Echoes of Deception

iii. week 4

"Are you serious?!" A voice boomed from a neighboring house, "I need that for my schoolwork, you prick!"
"Really? Or are you talkin' to guys on there? I know what the hell you are." A man responds, yelling.
"What?! I'm not talking to guys on my- Are you serious right now? This is actually.. how the hell am I supposed to get a new laptop?!"

Matthew stared up at the ceiling, laying down on the bed and thinking while he listened to the conversation. He knew the girl now. Eva. Turns out, she was the one getting yelled at... But Matthew wasn't sure what to do. If he were to just go over to her house and try to help the situation, he'd wind up looking suspicious. She'd wonder why he'd shown up in the first place. Plus, he wasn't sure entirely if Evalyna and Max were people he could trust. Not only that, but what could he do? Even if he'd torn her away from the house to go on a walk, she might end up in more trouble.

John's foot came down, hitting the laptop. The keys that were only loose before hand flew off, thudding onto the floor. Evalyna, in a sense of defeat, sat down onto her bed and buried her face into her hands.
"You're under my roof." John said, "I'll be fucking damned if I have a slut in my own home. I asked you one god damn thing- to do the dishes, and yet I find you up here on your laptop."
"I'm sorry." Eva said, "I'm really, really sorry. I lost track of the time."
"I don't buy that excuse." John spat back, bending down to pick up the laptop. Then, he threw it towards Evalyna, the laptop going just past her and slamming into the wall. It almost caused a hole. Eva tensed up, further burying her face into her hands. 
"Fucking ridiculous. I get back from buying beer, and you're just up here being a fucking camgirl. This isn't what your mother would've wanted." 

With that, he turned and slammed the door behind him.

Eva stayed frozen, not wanting to move. If she stayed very, very still, she could pretend like nothing was happening. If only... 
After a few minutes she stood, picking up some pieces until she'd formed a pile on the floor in the middle of the room. Then she knelt down, picking up the Samsung SSD that she'd put into the laptop herself. A Terabyte. This small, tiny stick. Well, half of it anyways.. She put her hand out and moved some of the other parts out of the way to get the other stick, putting them together as if it was a puzzle piece before sighing softly. There was no way she'd be able to recover her data, unless she was a millionaire. She was virtually screwed. There'd be no way for her to make any more money until she got a new laptop.

Evalyna waited until her father had passed out on the couch to grab a black garbage bag, heading back up to her room. She inspected the parts, wondering which may still be okay despite what it endured. She kept the SSD and for sentimental reasons kept some pieces of the motherboard. Beyond that, even the battery for it was dented. She sighed, standing up and setting them onto her desk.



In the morning during school, Evalyna's replies to Max were nothing out of the ordinary. As if nothing had happened.
Matthew unwrapped his straw after fiddling with the box containing chocolate milk, putting his straw into it and sipping it while he observed the two. Max somehow was able to figure out a conversation topic on a whim, at any time. He had anything, and somehow everything, to talk about. Evalyna kept track of the conversations well. She had wit in her responses, some of which were just facial expressions that made Max crack up. 

Yet, normal. The entire day. At the end of each day, they started to meet up at Evalyna's locker. It felt a bit like she had a harem going on..
"Why don't you let me drop you off?" Max sighed, "Like. You don't have to walk."
"I like walking." Evalyna smiled. 
Max frowned, "It's not out of the way for me! It's just two minutes." He said.
Eva shook her head, "That's not why I'm saying no!" She smiled.

When Eva left to walk, every day Matthew would wait a minute before leaving himself. He didn't want to walk with Eva. It'd be awkward. With the three of them, he was free to be silent while the two of them got to carry on a conversation. With just two, well.. It worried him.
Besides, he could tell that Evalyna preferred it this way. When they'd walk, she'd look behind her and notice him, turn around and not do anything. She never brought it up or asked why Matthew lagged behind each time.
Initially, Matthew thought she was being courteous, though she seemed more the type to catch him off guard. After last night, he realized that he was doing her a favor.