Echoes of Deception

iv

Evalyna would visit more frequently.

About once a week, she'd run into difficulty with her father, feel the need to get away. Takina was always grateful to have her, and Eva loved eating a proper home cooked meal. 

Finally, the two of them were invited. Max and Evalyna. Well, Takina had been asking for the last few weeks by now, but Max had been busy most nights.. Finally, though, he had some room in his schedule.

Matthew sat at the table, looking at the two- Max, and Eva, sitting at his dining room table. Seeing Eva wasn't unusual... but Max- it was weird to see Max in his home.

"This is really good, Ms. Mordrake!" Max said, smiling. "Thank you for inviting me over."

"It's no problem," Takina had responded with a grin. "It is always great to have Matthew's friends over."

After dinner, the three of them played Mario Kart 8 in the living room, Max naturally with the driving assist so that he wouldn't fall off of the track. 
"Geez." Max sighed, "I'm soooo bad at this. Matthew, you should totally give me like one-on-one tutoring seshs." He grinned then, looking over at Matthew as he gleefully poked his side. 

Matthew broke a small smile, "You're hopeless." 

Eva gasped, "Rude...!" She said. "Anyone can learn how to play Mario Kart and be good at it."

Matthew shook his head then, "No. Not Max. He's a lost cause."

Max sighed, covering his face with his hand. "Matthew is so cruel.."

"Just realistic."

"Cruel. An asshole," Eva chimed in, "Just the worst."

Max nodded, "Honestly.. We should've never come, Eva.."

Max had to leave by 8:30. Matthew looked out of the large window in his living room as he drove off, quiet. Eva broke the silence. 
"You're worried about him." Eva said, "I can tell. I can almost read your thoughts at this point."
Matthew turned, giving Eva a stupid look. Really? What am I thinking right now, then? 
Eva then grinned, "I bet right now, you're asking me what you're thinking in your thoughts." 
Damn, she's good.
"And just now! You thought, damn- she's good!" Eva giggled a bit to herself.
"Have I become that predictable?" Matthew perked a brow, "That's kind of scary. Can you actually read thoughts?"
"Maybeee," Eva said in a singsong voice before then looking away. Though Matthew had spoken more frequently, her visits were mostly just doing her homework on the island, playing games with Matthew in the living room, and occasionally taking a nap on the couch (though she'd never admit to it). Matthew had become comfortable with her around. He still didn't talk too frequently, but he contributed to conversations now. Eva figured it was better than nothing. She'd discovered more things.

Matthew really, really liked Lemon Gelato. The Meringue stuff. Really, he liked just about all sweets. She sort of knew this, but the extent of his sweet tooth was jarring. To the point where he didn't like anything peanut-related. He said it was too savory, which was crazy to her.

Matthew was pretty funny. Most of what he said was short, but the monotonous way in which he delivered his snappy one-liners seemed to sell it. He perked one of his brows a lot.

When he was focusing, he'd bite on the end of his pencils. He had a bad nail-biting habit, too, but also hated when his fingernails would snag on clothing so he would file them down when they got to that point. She also caught him by occasion chewing on his hoodie string.

Matthew looked up when he was thinking about something and trying to remember something, but down when he was zoning out and thinking about something sad. She figured out how to snap him out of it.

Matthew smelled like dessert-y vanilla, or lemon. Or sometimes mint, but not the sharp mint. A nice, chocolate-y mint. 

When his brown, almost black- fluffy hair got too long, his mother was the one who cut it. 

Matthew played the piano, and very well, too. He also played guitar sometimes. 

Matthew did not like steak or carrots. He especially didn't like celery. 

He had a lot of books in his room. He preferred studying in there, too. When he had a lot of homework to do, he'd be up in his room doing it and would only come downstairs for water. When he came downstairs for water, he'd dip his fingertips into his cup and splatter it at Eva before he head back upstairs. 

