In the Beat of a Wing {boyxboy}

Chapter Seventeen

~Wednesday 13th February 2013~

"There you are," Eden looked up upon hearing Hailee enter the office, flashing her a weak smile before going back to the tub of ice cream he was eating, "OK, are you gonna tell me why you're sat in here alone shovelling ice cream into your mouth or would you prefer me to just shut up and join you?" Eden held up another spoon, with Hailee taking it immediately and sitting down on the couch next to him. They remained silent for a second, with Eden still lost in his own head, running over thoughts and images, trying to put them in order, trying to figure everything out.

"So I lied, I'm not gonna shut up," Hailee said after a few moments, taking the tub of ice cream from Eden's hands and placing on the floor next to the couch, "you're not happy," it was a simple statement, three words, thirteen letters, and yet it was so damn apt, "talk to me, Edee, I'm worried about you. You've been acting weird since Monday," Eden sighed heavily, settling back against the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

"Mal was kissing somebody else," Eden murmured for the first time, having not told a soul about what he witnessed earlier in that week, his heart aching at the words, "I know it shouldn't be a big deal, we're not together, even if we did both admit our feelings. I just... the day we talked about everything I told Lex and I stopped it all. We're friends, I still stay over a lot, but we don't fuck or anything. It was out of respect for Mal, I thought he would have had the mindset but clearly not."

"I'm a little lost, Edee, you wanna start all over? When did you and Mal talk about your feelings?" that's right, Eden had forgotten he had only told Lex about everything that had occurred in the last two weeks, he hadn't wanted anyone else to know about the attacks he had endured and he certainly didn't want some sense of pity following him around for days.

"It's pretty long, you'll have to class this as your break," Eden smiled meekly, adding with a feeble chuckle, "or don't, I don't really care."

"Let me just grab some coffees then, you look like you need one," Hailee left the room, allowing Eden to return to the dark thoughts consuming his mind. He lifted his phone from his back pocket, pressing the button on the side to light up the screen, sighing at the lack of texts. Nothing from Malcolm. There had never been anything from Malcolm. That was what bothered Eden the most, the man had been silent, as though he simply didn't care about the consequences of his actions.

"Here you go," Hailee passed Eden a steamy mug when she returned to her seat, getting comfortable before nodding, "OK, let's hear it then."

"Um, well I guess should start with last Saturday, the second, not the ninth. I, uh..." Eden trailed off for a second, some internal voice chiding him for wanting to tell Hailee everything, he didn't like to share his issues, he preferred to work through them himself, "I was attacked by Kailen," Hailee's eyes widened, "it was my fault, I haven't even told Mal this, I started it. I was walking home from Lex's and I just happened to look across the street. I saw Kailen with his friends, coming out of a bar, laughing together, and I thought I heard him say Archie's name. I just lost, I don't know, before I even realised I was across the road I was hitting him. There was four of them and one of me, I didn't exactly get in many punches before they pinned me to the wall," Eden shook his head pitifully, "I'm becoming some psycho, I know it, I'm becoming someone I'm not."

"No, you're not, Edee. You've got a lot of anger in you, your brother was murdered, of course you're gonna hate his killer. Maybe you should think about therapy again? Just to see if you can't figure out what emotions you're dealing with," Eden nodded sullenly, staring down into his untouched coffee, "so what happened after the attack? Did you get away?"

"Mal saved me. He must have just been coming out of work, I never asked, maybe he heard me, maybe he just had a feeling something was happening," Eden shrugged blandly, "he just appeared, threw the guys off me. Most of them ran off, one didn't. He tried to stab Mal, I shielded him with my wing, which hurt like a bitch by the way, and... Mal killed him," once again, shock plastered its way on Hailee's face.