Eden sat in her classroom listening to professor Cooper's lecture. Her mind was distracted, no matter how hard she tried to focus. After a whole month of online classes especially arranged for her, Eden had come to attend the class for the first time. She was nervous that it was going to be awkward for her after everyone saw what happened to her in the news. She was right to be scared, everyone around her treated her like a broken showpiece. They kept staring at her shamelessly and walking up to her to ask her questions about what exactly happened. No one cared about anything she went through, they only wanted to get something to gossip about. A guard walked with her at all times, and any time she felt overwhelmed by people bombarding her with questions, she just gave him a look and he came and rescued her. During the lectures no one was allowed to talk in the class anyway, so Eden would take a seat at the far end of the class and bury her face in the textbook. The teachers were aske

After her classes, Eden walked to the auditorium at 3 PM to see the band practice. After much persuasion from Bennett, Eden decided to give it a real chance. As Eden got closer and closer to her destination, the sound of drums and guitar kept getting louder. She opened the huge door of the auditorium and stepped inside to see Eve going crazy on the drums. There was another man who was playing an electric guitar. Eden didn't know that it was just a two man band. Eden walked over to the seating area and sat there until they were done with their music. It was an upbeat rock music piece from the song Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. When they finished, Eden started clapping and approached the stage. Eve walked down from there and practically ran to come to Eden. She looked happy to see Eden. "You really came!" Eve said excitedly. When she felt like she was looking more excited than she wanted to show, she slowed down and said in a low voice, "So you came, huh?"Eden smiled and said,

Eden got out of the car and smiled apologetically at the guard, inviting him to come in. He politely but sternly offered to wait outside for them and have a smoke by himself.Eden smiled guiltily and nodded at him before leaving to get seated in the cafe. They ordered some sandwiches and coffee to drink while they talked. It was a small cafe and gave the same vibe as Mom's and Pop's cafe. Eden enjoyed her sandwich and coffee while she talked to Eve and Dan. She felt like she really fitted in with them. She could talk freely about singing and her hobbies and they never once asked her about the incident with Carter. Eden felt happy to have some company that understood her and treated her normally.Eve excused herself for the bathroom, leaving Dan and Eden alone at the table. Dan watched Eve leave and when she was finally out of earshot, she looked at Eden and said, "Hey man, I'm sorry if I came off as rude yesterday. I'm gonna be honest with you, I wasn't really sure about having you i

Eden stepped on the stage with her heartbeat accelerating by the second. It was the first round of the competition. If they passed it, they would be qualified for the final round. Eden peeked out the curtains and looked through the crowd to find Bennett but she couldn’t see him anywhere. She held the mic in her hand and paced around behind the closed curtains. She could almost hear her heart beating in her ears, deafening the loud chatter coming from the crowd. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this.Eden felt a hand rest on her shoulder, breaking her reverie. She turned around to see the one thing she had been dying to see. It was Bennett, smiling down at her reassuringly. He could tell that Eden was panicking and he embraced her into a bear hug, tightly pulling her closer to his chest.Eden felt her heartbeat slowing down and her breaths becoming stable again. She closed her eyes, inhaling Bennett’s familiar scent. “You can do this. Stay

Eden walked around in the park alone for 15 minutes, trying to clear her thoughts. It was when she saw James Neilson she realised that her guard wasn't around. James was her classmate who lied in front of the whole class that he interned for Bennett Mason when he clearly didn't. Eden had steered clear of his way and tried to avoid interaction with him as much as possible because she knew he didn't like her.She took a deep sigh when she saw him walking towards her. Her guard was nowhere to be seen and she accepted that she was just going to have to take shit from him. Ever since she came back to college after the Carter incident, she caught him staring at her many times as if he had something to say. She knew he was dying to give her snarky comment or make her think that she was stupid.Eden looked at James and before he could say anything, she snapped at him, "What?""Okay, first of all, you don't have to be so snappy," said James. "Second, I didn't come here to annoy you or anything