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“My God, why do you have so many things?” Sophia groans as she and her big brother stand in front of a moving truck filled with a whole bunch of stuff. “You have more things than Adriana and I.”
Eddie rolls his eyes. “Come on. It’s not just me, Soph. Christopher has a lot of things too, you know? A lot of it is for him, and he deserves every little thing that he gets.”
“Speaking of Christopher, when is he coming to the new house?” Sophia asks curiously.
Eddie laughs softly before jumping into the moving truck and grabbing a box to hand to Sophia. “Not until I have everything unpacked and sorted out. I want him to be able to come into our new home and relax. After everything-” He stops, and sighs sadly. He doesn’t like thinking about the past few months. “God, after everything that happened with Shannon, it’s what he deserves.”
“You don’t think you deserve the same thing?” Sophia asks.
“It’s not about me. It’s about Christopher. He depends on me for everything. I want him to be happy, and eventually… maybe I’ll be happy too,” Eddie says, and chews on his lip. “Eventually.”
Sophia sighs as she holds onto the box, staring at her brother. “I’ll take it for now.”
“Good, because that’s all you’re gonna get,” Eddie says, and grabs a box for himself, jumping out of the moving truck. He blinks when a jeep drives past them, and watches as the jeep pulls into the house right beside his new house. He shrugs, before leading the way inside the house.
“This place is beautiful,” Sophia comments as she looks around. “Where do you want the box?”
“Ah, just set it down somewhere. I’ll deal with the organization later. I just want to get these damn boxes out of the way. Have I mentioned how much I hate moving?” Eddie groans.
“Yes, and so do I,” Sophia says, and follows Eddie out of the house again.
“No, Maddie. Come on, I’m not going to go on another one of your blind dates-!”
Eddie looks over when he hears the sudden loud voice, and sees who appears to be his neighbor. He only sees the back of him, as he’s getting the mail from the mailbox. Eddie shakes his head, before reaching into the moving truck to grab another box.
“Why did you have to pack these boxes so heavily, Eddie?” Sophia complains. “I’m not that strong!”
Eddie laughs, grabbing onto the box. “What happened to being a strong independent woman, Soph?”
Sophia glares at Eddie, and looks up, her eyes widening suddenly. “Buck.”
“What?” Eddie asks, chuckling? “We’ve only carried one box each and you’re already losing your mind.”
“No,” she says, and grabs a hold of Eddie, turning him around.
Eddie drops the box he’d been holding onto as soon as his eyes land on his new neighbor.
Evan Buckley.
Eddie hasn’t seen the man in nearly ten years now, not since Buck left him after they finished high school, left him heartbroken without even saying goodbye. Eddie never thought he would see him again.
“Eddie,” Buck whispers, seeming just as shocked as Eddie.
“B- Buck?” Eddie asks with a shaky breath. “What are- What are you doing here?”
“I…” Buck begins, and he blinks. “I live here-” He says, and points towards the house beside Eddie’s.
“Oh my God,” Sophia says from behind Eddie. “Only you would buy a house next to your ex-boyfriend.”
Eddie looks back at Sophia and glares at her. “Shut up, Sophia.”
“Hi Soph,” Buck says, waving shyly.
Sophia glares at him. “Don’t you hi Soph me,” she warns, stepping closer to Buck. “You’re an asshole-” She points at him angrily. “Do you know how many nights I had to watch my brother cry over you when he realized that you left him? You didn’t even say goodbye. You are not being forgiven so easily.”
“Sophia,” Eddie warns. “I didn’t need him to know that!”
“I’m sorry,” Buck quickly apologizes. “I have so much explaining to do. I… God, I’m sorry, Eddie.”
Eddie takes a deep breath. “I- I can’t…” He curses out loud. “I can’t do this right now. Not because I don’t want to hear your explanations, because I deserve to hear whatever shitty excuse you have. It’s just… we’ve got so much unpacking to do and I can’t keep my son waiting for long.”
