Well first off...the last ch. is dedicated to my friends (particularly the drinking game and the four horseman). Second of all, thank you guys for the reviews. I love you guys, you all are way too nice...but I'm not complaining, I'm glad you are liking this fic. So like I promised this ch. explains why Eden doesn't like Maureen. Enjoy!
(Maureen's POV)
"Good morning sunshine," I laughed as I saw a very hung over Joanne walk into the living room. Her eyes are bloodshot, face is flushed, and she can still barely walk; she looks beautiful. "Weren't you just the 'life of the party' last night?" I laughed at the look I got from her.
"What time is it?" She collapsed into the chair covering her eyes with her hands. "I feel like shit." She mumbled under her breath. It was becoming very hard not to laugh at the sight of Joanne hung over.
"It's about eleven," she looked up at me in astonishment that she had actually slept that long. I'm not sure that Joanne had slept in that long since she was a kid. Out of pure amusement for myself I couldn't help but ask her, "Do you remember anything about last night? You were pretty drunk by the time we came back here."
I caught the evil eye for that. "Does it look like I'm in any state to have remembered most of last night?" She looked like she was in complete agony sitting over there. "Is there any coffee?"
"Yeah, made some when I heard you stirring around in the bedroom; figured you might like some," I was trying to contain my laughter; however not doing a very good job at it. It was usually me that was hung over with Joanne trying to contain her amusement; it was nice for the roles to be reversed for once.
"Thanks," she slowly made her way across the apartment to the kitchen. The phone started ringing as she passed it, which made her jump grabbing her chest; yet another funny moment.
"Hello," she sounded pitiful. "When?...Yeah I could probably do that...Yeah I'm fine, it's no problem…I'll meet you there then." She hung up the phone glaring back over at me. It was obvious she really didn't want to do whatever she had just agreed to do.
"That was Mimi," she grumbled, "she wants me to go with her to her doctor's appointment." She just leaned over against the wall; looking completely defeated, last night had kicked her ass and she was paying for it this morning.
"Baby I can go instead, stay here and get some rest." I got up and walked over towards her; she looked like she could die and Mimi is wanting her to go out. It didn't seem to me that there would be a big deal with me going instead of Joanne.
"No, that's ok I can go, but thanks," she rubbed my back as she walked past me. "I'm going to go get a shower."
(Maureen's POV)
Joanne had got ready in record time and was out the door to meet up with Mimi. We didn't even get a chance to talk to one another about last night. I was hoping to since she hadn't been so timid about us touching and for the fact that she kissed me for the first time since it happened. I needed to know if it was her actually ready and ok with it or if it was the alcohol. Hopefully though Mimi wouldn't keep her out long and she'd be home soon.
I sat around for awhile, completely bored out of my mind. I tried anything and everything I could think of to entertain myself and not constantly think about everything going on between Joanne and me lately. I hadn't really got a chance to talk to anyone about how all of this was affecting me and it was driving me crazy. That sounds completely selfish I know, but I just needed to talk to some one. Typically, I'd talk to Joanne about stuff like this, but since the reason I needed to talk was her I figured she might not be the best person to turn to right now. So I got ready and headed out the door to go talk to Mark, he was always good at this just listening thing. He was supposed to be home today and Eden was supposed to be working.
(Maureen's POV)
"Oh hey," I was shocked at who had opened the door. It was Eden. "Is Mark here?" My voice had gotten slightly shaky; Eden made me nervous when we would somehow be around each other, just the two of us.
"No he went out shooting for the afternoon. You need something?" She stood just inside the apartment holding herself up by the door. It was obvious she was just attempting to be polite to me. Even though her voice sounded genuine, her eyes were saying something completely different.
"Umm, well," she interrupted me before I could say anything else.
"Just come in Maureen," she moved to the side, waving her arm inside the apartment. They had a nice quaint apartment, very inviting surprisingly enough. I'm not sure I'd ever really been inside their place. "Have a seat in the living room, I'll be right there." She was talking in her businesswoman voice; like she was preparing to interview me for a job.
I walked over into the living room and was somewhat shocked to see all the pictures they had set up. It fit Mark's personality, but I'm not real sure how well that it fit Eden's. I started walking around looking at all of them. There were pictures of people I figured to be Eden's family and friends which I quickly skimmed over. Then I spotted a bookcase on the other end of the room filled with pictures of our little family. The ones of Angel almost made me cry, the ones of Joanne and me almost made me cry. I picked up a particular picture of the two of us that was taken at New Year's last year. I just stood there and stared at it…
"I love that picture," I jumped at the sound of Eden's voice standing behind me. "You guys look so happy." What was this Eden was being nice to me. She was always nice to everyone else, just not me. I couldn't help but wonder what she was up to; maybe Mark had a talk with her after last night. "Want some tea?" She reached out a glass to me and walked to sit down on the chair.
