Louder Than Words [NYE] Winters had started feeling so much harsher since Eden began attending Sonora. She had gotten spoiled by the heat of Arizona, and now wherever she was over her winter breaks - at home in Rhode Island, at Sally’s home in Massachusetts, or one of her other siblings’ apartments in Oregon - everything just seemed so much colder. She lamented the bundling of layers she currently wore, stepped out on the small deck of Desiree and Jake’s third floor apartment, but the night sky was so clear, and she wanted to see the stars. Sometimes her visible breath masked them, but the tiny specks of light did their best to shine through anyway. Eden was quickly losing feeling in her cheeks, and her mittens did not fully shield her fingers from the same fate, but she was hypnotized by the night, by the way the moon had so much to say to her.
It was a nice moment alone, a chilly step away from the commotion within. Gatherings with her siblings were never dull, and there were some extra bodies around this time, too. Other than Jake’s girlfriend Ginger, Sally had brought a man with her, and there was a man with Asher, too. And Jake had invited their other siblings: Ryan, who was married to Eden’s former Potions professor and came with her and their three children in tow, and Peyton, who was one of her classmates at Sonora. It was a little weird casually spending time with Professor O’Malley Sophie, and one of their boys was a particularly rambunctious youth who Eden - perhaps spoiled by her status as the baby of the family - found a bit exhausting, but she had no substantial complaints to their presence. The apartment was just rather… full.
So she escaped a minute, and then that minute became two, and then that became ten. She’d been out here for nearly twenty minutes when the glass door behind her slid open. Out stepped Asher, her oldest brother. “Hey, kiddo,” he smiled. “What are you doing out here?”
Eden smiled back. “Just taking a breather,” she replied. “The air’s so crisp out here. And the sky is so clear.” She paused, drawing her arms closer to her middle for warmth, or perhaps for security. There was something she was considering saying.
Asher had brought with him two white styrofoam cups, and he extended one toward her. “Well, take some hot chocolate. It’s freezing out here.”
‘Thanks,” she accepted. The blonde sipped carefully and then turned away, leaning on the railing. Asher mirrored this posture. There was a pause. “Nights like these, I just really wish Dad was here,” Eden said at last. “To see all of us together like this. I miss him so much.”
“Eden, there’s something -” Asher began, but he was interrupted as the door once again slid open. The two turned to see Jake standing there. Asher’s eyes narrowed. Jake appeared momentarily panicked. The brothers exchanged a look of knowing that Eden didn’t understand, and then, with a squeeze on Jake’s shoulder, Asher went back inside without a word.
She looked at Jake with an expression of confusion. Then he swallowed. “There’s something I have to tell you,” he said, his voice shaking, but not from the cold. “And it can’t wait anymore. It’s been too long already.”
OOC: Mentions of Ginger and the O'Malleys approved by their authors.