A/N: So the last chapter made a lot of you very mad. You don't like it when someone wrongs Eric. You're also all very considerate as well, leaving notes and what not.
I hope this chapter makes up for the necessary evil that was last chapter. There is no Bill in this chapter! There is talk of Bill but he never shows up. I really like this chapter.
Thank you to everyone that is following and favouriting, I love it. Thank you to suzyq59, FeeKilico, KristyB26, Perfecta999, 34ken, ericplenty, maria1981, MelodyAnderson, ashmo2000, BlueMonday2387, outinritefield1 and the guest that reviewed the last chapter.
I haven't thanks Asher55 in awhile. I know you've busy but I'm writing this for you and you keep me writing.
I edited this chapter myself so again please forgive all the errors.
I hope you all enjoy.
ERIC
I went and got a dog. Pam's words had been echoing in my head and before I knew it I was at an animal shelter picking the first dog I saw. He was a six year old German Shepard named Toby.
Now I was sitting on my couch as Toby sat beside me, panting like crazy even though my house was insanely air conditioned. I stared at him as he stared at me. "So where are you from originally?" I asked before his ears perked up and he looked towards my sliding glass door.
I heard the pounding of her feet on my patio before she stood in front of the door, eyes filled with excitement and a huge smile on her face. Her white linen button down was open, blowing in the early afternoon breeze, a purple bikini top underneath, jeans cut offs and her white Keds on her feet. She was holding a cookie tin in her hand.
Naturally I texted Sookie almost immediately after getting Toby. She seemed like a dog person.
Toby jumped off the couch and started barking, freaking out in front of the door. She opened the sliding glass door, placed the tin on the coffee table and fell to the floor, rolling around with him.
"Doggie," she drawled, rubbing behind his ears as he licked her face.
I got up and walked over to stand over them. "Toby."
"What?" she said between licks.
"His name is Toby."
"Toby." She cooed as she started planting kisses all over his face.
I let her play with him for a few moments before I took a deep breath in. "So thanks for ditching me the other night, by the way." I said with an annoyed edge to my voice. I wanted her to know that I wasn't happy that she just bailed. We hadn't spoken to each other in three days and it gave me time to decide that I wasn't going to just brush it off. I wanted to call her out on it.
She sat up and looked at me with a guilty look on her face. "I'm sorry about that. Bill showed up and I got carried away, everything happened so fast. I really only thought I would be gone for no more than twenty minutes." She stood and started brushing the dog hair off her, she was covered in it. "But I do feel really shitty and to say I'm sorry I made you these." She bent over and picked up the tin and handed it to me.
I looked at it. "What is it?" I said taking off the lid.
"This is the Russian Roulette Tin of Brownies." She smiled as she let Toby lick her hand.
I looked down at the tin packed full of brownies. "You baked for me?" A slow smile started to spread across my face.
"There are rules to these brownies, whichever one you pick first is the one you have to eat. You can't pick and choose and you can only eat one a day."
"Why?" I said picking one up about to bite into it.
She grabbed my hand stopping me from eating it. "It's called The Russian Roulette Tin of Brownies because half of them are regular brownies and the other half have been made with weed butter." She grinned wickedly. "Because you have to work later, I wouldn't eat one now."
A shocked laugh escaped my lips. "You made me pot brownies?"
"I sure did. I figured a simple sorry wouldn't suffice and buying you something seemed impersonal so I decided to bake drugs into brownies for you." She moved forward to give me a hug. "I really am sorry. My guilt kept me from calling, from texting." Her arms tightened around my waist. It was the first time she had really hugged me.
I hugged her back with my free arm and rolled my eyes. "You're forgiven but now that we're friends you need to follow the code, bros before hoes. I am the bro and Bill is the hoe. I always come first. Understand?" I placed my hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes.
She smirked. "Understood."
"Good. Now may I asked what Bill did that made you rush from your home so suddenly?" I walked into the kitchen to grab a beer and put the brownies in the fridge. I offered Sookie one but she shook her head and reached past me for a bottle of water.
"I had dinner with his family a few days ago and it didn't go very well so he was trying to make it up to me." She looked down at Toby. "Do you have a ball?" She questioned. "Go get your ball." Toby ran off in search of one of the many balls I had acquired for him. "Let's go for a walk." She sang to me.
