Just Friends (Rory Campbell x Fem Reader)

Chapter 26: Evie

~Y/n~

Evelina Charlotte Loesser hasn't been out with a boy since we came back to school.

I suppose miracles really do happen.

"You were right, it does get tiring seeing a different person so often," she explained when I asked her about it. "So I'm taking a break. Only so many boys in Hogwarts, right?"

Maybe it wouldn't seem like "only so many" to her if she hadn't been going through boys like socks since second year.

We'd been back for about a week, and Evie had slept in our room every night since. She sat alone at meals, but if you watched her out of the corner of your eye for a while you'd probably catch her looking in the direction of my friends and I. I'd almost forgotten that half of my friend group used to be hers, and now she had nobody. One day in lunch we looked at each other at the same time, and she just smiled at me and went back to eating.

"Call me crazy," Ced says when he sees what's happening, "but I think she might actually be trying to change."

"Who?" I ask, turning back to him.

"The Queen," he replies, sarcasm practically dripping from his voice. "I don't know what's going on with your sister, but it's better than the two of you fighting. Maybe she's changed."

"Changed?" I scoff. "No way. Nobody can change that much."

"Yeah, wasn't she the one that started the whole 'Looney Lovegood' thing?" Rory chimes in.

"She was," Luna answers, "but it was first year. Didn't even remember it myself until you said something."

"Well, it's clear that something's different. She’s not making an effort to be nice for no reason, right?" Ced asked nobody in particular.

"Maybe," I reply, looking over at Evie again. "I don't know if I should trust it."

"Why not?" Cora asks from the seat next to mine. I forgot that she was the only one in the group that had never met my sister.

"Because she's only this nice when she wants something from you. That's just how it is with her," I explain.

"Oh." Was it possible that my sister was really, truly trying to be a better person? Of course. But I also know that Evie rarely does anything without a reason.

~Rory~

"Is this seat taken?" I can't stop the surprise from showing on my face. Evie had never talked to me directly, not even in Romeo and Juliet rehearsal. But here we are, in rehearsal, and she's asking to sit next to me. It was odd, but not completely unwelcome; my opinion of her was almost entirely based on one thing that happened four years ago.

"Uh...n-no, you can sit if you'd like," I reply, so she does. I wish Y/n was here, but she wasn't needed for this particular rehearsal so she didn't bother coming at all.

"So, how are things?"

"Fine, I guess," I said. "Um, what about you?"

"Honestly? It feels like I'm living the same day over and over," she replies. "It's like that one movie, what's it called?"

"You know Groundhog's Day?"

"Yeah, that one. I've only seen parts of it, probably out of order."

"You should definitely watch it the whole way through someday, then. It's my dad's favorite." I was pleasantly surprised that she was so easy to make conversation with, especially after what I've heard about her from Y/n. Maybe Ced was right about her trying to change.