"Hey Eden," I nervously walked over and joined her. "Why don't you like me?" I was being blunt as possible. I was tired of all the glares and comments. Plus, I wanted to get past this little high school drama of ours. She didn't speak for awhile which made me even more nervous. I couldn't look at her; for some reason I was scared to hear the answer.
She took a deep breath before she started. "Well Maureen, no one knows this…well maybe you do….but I actually knew Joanne before I met Mark."
"What?" I was completely confused; I had never heard this from anyone. Joanne just had a bunch of people popping up from her past lately didn't she? "How'd you know each other?" I had come very attentive now; scared and anxious to hear her answer.
"Well," she paused looking over at a picture of Joanne, "maybe I should let Joanne tell you." She stood up and started to walk out of the room.
"No wait," I too was on my feet trying to stop her. "Just tell me please." She turned around looking me straight in the eyes. "Please Eden." I must have sounded so pathetic. I needed to know now and I was ready to beg her if it came to that.
She walked back over and sat back down in her seat. Her face immediately looking down to the floor. "You have to let me finish before you say anything," her eyes shot up at me. "Cause let's face it Maureen I know how dramatic you can be, so you have to let me finish first." She was being so serious, yet another good reason for the knots in my stomach.
"Promise," her asking me this made me even more uneasy to hear the news. I settled back into the couch, grabbing a pillow so that I could have something to hold onto. My nerves had taken over.
She then started to tell me how her and my girlfriend knew each other and why none of us knew. "About two months before I met Mark I was out at this bar in the village. I was there alone, drinking the stresses of my day away. I hadn't been there too long when Joanne showed up and sat down beside me at the bar. I could tell she had been crying about something. When I questioned her about she said that her and her girlfriend had just got in a fight…"
My mind was quickly trying to come up with why we would have been fighting around that time. Oh yes I remember now…she had been working a lot around then and we for some reason were fighting over it.
"I bought her a drink and we sat and talked for a while. She's was just so easy to talk to and I'd really been having a rough time then. We talked about my problems and hers," she looked up at me when she said that, "she told me about how her girlfriend was difficult sometimes and how much of a drama queen she could be at times. And then how she used to always wonder if she was cheating on her, but then how lately it hadn't even crossed her mind. And then how self absorbed she could be. She wasn't exactly painting a pretty picture of you." Hearing all of this I started to cry. I was trying to hold it in as much as possible; I didn't want Eden seeing me like this. "She was pretty drunk by then Maureen," I guess she could tell how upset this was making me.
"Ok so Eden, big deal you guys talked one night in a bar," I was wiping tears from my cheek. "Why couldn't you guys just tell us that?"
"Cause it didn't really end there Maureen." Her voice had gotten very quiet now. Again she was staring at the floor. My heart was pounding; do I really want to hear what happened next? "I couldn't see how someone as great as Joanne could put up with this girlfriend of hers….she looked like she was so hurt….so I invited her to come back to my place."
Pain and hurt rushed through every part of my body. My heart was literally hurting now. My hands and legs had begun to shake. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the couch. Only thing I could think was how could Joanne cheat on me. The thought was literally making me ill. "Did she cheat on me?" I was still leaning back, my eyes closed preparing myself for what Eden was going to say. This was easily the most vulnerable I had ever felt in front of Eden.
"Well when we got back to my place we sat down and continued talking about how screwed up each of us thought our lives were at the moment." She suddenly stopped talking. I looked up at her and I could tell she was gathering the courage to continue telling me the story. "Then I kissed her." My heart sunk. "I felt safe with her so I leaned over and pressed my lips passionately against hers…"
"No, No," I was on my feet storming over to the window. "I don't need to hear how you kissed her. How your mouths passionately met one another's and how magical it was for you." Tears were flowing freely down my cheeks. She remained in her seat, quiet as ever. "Well go ahead, finish telling me what happened." My eyes were gazing down to the streets below, listening to one of the hardest things I have ever heard.
"Maureen I know this can't be easy to hear," she was trying to be sympathetic now.
"No fuck it's not easy to hear," my tone was rather harsh, but I'm pissed off.