Most importantly, Matthew was considerate. 
He narrowed down Evangeline's perfume scent- the strawberry oat-milk scent that she had. He found a shampoo and conditioner and put it in the guest room's shower, as well as a body soap that had a strawberry scent. He even got a pink loofah and an exfoliating scrub, and a facial cleanser. He bought two pink towels with strawberries on it for her bathroom. Her own toothbrush. He never mentioned these when he bought them, they just wound up in the guest room shower- she supposed if she ever needed to use it, he wanted to make sure there were things in there. That or, his mother had gotten them for her. Either way, it still said a lot about their family. Eva wished it was hers.
He figured out what her favorite fruits and snacks were, and asked if his mother could add it to the grocery list. 
If there were two chocolate bars left, even if Matthew REALLY, really wanted chocolate, he wouldn't eat it. Just so that she'd have the option. 
Evalyna even noticed that in the guest bedroom, in the cabinet underneath the sink, there were now tampons, pads, and panty liners. Though she assumed this was probably from his mother. 
Eva, needless to say, really liked spending her time at Matthew's house, but she still didn't want to overstay. She was only over once a week, and any more than that and she felt like she'd be intruding and a burden, but regardless she spent a great deal of time over there.

"Spring break is coming up," Eva said, looking up from her algebra homework and over to Matthew, who was twirling his pencil in his fingers. He held a hand up to the side of his cheek with the elbow of that hand resting on the table. When Eva spoke, he frowned a bit. Sometimes, Matthew's frowns were not really frowns. Eva didn't really know how to explain it, but most of the time when she spoke after a good moment of silence, his initial response was a frown. She wondered if he was just processing what she said. Maybe he didn't like her voice? That would suck.. But she learned that these frowns didn't indicate that he disliked what she said. 
"No homework." He then said, "So much time to do nothing.." 
Eva smiled a bit in response, "So much time for driving lessons, more like. Didn't your mom sign you up for those?"
Matthew nodded, "Yup.. I don't figure it's even that difficult."
"Easy for you, probably. After seeing how good you are at Mario Kart 8?"
"Well, unlike Mario Kart, there are like.. laws and stuff.. speed limits.." Matthew shuddered, "And the cars can't flip."
"You could make them flip."
Matthew then smiled, "I think my mom would check herself into a clinic if I'd made a car flip."
Eva chuckled in response, looking at him for a bit. His smiles were rare. She liked seeing them, though.. A lot. She looked back down at her paper then, thinking, before then glancing back at Matthew. 

Sometimes, she wondered if Matthew might've been gay, but he never seemed to show any initiative for Max, either. Maybe he just didn't like people, you know- in that way. Eva really, really liked their friendship, though. She didn't want to mention anything about the way he made her feel, because then they wouldn't have this kind of friendship anymore. His mom would probably be more strict if she noticed them starting to show initiative. Then she wouldn't be able to come over all the time and get some free Matthew-time.

For dinner, Takina made teriyaki chicken with white rice. Eva wasn't much good at chopsticks, yet.. Afterwards, they played cards until Eva took a look at the time and excused herself.

"Sandra's again?" His dad asked Eva as she opened the door, closing it behind her. 
"Yeah.." Eva said, taking a few steps over to the living room to hear him better.
"Right. Sandra's." His dad tipped his beer up to take a swig.

It was football season. Superbowl, to be more exact. She noticed that it wasn't something Takina nor Matthew cared about, but when the Superbowl was on her mom couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from the screen. This meant, for the most part, Eva was completely safe.
She head up the stairs, looking around her house as she quietly thought to herself how different her home was compared to Matthew's. 
Dinner was ramen, or kraft mac n cheese if Eva had energy. Or canned soups and those beefaroni things. When Eva was making money, she was making a decent amount of money freelancing and could buy herself meals. But she hadn't managed to get enough money around to replace her laptop- she was considering doing a part time job over the summer. 
She missed it, though. Without it, she felt like there was nothing for her to do. She could only talk to her online friends on her phone, but she wasn't able to play any games with them like she used to- anything that would run on Linux and her shitty laptop, that is. She couldn't continue to learn new programming languages. Couldn't do anything. She felt like a lot of power had been stripped from her, and she wondered why she'd taken something so small and simple for granted. Whenever she had an essay to do, she couldn't do it at home; She had to stay late in the library of the school in order to work on it. This was nothing short of annoying, of course. 

At least at Matthew's, she had ample amounts of things to do to distract her. Matthew even was letting her borrow his guitar when she was over. She had learned a few chords.