She took off out the back door and into the forest, Toby tearing behind her. I ran after them and watched as she took the ball from him and threw it as far as she could. We slowed down once I caught up to her and continued our conversation. "And may I ask what a Compton dinner like?"
"Well, his mother was drugged up the whole time, his Nana told me that I should know my place, which is to be a wife and mother by the way and also referred to LaFayette and Tara as Negro homosexuals while Jessica giggled at my misfortune the entire time. That's what a Compton dinner is like." She rolled her eyes and shook her head before threw the ball for Toby again.
"Jesus." I shook my head as well before running my hand into my hair.
"Yep."
"Do you really want to deal with that? I mean, from what I'm told, family is huge when it comes to a relationship and you and Bill seem like you are on the fast track."
She shrugged. "If I've learned anything from my father, everyone can be controlled. I'll sort it out."
"So I'm guessing, to apologize, he did something along the lines of a picnic out in the meadow on the south side of the property and then you guys fucked." I grinned at her shocked and embarrassed face.
"How did you know that?" She asked slowly and quietly.
"You are a lot louder in the sack than I thought you'd be." I giggled just a little bit at her overwhelming embarrassment. Her face was crimson. "Sound carries in the clearing Stackhouse. Keep that in mind next time."
She covered her face in her hands and shook her head. "This is so embarrassing."
I laughed at her as I threw the ball. "But you really like him, huh?"
She smiled widely and nodded. "Yeah, he's sweet, he seems to like me, he tries to right his wrongs, he cooks for me and he's just charming. It's not his fault he has to deal with his shitty family, I'm lucky mines never here, my family is a fucking nightmare at times. I mean he has his flaws but so do I. I just feel like we could fit, build a life, you know?" She looked at me for reassurance.
It was reassurance I couldn't give her. I felt like she was trying to force it. Money and the South made everything move fast. No one waited for anything around here, if you liked someone then that was one step away from loving them and you then should marry them. She was twenty-four and in the South that was old if you were a woman. If people hadn't started questioning why she wasn't married yet, the avalanche would start soon. Regardless of how she felt about the subject the pressure would be immense.
She was standing to close to see the big picture, to see that her and Bill were not right for each other. That this act, and I was certain it was an act, that Bill was playing would fade the moment Sookie said I do. For men like Bill, when it came to women like Sookie, marriage was the end game.
I also knew the pressures money carried with it.
Bill was wealthy but it didn't compare to the money someone made when they ran a massively successful company like Sookie would one day. Money strived to keep money and Bill wanted to solidify his future. I didn't doubt that he may like or possibly even come to love Sookie but I was sure it was her money he loved and wanted most.
I had to break them up, no longer because I wanted to win or because I wanted to sleep with her, I needed to do it for her own well being. I didn't care how wonderful he was to her, if he wined and dined her, cooked for her, listened to her stories, made her feel beautiful or whatever other reasons she was with Bill. There was something rotten in his core and he would poison her with it the moment he knew she was his. Sookie had a light inside of her and it was something I didn't want to see go out.
She was different.
"Well I hope you know what you're doing." I sighed out.
"I guess we'll see. Things can change in a moment." She laughed and ran to go get Toby.
"Yeah, they can." I muttered to myself as they both ran towards me.
"Let's back to your place. I wanna look through your stuff." She shouted as she ran past me with Toby following.
"Yeah." I said with a smile till I registered what she said. "Wait, what?" I shouted as I ran after them.
SOOKIE
I ran up his stairs and into the first room on my left. It was a bedroom, lots of furniture all made of dark wood and the curtains, rugs and bedsheets all had blue, white and grey tones. Minimalistic, this was Eric's bedroom. I heard him come up behind me huffing. "You're fucking nosy."
"Bon Temps is really boring, I have to take my entertainment where I can get it." I smiled, winking at him. "So this is where the magic happens?"
He nodded slowly, crossing his arms, walking cautiously into the room. "It is." His muscles flexed under his white t-shirt and his blue jeans hung lazily around his hips. Toby moved around the room smelling everything.
