Made of Glass Chapter 8

A Chapter by Charlie

So I would just tell Eddie. Just one person and then I swear I would button my lips. It was just too good to keep from him!

I was giddy all day long waiting for the sun to go down so he would come in. He didn’t disappoint. As soon as it could rightfully be called dark outside he appeared at the door. I waved at him as he entered and he chuckled as he hurried to where I stood at the bar.

“You look very eager today” he observed.

“Come with me, Buttercup,” I pulled his arm so he would follow me over to his booth which we both slid into. I leaned toward him conspiratorially.

“What?” he whispered playing along with my secretive attitude.

“You are never going to guess what I have been witness to?”

“Was it a murder?” he asked grinning.

“No! It’s much more serious than that!”

“More serious than murder?” he pretended to be shocked.

“Yes, because this actually happened. It is happening right below our noses, right now!”

“Well hurry and tell me!”

“First I have to swear you to secrecy. I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone but this is too rich.”

“I swear,” he crossed his heart with a solemn face.

“I’m only telling you because I trust you. You won't go around gossiping to everyone,” Some strange emotion played across his face upon my words that took away the playful look he had a minute ago. Our faces had only been a few inches apart but he abruptly jerked back and sat with his back pressed against the back of his seat. I continued anyway.

“So last night I was closing up and Ashley was supposed to be helping me but she was nowhere to be found so I thought she just left and then Bucky was supposed to be cleaning the grill too but I went to look for him and couldn’t find him either so I was thinking that’s really weird because Bucky wouldn’t leave his job unfinished so I go around looking for them and I found them in the storage room!” I said with eyes wide and my voice enthused with the scandal that it all was.

“The storage room?!” Eddie said again with mock shock.

“You’ll never guess what they were doing!”

“I bet I could,” he said dryly.

I tapped my two pointer fingers together repetitively with a shocked face.

I expected Eddie to be just as shocked as I was last night at the news but he wasn’t moved at all about the realization.

“Are you sure you saw what you thought you saw?”

“I know! He’s all like sweet and she’s all like . . . the devil! But for some really weird reason they like each other! They told me!” I said bouncing up and down in my seat. I slowly defused my excitement when I saw Eddie wasn’t joining in the fun. He seemed completely unsurprised by the news.

“How did you already know?” I asked upset that my great big story was already broken.

“I didn’t already know,” he said defensively.

“Yes you did. I know what you’re thinking! Who told you already?!”

“How do you know what I’m thinking?” he said suddenly more intense.

“Well I don’t really . . .” I said taken aback “That’s just how you looked, I guess,” Except it was more than that. I really did know without a shadow of a doubt he already knew. He still vehemently denied it.

“I didn’t know. This is all very shocking. Ashley and Bucky, wow.” I wasn’t convinced by his act. I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. Maybe I couldn't trust him after all.

“So what happened after you walked in on them?” he tried to change the subject.

“Well Ashley like begged me not to say anything,”

“Little did she know you are the worst secret keeper ever,” he chuckled.

“It’s not like I told Elaina! You are not going to tell anyone, right?”

“Of course not, who would I tell? You’re my only friend,” he said still joking.

Yet his words triggered something inside of me. I was his only friend. He never talked to anyone besides me. I couldn’t imagine why he would dislike people as much as I do. Clearly his isolation was his own choice. Someone that beautiful doesn’t get shunned from society for no reason. I realized this isolation was what tied us together like this. We both understood what it was to stand apart from everyone else. Finally, I had someone to suffer together with. Only now I wasn’t suffering so much. I had Bucky and I had Eddie. I had people I could count on. It was a good feeling.

And Eddie now had someone too. I needed him to realize he could count on me too. We didn’t have to commiserate together about our outcast status. We could end it.

I gave him a big smile.

“I know that’s why I’ll trust you with all my secrets. If you feel you have any you need to get off your chest, I’m all ears” I winked at him. I didn’t really expect him to have any big dark secrets. He laughed at my playful words just like he was supposed to. It was the perfect response. He would laugh if he didn’t have anything to keep from me but at the same time I knew that wasn’t true.

He was keeping something from me. Something big.

Well he probably wasn’t a serial killer, so I didn’t really care that much. He would tell me when he was ready. I hoped.

Mrs. Westen unleashed the next horror for me to get through the next week. As if heels weren’t enough to suffer through Mrs. W decided that roller skates would be more fun.

“We do it every year for a week. Supposed to help some charity or something . . .” Ashley tried to explain to me. Apparently she wasn’t all that in to helping out the less fortunate. “You’ll get the hang of it easy enough. Just get someone else to carry your drinks for a while. I am not cleaning up your messes!” Despite this new found ground we had found where I was keeping her secret the rifts between us still hadn’t healed. She was the same snobby Ashley. I seriously started doubting Bucky’s words.

