V.O.I.C.E

.Chapter Twenty Two.

Chapter Twenty Two                              Carter

Monday: the beginning of a new school week, and a day that I wasn’t looking forward to at all. We had gotten back from camp last week and since then Eva had done everything in her power to avoid me. She was even skipping on dinners. The only times I saw her were the few minutes we had in the morning on the drive to pick everybody up, and I hadn’t had the nerve to bring up what had happened at the lake yet. I wanted to know why she had run away all of a sudden, just when it seemed like she wanted me back.

When I went downstairs for breakfast Eva was already at the table eating a bowl of cereal. I put a piece of toasted in the toasted and got the tub of butter and a knife out, just as Joyce came downstairs dressed in a nice knee length black skirt and deep teal blouse, ready for a day at her shop

“Is that all you’re going to eat?” she questioned when she saw me standing and waiting for my toast to pop.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not too hungry,” I told her. In truth, my stomach wouldn’t calm down. The past six days I had left Eva alone because I was planning on how to talk to her without scaring her, because I didn’t want a repeat of that night- her running away from me- again. Today was the day the plan went into action.

Joyce didn’t say anything; she just shook her head as she pulled a container of orange juice from the fridge and got a glass. She left it on the counter with two glasses –her way of telling me to at least drink something with my toast- and she grabbed a muffin from the bowl on the counter before going to the table.

                My toast popped and I buttered it while it was still hot. I saw Joyce finish her breakfast out of the corner of my eye and get up to go over to the counter and put my butter away – she was a bit of a neat freak and when I didn’t put stuff away as soon as I was finished with it, drove her nuts.

Joyce finally broke the silence that had fallen over everybody as we all sat around the table eating. “Any plans after school?” she asked.

“Not me-” Eva started to say, looking up from her bowl for the first time since I had come into the room but I quickly cut her off.

“We were planning on going to this new diner that opened a few weeks ago. Eva must have forgotten. So we might be a little late coming home,” I said.

“That’s fine as long as you are both here around six for dinner. Colin and I want to tell you something,” she said.

I finished my food and rinsed my plate, Eva doing the same motions as me and putting her dish in the dishwasher. In silence we got out coats and shoes on. I grabbed my school bag then I opened the front door and headed for the car. As I got into the driver seat, Eva hopped into the back, not even bothering to try and sit up front with me like she had been doing weeks ago before everything had become so confusing.

“Eva, we need to talk about what happened,” I tried to say after a few minutes of driving. She didn’t respond for a bit but I know she had heard me and I waited for her to answer.