“Son?” Buck asks, frowning. “You- You have a son?”
“Christopher,” Eddie says, slowly nodding. “Single parent, before you ask. My wife and I divorced.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Buck says sincerely. “When you’re done unpacking. Can we meet to talk?”
Eddie bites his lip, and glances over at Sophia who’s watching him carefully, before looking back at Buck. “Uhm, yeah. We can… yeah,” he mumbles.
Buck slowly nods. “Cool,” he says awkwardly, before scratching the back of his head. “Anyways. I’ve had a long day. I’m dying for a shower. So, see you around?”
“Sure, yeah. See you ‘round, Buck,” Eddie says, still in shock that he’s even talking to Buck right now.
Buck smiles nervously at Eddie before grabbing his duffle bag from his jeep, and walking into his house.
Eddie blinks with confusion, and he looks over at Sophia, who seems just as shocked as him. “Christ, what the fuck am I going to do?”
Sophia sighs. “Like I said, only you would buy a brand new house next to your ex-boyfriend.”
Eddie doesn’t see Buck again for another week. By this time, Christopher has finally made it home, already raving about how much he loves their new house. Eddie is grateful that Christopher is settling in so well. He was worried about how he would adjust to the change, not having his mother around.
But, it’s just the two of them. Shannon is no longer in the picture, not wanting anything to do with them.
Eddie smiles fondly as he stands on the porch, on a sunny Friday afternoon. He watches as Carla pulls into the driveway with Christopher sitting in the backseat. Once she’s parked, Eddie walks off the porch, heading over to the car. He opens the door, and looks down at Christopher. “Hey bud. How was school?”
“It was awesome!” Christopher exclaims, looking up at his dad. “We have no homework today.”
Eddie raises his eyebrows, and looks over at Carla. “It’s true. I checked with his teacher.”
Eddie chuckles, and looks back at Christopher. “This calls for a movie night, huh?”
Christopher cheers, and he allows Eddie to lift him out of the car. “Glad you had a good day, bud. So, have you thought about what you wanted for dinner? And don’t say pizza either.”
Christopher groans in protest. “You can never have too much pizza, dad!”
Eddie looks over when he hears voices, and sees Buck walking out of his house. There’s a girl with him.
“You can’t stay in your house all the time, Buck. It’s not good for you,” the girl says, following Buck.
“Maddie, I already told you. I’m not going on another one of your blind dates. Last time, I had to beg one of the employees to let me use the exit to escape them because of how terrible it went,” Buck says, turning to look at the girl with his arms crossed against his chest, looking unimpressed. “And besides, I’m perfectly happy in my house. There’s food, and everything else I need is in there.”
“Except for someone to share it with,” the girl, Maddie, argues.
“It’s mine! I pay for it with my own money. I don’t need to share it with anyone else,” Buck argues back.
Eddie’s eyes widen as soon as he realizes that that’s Buck’s sister. He hasn’t seen her since he last saw Buck, and she looks so much different now. Eddie can’t believe how much they’ve both changed.
“Who’s that, dad?”
Eddie clears his throat, and looks down at Christopher. “No one, uh-” He looks over at Carla, who has already made her way over to Eddie and Christopher. “Can you take him inside? I’ll be there in a sec.”
“No one, hm?” Carla says, and takes Christopher out of Eddie’s arms.
Eddie sighs as he watches Carla take Christopher inside. He goes to reach inside the car to grab Christopher’s crutches, but he instantly stops when he hears a voice calling his name. He looks over and sees Buck and Maddie both staring at him. “Hey.”
“Wow,” Maddie says. “You know, I didn’t believe Buck when he told me you were his new neighbor.”
Eddie blushes lightly, and nods. “I almost couldn’t believe it myself.”
“You’re so grown up now,” Maddie says, looking at Eddie up and down, but Eddie can tell she isn’t judging him, but merely taking this in just like he is. “I heard you have a kid now.”
