Not Today | ✔️

Chapter Thirty Seven.

"Every night that goes between,
I feel a little less,
As you slowly go away from me..."

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In general, Evelyn wasn't a fan of sudden changes. She much preferred routines and patterns. They held more order. So, suffice it to say, Evelyn was not a fan of Tanya. She was not a fan of how she threw a wrench in all the routines Evelyn had grown to expect, and furthermore, to love. It had been two weeks since she arrived. Fourteen days. Four sets of three days and two extra days. 112 sets of three hours. Each day seemed to be worse than the last for Evelyn. Honestly, she couldn't help but feel like an old coat Tristan took out while his favorite was at the dry cleaners and now that his favorite was back, it was time to put Evelyn away once more, to collect dust, as she'd already served her purpose.

...Perhaps her teenage dramatics were kicking in.

But only a little.

Or maybe not at all. Never once was he ever embarrassed to spend time with Tanya in school, she easily fit into his friend group, and whenever she was around, Evelyn felt like Tanya was the girlfriend and she was the friend, instead of her being the girlfriend and Tanya being the friend. Tristan went from spending nights working and then doing homework and watching movies with Evelyn to hanging out with Tanya, sometimes even skipping work, which he only got away with because of his aunt. And days in school went from him walking Evelyn to class to walking Tanya to class. Even now, standing in the empty school hallway after school hours, she was waiting for Tristan, who was with Tanya.

"Hey, what are you thinking so hard about?" a voice said, snapping her out of her thoughts. Speak of the devil. It was Tristan, panting, but he had a smile on his face.

"Why are you out of breath?" Evelyn asked, smiling slightly at his dark hair stuck to his sweaty forehead.

"Tanya and I were racing. She bet I couldn't win against her, which was dumb, since I always win. We used to race all the time when we were..." he trailed off at the end, seeming to realize how awkward it was.

"When you were dating?" Evelyn offered with a small, fake smile.

Tristan cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yeah."

"Sounds like fun," Evelyn said, trying to ease his discomfort.

He gave her a deadpan stare. "Evelyn, you hate running."

"Okay, you're right. That sounds awful," Evelyn admitted with a laugh, closing her locker and leaning against it. "I mean, what's fun about body odor and copious perspiration? That's just gross."

Tristan laughed loudly. "'Copious perspiration'? Really, Evelyn?"

"Don't forget the body odor. I can smell your armpits from here," Evelyn said and pretended to gag.

"Oh, I'm that gross, am I?" he said and placed his hands on either side of her, on the locker, leaning closer.

"Gross is an understatement," she said with a solemn nod.

"Disgusting, then?" he asked and pushed Evelyn's hair back from one of her shoulders, so the skin of her neck wasn't hidden.

She shrugged. "I suppose that's slightly more accurate."

"Revolting?" he asked and ran his lips along the curve of her neck.

"Closer," she said, hoping the furious beat of her heart wasn't quite so obvious in her pulse, where Tristan's lips lie.