CHAPTER 11

Author's Note

Sorry for the late update! Ever since yesterday morning it's been like a sitcom where everytime I sat down to update the story something or someone got in the way lol. Also, shoutout to hijikata100 for leaving the first review ever! It warmed my little heart! \(Q_Q)/

~ Gum

Rrrriiinggg, rrrriiiiing!

Even with the phone hiding below the pillow, its ringing reached Eren's ears. How Eren had come to hate that sound in the past couple of hours. Still, Eren lifted the pillow enough to look at the caller in the off chance that it was his bodyguard calling.

Armin.

The brunet huffed, throwing the pillow back onto the phone. His coworker had called two times already and in both instances Eren had promptly ignored it. Eren didn't want to talk to Armin. Not now, not ever. He thought about never going back to work there, even moving away though Eren wasn't sure if he had to pass that by Levi or not. Either way, he would never lay eyes on the blond boy ever again.

Eren went back to wallowing in his own misery. He had tried drinking water like his bodyguard had said but the brunet would end up puking it back out again. Not to mention the teen was hungry yet everything made him nauseous.

The teen threw his shitty blanket on, only to kick it off a few moments later. Everything felt uncomfortable, everything made his stomach churn.

Eren groaned. He would never drink ever again.

He wanted to turn on the TV to let his brain rot a moment but even the slightest of sound pissed him off. Just as the boy was going through the logistics of jumping off the building to end his suffering, a loud, aching knock pierced his sensitive eardrums.

"AAgh!" Eren grimaced, "who is it?!"

No answer.

Eren mumbled curse words to himself. If it wasn't Levi he was going to be severely angry. He dragged himself towards the door, violently ripping the door open.

The moment he saw who was on the other side his attitude dropped to his feet. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Pink lips.

"Annie." He breathed out.

She stood there unimpressed as always. Her hair was in her standard bun with bangs parted in the middle and swept to the sides, framing her face. Even in a bun, Eren could tell her hair was longer than the last time they had seen each other. She had a white shirt on with a jean jacket thrown over, a pair of jeans and white shoes.

"About time you left Grisha." She leaned against the doorframe.

"You... how... I..." The brunet was in shock.

"I see you're as eloquent with words as always." She teased.

Eren stared at her in amazement, "...wh-why are you here?" He finally blurted out.

"I'm here for you." She said nonchalantly.

Eren was even more lost than before, "Huh?"

"What?" She raised an eyebrow, "That's your reaction? I thought you would be more excited. Didn't you always want us to ride off into the sunset together?"

The brunet couldn't wrap his head around anything Annie was saying in that moment. All of it was so bizarre. What... she was saying... 16 year old Eren- hell, Eren from two months ago would've been elated to hear those words but now...

"What's wrong? Grab your stuff and let's go." She began getting irritated.

Eren furrowed his eyebrows, "What's wrong?! What's wrong?!"

The boy didn't even know where to start. He suddenly wished he was back at the bathroom drowning in his own vomit. At least then he didn't have to deal with this bullshit, "You come here after who knows how long of not seeing each other and then you expect me to just leave with you to who knows where to do who knows what! There's a lot of things wrong with that!"

Annie rolled her eyes, "There you go again, having a temper tantrum every time things aren't to your liking."

A temper tantrum? Why couldn't Annie be like the normal girls that would start off the conversation with a simple 'hi'? Fury tugged away at his heart strings to the point where he had a tough time forming words. He threw his hands in exasperation.

"Calm down Eren, you're being overdramatic."

Eren stared back wide-eyed at the girl. Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe he had drunk too much and was having hallucinations. The thought took root in his mind and dug deep. He squinted at Annie. There was only one way to know for sure.

His hand slowly reached for her. Confused by what he was doing, she stopped with the snarky comments and instead watched how the hand inched closer to hers. The moment their skin made contact she flinched her hand away. Annie looked up at him. He stared back, hurt that he had been rejected. Just as he was withdrawing his own hand, the blonde reached for him instead. In the middle of their two bodies, their hands intertwined in the same manner they had done hundreds of times in the past.

The two teens stared at each other in silence. There was something so... familiar about it all. Annie had come busting through the door pissing Eren off but in that moment he remembered how much he had missed her.

"Annie..." he whispered.

"Eren..." she whispered back. Her tone wasn't harsh or cold like before. It was soft and sweet. It was Annie. Eren's Annie.

"Eren, come with me." And the way her big blue eyes looked back at him made him want to run away with her in that very moment.

Still...

"I'm not sure I can do that Annie." The very words burned as they traveled up his throat and slipped out of his lips.

She lowered her eyebrows in a way that made her look pouty and Eren's heart shrank, "What are you talking about? Why not?"

