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When Eden came back from the bathroom, Sterling had immediately noticed the glasses she now wore. And he also immediately decided that he liked them on her. They made her look cute. Well… They added cuteness to her beauty, anyway.
“You look nice in those glasses, Eden. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you wearing them,” he mentioned.
Eden blinked owlishly at him, tilting her head to the side. Was he actually flirting with her? Really? Would he ever stop? It didn’t help the fact that she felt a little pleased with the comment. Just a little bit.
“Thanks,” she said curtly. “Glasses are hard to look after. I settle for lenses.”
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Steeling nodded slowly. “Understandable. I can imagine they’d get smudged a lot. You have to clean them very often?”
(Reading that gave me a sense of deja vu)
Eden turned over to walk into the bus, arms crossed over her chest.
“Yes,” she answered. “Gets annoying on a foggy day. Or during the rain. Or when they challenge me.”
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(Really? Funny. That happened to me the other day about something…)
“Do you get challenged often?” Sterling wondered quietly as he followed her onto the bus. When they were inside, Eden sat down, and he next to her.
“Sometimes,” Eden answered as she took her seat. When Sterling sat beside her, she quirked an eyebrow. “Depends on me to accept.”
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“How many do you usually do a month?” Sterling wondered, setting his backpack at his feet as he looked over at her curiously.
“Two,” Eden responded. “Two challenges a month.”
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Sterling blinked. That was actually fewer than he thought. Maybe people were actually more intimidated by her than he was. “That’s not as many as I thought It would be…” he mused.
“You thought I would receive much more after taking in the popularity-driven teenagers,” Eden leaned back on her seat. “Because challenges can cost you your position if you lose, students opt for simple fights.”
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“Ah,” Sterling hummed at the news, nodding slowly. “That makes sense, then. Was the most recent one… the one I found you after?”
“I wanted a release,” Eden answered quietly. “No challenge issued. He threw the first punch. I retaliated. It was a mistake.”
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Sterling quieted after that. “I see…” he murmured, and then was silent for a while after that. What else could he ask her that she wouldn’t snap at him about?
Eden tried staying awake. She tried keeping her eyes open, but the vehicle moving slowly lulled her to sleep. It didn’t help with the fact that she was already tired from staying up nearly the whole night.
So Eden’s eyes closed and she fell asleep.
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Sterling blinked as a small weight landed on his arm. Turning his head slightly, he was surprised to see Eden resting her head in his shoulder. She was asleep… on him…
Eden hummed lightly in her sleep, shifting a little to make herself comfortable. She pressed her middle back against the wall of the bus, her head burying in a warm yet strong… pillow? She didn’t remember bringing one along, but she wasn’t complaining. She was comfortable. That’s all that mattered.
Her glasses began to drop from her nose until it was nearly dangling off of her face, the only thing preventing it from falling being its leg pressed against her cheek and her pillow.
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Sterling smiled softly at the sight. She might not be doing this consciously, but he was still enjoying it nonetheless.
Her glasses began to slip from her nose, barely held on by anything. He hummed quietly and carefully slipped them off, setting the job his leg so they would be safe.
Eden snapped out of her sleep because of a bump which caused the bus to jump slightly. Her eyes opened slowly, sleepily. At first, she was confused. She blinked, trying to drive her sleepiness away but remembered the reason her vision was blurry wasn’t because of sleep. It was because she didn’t have her lenses in, or her glasses on.
She exhaled deeply, almost burying her head deeply into the—her eyes shot open again. She was not on her bed. She was not at home. She was in her school bus, going to a zoo and she was—
Eden pulled away, her eyes wide as they looked at Sterling. Though her vision was blurry, and though she could only see mere blobs of color, she didn’t find it hard to know it was Sterling.
She had fallen asleep. On Sterling, of all damn people in the world.
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Eden practically jumped from his side, and Sterling glanced back over at her from his phone. She looked confused. Maybe even angry… Was it that bad for her to fall asleep on him? He certainly didn’t think so.
Instead of speaking, he lifted her glasses from his leg. He gently set them in her hand, making sure not to touch the lenses.
Eden swallowed thickly, rubbing her eyes free of sleep. She set them on her nose again, eyes looking him over. He wasn’t… smug about it? The fact that she had fallen asleep on him—he didn’t look like he’d done something big. In fact, he almost… disappointed?
“I’m… sorry about that,” Eden muttered, wiping at her mouth before fixing her hair. She set her hat back on her head, looking anywhere but at Sterling. She felt mortified. She had been comfortable. It was the worst feeling she could ever feel. Being comfortable in another person’s presence… she didn’t like it one bit.
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Sterling gave her a small smile and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, Eden. It’s fine. You probably needed the sleep, anyway.”
“How long…?” Eden trailed off, casting her head down so he didn’t realize just how much it had affected her to be so defenseless in front of another person.
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“Not very long. Just about fifteen minutes,” Sterling assured her, his eyes watching her carefully. Why did she seem so upset about this?
“Okay,” she breathed. Fifteen minutes. He could have done anything to her in those fifteen minutes. He didn’t. It had to mean something, right? She swallowed thickly, gripping her shirt tightly, her breathing heavy. “How much longer till we get off?”
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Sterling looked outside, checking their position. “About another five or ten minutes, I think,” he replied, drawing his gaze back to her.
“Okay,” Eden nodded. Five to ten minutes. She could do five to ten minutes. She hoped it would take less than that. She wanted to get off. She wanted to get away from Sterling.
He didn’t take advantage, she told herself to make it better.
He could have, she responded to herself.
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Sterling watched her for a moment longer. She seemed uncomfortable… Was it because of him? Had he done something? Or was she just normally this jumpy? He couldn’t tell…
Eden was all too eager to get off the bus when it stopped. Fresh air greeted her and she sighed in relief, inhaling deeply.
The teacher began instructing them. Under no circumstances were they to wander off on their own. Stay with a teacher, or stay in groups. They were given maps of the zoo, as well as plannings. Where to meet up during lunch, where everyone would go together and what time…
Eden sighed. So she couldn’t explore on her own.
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Sterling listened as the teacher spoke, nodding along to her words. He didn't mind being with others at the zoo, but he would have preferred a smaller group. Maybe two or three people in it total. What was her limit, he wondered?
Eden bit down on her lip, adjusting her glasses on her nose. She swallowed a little, feeling her throat parched. She took a sip of her water from her bag before she turned to face her classmates.
Most of them had already formed groups and were beginning to walk away. Some chose to stay with the teacher in a group. Only a few students remained ungrouped, Sterling included. Couldn’t the teacher make an exception for her? Let her wander on her own?
