i hate it here

Chapter 6 - Girls Are So... Ughhh

The week flew by like any other but there was some... twist to it. Sure it was as fun as school can get (which was a good 2%). But as the days progress, Eve and River spend more and more time together. By Friday, Saturn had personally invited Eve to lunch, and she had to wonder if River had anything to do with it. Of course, she doesn't pfft that what be stupid... right?

She and Saturn meet up and walk together towards their new normal spot. When she makes eye contact with River, Eve gives her a small, shy smile and River rolls her eyes but returns a smaller smile. It isn't much, but it causes Eve to burst into a grin. She unconsciously goes to sit beside River, forcing Saturn to sit beside Liam, which they've somehow gotten more bashful around each other. When Eve's smile doesn't fade much, River ribs her and gets her attention. Eve looks over at River who has this happy constipated look on their face. Like they're trying to hold in a laugh.

"What?" Eve asks, laughing and kinda nervous.

"Nothing" River just shrugs and goes back to eating her sandwich but trying to hide her smile. Eve goes quiet for a moment but asks the question she's been wanting to ask all week.

"Hey River... It's cool I'm here, right?" She asks on the edge, not really sure about the response she's going to get. River looks at her like she just asked if the sky is blue or something because the next words from River are "What the hell are you talking about, Two shoes". Honestly, Eve's surrendered to the nicknames.

"I just mean, like, I've kinda been inviting myself to lunch with you guys. I just- Is that okay?" Eve asks, tucking a strand of her behind her own ear. River stares back at her with a bored look.

"Eve, please. If I didn't want you here, I would've made that extremely clear." River says as they go back to eating their sandwich, not really processing their words.

Eve blushes a little a goes back to eating her lunch.

"--cough--gay--cough--cough--cough--" Saturn slides in. Eve feels uncomfortable but doesn't tell anyone.

--

When lunch is over, River walks with Eve to Art, as they've been doing all week. But just because it's convenient. Obviously.

Most of the time Claire finds them and River can't if it's a coincidence or if she's purposely seeking out the pair, or rather Eve, out.

Something tells River it's the latter. So every time Claire walks up, she walks away.

But today, today is almost bliss. Claire isn't in sight and she got to joke around with Eve a little more without interruptions. And by 'joking around' they mean making goody two shoes jokes and taking humorous passive aggressive jabs at each other.

They get to their class pretty early so they end up waiting outside the door. River leans against the wall, facing away from the door while Eve faces her, standing straight with her doc martens with little heels at the back which gives her more height, now the same height as River.

River's been trying to figure this out for awhile, but she really can't tell if Eve is straight. Everything about mostly screams hetero but there are certain things she says or does that are slight giveaways.

They end up talking mindlessly about nothing but then River sees that something caught Eve's eye and a small smile forms.

When River turns, she sees Claire walking up, giving both of them a small wave.

As River turns back to Eve, forcing her eyes not to roll to the back of her head, Eve gives her what looks like a pleading look.

"Stay?" Eve says like she doesn't want to beg but she clearly wants her to stay where she is. Before River can answer, Claire is already there.

"Hey guys, how's it goin'?" Claire asks both of them, but she's clearly looking at Eve.

"Eh, as good as anyone at school can be I suppose." Eve states but shoots a quick pleading glance to them, that no one would catch unless they were already searching her expression. Which, in River's case, she was.

So, River stays.

~~

Ten minutes into Arts and they're working on sketching. Eve keeps stealing glances across the at River whose blasting music into her ears - if Eve listens enough, she can hear a bit of what sounds like Mitski or MARINA - and messing around with her phone.

For each glance that Eve takes and them, she inwardly grimaces at herself for being too obvious. She knows she's going to get caught at this rate and she should probably stop.

As she mentally lecturing herself, she forgets that she was tuning out Claire's babbling and when she zones back in, she hears Claire talking about how this assignment is child's play to her and she can help Eve if she needs it.

Eve just laughs the comment off and declines, continuing her work.

By the end of class she ends up drawing a frog. Well she wouldn't say her drawing skills are that good, so it kind of just looks like a constipated pony.

Claire is talking her ear about goddess knows what. She turns to see River walking out the door but can see them leaning up against a wall from the angle she's at.

Eve awkwardly laughs when Claire laughs having no idea what she was talking about.

Truth is, she likes Claire, but whenever she shows up when she's with River is just...awkward.

When they get out of the class, Eve brushes her off with a short goodbye, not looking in her direction, instead her gaze on River who's looking down at her phone.

And there's Eve, trying to fight down a smile.

~~

When River looks up after ignoring Eve and Claire's little laughing fit that they saw when they left the class, Eve is walking up to them, a smile flirting at the edges of her mouth.

"What's up with you, two shoes?" River says, tucking her phone into her back pocket.

"What's up with you, Cariño?" She bites back which makes River blush a little. For one because the meaning of her last name coming out of Eve's name in this context is... distracting.

"Psh, whatever. Let's go" They say, but neither of them move. Eve breaks the staring by skipping off down the hall.

Gym goes by in a blur, as usual. It's the end of the day, people are tired and everyone wants to go home.

What River does notice is the gym teacher staring at her all throughout class, no matter the activity.

She decides to just stick to Eve and Saturn's side.

--

The trio part ways but River finally convinced her parents to let her study with Saturn at the library.

And maybe River should've seen this coming when xey suggested they study together in the first place. Or maybe the sly grin they've had since they started walking in the general direction of the library but they're completely caught off guard when Saturn says,

"So how about that Eve?"

And River knows can't deflect for a whole hour and a half and she definitely can't run. As they walk into the building the only thought River can conjure up is

Shit.