"What? Is this going to be an ongoing sort of joke with you guys now?" Lucas coughed, once he was able to breathe again from the surprise blunt remark of Eden. He set his mug on the night beside him, pursing his lips. "Because if so, maybe will kick you guys to the curb and do whatever we want. You guys are kind of annoying."
"Hey! It was Edie, not me. I've been a good boy. A spectacular boy." Anders pleaded his case in a playful manner. He sat on the piano bench and slowly emptied his mug, and licked the foam mustache from his face."Plus, what fun would you have without me?"
"Oh, you have no idea."Jenna mumbled underneath her breath.
"Can you just be on my side for once?"
"I will have to talk about it with the princess. She will make the final judgement." Said Lucas very relaxed with a hint of posh in his voice. He turned to Claudia expectantly.
Claudia watched the exchange between the others with amusement in her eyes. They were all happy and friendly and she liked all of them a lot, even if they were annoying at times.
"Anderson and Jenna have been good, so I don't think it's fair to punish them for Eden's mistakes," she said in the same posh voice as Lucas, to which Eden scoffed and continued with his pirouettes.
"You may stay."
"Yay," said Eden in a very bored tone. He was spinning very quickly, watching his reflection in the mirror as he put his leg out with every turn to balance himself.
"Very well," Lucas smiled softly and flopped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling above. "For people who drank so much last night, you two seem relatively fine." He noted curiously.
"Well, I don't know or care about Eden but I still feel it. I am simply ignoring it to the best of my abilities," Anders shrugged a shoulder. He had an extremely high pain tolerance just as Lucas had. Though, unlike the blonde, he did not use the pain to his advantage. "So, what is the plan?"
"I wanted to spend this fine day taking pictures or filming a few things." Answered Lucas, rolling over onto his side at the edge of his bed and scooping up his bag He had prepared for the possibility of staying the night so he brought it along.
What he did not prepare for was for the rest of them staying over too.
"Ooh, maybe we could go to the botanical gardens again --"
"Fuck you, Anderson."
Claudia jumped at Eden's sudden shift in tone. She looked up at him to see he was glaring at the back of Anderson's dark head with actual rage in his eyes, and Claudia would be lying if she said she wasn't slightly intimidated by it. "You okay?"
"No. No, I am not fucking okay. 'I do not know or care about Eden' -- well, no one fucking does, do they?"
Clauda jumped again as Eden reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. She didn't understand what he was doing, until he dialed a number and the phone announced he had been blocked.
"It's my niece's birthday and I'm not even allowed to speak to her, let alone see her. So, no, I'm not okay and no one cares about me." Eden shrugged extravagantly and stalked out onto Claudia's balcony.
Lucas remained silent, watching Eden's outburst from his place on the bed. It had took him by surprise as well, but didn't necessarily scare him. If anything, he was sympathizing with the other boy.
"Ander - " Lucas began, but Jenna beat him to it.
"You should apologize to him," The girl said rather somberly, looking down herself. She held on tightly to her mug, tapping a finger against the thick and hot glass.
"Well, shit. Anybody in this fucking room can tell I didn't actually mean it," Anders scoffed, looking offended himself."He's obviously pissed off because of this whole birthday and neice fiasco. He's upset because of his brother and taking it out on me."
He stood up abruptly, "So, no. I will not apologize. It should be fucking Ethan Carstairs expressing his remorse, not me."
"Anders ... " Lucas sighed.
"I'm going out to get breakfast. Maybe when I get back Eden will be over his fucking tantrum." Ander shook his head lightly, pulling his car keys from his pocket and exiting out the door.
Claudia watched the scene unfold and she couldn't help but feel very sorry for Eden. She had been shunned by her brothers for a little while, but she couldn't imagine being completely cut out of their lives. Being unable to see her nieces or nephews.
She watched Anders leave and privately thought he was being a bit of a drama queen. Eden was the one who needed consolation, not Anders, and Claudia didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to make this better and she didn't know why Anders was taking Eden's anger personally.
"Eden?" she called softly. "You okay?"
Eden ignored her completely, leaning against the railing of the balcony as if he thought he was going to jump off.
Claudia sighed, rose to her feet, descended down the steps from her bed and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She opened the balcony door and stepped outside.
"Here," she said quietly, pressing the small device into his hand. "Call him."
"Claudia." Lucas stood up just as she handed Eden her phone. He pinched his lips grimly when the English boy had already started making the call.
