Evelyn

Chapter 5:

"Why'd you move from California?"

Evelyn wondered whether the guy was just plain stupid after all, even though she had made it perfectly clear to him that she just wanted to be alone with her books and was in no mood for socializing, especially with him. He was sitting right next to her, chest and throat area exposed and if she repositioned herself just slightly, she could aim a quick blow that would send him reeling. After moving to Maine, Evelyn had signed herself up for a few martial arts classes that she had dropped after a year, but the lessons were still fresh in her head.

But this was a public place and there were too many witnesses.

So the only thing to do was to politely hint (again) that she was on the do-not-disturb mode.

Evelyn shrugged, not talking or looking at him. 

"I know you're trying not to talk to me." they were in a fairly secluded area of the bookstore and Jace was leaning his body against the shelf as Evelyn looked through it, trying to decide which books to get and which could wait until a coupon. "But that's hardly fair, seeing as you've heard more about me than I have of you."

Evelyn ignored him, putting a copy of The Queen of the Night and The Sun is Also a Star side by side with each other, wondering which one was worth getting now and which one could wait until Thanksgiving rolled by and had a fifteen percent off.

Victoria had gone off, reluctantly, after a few of her friends had come looking for her here and dragged her off to go to a designer store to buy a dress for an upcoming party or something, leaving Evelyn and Jace alone. Well, the guys had been trying to contact Jace as well, but he ignored their texts and hadn't told them that he was at Barnes and Nobles. When Evelyn had asked, he had simply replied,

"Why don't you hang out with them?"

And there was nothing more to say. 

"You know," suddenly his voice was dangerously close as she turned her back to put down The Queen of the Night. His breath tickled her ear. "Even closed books can be read if you just open them."

"What is your problem?" she turned around sharply, but he didn't take any steps back, just raised his eyebrows and looked at her with amusement in his eyes.

That's when she realized that she had been set up. All he had wanted was for her to talk to him and she had fell for the trap. 

"I want to know," Jace grinned at her, "What's going on in that mind of yours?"

"Trust me, nothing you want to know about." Evelyn warned threateningly, walking over to another genre section and browsing through. 

"Then I'll just have to guess." he shrugged, following her, slipping his phone back into his pocket after taking it out to check the time. "You like to think you're a closed book, always on guard and keeping your feelings in check, cancelling out all your emotions if you have to. I'm going to say that this was due to something that happened in the past, although I can't get into any more detail. You're popular and you know that you're better than ninety nine percent of other people which is why you secretly despise everyone around you."

My grip on my book falters a little bit as I'm taken aback, but I don't meet his eye and keep on walking. 

"You're on the cross country team now, but you probably did something like dance, specifically ballet, when you were younger." continued Jace, saying the words as easily as if he were reading from an actual book. Evelyn felt exposed in front of him and hoped her face wasn't as red as she felt it was. "You're smart, excelling in all your subjects and there's no one subject that you do better than the other, although you prefer English the most. You could read all day and be perfectly content with it, you're one to tear up during sad movies, but only in the inside and you never let it show. But you'll claim that you weren't emotionally moved at all. Nonetheless, once you're alone, depending on how safe you feel, you'll finally let your true feelings show. You hate girls like Bethany Solomon who are always all show and no brain."