Heal Me

Chapter 16

 

"You want to make a deal?" Evangeline asked incredulously and, going to the car, she leaned against it. He rubbed his face, letting his hand get lost in his hair, then scoffed.

 

"If that's how you want to call it...Yeah, I guess so." Damon shrugged and sat next to her. "What do you say?" 

 

Evangeline furrowed her eyebrows in anger as her lips formed a tight line.

 

"What part of 'I can't tell you right now' didn't you understand?" she glared at him for a second or two then sighed and bit her lip in indetermination.

 

"Sorry about that" she mumbled then glanced at him and took a deep breath. "Damon... don't take this the wrong way because it's not that I don't trust you. I, uhm, I just can't-" she stuttered and fumbled with the hem of her coat before he cut her off.

 

"You don't want me to know..." he shifted to look her in the eye. "Do you?" Damon continued with a frown on his face and Evangeline tried to hide the fact that he was right by looking somewhere else. He should never know what that man had done to her; nobody should.

"I promise not to treat you any differently, if that's what you are worried about." he assured her in one of the softest tones he had ever used since the accident. His heart ached with a strange emotion, but it did not feel like the ache he had been feeling for months now; it was something he had never felt before.

 

"I really want to know." Damon let the words tumble out of his mouth but didn't regret them for a second for what he just said was the truth. Just like Evangeline, he did not know why he wanted this so badly. Both his heart and the pit of his stomach suffered from a foreign feeling. It made him somehow... sick, in an oddly good way, whenever he thought about Evangeline; he simply could not be cold, impassive about the whole thing, as he usually was. And now, staring at the angel next to him, at the way her silk scarf was wrapped around her neck and at the still visible tear stains on her cheeks, Damon realized that she had indeed turned him into another man... so different from who he was a few weeks ago that it amazed him.

Her head snapped up at him as her lips parted in surprise. She thought that he hated her... She thought that he wanted nothing to do with her. Did he care? Did she actually manage to stir such emotions in him?

 

Evangeline stared deep into his eyes, letting herself drown in their beautiful color which told her the truth: even if he denied it so vehemently and did not show all the time, he cared about her, in his own weird, boyish way...

"Could you open the doors, please? I have to get home." she broke out of her daydream as she whispered to hide her croaky voice.

 

"Come on, Eva!" he muttered then took a deep breath and raised his voice a little. "You said you wanted to help me move on, right?"

 

"Yeah, but-"

 

"It only seems fair for me to help you too." he said hurriedly and stared into her eyes, waiting for a reply. It came moments after, as she was waiting to be woken up... this could only be a dream. But it was not... everything was real, clear as day: Damon knew something was deeply wrong and, in the spur of the moment, he now showed just how much he cared about her. How couldn't he? Evangeline was like a balm to his wounds... the wounds of his soul. She made him face the facts by constantly, yet involuntarily reminding him of the accident. She was trying to make him live a normal life... But how could she call it normal if it was without them?

 

"Damon, it's okay. I don't need-" she finally tried to explain but he slammed his fist on the bonnet of the car.

"Bullshit!" he raised his voice even more, making her take a step backwards. "It's not freaking okay, Eva! You told me so yourself in that bloody letter!"

 

"Damon, please..." she touched his shoulder to calm him down and, after a few moments, her perfume did its job. His muscles visibly relaxed and his angry frown disappeared, turning Damon into the cold, resigned self. He shrugged her hand off of his shoulder, causing hurt and sadness wash through her, and went to the other side of the car to open his door.

 

"Damon..." she murmured in a pleading tone, tears brimming at her eyes, as he fumbled with the keys. "I can handle it by myself. Really... It's not such a big deal."

"Stop lying to me!" he muttered and glared at her. But before she could utter a single word, Damon briskly opened his door and got in, causing a pang of guilt clench her heart. He only wanted to help, just like her...

 

From inside, Damon pulled the handle that opened her door and she got in as well, pain visible in her child-like eyes.

 

"Damon... I can't... " Evangeline finally murmured as he parked his car next to the sidewalk in front of her house. Her voice was so soft and yet so altered by tears and she was silently begging him not to be mad at her.

 

"I don't want to talk about it." he replied so harshly that she flinched, but, noticing this, his look softened.

 

"God, Eva!" he sighed and sat a few moments with his head resting against the steering-wheel.

 

"I swear you're making me lose it at times..." Damon suddenly snorted and raised his head to look her in the eye.

 

"Uhm... W-what do you m-mean?" Evangeline stuttered and tightened her hold on the wallet she was carrying.

 

"It doesn't matter... What matters is the so-called deal I told you about. At least think about it. I can wait a little, if you don't want to tell me right now." he raised his head and rubbed his temples. There was something about the fact that he cared... Evangeline simply could not say 'No'.

 

"I... Uhmm... I guess." she mumbled, staring back into his eyes and watching how they slightly lit up at her words.

 

"I'll think about it." she assured him and smiled shyly. As she thanked him for the ride and went inside her house, he smiled a little too; he was experiencing the same excitement as she did on all those days when she sat next to him.