He wasn't sure her handing him a phone to call was such a good idea. Instead of making things better it could very well make things worse. And besides that, it was probably starting to get late on the other side of the country. So, even if he wanted to the chances of talking to Bianca were especially low.
But hell, he wasn't going to go and snatch the phone from his hand.
"I don't know if you should have done that." He whispered, gently pulling her off the balcony to allow Eden some quiet and privacy.
Claudia sighed as she closed the balcony door so Eden could talk to his brother. In hindsight, she realised it probably wasn't the most brilliant idea she had ever had in her life, but there was no way of going back and stopping herself from doing it. She could already see Eden talking into the phone.
"It's not fair," she said softly, turning around to look at Lucas, and at Jenna on the floor. "Lucas, you have me and your family. Jenna has Anderson. Eden's brother kicked him out of his life, and he's already lost Cassidy. It's not fair."
Her voice was growing surprisingly emotional but Claudia had grown incredibly protective of her new friends over the past couple of weeks. Even Anders, who seemed to be making a conscious effort to annoy her and Lucas.
"What's he done to deserve this? He should be at least allowed to speak to his niece for her birthday."
"Most things don't ever feel fair." Jenna murmured quietly with her head hung. She dug her fingers into the soft carpet, gently scratching at the floor underneath it all. "It's been like that between the two since for as long as I've known him."
Lucas rubbed the back of his neck with closed eyes. "It sucks. It really does." He agreed, eyes still closed. He would by lying if he said his heart didn't ache even the least bit for Eden. He was his friend and despite how absolutely annoying or dangerous the could be, he cared for them all.
"That isn't true, though. He does have people. He has us. And obviously Anders too." Lucas's eyes fluttered open and he offered a weak smile.
They weren't much, and they had issues too, but they were still something. And something was better than nothing. He knew that from experience.
Claudia opened her mouth to respond to Lucas and was promptly cut off by the door opening, revealing a shellshocked-looking Eden with Claudia's iPhone in his hands.
"Hey, how'd it go?" Claudia asked him, concerned as she looked up at the English boy. Eden walked over with a blank expression on his face, and handed her back her phone.
Then, he pulled her into a bone-crushing hug that actually caused Claudia to squeak a little. He was shaking, and it took Claudia a couple of moments to realise that Eden was quietly crying.
"Thank you," he croaked, before letting her go, wiping his face and disappearing into Claudia's bathroom. She heard the door softly lock and a large body slide down the wall.
"I'll take that as a sign that something went right." Lucas stood, staring at the bathroom door in which Eden entered, clearly still very much concerned. He wasn't sure what had precisely happened, but at the very lest one good thing had come out of it.
He smiled weakly at Claudia and ruffled his dark blonde strands, sighing. What an eventful morning. And he still had yet to get something to eat. But he still didn't feel comfortable leaving Eden alone.
"Why don't you two get something to eat, I'll stay here a while longer." He insisted, touching Claudia's arm lightly.
"I'm not hungry." Jenna never was. "You can go ahead." She plopped into the bed, staring at her pastel blue and pink painted toenails.
"Anders went out to get breakfast," said Claudia, shifting uncomfortably on her feet as she watched the bathroom door. She could faintly hear Eden crying, and that upset her so much that her eyes threatened to spill over with tears of her own.
"I'll go get drinks or something," she mumbled, slipping out of the room and going downstairs.
Quentin and Brogen were back. "Hey, Claudia, do you want to --"
"I have friends over," she replied tersely, getting five glasses and the gourmet apple juice from the fridge.
"Who?" Quentin asked curiously.
"Some of Lucas's old friends," she replied, not elaborating, and disappeared up the stairs, slipping back into her room and closing the door behind her.
Lucas sat at the end of the bed bedside Jenna, them both still very quiet. There really wasn't much they could think to say when Eden was bawling his eyes out in the other room. It was more painful than awkward for them.
"Here, let me help." Lucas rose to his feet to take the cups from Claudia and help set them up. She probably didn't need help, but he needed something to do instead of sitting down doing nothing. Hr hate not being able to do something.
He tried to think of something more to say, but he didn't have to.
Anders walked inside, with hands preoccupied carrying two McDonald's bags. He closed the door with his foot and put the bags down on Claudia's desk. "I had to get your brothers to let me back in, which wasn't easy." He took an apple pie out from the bag.
"So, where's Eden?"