I turned with a inquisitive look on my face. "What do you do when you can't sleep?" I sat down on the bed and looked up at him. "Do you just lie here with your conquests until you pass out?"
"Can you not call them conquests, they're people." He said slightly annoyed. "And what do you do when Bill falls asleep?" He asked as he bounced down on the bed beside me. He did not like people roaming freely in his house. That was clear.
"Sometimes I just lie there until I fall asleep, sometimes I watch TV or read or just walk around until I feel like I'm about to pass out." I bent over to kiss Toby's head when he came around to smell the bed.
Eric took a deep breath and smacked his lips before he spoke. "I wait until she has fallen asleep and then I get out of bed, go downstairs and drink or read or watch TV until I get tired enough to sleep for a couple hours if at all." He rubbed his face with a sigh.
"So you don't sleep with them, ever?"
"I find sleeping with someone incredibly intimate and intimacy is not my thing, so I don't do it." He widened his eyes and shrugged his shoulders.
I furrowed my brow. "Isn't having sex the most intimate thing you can do?"
She shook his head. "Not the way I do it." He stood and walked out of the room.
The sadness that surrounded Eric Northman was becoming more and more apparent every time I saw him, every time I hung out with him. Something made him this way and I wanted to know what it was.
"Why don't you have any pictures anywhere?" I asked following him out into the hallway. I was assuming he didn't get along with his parents. They gave him this house to stay out of their business and that was the way everyone liked it. It was the same arrangement I had with my mother always and my father about seventy percent of the time.
"I'm not very sentimental person." He was becoming short with me.
"You don't like it when people try to get know you, do you?" I asked heading to the door next to his bedroom.
"No, no." He rushed towards the door with panic in his voice and stood in front of it, keeping me from opening it.
"What's in there?" I asked, poking him playfully in the stomach, trying to curb his gloominess.
"It's just private." His normal cockiness was non existent and his breathing was shallow.
"Is it your red room? Are you Christian Grey?" I asked as he placed his hands on my shoulders and moved me away from the room, across the hall into another one. "If you think I'm gonna be your Anastasia Steele, you can forget it." I said with humour in my voice.
"What the fuck are you talk - wait the chick in these 50 Shades of Grey books name is Anastasia Steele?" He stopped us in the middle of the room. Toby jumped up onto the bed that I assumed was reserved for guests.
"Yep." I spotted a guitar in the corner of the room. "Is that a Fender?" I asked.
"And she's not a stripper?" He questioned as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Nope." I said as I fingered the strings.
"And she's not a porn star?"
"Nope."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"Well you haven't read the books and believe me her name is the least stupid part about the them." I picked up the guitar and strummed the one chord I knew.
"Why are you still reading them then if they're so terrible?" He stood up and took the guitar from me, placing it back on the stand.
"Cause I started something and I intend to finish it." I grinned at him. "So you play the guitar?" I walked over and lied on the bed next to Toby.
"Yes." He said looking back at me.
"Play me something." I rubbed Toby's ears as his eyes started to droop.
"No."
"What? Why?" I said borderline offended.
"Because I play guitar for me and no one else. I sing for me and no one else." He lied on the other side of the dog.
"You can sing too? Why wouldn't you sing every moment of every day? Singing and music makes everything better. If you have talent spread the love Northman!" I exclaimed as I propped myself up on my shoulder.
"Nope, not for me." He closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Cause that would require you putting yourself out there and possibly embarrassing yourself, right?" I said rolling my eyes.
He touched one of his index fingers to his nose and he pointed the other one at me as a huge grin spread across his face.
I laughed as I collapsed on the bed and closed my eyes. "I can play the piano."
"Really?" He said with plenty of interest in his voice.
"Jason got the "boy" instrument, the guitar and I had to learn the "girl" instrument. Luckily, I actually like playing."
"I saw the piano in your house. I didn't realize someone could actually play it. I figured you had it cause your family is like all musical and shit." He sat up playing the air piano before his hands fell back into his lap.
"My family isn't like all musical and shit we actually are all musical and shit." I smirked as I sat up.
"Can you sing?"
"Sorta, I'm not terrible but I'm not great. Jason's the singer. Jason got everything." I sighed.
