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▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃ tearjerker ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
Evara found herself awake around 4am and decided to waste some time. She woke up to Ben's paws on the door, and like usual Callums a heavy sleeper. She made her way downstairs taking Ben outside in the backyard. She poured herself a glass of alcohol that he left out on the table and grabbed a pack of cigarettes she had left outside on a chair outside. She went back inside to grab her lighter and grabbed a toy for Ben.
When she got back outside she threw the toy out at him as he ran after it. She lit the cigarette between her lips sitting back down on the modern lounger daybed.
Ben dropped the toy at her feet, panting, tail thumping hard against the patio. She reached down and rubbed behind his ears, murmuring something soft, almost maternal. He didn't know any better. He just liked that she was up. That she came back for him.
She took another drag.
The cigarette burned slow, and the drink numbed slower. Everything was quiet except for Ben's breath and the occasional rustle of a leaf tumbling somewhere in the dark. A storm might've been coming she could feel it in the air.
She didn't want to go back inside yet. The house felt too loud in its silence. And Callum's sleep, steady and untouched, made her feel like she was the one keeping everything alive by force.
She let the ash fall into the wind and stayed.
She couldn't get Madeline out her head, she had missed her friend so deeply. Recently she's been out with Fleur investigating her and her French lifestyle. Fleur wasn't like any other random French girl in the modeling business. Fleur had money, lots of it. Yet she never made an impression or appearance of it, Evara only came to her conclusion once she stepped foot into her house. She still lived with her parents, in a home that looked like a library. Her parents ran their own life insurance company.
Evara stared at the glowing tip of her cigarette, then crushed it out in the ashtray beside her. Her hands felt colder now. Her chest even heavier.
She reached for her phone, ignoring the unread messages, the ones she knew she couldn't answer yet. She scrolled past them and paused, thumb hovering over the name she rarely tapped.
"Mom."
It rang once. Twice. Evara almost hung up.
Then— "Hello?" The voice was tired, laced with sleep and suspicion. It had always sounded like that, like it was waiting to be disappointed.
Evara didn't speak right away. She just listened to her mother's breathing on the other end, steady and real.
"...Evara?" her mother asked again, more alert this time. "What time is it where you are?"
"I don't know," Evara murmured, voice barely above a whisper. "Four... maybe five."