The nerves crept into every pore of his body. He closed his eyes, remembering the night he had watched Annie walk away from him when the brunet needed her the most.

"Because! Because you just appear out of the blue and demand for me to go with you? Can't we talk first?"

Her pout turned into a frown, "There's nothing we need to talk about."

Eren was flabbergasted, "Nothing? Annie, the last time we saw each other you-"

Annie dropped Eren's hand. Eren sighed and made a fist of his now empty hand.

"Last time we saw each other," she interrupted, "you did just this. You refused to come with me-"

"You abandoned me!"

"I abandoned you?!" What are you on about? You decided to stay!"

"I wasn't ready! And I'm not ready now! You always run ahead of me and expect me to catch up but you don't even look back to see where I'm at!"

"OH by the GODS!" Annie aggressively shoved Eren to the side and walked into the apartment.

Eren stumbled a bit but was able to regain his balance in time. The headache and nausea assaulted him once again though he wasn't so sure it was because of the hangover anymore.

Annie gestured to their surroundings, "Look around Eren! What does it matter where we are going or what we are going to do? You'd rather sit in this shithole all day?!"

The brunet looked down to his feet. That only angered Annie more. She walked up to him and grabbed his chin so that he would look directly at her. "Say it Eren! Say you'd rather stay in this shithole than go anywhere with me! I must be a really shitty person if that's the truth-"

"No, that's not true at a-"

Annie let go of Eren's chin and walked back to the center of the room, "Save it! Rot here then, just like you wanted to rot away with Grisha. Oh! But fuck Grisha, you've got a new babysitter now don't you? Well guess what, he's probably dead by now so what's your plan now Eren, huh?" She shrugged, "Fuck around until Grisha inevitably finds you and start from square one again?"

Eren froze, "A new... babysitter?"

Annie furrowed her eyebrows, "Huh? Yeah, that bodyguard you hired."

"Wh-Wh-" Eren shook his head, "What do you mean he's dead? Did you do something to him?!" He shrieked.

The girl put her hands to her hips, tilting her upper body towards Eren.

"Does that... worry you?" The question was but a whisper yet there was something so sinister behind it that it made Eren shiver.

Of course that worried him. Levi had protected him, made him feel safe these past couple of weeks. Without the man he would go back to feeling scared and trapped and, fuck, was he tired of feeling that way.

"Do you care about him more than you care about me?"

Eren jumped. "No! Of course not!"

Annie stomped her foot on the ground, "Then why are you acting like it? You're here all worried about your bodyguard meanwhile you didn't give a shit when I told to come with me!"

Everything was fucked. Everything was so fucked. He ran away from home. His own father was trying to kidnap him. He kissed a guy yesterday and today Annie was there and his bodyguard was dead. Eren was on the verge of throwing up.

"N-No... that isn't the case at all! I just..."

Annie crossed her arms. She looked at Eren as if he were an insect. A disgusting insect. That stare always made him feel like shit.

"No, you know what? Fine. Go to him. Worry about him. I'm leaving. I don't know why I came here anyway. What a fucking waste of my time."

She walked away only stopping at the doorframe to look back at Eren and say, "Oh, and you asked what I was gonna do? I've got big plans. You might like running away but not me. I'm taking down Grisha head-on."

A knot formed in Eren's throat. A knot that didn't allow him to speak.

"You can join me Eren... but if you keep on crawling you'll never catch up to me."

Just as she turned her back to him Eren leaped forward, grabbing onto Annie's hand, "W-Wait!"

But nothing else came out. Eren was shaking. He was desperate. But he didn't know what to say or what to do.

Annie slowly tugged her hand free from Eren's. It dropped to her side and the two fell silent. Eren was still looking down at her hand but she was already facing forward.

She took a deep breath, "Yeah... that's what I thought."

He couldn't bear to watch her leave again. Eren stood in the doorframe looking down at the ground as Annie walked away.

She poured herself another glass of wine. After all, she deserved it. It had been an exhausting day. Petra sat in her dining room alone sipping wine. She looked around at the empty room and shivered. Ever since she had finished boxing up all her things, the place had felt so cold. The home had reverted back to a mere house.

Just as she was about to lean back into her chair, someone ringed the doorbell. She looked at her watch. It was already late. Who could be bothering her at this hour?

Even so, she put on her stilettos once again and went to the front door. Much to her surprise, she found Eren Jaegar on her front porch.

"I know I'm not supposed to be here but... Levi. I think he's in trouble."

Y'know out of all the characters I include in this story I think Annie is the most out of character in comparison to the source material. That being said I find her a very interesting character to write about... for reasons we will discuss in the future. Anyway, see you guys next week, hope y'all are doing well!