"You and him don't get along? You don't seem too." He was much better at learning things about me than I was about him. He had more finesse. I guess you had to learn when you were a bartender.
"We do and we don't. There are times when all I wanna do is hang out with him and then there's other times when I wanna punch him in his stupid face. But sometimes we are all the other has so at the end of the day we love each other." I shrugged.
"Why are you in Bon Temps?" He squinted his eyes slightly. "I mean you leave for twelve years and then all of a sudden come back? Why?" His voice was dripping with curiosity. He was finally comfortable with me. He wasn't trying to be Eric Northman anymore, he was just Eric.
I sighed again. "My father is old. He'll be seventy nine this year and he's retiring. Jason should take over the company, he works there now, he understands the business, he likes country music but Jason's…" I trailed off.
"Dumber than a bag full of hammers?" Eric finished my thought. He was right but he wasn't allowed to talk about my brother that way.
My brow furrowed. "Hey, you be sweet!" I said with angry in my voice.
"Sorry, won't happen again."
"Anyway, my father's not sure that's the type of person he wants running his legacy. So he brought Jason and I out here to learn a little about us and decide who he wants running the company. We got here in early May and my father left in mid-May." I smiled at Eric who was expressionless. "I love my daddy and our relationship is strained but he made me who I am. I am me because of him and I know he loves me and I know he loves Jason but he loves Sonnet most." A wave of sadness came over me knowing that what I was saying wasn't a sob story, I wasn't lying or over exaggerating, what I was saying was the truth.
"And why don't you want to run Sonnet?"
"Jason fell into our lifestyle easily. Money suits him and he loves the life it affords him. He doesn't care that he hasn't earned it for himself but me, I want something that's mine. I love my life, I have so much more than I should and I know how lucky I am but I would love to know that everything in my life is my own."
"So what are you gonna do?"
"I want to teach children in Africa."
"Really?" The surprise in his voice was greater than I wanted it to be. Did I really come off that shallow?
I nodded. "I went to school to become a teacher and I would love to do that. I get a trust fund when I turn twenty-five in September, so I'm gonna take that and build my life. I know it's not entirely mine, my father's money will help me but the life I build with it will be mine. I'll do what I love. Make a difference."
"You don't think music can make a difference?"
"I think music can change the world, I just don't know if it's my world to change. I guess that's what I wanna find out." I breathed in deep. "Now I just have to spend the summer trying to out stupid Jason."
"Well lets see how you're doing so far, you got a job, you don't throw massive house parties and you are dating a guy who's marriage material." He was counting them off on his fingers. "Yep, you're super irresponsible. There's no way your father would want you running his company." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"Shut up." I laughed out as I slapped him on the chest. A moment of silence passed between us. "You are good at this getting people to talk shit."
He laughed. "I should have been a cop."
I laughed and stood up. "Okay, enough about me, lets find out something about you." I walked out of the guest bedroom and into the room next to it. It was a library filled with books. Every shelf was packed with them and in front of the window was a desk riddled with papers. He flew past me and piled the papers together shoving them in his desk. He pushed his hair back that had fallen out of place.
"What was that?" I looked at him like he was nuts, walking around to see his desk, sitting down in the chair.
"Those were private." He looked down at me.
"Everything is so private around here." I sighed, crossing my arms.
"You're nosy as fuck you know that?"
"Yeah," I said with a smile as I looked up at him expectantly.
He sighed. "I write poetry and short stories, to curb boredom." He nodded. "But again that is something I do for me and no one else."
"So you won't share any of it with me?" I asked.
"No."
I huffed. "Fine, you write poetry, play guitar and sing. I could sign you, you know. Make you a star."
He smirked and rolled his eyes. "No you couldn't. Sonnet Records specializes in country music and I don't sing country." He pulled me up out of the chair and started pushing me out of the room. "That's enough learning about my life for today."
I looked up and saw a blue flag with a yellow cross in the middle hanging above his door. "Sweden, you're from Sweden." I said, my eyes lighting up and a smile spreading across my face. "I have been trying to place your accent since the moment I met you."
We walked down the stairs together, Toby following behind us, as he nodded. "Yes, I was born in Sweden."