“Christopher,” Eddie says. “He’s seven. He’s… my entire world. We moved here after I got a divorce with my wife. It’s just us now. But, I kind of like it like that. It just means I get to spend more time with my son.”
“When do I get to meet him?” Buck asks hopefully.
Eddie looks up at Buck. “You’d want to meet him?” He asks.
Buck nods. “Of course I want to meet him,” he says. “The way you talk about him, he sounds amazing.”
“He is,” Eddie says, nodding. “You can meet him now, if you want?”
Buck beams. “Yeah, that’d be great. I- I love kids-”
“Yeah, I remember,” Eddie says, staring at Buck.
Maddie clears her throat. “Well, I wish that I could stay and chat longer, but I’ve got to go. I’m meeting with my boyfriend for lunch before he heads into his shift,” Maddie says. She looks over at Eddie, and gives him a friendly smile. “It was nice seeing you again Eddie. See you again soon?”
“I’m sure we will,” Eddie says. “It was nice seeing you too.”
“Bye, Mads. I’ll see you later,” Buck says, giving her a quick hug.
“Think about it!” Maddie shouts as she walks over to her car.
Buck shakes his head as he watches her. “It’s not going to happen!” He chuckles when Maddie blows him a kiss, and then he looks over at Eddie. “She’s been trying to set me up. She thinks I’m lonely.”
“I get it. My sisters do the same for me ever since the divorce,” Eddie says. “Anyways. Let’s go inside.”
Buck nods, and follows Eddie into his house.
“I have to agree with your dad, Christopher. You can’t have pizza every night. It’s not healthy,”
Eddie chuckles when he hears Carla talking to Christopher in the living room, who’s clearly trying to con her into ordering a pizza, even after Eddie told him no.
Christopher whines. “But it’s better than dad’s cooking!”
“Hey, I’m not that bad,” Eddie says as he walks into the living room with Buck.
“I’m sorry, Eds. Even I know that’s not remotely true. Remember that one time in high school you burnt the toast? Your mother wouldn’t let you near the toaster ever again after that mess you made,” Buck says.
Eddie scowls. “We swore to never bring up that incident again,” he says.
“Who’s your friend, Eddie?” Carla asks, raising her eyebrows as she looks at Buck.
“Oh,” Eddie’s cheeks turn light pink. “Uh, yeah… Carla, Christopher. This is Buck. He’s our new neighbor, and an old friend of mine. I’m sure we’ll be seeing him around a lot, so I thought I’d introduce you guys.”
“Buck, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Carla, Christopher’s caretaker,” Carla says politely, walking over to shake Buck’s hand. “How do you know Eddie? Did you go to high school with him?”
“Yeah, high school,” Buck nods. “We, uh- we parted ways after high school ended.” He glances over at Eddie when he hears him scoff. “Not now, please.” He looks down when Christopher walks over to him. “Hi. Nice to meet you. I’m Buck.”
“Do you like legos?” Christopher asks, looking up at Buck.
“Do I like legos?” Buck asks, and bends down to look at Christopher. “I love legos.”
“I wouldn’t have said that if I were you, he’s going to con you into building all of his lego sets,” Eddie says.
“What’s so wrong with that?” Buck asks, grinning up at Eddie before looking back at Christopher. “Actually, you know what? I have some really cool lego sets at my house that I haven’t even built yet. Maybe if your dad says yes, I can bring them over and we can build them together.”
Christopher nods excitedly. “Can we dad, please?”
Eddie chuckles. “I’m sure we can, we just have to make sure I’m not busy,” he says.
Buck actually ends up staying for dinner, thanks to Carla’s suggestion after she decided she was going to make dinner because Christopher wouldn’t stop complaining to Buck about his dad’s cooking.
After that night, Buck actually comes over quite a few nights during the week when he’s not working, because he and Christopher got on together like a house on fire.
Eddie loves it, but he also hates it, because having Buck around has brought up feelings that Eddie thought he moved past. He thought after Shannon, he didn’t have feelings for him anymore. But, Eddie’s realized that he still loves Buck the same way he did back in high school. They were high school sweethearts, everybody thought they would end up married, including Eddie.
