"I'm the bad guy, duh." 

BILLIE EILISH | BAD GUY

• • •

Thursday morning was a wave of hungover teens trying hard to hide it, and Eden was no special.

Most of the conversation surrounding her in low whispers and snarky remarks didn't interest her as much as the stranger that jumped her fence last night.

She couldn't help but think about Smith, the boy she hardly met last night, leaving his house around two in the morning or more like running away. Where the hell could he go after a night of chaos?

Eden sat still in her English Literature class, fiddling with the pen and notepad on her desk as her mind wandered elsewhere. Her gaze shifted from the surface of the white table to the latched open windows, political posters on the wall, and Mr. Hall's presentation at the front of the class. She just couldn't concentrate.

Suddenly, someone poked her arm.

"Hey," Caleb whispered. "Do you have a black pen?"

After a few seconds of blankly staring at Caleb's incredulous expression, Eden resurfaced to reality and pushed her flat-ironed hair behind her ear. It was so easy to forget that she was assigned to Caleb's table at the beginning of the year when he didn't always show up.

"How do your parents let you skip school whenever you want?" she asked as she rolled a black gel pen over his way.

"I don't skip school, only this class 'cuz I hate English. And when your parents are traditionally Asian, they don't give a shit about English when there's calculus and physics."

A laugh slipped out of Eden's mouth that was loud enough to earn a hard stare from Mr. Hall, and she quickly covered her mouth.

"I hardly knew you were in this class," she admitted. 

"I've been in this class since ninth grade. You know, when you were going around knocking people unconscious with books?" he remarked with a low voice. Caleb relaxed into his chair and ran a hand through his hair that matched the color of his black Champion hoodie.

Embarrassed, Eden looked away and shook her head. "That wasn't on purpose! If you didn't scare me, it would've never happened."

"If I didn't scare you, I wouldn't have such a great story to tell," he said. "How are you? By the way," Caleb suddenly asked.

"I'm doing perfect unless you think differently," she breathed and rested her chin in the palm of her hand.

"Yeah, you were completely out of it yesterday," Caleb snickered.

Eden scoffed, trying to hide her smile as best as possible with the sleeve of her sweater. "No, I wasn't," she lied.

His eyes found their way back to the soft features of her face, studying the light freckles scattered across her toffee skin and the reddish tint of her lips. That was the thing about Caleb, he just knew how to make a girl feel special—or at least somewhat.

"It's been a while since I've seen that side of you," he remarked. "Since Halloween, if I remember correctly."

Once upon a time, Eden wanted that attention from him, but it only unraveled into shit. Never again.

The bell sounded, and Mr. Hall yelled over the rustle of paper as students' rushed to get out as soon as possible. Eden slammed her book shut, clenching her jaw at Caleb's comment. He just couldn't fucking stop.

"What?" Caleb furrowed his eyebrows.

"You just don't get it—you never get it."

He shook his head as if she was speaking another language. "What are you talking about?"

Eden looked around, watching as her classmates began to pour of the classroom like water, and she approached him with an accusatory finger.

"How many times do I have to tell you that we don't talk about that?" Her chest was set aflame, and she drew a shaky breath, slinging her bag over her shoulder and beelining for the door.

The hallway was flooded with students pouring out of their classes trying to file in for lunch first. After being tousled back and forth in the sea of bodies, she finally made it to her red locker just when the hallways were clearing. Why was he like this? A familiar feeling crawled over her, trapping her with vulnerability and a burden of regret. If only she had been smarter before.

Sage ambled up to her dark blue locker with a flowery lunch bag in the crook of her elbow. She was grinning like a Cheshire cat, her lips curved from an unknown delight. "Did you see him?" she asked.

"Who?"

"Smith? He's a transfer student—kinda cute actually."

Eden couldn't think of Smith as kinda cute when all she could see was his red hoodie and the look of complete utter shock when he saw her.

"Well, I saw him last night right after I got home. He was running off somewhere from his house—it was so goddamn weird," Eden said.

"Maybe he was going to an after party." Sage threw her hands up in the air and swung her hips.

"Isn't he new? How would he know enough people to go to an after party?"

They slowly made their way to the cafeteria, taking as much time as necessary so that the cafeteria line would alleviate. When the halls were empty, it was easier to see the announcement board littered with old events and new job opportunities, and the sports trophies in the glass casing.