"When did you move to Bon Temps?"
"When I was nine."
"I think the more important question is why did you move to Bon Temps?" I smiled as we sat down on his couch, finally on the first floor, Toby in between us.
"My dad opened the North American branch of his business in Houston and thought that a smaller town was better for me to grow up in. So, we moved to Bon Temps." He smiled softly looking away from me.
"What business is your dad in? I'm assuming it's why you're so wealthy." I motioned to his the general grandeur of his home.
"Um, there's a software that most retail business in North America and Europe use and my father created it in the 80's. It's also used in some parts of Asia, South America and Africa but not as widely."
My eyes widened. "I would have never thought something like that would make that much money"
"There are a lot of business' all over the world and when something is efficient people want to use it. They pay for the upgrades yearly, new businesses buy it everyday."
"And is that were your parents are now? In Houston?" I asked kissing Toby on the head as he slept.
Eric shifted uncomfortably and rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, no," he paused and I looked up at him, "my parents died when I was a teenager."
My chest tightened and I sat up. I felt uncomfortable and stupid for being so nosy but I didn't think that was the answer I was going to receive. I guess it made sense why there was no pictures anywhere. "I'm so sorry Eric."
"I still own 51% of the company and the other owners run it. I go to Houston two times a year to check on everything and I collect checks." He shrugged. "Software isn't really my thing."
He didn't want to talk about his parents, how he felt about them or how they died. I was assuming it was a car crash, drug overdose, suicide or possibly old age, his father could have been old like mine. If his parents died when he was young that's how the rich usually went. "I'm really sorry Eric." I said again because I really didn't know what else to say.
"Thanks." He said quietly. We sat in silence for a minute or two while we listened to Toby licking his paws.
"You wanna watch He's Just Not That Into You?" I asked him with a smile. He looked so sad and I wanted the cocky, confident Eric I knew back.
He smiled and nodded.
I put on the movie and we made fun of it most of the way through. "I don't remember this movie being this bad." He said when it was closer to the end.
"It's not that bad." I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and stretched out on the couch so my feet was touching his thighs and Toby was lying by my side.
"It's pretty bad." He didn't look at me and continued to watch as I stared at him.
"Eric?" I said quietly.
"Yeah?" He replied still watching the TV.
"I'm glad we're friends."
He looked over at me as shock swept his face for barely a moment and then he smiled. "Me too." He went back to watching the movie and so did I in our comfortable silence.
After it was over I ran over to my place to grab my uniform, then he picked me up and drove to work. It was a busy night and we barely spoke to each other. We locked up together and got into his car and drove home in silence.
He pulled up to my house. "That'll be forty eight bucks, Stackhouse." He said holding out his hand.
I looked at his hand with confusion. "What? What for?"
"The ride to and from work. I don't do anything for free." I just stared at him blankly. "Come on, pay up."
An annoyed look swept my face. "Are you joking?" I asked.
He smiled and put down his hand. "Yeah, I'm joking."
"You're an asshole." I said getting out of the car.
"That's what you love about me." He put his hand on the back of the passenger seat head rest to look at me.
I laughed. "Thank you for the ride Eric. I'll see you tomorrow maybe?"
"Text me, or I'll text you." He said with that brilliant smile.
"Sounds like a plan. Good night Eric."
"Good night Stackhouse."
I stepped away from the car as he drove away.
I went in to the house surprised to find Jason in it. He was in our entertainment room and I became excited hoping we could spend some time together. Unfortunately Jessica was with him.
"Hi Sookie!" She beamed and then her nose crinkled. I braced myself for an insult. "You really need to stop working at Merlotte's. It's making your skin all oily."
I took a deep breath in as my eyes widened and I looked at Jason. "Okay, I'm gonna go to bed. If you can keep the volume down it would be appreciated."
"You got it, sis." He nodded at me and went back to his movie. They were watching Wild Things.
I took a shower, slipped into a tank top, fresh panties and went to bed.
It only took me half an hour to fall asleep.
How did you like the chapter? It was a learning chapter, character development is what they call it, I think.
I really have no idea if retail software would make that much money but lets pretend it does.
Reviews are loved. I always love to know what you all think.
Thanks for reading!
