Evangeline (Unedited)

21

F L A S H B A C K S A N D F U T U R E
(Extra chapter because I feel like it. Completely unrelated but anxiety is so weird because why am I messed up over the way a Wattpad book I'm super attached to is going.... it's not that serious... Also, having a rough time with my friend so I wrote this in attempt to distract myself. Anyways, enjoy!)

"What the hell is happening up here?" Alessandro questions Wilbur and Theodore, who are snickering, the grandfather clock—or pieces of it—from the cottage lying on the ground, Wilbur's foot underneath. His face is twisted in pain, but the grimace keeps faltering as laughs escape him.

Theodore was hunched over, hands on his knees as he laughed at his brother's torment. Alessandro's face twisted from concern to amusement, and I believe mine did the same.

"We were trying to—ow," Wilbur giggles and groans at the same time, very contradicting noises from such a scary-looking guy. "Trying to move the old clock—the one that you broke, if I remember correctly—into Theo's room so he can attempt to fix it." He winks at me, and I blush and smile sheepishly.

"This thing is a devil." Theodore laughs loudly, the noise reverberating off of the hollow walls. "Every time someone comes into contact with it, someone gets hurt. It's cursed."

I giggle at that explanation and think back to when it almost fell on the three of us.

"Move!" Noah hollered, pulling me violently out of the way.

Leo managed to roll out, also putting himself on top of my arm, which was bent in such a weird way I was surprised it didn't dislocate. I could feel the ache growing all over my body, nose wet with blood. Glass shattered and the floor shook, a choked ding sounding from the clock as it hit the cold ground. My jaw was practically broken from the fall, but also because of how wide it was at what I just did.

I could feel the bottom of my chin bruising almost immediately.

"I can't believe I just did that..." I closed my eyes as if it was going to hide me from the embarrassment.

Leo snorted at our predicament, which turned into a full-blown laugh attack. Noah was frowning, but even that eventually turned into one too, and soon all three of us were a writhing mess of giggles and some-happy-some-hurt tears on the floor. I felt extremely guilty for knocking it down, and almost killing ourselves in the process. But they were laughing. And I couldn't hold back my laughter either.

I could just imagine what Elio would've done if he was there; he would never let me live it down.

"What the hell happened?" Someone asked from up the stairs, their voice laced with a mix of concern and amusement.

I tried to turn despite the weight on me, Wilbur briefly crossing my eyeline before an elbow gets jabbed in my stomach, making me jolt back to the previous position I was in.

"Ow!" I grimaced, wiggling away from it.

Leo apologized through the breaths between his hysterics, and I listened to the melodic sounds He sounded so cheerful and bright when he laughed. It naturally made me laugh along with him.

"No! The clock!" Tommy yelled in agony from behind Wilbur. My cheeks flushed red, and I felt a tug on my hand, Leo and Noah trying to aid me in getting up. I cursed when I stood on my left leg, and pulled up my pants to see a huge scrape halfway up my body (not really, it started at my knee and went to the top of my thigh). Wilbur whistled as he walked down the steps, narrowly avoiding the chunks of wood and glass that had decorated the floor. What sounded like a stampede of elephants also came down the stairs, the rest of the boys gravitating to a kid of their choosing in concern. Noah and Leo were still laughing, and I was both balancing my extreme guilt and the humour of it all.