Chapter 2
Evelyn
“H-hey?” I say in a shaky voice, my attempt at trying to play cool and not be a nervous mess around him completely fly out the window at that exact moment.
“Oh, hey you left this.” He says handing me the textbook I used.
“No, we don’t keep those, they are classroom textbooks,” I mumble.
“Oh okay, well I’m Ben, and you are….” he says while setting the textbook down on the nearest desk.
“Evelyn. Well, Eve, I guess.” I say, trying my best to avoid his beautiful eyes.
He cocks his head to the side and grins “What do you mean ‘I guess’ which do you prefer?”
“Well, some people call me Eve and others call me Evelyn, but I prefer Eve.” I ramble. My hand starts nervously fiddling with my keys.
“Well, nice to meet you, Eve. Oh, I’m sorry do you have somewhere you’ve got to be?” he says gesturing a hand towards my fiddling hands.
“Oh, no well yeah to class,” I say
“Oh, what class?” He says pushing his eyebrows together.
“Er English,” I say “You?”
“Oh, um” he pulls a yellow slip of paper from his front pocket. “uh psychology.”
“Nice, uh well, I better get going to see you around ben,” I say and walk away.
I turn my head back only to see him walking in the opposite direction. Sighing, I continue to walk to my next class.
*************
It’s been a long day. Especially since most of it has been spent thinking of Ben. I haven’t had him in any of my classes other than the first one. Though he might have been in the same lunch hour as me, I wouldn’t know. As soon as the fifth-period bell rang signaling lunch, I all but sprinted out of the school doors to my car. Finally, I felt like I could breathe. I didn’t really plan ongoing anywhere, but I had been feeling the undying need to get out of there.
I pull out my headphones and turn on my blues playlist. Before I knew Im mumbling the words to the song. I open my eyes to restart the song that just played and nearly have a heart attack.
“W-what the hell are you doing?” I practically yell.
“Well, I saw you sitting alone and thought that id comes to join you.” He says with a shrug.
I pull out my headphones “But how did you get in here? I didn’t hear the door open.”
“Hmm, well, I suppose it was because you were in your own little world.” He says as he pickings up one of my headphones and begins twisting in between his two fingers. “What were you listing to, anyway?”
“Oh, uh Vuleve you probably don’t know it, it’s pretty old,” I mumble
“Oh, the one by Ricky Martin?” He asks, giving me a crooked grin.
“Uh yeah, you know it?” I say looking up at him.
“Yeah, my mom used to listen to it all the time,” he says, looks down, and twists the black ring on his middle finger.
“Why doesn’t she listen to it anymore,” I ask, confused by the small frown on his face.
“She died.” He looks up at me with beautiful sad green eyes.
“I’m sorry.” I want so badly to ask how she died, but I don’t want to make him more upset.
“For what it’s not your fault,” He says looking back up from his hand “anyway can we move on to a less depressing topic? I’d really rather not talk about that.”
“Yeah, of course I’m sorry,” I blurt.
“No reason to apologize. Anyway, how about you tell me why you’re sitting out here all alone.” He says shifting his body, which is now noticeably closer to mine.
“Oh, no reason really. I just didn’t want to be around everyone.” I say, looking down at my hands.
“Oh yeah, I get that.” He says.
“Yeah. It gets a little suffoc-” I’m cut off by somebody pounding on the window.
“Hey, Makyla.” He sighs, rolling down his window.
“What do you think you’re doing? It’s your first day back and you’re spending time with some random girl rather than your own girlfriend?” She accuses.
“Calm down, Makyla, she’s just a friend. I can be friends with people that aren’t your own.”
“Whatever, let’s go,” she says and backs away from the car.
He rolls up the window and turns back to me. “I’m sorry about her she can be a bit much. But I have to go, so I’ll see you later?” He says though I can’t tell if it’s a question or a statement. So I just nod as he gets out of the car.
I sigh and rest my head on the seat. That now smells unexpectedly like mint.