Before Claudia could answer, Eden came out of the bathroom with a red face and puffy eyes, wiping the tears from his cheeks. Claudia's heart broke a little but she didn't say anything as Eden took a breakfast burger from one of the McDonald's bags and sat down in the chair beneath Claudia's platform bed.
"Sorry," he mumbled to Anderson, and didn't say anything else.
Claudia bit her lip and took a couple of hash browns from the McDonald's bag as the door opened and Brogen poked his head in. He was looking between Anderson and Eden suspiciously -- he clearly didn't mistrust Jenna as much as the boys.
"Guys, this is my twin brother Brogen," said Claudia, sitting on the steps to her bed and gesturing to Brogen. "Brogen, this is Eden Carstairs and Jenna and Anderson Hickory. You already met Anders, I hear. I hope you were nice."
"Sure," Anders responded to Eden, not so discreetly watching him. He was confused and just about ready to openly ask about all that had happened while he was away. And then her brothers showed up.
"We're not as shady as we look, I promise." He raised his apple pie and bit into it.
"Hey, Brogen," Lucas greeted somewhat awkwardly. "They've kind of already met your dad."
"Yeah, where is Mr. Lightwood? Or is he some kind of workaholic? He gave off the vibe." He was able to say very casually. What affected Anders and what didn't was a mix and mess of many things and it always changed.
Brogen blinked and stared at Anderson for a few seconds, before averting his eyes to his twin. "Dad's staying in town for a couple of days, then he's going to Venice."
"For how long?"
"A couple of weeks. He says he'll bring you back that handbag you want because he knows you care more than us."
Claudia licked her lips and bit down on a hash brown. "I don't care."
"That's not true." Brogen ran a hand through his hair -- his was chocolate brown, rather than Claudia's golden blonde. Claudia had the same hair as Tate and the same eyes as her twin. Quentin fit somewhere in the middle. He glanced at Anderson. "Stop staring at my sister."
Lucas turned to find that Anders was in fact gazing at Claudia. It wasn't in an offensive way or anything of the sort. His eyes were soft, fond and curious. And somehow that made him feel a bit more than uneasy.
Anders rolled his eyes at Brogen and stepped a little closer to put his arms around Claudia's shoulders. "I wasn't staring and if I was, it's not as if its illegal to do so. We're just friends, so chill out."
He finished the rest of his Apple pie, "Lucas is the boyfriend, anyway. Hound him of something."
"Anders." Lucas gave his friend a knowing look. He did not want to repeat anything that happened earlier with her father.
Brogen looked like he was going to explode and Claudia rolled her eyes at her irrational twin. She didn't even flinch when Anders put his arms around her -- she knew he was just doing it to annoy Brogen, and besides, she was used to this kind of touchy-feely behaviour from Eden.
"It's fine," she sighed, finishing up her first hash brown.
Brogen looked at her as if she was insane, then glanced at Lucas suspiciously. "Come here, I want to talk to you," he said to his sister's boyfriend.
"You will not --"
"Oh, fucking relax, Claudia, I'm not Tate," snapped Brogen. "And even if I was I wouldn't beat him up outside Dad's bedroom. I'm not a moron. Lucas, come here. Please."
"Sure. Seeing how you asked so nicely." Lucas sighed and muttered his last sentence. He could only imagine what Brogen wanted to speak with him about. He could only. His eyes stuck to Anders almost glaring at the taller boy, though, he didn't bother giving Eden a look.
Anders only shrugged in reply.
"I'll be back soon." Lucas promised quietly and made his way across the room to the door. On his way there, he gave his girlfriend's elbow a fleeting but tender touch.
He also made sure to close the door behind himself. However, he didn't smile at Brogen. No, not after he snapped his sister just a moment ago. "What?"
He leaned against the wall opposite Lucas and frowned at him, as if he really was a moron, or at least couldn't see the obvious. "Or are you just blind? Your friend, whatever his name is -- Anders. He so clearly liked Claudia."
Brogen knew this, because he had spent his entire life chasing away the copious boys who fancied his twin. Ryan had got through, somehow, and Lucas, but he wasn't going to let anyone else.
"So unless you want to lose her, I'd strongly suggest fuckin' doing something about it, because he's charismatic." Brogen glanced up at the ceiling, as if to say Lord help me. "Fuck, after they showed up Ryan in the cafeteria, I could hear half the girls in my German class talking about him. Even though he's clearly a megalomaniac."
