kay responded, "What kind of question is that?"

Clyde ran his fingers through his girlfriend's hair and pondered for a while, before tossing the question back at Eden without replying it himself. "How is life, Eden?"

She rolled her eyes, unamused. "It's going great, Clyde."

"So you got a helper for your brothers?" Kay said, bringing the conversation away from the useless one going on between the two of them.

"Yeah. She's experienced, so her rates are higher, but it's not my money anyway." She shrugged. "It's the least he can do to father his kids at this point."