Eden

Smoke and Temptation

Eden

"Good morning miss." Martha's voice screeched in my head like fingers scratching a blackboard. I sat up and my head felt so heavy, I was afraid it would drop.

"Martha." My throat was dry and it made my voice sound raspy. I flung my legs, standing up from the bed and looked at her to explain why she woke me up.

"The Young Master has requested I wake you up. He doesn't want to be late today."

I looked around my room confused. "Late for what?"

"It's Tuesday morning and he wouldn't want you to miss another day of school, Miss." I finally understood what she meant and let out a sigh.

"Alright. Tell him I'll be ready in thirty minutes." I dismissed her with a wave of my hand and walked to my bathroom.

Usually, after a night like this, I avoided looking at my reflection in the mirror. It made me realize just what I was doing to myself. I didn't like the truth the mirror told me. It never failed to tell me how f****d up I was.

After showering, I decided to brush my hair down and put on make up to conceal the tiredness in my face. Like as if anyone would care. After that, I stood in front of my dressing mirror and started to put on the uniform of our prestigious school.

A white dress shirt, a fancy, girly bow tie, a navy blue blazer with our school's emblem on it, a forest green skirt with navy blue checked patterns on it.

I put on my knee length white socks and my black Chanel boots. Grabbing my Louis Vuitton hand bag I got from my mum last week which I never asked for, I left my room.

"Eden. The uniform suits you well." I ignored Kane's compliment with an eye roll and left for the car parked outside. Let's just get this day over with.

"Have you spoken with Cat?" He asked as he pulled out of the driveway.

"No." I answered and looked out of the window. I wasn't ready to have a conversation with him. I'm never ready.

The rest of the drive was silent as he got the message that I wasn't ready to talk to anyone.

We got to school and almost immediately he stopped the car, I hopped out of the SUV and started walking inside.

I felt like my life had no point most of the time. It was all the same thing over and over again. I had to go to school, smile for a camera, act for a rolling camera and portray a happy life that wasn't mine.

"Hey Eden, what up?" I heard a random dude call out my name when I didn't even know him. He looked familiar. Maybe we had a class together.

Then, some random girl whose name I can't even remember, walked up to me and started walking with me. I glared at her but she didn't seem to understand the language of I want no one near me.

"Eden. I'm sure you had a great night. I was wondering if we could host you for this week's magazine story for Opus this weekend. The sales skyrocketed last time we interviewed you so I would be glad if we could do this again."

"Um...Marlene, right?" I looked at her well groomed blonde hair.

"It's Margaret."

"Um...yeah. Margaret. How about I check with my schedule and get back to you Thursday?" She didn't even care that I couldn't remember her name.

"Alright. I'll be waiting." She walked off to another hallway probably to tell all her friends that she managed to convince me to appear in her dad's magazine whatever.

Probably also to call her Dad to say she did it. I wasn't going to stop her. Deep down, I knew I wasn't going to be there that day. She should find another person to do that.

I walked towards the water fountain where the people I spoke with were seated. We usually hung out there before classes. We were like the main deal? I don't even care.

"Eden, hey." Catherine Meyers, my best friend and the only person I care about perhaps grabbed my arm, leading me to the other five teenagers sitting at the fountain.

"What's up, Eden. We didn't see you and Cat yesterday." Tyler Rane, asked the moment I got to the fountain.

"I was just telling them how you got sick and I had to stay over with you." Catherine nudged me, meaning I should go with it.

"Yeah. I've been down all weekend. I thought it would get better but we know the rest."

"But you have dozens of maids to help you when you're sick." Amaya Parker. The perfect baby girl who had always, I'm sure, been jealous of me. What her deal was, I didn't even know. Not that I cared anyway.

I could feel the dig in her words. She always spoke to me like that. I didn't even know why I spoke to her or we all hung out together.

They were cool and rich of course, but I just don't feel anything for them. I mean the moment someone like Amaya for example had something on you, she was ready to tell the whole crowd and act all "oops! I didn't know I wasn't supposed to tell anyone."

But actually, she did mean it. She just hated the fact that everyone craved my attention and not hers. I mean we were both the same type of person. She modeled, her dad was an award winning actor and her mom had her own perfume brand.

I didn't get her deal sometimes.

"So...?" I shrugged and sat down in the empty space between Tyler and Cameron Beltran, and brought out an apple from my bag.

