Evan Farrington's Confession | ✔️

four

Evan forced down another swallow of her salted porridge, trying her best to block out Suzanne's voice. Her mother was reading something off her phone while half-heartedly scraping at the frying pan containing her slightly overdone scrambled eggs. The flimsy smell of burning filled Evan's nose.

"... found by Imogen Lawrence, a cleaner who has worked at Woodfield High for over two decades. We were unable to obtain a statement from Lawrence but..."

Evan had not slept well last night. Her focus had been trained on keeping her mind from flitting back to the classroom and the body and the blood. She must have slept eventually because she had been woken up by her mother's frenzied chatter about the recently named Woodfield Killing. Her mind kept saying, 'There's been a murder!' Taggart style. Evan had never seen the show but everyone in Britain knew the phrase.

"...autopsy reports have yet to be made but it was concluded that Steven Watt, a Math teacher at the school, had been dead for at least..."

"Mum..."

"...residents of Woodfield, Washington have been advised to lock their..."

"Mum!"

Suzanne blinked and switched off the pan. She tutted at the state of her eggs but scoured them onto a plate and squirted a healthy amount of hot sauce on top. "What is it, Ev?"

"Could you not read that out?"

Suzanne heaved a sigh and sat down opposite her daughter. She tensed up as soon as Suzanne had pulled in her chair.

"Sorry, Ev," Suzanne said, starting to eat her eggs. "Putting you off your brekkie."

Evan gulped down some more tepid porridge without chewing and spared a glance up at her mother, expecting to find an expression of strict disapproval at her poor table manners. Instead, Suzanne was smiling softly, tilting her head and peering at Evan's wrist. She didn't seem to have noticed that her daughter was swallowing her breakfast like she would an aspirin.

"You're wearing your bracelet, I've not seen that in ages," Suzanne said. She gingerly touched the piece of jewellery before returning to her eggs, almost as if she wanted to check it was really there.

Evan fingered the delicate gold chain circling her wrist. The 'E' charm caught her finger and scratched the very top layer of skin. "I just felt like it this morning," she said. "It goes with my top."

Suzanne nodded in faintly startled agreement. She admired the bracelet until catching the time on Evan's digital watch and hurrying through the last few bites of breakfast. She took care to avoid smudging her pale lipstick or spilling the red

(blood blood bloody scissors bloody clothes in the outside bin)

sauce on her candy floss coloured café tunic.

"I've gotta go, Ev." She took a long drink of tea as she stood. "Gonna be late."

Evan didn't look up until the door had shut and she heard her mother dragging her bicycle out of the driveway and onto the road. Then she dumped the rest of her porridge in the food waste and grabbed her jacket and backpack. Not quick enough. Heavy footsteps ascended the stairs and the basement door squealed open to reveal a pyjama-clad Marcus. For a pretty skinny nineteen-year-old, Marcus had the intimidating air of a very large person.

"Morning Marcus," Evan said. "Don't you just look like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day."

"And don't you just look like you just crawled out of-"

"Morning, all," sung George, hobbling into the kitchen. His voice was weak but cheerful and it stopped Marcus mid-sentence. Evan took her brother's cereal out of the cupboard and handed it to him. He would be slightly less volatile after his breakfast.