Tetra Pact

Chapter 25

Asbjørn kept his eyes glued to his phone the entire day. Even so, he could still feel the stares of every single person he passed by in the university, and he wanted nothing more than to leave and return back to Eden's side. That was the bad thing about summer break - it had made him too used to being with Eden all the time, and now he was being fidgety without her. And he didn't think he was the fidgety type in the first place.

Eden was busy with preparations for university. Or she should be. He knew she probably wasn't interested in going to university, even though her father was more than able to afford it. Asbjørn had already tried to convince her that she should go, or come to Knaresborough at the very least, since it wasn't very difficult to get accepted to go here. But she seemed to believe that the rest of her life was dedicated to caring for her brothers. And as her boyfriend, Asbjørn didn't know what to do. He tried to bring her out more often and contacted Eirian Schofield every now and then to get off work early to take care of his sons, just so he could eat dinner with his daughter to take her mind off of things. He hoped it helped, even though it didn't seem like it did.

He nearly bumped into someone, and hastily shoved his phone into his pocket as he looked up. "I'm so sorry -"

Rut smiled back at him.

"Oh, hi." He hadn't spoken to Rut in a long time. It was safe to say he'd been a little caught up in his own things to spend time keeping up social pretenses.

"Hi," she replied. And cutting straight to the chase she added, "You have a girlfriend."

Asbjørn waited for a moment to pass. "I do," he confirmed, although he was pretty sure she wasn't asking a question.

"She's cute." Rut had an expression he couldn't make out. "I didn't know you were into younger girls."

Asbjørn stared, taking some time to process her words. "I - wait -"

"It's alright. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up when you were just being friendly. See you." She strutted away, leaving Asbjørn gaping behind, a mass of emotions and thoughts overwhelming him.

Damian slapped him on the back.

"Tough luck, bruv." He looked at him sympathetically. "I knew she had a thing for you."

Asbjørn narrowed his eyes at his friends. "And..?"

"Well, too bad for her, I guess." He shrugged. "And for everyone else in the college. The hottest campus couple of the year has now been reduced to a mere dream."

"Oh, shut up." Asbjørn went back to staring at his phone and the new message he'd received.

Eden ♥: my dad's picking me today so you don't have to. [15:14]

Asbjørn sighed and tucked his phone back into his pocket, not forgetting to respond with an "alright, love you too".

***

Eden was in the front seat next to her dad, for the first time in as long as she could remember. Part of the reason was because he never drove them - or even just her - anywhere since their mother passed. The other part is that she never felt like she wanted to sit in the front seat with him anyway.

They'd just picked Evan up from his therapy session, and he was now unconscious in the backseat of the car. As he flipped his body over for the tenth time, Eden was reminded of what the therapist had told her.

"Evan seemed tired today. He wasn't very interested in drawing, which we know he likes, and he also didn't tell me much about what he's feeling."

Eden had hoped behavioral therapy would help him improve his social skills - and it did at first, up until recently. He was getting pretty good at greeting people with a nod of his head and sometimes even shaking hands, but now he'd reverted back to his old state. And the only people he acknowledged were Eden, Erin and Asbjørn. Not even their father.

The therapist had said that Eden should watch his behaviour in case it showed any signs of mood disorders, since Evan was non-verbal and wasn't able to communicate his feelings very well. The thought made Eden frightened. She didn't want anything to happen to Evan, but the therapist had made it clear that things like depression were more common in people with developmental disabilities.

She sucked in a breath. She wasn't going to cry. Not in the car with her dad anyway.

When they finally pulled up at their house, Eden let her father and the nanny haul Evan to his room, while she retreated to her own as quickly as possible. She locked the door and sat next to her bed, where she'd thrown the pieces of paper from Erin's progress report as well, and was reminded that it wasn't just one of her brothers suffering - but both. She held her face in her hands, pressing onto her eyes so that the tears welling up at the surface wouldn't fall.

She stayed in that position until she was numb. Then she realised it was already midnight, and her father hadn't called her down to eat dinner.

***

Author's note:

New update! Sorry it's a little short I've been struggling to finish this book haha. :') Rest assured I will though, no matter how slow I am. Thanks for still reading and voting <3