the brave ones // h.s.

item eight

Shortly after kissing her breathless, Harry meanders off to the bathroom and Eden settles in to a glass of cider. Someone else appears on the stage, belting out a tipsy version of a Sam Smith song. Eden's heart rattles in her chest, stirred alive by a multitude of adrenaline-inducing emotions.

"You sounded really great up there."

A voice that doesn't belong to Harry causes Eden to turn; her eyes lock with a short, muscular man sitting a foot or two away from her, leaning on the polished wood of his own small table and staring back at Eden with a quaint smile.

"Thanks," she hums, unsure of what else to say.

Should I be creeped out by you or not?

"Do you sing often?"

Eden shakes her head with a short laugh. "No, that was the first time I've sung in public actually."

The man's grin grows in fascination. "No way, I couldn't tell," he chuckles. "You're a natural."

"Thank you," Eden beams.

The man sticks out his hand and Eden hesitantly shakes it. "I'm William," he says proudly.

"Eden."

William gestures behind him; Eden hadn't noticed until now but two other tables are pushed up against his and several people are all sat together, laughing and talking and drinking as a group.

"Care to join us?" he suggests lightly.

Eden bites her lower lip, pondering his offer. After a moment she nods, coming to her feet as William helps her drag her table closer to his. She sits down next to him and he smiles genially.

"Where are you from?"

"Florida," she answers, running her finger over the rim of her glass. She nods her head at Harry's empty seat. "My friend is from England."

William's eyebrows raise. "That's amazing. I saw him earlier, where's he at?"

"Bathroom," she laughs. "Introduce me to your friends."

William goes around the table, pointing to each person. His finger first lands on the girl sitting across from him with two eyebrow piercings and cropped blue hair; her attention is elsewhere as she chats animatedly with the others at the table. "That's Holly."

He points to the man next to Holly, looking equally as eccentric as her. "That's Holly's boyfriend, Taylor." Next is a woman with a bright smile and dark, entrancing eyes. "There's Safiya, and next to her is Cal." Cal has olive skin and full pink lips turned down in a slight frown as he listens in wordlessly on his friends' conversations.

Finally, William gestures to the woman sitting on his other side, her mouth moving at a mile a minute as she talks to Safiya and Cal. "And this is Natalia."

Safiya takes notice of Eden's presence first, her dark eyes flitting over and her grin somehow growing wider. This causes Natalia to halt her words and also turn to look at Eden, and even Cal lifts his gaze to meet hers.

"Hey, Will, making new friends already?" Safiya purrs playfully.

"Yeah, Saf, you should try it sometime," Will jeers. "She's the one who was singing Selena Gomez onstage."

Safiya's eyebrows shoot up and she eagerly leans forward on the table. "That was you?" she cries. "You sounded great up there, way too good for a random karaoke night."

"Yeah, we were singing along back here," Natalia laughs, brushing her slim fingers through her shoulder-length hair.

Eden grins shyly, shoulders raising as she shrugs lightly. "Thanks," she murmurs, biting back a smile. "I really like that song and thought it would be fun to sing. You can thank Harry for me going up there."