Eden waited in line for lunch, observing the room with vigilant eyes for the new kid. Not surprisingly enough, she spotted Smith at Caleb's table with a denim jacket and his light brown hair shiny and combed. Caleb caught Eden's eye and swung his arm around his girlfriend, Nash, who was gesturing as loud as she spoke.

Even though Eden, Sage, and Braeden sat outside where it was less noisy and where air circulated without the pungent smells of different meals, the presence of Caleb's table was still felt and thick like a wall.

School slowly, but surely clocked over and before Eden knew it, she was being summoned home to deal with her troubled sister, Bethany, or as she calls herself Birdie. Eden would never get over that stupid nickname.

The Ivy home was as quiet as it could get without her father watching reruns of football games. Their small living room was small and clean, with family portraits hanging on the walls and a plant pot in every corner of the dark wooden floorboards. Despite working two jobs, Mr. Ivy knew how to decorate a home damn well. 

Eden pattered into the joint kitchen, where Birdie paced back and forth between the pantry and the fridge. With a can of whipped cream in her mouth, she gathered her luscious golden locks into a ponytail and froze as soon as her bluebell eyes caught Eden's five-foot-five frame.

Eden folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the doorframe. She knew Birdie's binge-eating habits in times of trouble like the back of her hand. "What the hell did you do?"

Birdie dropped the whipped cream can on the wooden counter and rose defensive hands. "Now, don't be mad at me..."

"I'm already mad at you."

Her sister cupped her hands and blew raspberries into the air. "OK, so I might've done something that people don't usually like—or find respectful—and I take full responsibility."

"What?" Eden rose an eyebrow.

"It wasn't entirely my fault actually, now that I think about it, it definitely takes two to tango—"

Eden glared into her sister's eyes. They were usually the color of newly blossomed bluebells, so delicate and enchanting; however, at that moment, they sparkled like the clouds before lightning hit. "Cut the shit. What did you do?"

"I fooled around in our neighbor's lawn, accidentally, I think," Birdie admit. "Wren and I. See the issue is—"

"I'm sorry, you said what now?" Eden's eyes grew the size of their ceramic plates. "You and Wren? Having sex? Didn't I tell you that he is not someone you want to be hanging around with?"

"Have you noticed that I don't really take your advice yet?"

Eden palmed her face. Sometimes talking to her seventeen-year-old sister felt like she was talking to a high school freshman instead.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Eden heaved a sigh and rubbed her face before shrugging. "As much opinion as I want to give, and aside from the obvious issue here, why are you in trouble?"

"It turns out that I accidentally ruined the lady's plants or something—basically—she wants me to fix it. If I don't she'll tell Dad and you know Dad won't let either of us leave the house if he finds out about this," Birdie said.

"Isn't it obvious then? Go apologize!" Eden folded her arms over her scarf for added warmth. The autumn leaves rustled outside, and the trees swayed in the wind, there was absolutely no imagining how Birdie did such a thing in this weather.

"I—I don't know how to say! How the fuck are you supposed to word 'I'm sorry for screwing on your lawn, oh and by the way I'll help you pluck the weeds from your garden'?" Birdie reached into the pantry and pulled out a bag of tortilla chips.

"Obviously not like that," Eden said.

Birdie pleaded, "Well, then help me. Please."

With an exasperated huff, Eden breathed in deeply and looked Birdie hard in the eye. "Fine."

• • •

"I'm sorry from the bottom of my non-existent heart, that I ruined your precious flowerbeds while having a bit of my own fun. It's not my fault that instead of telling the whole town that you were moving in, you just came suddenly, so I wasn't aware that anyone even lived here. And by the way, I'm supposed to fix your flowers or something like that, so could you please direct me to your gardening shed?" Birdie spoke into the intercom at the foot of their neighbor's residence.

Eden's face warped in horror as she watched Birdie give the neighbors an earful of her 'apology.' The first that crossed Eden's mind was snapping her sister's neck for the utterly stupid and ridiculous thing she said. But then, she wanted to strangle herself for genuinely thinking that her sister could actually spew out a humanely decent apology.

Eden couldn't even mutter a single word or reaction. They were standing on the very lawn where she saw Smith jump over the fence last night and judging by the cleanliness and how chic their yard was, she couldn't blame his mother for being infuriated. This was mortifying.

"See? Nobody's even home." Birdie shrugged and proceeded to step down from the doorway when suddenly footsteps sound from inside. Panic flooded their features, and Eden's very first instinct was to hide into some bushes or run as fast as the street could take her. She quickly gestured Birdie to come down until the door swung open, and Eden's heart sunk into her stomach.

"I heard that."