"Well, I pushed her down on the couch, laying my body on top of hers," oh Joanne how could you, "I started to take her shirt off, but she stopped me." I took some what of a sigh of relief. "She pushed me off of her and told me she couldn't. Said that she had a girlfriend that she loved and she couldn't be doing this to her. I completely didn't understand why not. I felt she deserved so much better than you and I thought that could possibly be me."
I turned back around to see Eden softly crying into her hands. "So then what?" I became very curious about how Joanne handled the situation. Ok so maybe if Joanne just kissed her, maybe I can deal with that…my anger at Joanne was cooling off somewhat now.
"We talked a little bit more about you mainly. She tried explaining to me even though you completely drove her crazy sometimes that she did love you and you loved her and she just couldn't live with herself if she would ever hurt you." Eden was up on her feet pacing the floor. "I still didn't understand though, why she would put up with it."
"So she tells you she has a girlfriend, whom she loves and that she's obviously not interested in you, so now what?" I was almost amazed at how insane Eden was sounding to me right now. She was an intelligent person, yet she couldn't understand all of this.
"Well she ended up staying here that night. I kissed her once more as I went to go to bed, but nothing like our first kiss." I was feeling so many different emotions right now. I was angry that Joanne never told me this and that she had kissed someone else while we were dating. But then I was happy that Joanne stopped anything serious from happening. I was hurt. "When I woke up the next morning she was gone."
"Cause she went home to her girlfriend, where she should have been to begin with," I took a very angry tone with Eden.
"There's more if you want to hear it."
"More?" If Joanne did anything else with her, even have dinner I was going to hurt someone.
"Well she had left her cell phone here, so she called to get it back. And…before she came back over I got her phone number off of it." Is she kidding me here? "I really felt that if she didn't have this girlfriend that she'd give us a chance…she seemed so great."
"She is great"
"Well, I called her occasionally trying to get her to at least meet me so we could talk, she never would though. Kept telling me she had a girlfriend that she loved and she couldn't." For the fact that Joanne was refusing to meet up with her because of me made me smile; made me slightly less upset with her. "Then I met Mark about a month after the last time I had called Joanne. I thought he was just what I needed. Then I found out he was friends with Joanne and when I saw her again for the first time in about month or so, the same feelings I had that night came back. Then I met you and all the hate and jealousy that I felt towards you came back. And it didn't help that once Mark and I started dating he told me that you cheated on him a few times. That just made me more suspicious about how faithful you were towards Joanne. And Joanne deserves the best; I've never felt like the best for her was you."
One thing had begun to bother me even more now. If Joanne knew that Eden had feelings for her like this, why was she so friendly with her now? "But you guys are friends now right, nothing else?"
"Nothing has happened, or even come close to happening since we met again." I took a heavy sigh of relief. "Joanne told me once we met again that if I tried to convince her of leaving you that we couldn't be around one another whatsoever. I promised I wouldn't; I had met Mark and I really liked him."
I was literally nauseas as I spoke again, "Do you still have feelings for her?"
"Oh no," she seemed like this was surprising me asking her this, "she's my friend and that is as far as I want it to go. I love Mark."
We both sat in silence for a while. I wasn't really sure what to say to her. First I was in total shock that Eden was bisexual; something I would have never suspected. So all along the reason she hated me was that she was jealous because I was with Joanne and she didn't think I treated Joanne right; that Joanne deserved someone better than me. Well hell hasn't she seen how patient I've been with Joanne lately and how much I'm attempting to help her. And I make Joanne happy, couldn't Eden see that. I love Joanne; I thought that was pretty apparent.
I didn't know what to say to Eden so I just wiped the tears away, grabbed my stuff and left the apartment. Now what am I going to do? Do I ask Joanne about all of this, do I let it go because Joanne had stopped it from going anywhere too serious…but she did kiss her and that hurt. This is so messed up; I'm completely thrown by hearing all of this.
By the time I had made it back to the apartment I still wasn't sure what I was going to do about all of this. I loved her and completely trusted her, but I didn't want to hide the fact that I knew about this. I took a deep breath before reaching down to open the door, preparing myself for what was to come. I pushed the door open to reveal a candlelit apartment with rose pedals lying in just all the right places.
So what do you think? Good enough reason? I thought from the last ch. reviews some of you were going to figure me out. I really didn't know what the reason was for a while then this idea popped in my head and I couldn't get it out. Oh and anyone know where 'life of the party' comes from? Bonus points if you know :) Please review! Thanks for reading!