But, Buck broke his heart. Eddie will never forget that.
So, one night after a few weeks of having Buck over, Eddie goes outside with Buck when he’s leaving.
“This has been,” Eddie begs, clearing his throat. “I mean, having you over and everything…”
“Why do I feel like this isn’t going to end well?” Buck asks, frowning. “Eds, what’s going?”
“I don’t think you should keep coming over like this,” Eddie finally spits out. “It’s fucking with my head.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Buck asks, blinking.
“Buck, have you completely forgotten about the way you ended? You left me without an explanation, and left me heartbroken. Then I see you again for the first time after ten years, and you act like everything’s all fine and dandy when it’s fucking not. You said that we would talk, that you would explain what the hell happened back then, and you haven’t, and you keep coming over, and it’s driving me crazy!”
“Eddie, I-”
“I’m not going to let you do the same thing to Christopher,” Eddie snaps.
“What?” Buck asks, taken back. “What the hell, Eddie?”
“You’re going to leave! And he’s going to be heartbroken just like I was. He already lost his mother!”
“I’m not fucking leaving!” Buck hisses. “I’m so fucking sorry about what I did, Eds. I never wanted to leave, trust me. You were the love of my life. But my parents-” He takes a deep breath. “They weren’t happy with my life choices, and my dad… He threatened to send me away, so I left before he could, and I-”
“Buck-”
“I should have said goodbye, told you why I was leaving, but I was scared. Not of you, of my parents.”
“I’m sorry,” Eddie gasps out. “I didn’t know they…”
“Were homophobic assholes? Me neither. I had to find out the hard way,” Buck says.
“Buck-” Eddie whispers, but Buck quickly shakes his head and steps back.
“I’m sorry if I’ve been overstepping. I’ll back off. I promise. I- I’m sorry. I should… I need to go,” Buck says, and quickly walks off the porch, heading to his own house.
Eddie stands there, dumbfounded.
Over the next few days, Christopher asks about Buck coming over, but Eddie just tells him that he’s busy with his work, even if it’s not particularly true. Because Eddie really doesn’t know if Buck is ever going to come over again after their last disastrous conversation.
Instead, Eddie focuses on his firefighter training.
When he’s finally finished, there are quite a few firehouses that want him, which surprises him. However, it’s Bobby Nash from the one eighteen that fights for him, so of course Eddie choses the one eighteen.
“I’d like you to meet the newest member of our team, Eddie Diaz.”
Buck’s eyes widen at the mention of Eddie’s name, and his head snaps up. There’s Eddie Diaz himself, and of course he’s showing off his abs and muscles while putting his shirt on. Buck’s meant to be staying away from Eddie after the last talk we had. Buck hasn’t been able to think about anything else but Eddie, and he refuses to talk to anyone about it even though it’s obvious there’s something bothering him.
Hen and Chim gush about Eddie as they make their way over to him. “Hi, I’m Hen!”
“Come on, Buck. Let’s go meet him. You’re the one probably going to be working with him the most,” Bobby says, and Buck has to stop himself from groaning, but he follows Bobby anyway.
Eddie looks over and freezes when he sees Buck standing beside Bobby. “Buck?”
“You two know each other?” Hen asks, raising his eyebrows. “Only people close to Buck call him that.”
“Yeah, we have a history,” Buck whispers, not able to take his eyes away from Eddie.
“You know, we’re kind of neighbors, uh… high school sweethearts,” Eddie says.
“High school sweethearts?” Bobby asks, and raises his eyebrows as he looks at the two back and forth. “This isn’t going to be a problem, is it? Because I really don’t want to have to go through the process of finding another member for our team after all I went through to get Eddie…”
“No,” Buck replies quickly, looking over at Bobby. “This isn’t going to be a problem. Swear.”
“It’s not going to be a problem,” Eddie says, and then Buck looks at him again.
Shit. This was definitely going to be a problem.