"I see you got yourself a new LV bag, Eden." India Patel, told me but I'm pretty sure she wasn't happy about it.

"Not that I asked for it." I replied to her honestly. I didn't ask for all these.

"Yeah...as if." She scoffed in a low tone and I decided to ignore her. I wasn't up for a confrontation this morning.

"Her mum got it for her from the latest collection." Felix Presley, seemed to have defend. I didn't know why though.

"How did you know?" India asked him.

"Her mum made a t****k reel about how she was going to surprise her daughter with the latest Louis Vuitton bag." He added, with his tone, he was ready to argue this with them.

It's like they realized this, because they didn't question him anymore.

I dug my teeth into the apple and began to chew, savouring its natural sweetness. I wished my life was as sweet as this apple I was eating now. I could hear the chatting from the group of people around me but I wasn't into their conversation. At times I felt that's just how I was. I wasn't just anywhere because I couldn't fit. I felt out of place sometimes.

I wonder sometimes if I'm real. Or if I'm just a fragment of someone's imagination. But when I smoke and get high and feel nothing but this calmness in my veins and the voices in my head stop talking, isn't that real? If I'm just a piece of someone's mind, am I real because the person wants me to or am I real because I want to be real.

If I'm not real why did these things I felt within me so real? They're so heavy that I couldn't even seem to feel anymore.

I once heard of the anunakis and how they created the garden of Edin and also heard of a God who created Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden. Those places can't be found today and I wonder was it ever real?

Even my name can't even be real so what makes me think I'm real?

Quickly glancing at the faces of my peers, they held this content, happy expressions that I didn't know if they were real or fake. But they wore it. Easily, I must add.

I couldn't.

I just felt neglected and abandoned. Like no one knew I was here. I sometimes felt if I could vanish or die, no one would ever find out.

Not even my parents. They'll be too busy working to even realize. Kane would be too busy playing perfect son to even notice.

Catherine would be too busy getting high to even flinch.

Maybe I could try that. Disappear, I mean. It would be nice to get away from all the craziness my life contains that sometimes choked me up till tears brimmed in my eyes.

"Eden, are you even listening?" Amaya hissed and looking at her, she has been calling my attention for a long time.

"What?" The sun suddenly felt so bright. Like it was mocking how dark my world was with its own light.

"Sometimes I wonder what you're always thinking, Eden. I really do." She said it so calmly, you'll mistake her words for concern but I knew they weren't.

She knew it wasn't.

"What is it?" I asked again, already pissed she dragged me out of my head. Like can't I just be in my head in peace?

"We were talking about the transfer student. Bethany Steele told us." Cameron decided to explain what they've been talking about.

I looked at their faces not knowing the input they wanted from me. "So...?"

"I heard he already started weeks ago." Cat said her hands folded as she seemed to scan through the crowd already searching for an unfamiliar face.

"Alright." I said and prepared to zone out again when India spoke.

"We should make him our friend if he's cute and rich. Wouldn't want that type of person to be hanging around freak shows."

"Why must he be our friend? We're okay just the way we are." I said it as calmly as possible but it really pissed me off. Why should they decide who someone should be friends with or not.

It's not like I also chose any of them to be my friend. I didn't even know s**t about them. You could point a gun at me and ask what Tyler's favourite colour was and I'll get shot. Literally. I didn't know.

Catherine Meyers was the closest thing I had to a friend since I've known her almost all my life.

We met when I was in third grade. We had come for the school's dance. I met her in the girls bathroom, crying. For some reason, my usually unconcerned self saw myself asking her what the problem was.

She told me her date had ditched her and went off with the girl he had a crush on. Which was funny by the way.

I told her I didn't like my date as well and we both left the dance to go have ice cream together. That was my first girls night out. Although with the supervision of my driver.

"Eden why is it that you never listen! You zoned out again." I heard India shrill and I hissed in irritation.

"You shouldn't yell at her that way, India." Cameron warned in a low tone and I glared up at India who was standing in front of me, her arms at akimbo.

"Ugh!" She rolled her eyes at Cameron and crossed her arms. What was her deal today?

"You're always ready to defend her..." Amaya began but I cut her short. I wasn't ready. I wondered why I spent time with them when they annoyed me so much.

"What is it, again?" I stressed the last word, already irritated. Why hasn't the damn bell gone off? Kane brought us too early to school.

"I was saying that Bethany just texted me his classes and Eden has most classes with him." Amaya said, as if she just made a discovery.

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