“I don’t have any roller skates.”

“There are some spare pairs in the back. There might be something that fits,” she looked questioningly down at my small feet.

I went to the back of the room and found several dusty pairs. I picked up the smallest pair and returned to the floor.

Eddie was sitting at the bar sipping on a glass of apple juice. He had taken up sitting at the bar while things were slow so he could more readily talk to me. When things picked up he moved back to his table and patiently waited with a book until I could spare a few moments.

When he saw the shoes in my hands a big goofy grin split his face.

“This should be good.”

“How dare you delight in my pain?” I said in mock offense.

“This coming from the girl whose favorite show is America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

“That is not my favorite show!” I defended myself “I do occasionally find it . . . slightly funny. But those people are so stupid they deserve it. I did nothing for this torture.”

“Maybe you can get out of it. Someone must have pity.”

“Ashley’s in charge of the event,” I said giving her back a flat glare as she greeted customers at the door across the bar.

“Right,” Eddie was well aware of Ashley’s detestation of me. He showed an appropriate amount of hate in return, clearly favoring my side in the issue. “So pull your Bucky card.”

Telling Eddie was fun and all in the beginning but now I was beginning to think it was a mistake. He heavily suggested blackmail on every occasion I might be able to get something out of Ashley now. I wondered why he never did it since he knew the same stuff I did, but all the hints dropped on that front suggested I had to be the one to do it.

“I didn’t realize you were such a scoundrel till all of this!” I teased him “Besides I want to save that for something good.”

“After everything she has done to you, she deserves it. And it’s not going to expire after one use. That’s the thing about blackmail. You can use it over and over as long as you don’t give up your leverage,” he said with an evil grin.

“And what about Bucky? I couldn’t hurt him like that.”

“You don’t actually tell anyone about it! You just threaten to. How is it you don’t know anything about this sort of thing?”

“How is it that you know so much? You seemed so sweet and innocent last week . . .” I said nostalgically.

He laughed “I’m just worried that you’re going to kill yourself."

“I am not going to kill myself!” I said forcefully. “I can handle this fine!”

He was surprised at the intensity of my words.

“How about I help you out a bit. I hate to brag but I am pretty good at this,” he said gesturing to the deathtrap/shoe.

“You rollerblade?” I would not have pinned him for a skater.

“Uhhh . . . yes, I’ll come by early tomorrow and show you all of my secret tips.”

“You don’t seem like the skater type.”

“Well I’m not, but it’s not hard to be better than you.”

“You don’t even know how good I am.”

“No but I have seen you try to walk,” he smirked.

“I’m done with class at two,” I gave in.

“I’ll be here,” he gave me a departing smirk before gracefully floating out the door. I watched him wistfully until he was out of sight and then let out a sigh before going back to work.

“Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!” Elaina assaulted me when I walked into the kitchen with a fresh batch of orders.

“What, what, what?” I said in too good of a mood to be brought down by her enthusiasm.

“I heard you finally got the date with Edward!”

“What? No I didn’t.” I said confused wondering how she could have gotten such false information.

“Monica said Lauren told her that she overheard you guys make plans for tomorrow.”

“Oh he’s just trying to prevent my untimely demise due to these wheels of death. It’s not a date.”

“It’s not?” she said with a great big grin. She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“No it’s not. Can’t a guy and a girl hang out outside of a bar without it being a whole big thing?”

“No!” Elaina was practically bursting she was so excited. “Not when they are totally in love with each other!”

“What?” she was being totally ludicrous.

“Don’t even try to deny it! You like him.”

“Yeah, I like him,” unsure what she meant by the heavy emphasis on the word like.

“And he likes you,” she said jumping up and down.

“Let’s hope so. Otherwise things could get really unpleasant when it’s just the two of us. Do you have that bacon cheeseburger?”

“Forget the cheeseburger! He doesn’t just like you. He likes you!”

“Yeah, okay . . .” I said confused. “It’s not a date,” I pointed to the grill demanding her attention be turned to that. She giggled while she set to work.

I turned to Bucky rolling my eyes expecting him to share my feelings about Elaina’s enthusiasm. He just gave me a holey grin.

“What?!”

He just shrugged and went back to his work. This place was like high school. I thought I was done with that hell hole but I could never escape. These guys were being ridiculous. It wasn’t a date. At least I didn’t think it was a date. I wasn’t exactly the expert on these sorts of things.

No, it wasn’t a date. I wouldn’t be caught up in Elaina’s crazy schemes to morph everything into gossip worthy news. He was just going to teach me to rollerblade. It wasn’t even romantic. It was nice because he didn’t want me to die. That’s it. Probably.

I was still smiling all the rest of the night and through my classes the next day, counting down to the appointed time. I was actually giddy about the whole thing which was ridiculous. We had hung out just me and Eddie hundreds of times. This was nothing. Yep, nothing.

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