Hawthornes always seemed to weave their way into Evelyn Hastings's life one way or another. Other than one persistent Hawthorne, Evelyn had never really spoken directly to any of them. But lately, a new Hawthorne has been appearing too much, prying...
As Stella and Jamie exchanged words, Stella seemed to get more aggravated with every sentence.
A few words later, Jamie walks away looking defeated. He goes through to the infamous backyard, Evelyn pushing to follow him. When she got outside, Jamie was pacing a sidewalk, angrily talking into his phone.
Evelyn spotted George, Ant's soccer friend, some cigarette-type thing hanging from his mouth. She walked over, standing beside him waiting for a greeting.
"Oh, Evelyn, what are you doing here?" he asked, acknowledging her presence.
"Not much, just following him around," she said, loosely gesturing toward Jamie. "You got any more?"
"Oh," he chuckled, "I never thought of you to be the smoker type. Only thought it was your brother."
"No, he was the weed type of guy; he'd probably eat the cigarette before he could smoke it," she giggled.
"Why would he eat it?" A smile spread across his face as he handed her one.
"Because he'd be high from the weed!" she exclaimed, lighting her cigarette.
"Anyway, what's he doing here? Doesn't look like a high schooler to me," George scoffed, blowing smoke out.
"'Cause he isn't, he's twenty-four."
"Jesus, who's he talking to?" George leaned forward, seemingly trying to hear Jamie's conversation.
"No idea."
"Then let's listen," he offered.
They both looked at Jamie, still pacing the sidewalk. Evelyn could only slightly make out some words, the others getting lost in the party music and the shouting people.
"Dude, I could call the cops. That's fraud, Layla!" he shouted, seemingly unaware of the people watching him.
Then he stopped pacing, one finger pressed in his open ear. He sat, listening to the person on the other end of the phone.
"What?"
The next few sentences Evelyn wasn't sure anyone could make out what he said. Well, other than one word.
"Why is he saying child?" Evelyn murmured, forgetting she was beside George.
Suddenly, Jamie looked up, his eyes going just past Evelyn to George. His eyes widened as he turned, quickly making his way down the sidewalk.
"That's my cue," Evelyn said, handing her still-lit cigarette to George and following after Jamie.
"I don't think I can do it," Jamie said into his phone, sounding like he was pleading with this "Layla" he was talking to.
Jamie hung up, stuffed his phone in his pocket, and didn't say a single word to Evelyn.
"Who's the special girl?" Evelyn said, trying to break the awkwardness but only making it worse.
"What do you mean?" Jamie asked roughly.
"Layla..."
"Why do you need to know?"
"Because you don't seem too happy with her. Trouble in paradise?" Evelyn jokes. That joke didn't land. Jamie stayed silent, making his way down to Main Street. "Are we just going to your house?"
"Yeah," Jamie said, his face scrunching.
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Minutes later, they arrived outside the Reynolds home, its window eyes closed by the curtains.
"I'm gonna go inside and grab something," Jamie said, pointing to the house.
"I'll... I'll just stay out here," Evelyn awkwardly mumbled, sitting down on the porch.
Jamie picked up a plant beside the door, a shiny key sitting peacefully under it. He picked up the key, urgently jamming it into the locked door. Jamie walked in, respectfully closing the door behind him. Through the door, Evelyn could somehow hear the sound of rustling coming from inside. Metal clanking around and scraping against each other. A few moments later, Jamie walked out of the house with nothing in hand.
"What did you get?" Evelyn eyed him, searching for a hint of what he had grabbed.
Jamie stood there, seemingly contemplating what he should do. Then, he slowly revealed the smallest gleam of a knife.
"Woah, woah, should I leave? It seems like you clearly don't want me here," Evelyn laughed, trying to break the tension. Why do I keep doing this to myself? Evelyn thought. I should've left him alone when he was on the phone.
"No, this might be easier with you," Jamie calmly said.
"Can you explain what's going on first?" Evelyn pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut.
"I can while we walk," he said, already starting to walk away.
Thank you, Evelyn said silently, relief washing over her.
"Okay, so, yes, I have been talking to this one girl" —Evelyn wiggled her eyebrows—"and she told me about how her dad isn't the best guy. She had some sort of brain tumor or something and he's been refusing her this clinical trial she could do," he explained.
"Oh, shit." Guilt panged Evelyn. "That's terrible," she said, swallowing the newly formed lump in her throat.
"Yeah, she said I could help by getting her the money to pay for it. So, I gave twelve hundred dollars to her. Not directly; at a gravestone. Then, she told me about her dead mother's stolen watch. Layla, the girl, asked me to go to someone's house, and steal it back."
"Jamie, are you sure this is a real person? It feels like they add on to the story to get you to do things," she asked suspiciously, trying to keep up with Jamie.
"Evelyn, you don't know her like I do." His tone was cold now. Had Evelyn just ruined her chances of hearing the rest of what she had gotten herself into this time?
"Continuing." She hadn't. "I got the watch back and that was that. Until I had to do something more illegal that I will not specify. Now, we've made it to the present day. Right now. Layla has been using fake photos this whole time. So, when I saw the girl that was in those photos, I naturally wanted to talk to who I thought was Layla."
"But it was actually Stella," Evelyn inquired.
"Apparently. Once I discovered Stella wasn't Layla, I called Layla and asked her about that. She said that she had a stalker, and that's why she can't use her real pictures. After her research, Layla has narrowed down her stalker to two people: Stanley Forbes and Luke Eaton. Layla says I just have to say one thing to them, whoever is her stalker will know what it means."
"What do you have to say?" Evelyn crossed her arms.
"Child Brunswick."
"And after that?" Evelyn waited. Silence. "Jamie?"
