1: Whispering Smoke - Evan Peters

Memory of You - Part 1

A year ago

I let out a long sigh and began my journey back home. The rain was lighter now, and it pat softly on my face as I walked. There was something refreshing and freeing about walking in the rain. From the time I was little, I'd take any chance I got to put on my rain boots and beg my mom to let me go play outside in the rain. My younger self would be distraught to know what I was thinking tonight. All the suffering and misery in the world would never have effected me as a child, it felt like I was on top of the world. My parents always said I was a happy, I was bright, and kind and curious. I felt a warm droplet roll down my face, and I knew it wasn't the rain, but a tear, followed by more. I reached up to wipe my face and nose with my sleeve.

Startled, I noticed a car coming towards me. I recognised it almost immediately as the Jeep I had just gotten out of, given away by the one working headlight. It stopped by me on the shoulder of the road, and the stranger I had just helped out, rolled down his passenger side window.

"Hey I don't mean to sound too forward, but would you like to grab something to eat?" His voice was almost drowned out by the sound of his car engine and the wipers working at the rain on his windshield.

"It's 3 in the morning." I replied, followed by a small laugh. I reached up again to wipe my face.

"Well, we're both up and there's nothing else to do."

This might have been completely insane, but I got in the car for the second time that night. He had just given me a lift to the bus stop and I arrived in one piece, nothing bad was bound to happen, right?

"I'm Evan by the way." Evan smiled at me and offered his hand out. I took his hand and shook it.

"I'm Alex, it's nice to meet you." Evan flashed me another smile.

"So, what do you feel like, I don't think we have many options at 3 am," "Honestly, I could go for some White Castle loaded fries," "White Castle it is."

Evan veered onto the road and began out journey to the 24-hour White Castle only a few miles away. He'd turned down the music playing from his car speakers, and all we could hear was the rain hitting the windshield.

"May I ask what you were doing out on the bridge at 3 in the morning?" Evan took his eyes off the road for a moment to glance at me in the passenger seat.

"Honestly, I was just going for a walk, I enjoy the rain," I only half lied, "what are you doing driving around this late?" I raised my eyebrows in question.

"I only thought people walk to bridges to jump off them this late," Evan joked; I held my breath. "I was just going for a drive, I like the rain too."

"I guess we have something in common," I faked a smile, still stuck on his comment about bridges and people jumping off. I had to let it go, it was a harmless joke.

Evan stopped at the speaker box in the drive thru and rolled down his window. He stared at the fluorescent menu board with his eyes squinted, deciding on what to order.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry, I don't have any money on me." I realised. I felt so stupid, but I hadn't brought anything with me on my trip to the bridge.

"Hey it's fine, I got it. I invited you to get food anyway," Evan reached in the middle console to pull out his wallet as we heard a voice greet us from the speaker box.

"Hi, yeah, can I just get a couple of cheese sliders and a loaded fries?," Evan turned to me as if to ask if I wanted anything else and I shook my head. "That's all thanks,"

After paying and collecting our food from the drive thru window, Evan parked in the first parking spot we saw. He reached into the bag to fish out my fries, and handed them over to me. "Thanks Evan, for paying and everything," I offered him a genuine smile.

"Don't mention it," Evan set his sliders in his lap and unwrapped them from the paper. He took a big bite, almost devouring the whole slider.

"You're hungry I assume," I pointed at the sauce dripping from his mouth and laughed. He retrieved a napkin from the bag and pat his face. "Did I get it?"

"No it's just-" I reached towards his face and swiped just under his lip with my thumb. We made eye contact for a moment and I broke it as I felt my face getting red with embarrassment.

"Thanks Alex," Evan continued eating.

"So, I haven't seen you around before, are you from here?" Evan questioned me as I took my first bite of fries.

"Actually I'm not, I'm from Malden. What about you?"

"Born and raised baby," Evan joked.

"You know we didn't have White Castle in Malden, I only tried it for the first time a few weeks ago when we arrived," I said with a mouthful.

"You're kidding, Malden is that small hey?" Evan shook his head in astonishment. "So who's we? You have a boyfriend or..." Evan trailed off and I laughed at his question.

"No no, my best friend Dana and I, we've come here to go to community college together and get a taste of a new city. We're living on campus," I informed him.

"Oh right," Evan turned his head towards the empty wrappers in his lap, and collected them to put back into the white and blue paper bag, "I kinda thought I was being led on for a second," He joked. I laughed along with him.

"What are you studying?" He asked me. "Fine arts, and I know it's stupid, it probably won't get me anywhere, but I want to go to university when I'm done with community," I acknowledged that fine arts probably didn't have huge career prospects.

"No that's awesome, honestly I'm a big art guy myself," Evan referred to the bold stick man on his black t-shirt. I hadn't noticed there was one on there before. He was good at making me laugh.

"So what do you do?" I returned his question. "A bit of everything at the moment, I'm trying to establish myself somewhere," Evan took out another cigarette and lit it.

"So, do you like movies?" Evan queried.

"Yeah, I'm an avid horror film watcher. I can't get passed some of the classics though, I find that I go back and watch them instead of trying to find new ones,"

"I agree, they're all so shit these days, what's your favorite, if you can pick one," He rolled his window down to ash out of the window.

"I'd say... The Shining. Jack Nicholson is terrific at acting crazy, not to mention the great cinematics," I decided.

"I don't think I've ever seen it," Evan shrugged his shoulders as he put out his cigarette by flicking it out the window. I stared at him with wide eyes and my mouth slightly open.

"You have to watch it, oh my god, I can't believe you haven't seen it!" I was actually surprised that he hadn't seen one of the best movies of all time.

"We can watch it now?" Evan suggested, as he turned his car back on. I thought in my head for a second, if I was taking tonight too far by going back to his house. He looked at me anticipating an answer with a big grin. I couldn't help but notice his cheek dimples, the wet dark hair sticking to his forehead and his dark, but welcoming eyes.

"Okay, let's do it," I couldn't bring myself to end the night at White Castle.