As You Were

7. Say You Love Me

He was worried that I wasn't there, Jax. When Monday came round again and it was time to go back to work he had been glad, because he figured work was the one place that I could not avoid him. He'd tried calling, of course, but there was no response. He tried visiting, but I did not answer. Yet I had a job, and surely I would show up for it and then he could talk to me about what had happened between us. Only I never showed up. So all throughout the day Jax had to keep reminding himself to focus on his tasks, that way he'd quit bumping into people and forgetting what he was saying mid-sentence. He tried, truly, but he was just so distracted.

Evie hardly seemed to notice, and he wondered why that was. Unlike him she never mentioned my absence to any of her coworkers, he never caught her looking around for me. It was hard on him, he was in a tough spot now. When it finally came time for everyone to go home Jax found himself wandering slowly towards his sister's dressing room, going over in his head what he wanted to say to her. She knew him so well, the probability of him being caught was high, and if he was going to get away with what he'd done he would have to try really hard to convince her nothing was up.

"Hey, sis," he knocked lightly as he leaned against the doorframe. Evie looked over at him and smiled tiredly, waving him in.

"Don't just stand out there, come on." Her voice was dull, lacking any of the common shine that it usually had.

"Have you t-t-talked to Eli today? He didn't show up for work." Jax waited for her answer as she looked stoically at her reflection, elbows rested on the table and palms on her forehead. It was almost as if she hadn't heard him.

"He called me this morning," she shook her head briskly, patting her cheeks and looking at her brother again. "He said he quit."

"Quit?" Jax was breathless, heading over and sitting on the edge of the chase.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure we can get someone else in a day or two. I'm glad he's giving himself an opportunity to do something else." Evie looked at the doppelganger that her brother cast in her mirror as she spoke.

"What's he doing?" He tried desperately to mask his sadness as he asked.

"I don't know. We're going out tomorrow night, I'll probably find out more then. Why, hasn't he told you anything?"

"No." He looked away from his sister, realizing how impossible it would be to get to me now.

"I'm sure he meant to, must have slipped his mind." Evie trailed off, again just looking at her herself with fatigue. Jax finally took notice.

"Are you okay?" His words were soft and she smiled now, feeling the emotion of her brother. She twisted around on her stool and eyed him, getting up and going over to be next to him.

"I'm fine." Her eyes went down to his hands before she took them into her own. "Jax, do you remember Hunter?"

"Your ex-boyfriend?" For a moment he was sidetracked from his thoughts of me by the strange thing his sister had asked him.

"Yeah." She swallowed hard, "I don't know, I think about him sometimes still, like how I stayed with him even though he," Evie stopped, looking up at her brother. "You know, anyways, I stayed with him through everything, and no matter what he did I somehow justified it in my head—that I deserved it somehow, he was sorry." She couldn't help it now as she began to cry a little.

"That wasn't your fault, any of it. You know that." He wiped her tear away, returning his hand back to hers.

"I know. Do you remember what you did when I was in the hospital?"