Not Today | ✔️

Chapter Twenty Nine.

"You know I talk too much
Honey, come put your lips on mine
And shut me up..."

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"Where are you taking me?"

"Wonderland," Tristan said cheekily.

"Tris," she said, dramatically drawing out his name. "Tell me."

Tristan glanced from the road to Evelyn, his eyes twinkling as he lowered his voice. "And if I say no?"

Evelyn shrugged. "I'm not above jumping out of a moving vehicle, you know."

Tristan let out a loud laugh, which caused Evelyn to grin, herself. It was, of course, an amazing feeling to hear the people you cared about laughing, but it was another type of happiness to know you were the one who made them laugh.

"So... where are we going?" she tried again.

The only reply she got was Tristan looking over at her with a smile before his hand left the steering wheel and switched the music on, increasing the volume.

"Hey!" Evelyn exclaimed.

"Sorry, what? I didn't get that. Music's too loud," he said with a silly smile, pointing his finger to his ear, as if he genuinely couldn't hear her.

Evelyn shook her head and tried to keep her begrudging smile at bay. That became impossible, though, when Tristan began to belt along to the music. Evelyn lifted her hand to her mouth, feeling the soft fabric of her cardigan against her skin, as she tried not to laugh at his... unique singing voice.

Tristan continued until his voice cracked in a dramatic, funny way, causing Evelyn to laugh.

He looked over at her, shooting her a smile as he shrugged. "Oops."

It wasn't long before Tristan was pulling into a parking lot, alerting Evelyn that they'd reached their destination. Evelyn looked out the windshield at the building in front of them. Evelyn smiled as she realized where he'd taken her.

Tristan had taken her to an art museum.

Just as she unfastened her seatbelt, Tristan opened her door for her. Taking her hand in his, he helped her out of the car.

"You know, you're quite the gentleman," Evelyn said with a smile.

"Believe it or not, my dad is the one who always taught me how to treat girls. He has flaws, a lot of them, but when my mom was alive... he treated her like gold, Evelyn," he admitted, before he interlocked Evelyn's fingers with his own, giving a gentle squeeze. "Now, let's go in."

They did and Evelyn loved it, looking at all the different artwork, primarily paintings, and being fascinated by the different meanings and interpretations one could gather from the paintings. They stopped in front of one particular painting, one in the style of impressionism. It was flawless, in her opinion.

"I still don't get how you think a painting is worth a thousand photos," Tristan said randomly.

"Paintings are. I mean, this one is a perfect example," Evelyn said, gesturing to the impressionism painting in front of them.

The painting had an equal amount of color and lack of it. The subject of the painting seemed to be two people, both pleasant-looking, standing in a field of some sort, trees and greenery surrounding them, the sun out; however, a large portion of the painting was a pond. More specifically, the reflection of the pond.

Instead of perfectly reflecting the exact image, one of the two people looked incredibly far from pleasant. He looked nasty and menacing. The other person, the girl, hadn't changed at all, except that where she'd had blue eyes before, it was smoothed over with the color of her skin, making it so she had no eyes. And instead of the trees being full of life, the reflection showed them to be barren.