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"No," Eve replied, bending down to look in one of the lower cabinets. She straightened back up, put her hands on her hips, and shook her head with a sigh. "But I'll live." She crossed the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator to check inside.
"Uh… okay…" Rowan was quiet for a few seconds, considering how he should reply. "Um… do you… want to talk about it…?" He asked awkwardly, hesitating before coming out of his room and into the kitchen.
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"It's alright," Eve said, straining a bit to reach for a Lemon Lime Gatorade near the back. "I wouldn't want to bother you." Her fingers secured the drink in her grip, and she shut the door to conserve the cold. She opened the bottle and took a swig.
"I mean, you took the time to help me earlier." Rowan came a bit closer, sighing and shoving his hands in his pockets as he approached. "I'm sure you were a bit inconvenienced. I don't mind listening to you vent if you want."
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Eve lowered the drink from her lips. She arched her eyebrows, gave him a once-over, and sighed quietly. "Alright. It's my ex. He won't leave me alone." After a quick shake of her head, she took another sip, letting the chilled liquid rush down her throat.
Rowan nodded and quietly sat beside Eve. He didn't interrupt, figuring she would just want to vent without him giving advice. He didn't really know how to help her anyway other than suggesting she block her ex, but he figured she had probably already tried that anyway.
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Eve closed her eyes, collecting herself. “He keeps texting me. I don’t know how, I’ve had him blocked for weeks now, and he keeps finding ways to text me. I don’t understand. I just want him to leave me alone.” Her eyes opened again, and she refused to look at or near Rowan. “Honestly, he’s a part of the reason I moved. Just a part, but still.”
Rowan nodded again with a soft hum to let Eve know he was listening. "Well… I'm not sure you want my advice, and I presume you've already taken the necessary precautions. Honestly, best thing to do is to just be at your damn best, yeah? Show him that you don't want or need him, and you're way better off without him. Maybe he'll figure out at some point that you're way out of his league." He laughed softly.
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At that, Eve turned to look at him. An expression of soft shock formed on her face. She blinked and looked away again. “Oh. Well, thank you,” she murmured with a small smile.
"Mm?" Rowan looked over to Eve, still smiling softly. "Yeah, no problem. Sometimes people just suck, and you gotta do your own thing to let them know you're not like them. Let the trash stay with the trash."
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For the first time in a very long while, Eve let out a genuine laugh, causing crinkles to form around her eyes. As much as she didn’t like herself for it, she found herself warming up to Rowan. “I’ll drink to that. Cheers,” she said, sounding very British as she did so thanks to her accent. With that, she took another drink from the Gatorade bottle.
Rowan flushed lightly, laughing as well. He honestly had a really nice genuine smile, and it clearly wasn't his practiced smile that he used in pictures and for competitions. That smile wasn't bad, but there was a certain empty shell behind it. This smile and laugh were bright and full and honest. "You're going to drink to that with Gatorade? At least you're getting the electrolytes, hm?" He sighed, his smile still lingering as he rested his hands on the counter.
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Eve’s laugh was similar to Rowan’s in that it was very different from the usual façade she put on. Cool, calm, collected, and above all, professional. Her genuine laugh was wild and more amplified. “It was in my hand!” she retorted, not unkindly. Her eyes flashed, and her eyebrows arched as if declaring a playful challenge. “Would you rather drink with something else?”
Rowan's eyes flashed as well at the challenge and he looked over to Eve, smirking a bit. "Oh?" He raised an eyebrow, shifting his position a bit to face Eve more. "Are you… challenging me to a drinking game?" He asked. "I've got some alcohol in the fridge, if so. Got any parameters in mind?"
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“Be my guest,” Eve replied, stepping back from the fridge so he had access. “The only rules that exist are the rules that you can convince me exist.” She drained the rest of the Gatorade quickly and tossed the bottle away in preparation.
"I just mean like… are we just doing shot for shot, or playing some kind of game?" He asked, getting up from his seat to pull a bottle of alcohol out of the fridge and fetch a couple shot glasses from the cabinet. "Like… watching Hell's Kitchen and taking a shot every time Ramsay swears or something."
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“Heavens, if we did that, we’d be drunk within the first minute!” Eve shook her head. “I have no preference for anything except that we use something strong. God knows I need it,” she added the last part almost muttering.
Rowan laughed and poured a shot for both of them, sliding one over to Eve. "Well, we should have something in the background. It's kinda awkward to drink in silence. 90's pop work for you?" He asked, pulling out his phone to scroll through his Playlists.
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“Darling, by about the fourth or fifth one of these, I’m not going to be able to distinguish country from rap.” It was after she finished speaking that she realized what she said. Her eyes grew wide. “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that, I— I’m used to saying— I’m sorry,” she stammered. Without hesitation, she whipped her head back to swallow the alcohol.
"Ah?" Rowan didn't seem to be listening to Eve much, thankfully, and managed to find his Playlist of 90's music. "Hey, you better not be starting without me!" He quickly knocked back his shot as well and poured a second for the both of them.
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Eve gasped as the alcohol burned her throat. She smiled freely, starting to feel looser now, even after one shot. It was a pleasure unlike any other. She laughed again at Rowan’s hurry. “Keep up!” she teased.
"I had to turn on the music!" Rowan insisted, taking his second shot as Livin' La Vida Loca blasted in the background. "Woo! I will not be going to the gym later!" He laughed, coughing a bit from the burn of the drink. Considering he was relatively newly drinking age, he wasn't much of a heavyweight.
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Eve's second shot felt better than her first, and once she finished, she slammed the glass back down enthusiastically and leaned against the counter. "Forget the gym," she replied, feeling herself begin to let go of her normal rationale and control.
Rowan kept pouring the shots, although he was getting a bit clumsier as time went on. His cheeks were flushed from the alcohol, and he had a dopey grin on his face as he knocked back another drink and sung along to I Want It That Way.
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Eve laughed at the sight of him. "Oh God," she gasped in between laughs. "Here." She took the alcohol from him to continue pouring. As she did so, her fingers brushed his lightly, and butterflies involuntarily erupted in her stomach.
Rowan was too drunk to pay much notice to the gentle touch, but he seemed to be having a pretty good time. "Oooh~… we're gonna regret this in the mornin'…" He snickered a bit, slurring his words. When Eve poured him another drink, he gladly drank it, no longer noticing the taste.
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Eve rolled her eyes dramatically. "So what?" she proclaimed grandly, shooting the liquid down her throat again. "That's what alcohol is for, isn't it?" Even after her declaration, she did begin to slow down pouring refills into the little glasses.
"I'll drink to that…" Rowan held up his glass for a moment before downing it. His vision was very blurry by now, and he squinted a bit as he looked over to Eve. "Where'd you get four… no… five eyes…?" He asked, clumsily reaching out one hand to touch her face.
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Eve's eyes widened, but she didn't protest the action. Obviously, she was better at handling alcohol than her new roommate, but she didn't say anything about it. Instead, she subtly leaned into his touch and replied. "I have two eyes like everyone else, darling. Don't be silly."
"Nuh uh!" Rowan protested, poking near Eve's eyes and counting aloud all of the eyes he could see, although he kept losing count. "See? Look at… look at all those eyes. I bet you're real good at… uh…" He trailed off, seemingly forgetting what he was going to say.
