| published! under the new title MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE | Eden knows she can't love Truman, the boy with the angelic smile and devilish eyes. Why? He's her best friend Katie's older brother, who she strictly promised she'd stay away from.
But when a...
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E D E N
The day I kissed Truman sent the universe out of order. Our kiss started a chain reaction. It was the first bad thing out of many that would soon follow.
It was June, and Katie and I just finished our final day of twelfth grade and it was time to celebrate. Again. Only this time, we traded in ice cream and fruity juices for a party.
I was all in. Excited even, mostly because our parents only allowed us to go if Truman, who was back from college, came to supervise.
I remember laughing and thinking how ironic that was. Truman supervising us. I knew I would be the one with my eyes locked firmly on him. Not the other way around.
I knocked on the door to her house, tugging at the stupid hem of my red dress. The theme to the party was Angels and Devils, and here I was thinking that a party having a theme was the most idiotic thing I've ever heard of in my entire life.
That was, until Truman opened the door.
I expected him to be dressed as a devil, in all red with horns coming out of his head, but turns out this boy excelled in the art of sending me into cardiac arrest.
Instead, there was a halo resting on his brownish black hair that curled around his ears. I honestly did not think it was possible for someone to make all white look hot but here he was, defying all laws.
He looked like an angel, but the look in his eyes as they traveled down my body was anything but angelic.
"Eden..." he trailed off, eyes lifting back up to mine. He whistled, leaning against the door frame. "Devil, huh? I always pictured you as an angel," he said, that lopsided grin on his face.
I should have known then that I was in trouble.
"Funny. I pictured you as the devil." I smiled as he laughed, grin growing.
Truman disappeared as soon as we arrived to the party. I watched him walk towards a group of people, a red-headed girl draping her arms over his shoulders, and then he was gone, lost somewhere in the darkness.
I hardly had time to look for him before Katie grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the makeshift dance floor in the backyard. There were twinkling lights hanging off the fence and I remember thinking it looked magical, and that the night felt infinite as I held my best friend's hand and danced.
We were having fun. And as Katie drank cup after cup of whatever dark liquid that turned her eyes glassy, I laughed.
I thought we were living: dancing in a backyard, drinking things we weren't supposed to that made my head throb and turned my world a spectrum of different colours. Black red purple pink yellow. The hues were everywhere, dancing across the night sky, smiling down at me.
I glanced around for Truman and I spotted him leaning against the shed, talking to the same red-headed girl with hair draping down her body in curls. Even with the darkness, I could see the anger in those hazel eyes of his.
