Evelyn

Chapter 10:

 Jace texted Evelyn all weekend with light-hearted messages, although she knew that he was making sure she was okay.

After the party, he had been the one to drive her home, even though Victoria had spotted them going out the front door and came up to them, full of concern. She had asked them what was wrong but one look at Jace had made her nod and disappear back into the crowd. As they had gotten in the car, Evelyn had barely noticed that her hands were trembling until Jace gently put his hand over her's. Her face had turned bright red at that.

During the car ride, she had debated with herself whether to tell Jace not to tell anyone else about it or not. Was it necessary to ask him to keep the night's incident to himself? What if he wasn't planning on telling anyone in the first place? Would asking him make her seem like she was hiding something, then?

In the end, Evelyn had said nothing but thanked Jace when they arrived at her house and gotten out of the car, giving him a wave before disappearing through her front door. She had watched him drive away through a small crack in the shutters of her living room window. 

It was Sunday night now and Evelyn had received a total of fifty messages from Jace which she had replied with one word answers. It surprised her how concerned he was as the two had barely known each other, but then again, she couldn't help but feel a little grateful.

Nobody knew about what had happened except Jace and her, so far. And maybe Victoria, who had sent frantic texts after the party, asking her what had happened. Evelyn had texted back, saying that the wine had gotten to her head and she had done a really stupid thing, careful to be very vague. She didn't know whether Victoria bought that or not, but the texts stopped coming from her.

Nobody knew. And that was good. That would help Evelyn push this memory away, as if it had never happened. She was furious with herself too. She had seemed weak in front of Jace, someone she barely even knew- except, did she barely know him now? They had talked on the roof, and he had revealed facts about his childhood and she had shared some information back to him, but did that mean they were friends?

Come to think of it, why exactly had Jace led her up there anyway? He had seemed perfectly content, dancing with that blonde girl before Evelyn had arrived. So why had he suddenly just left the girl and told Evelyn to follow him? 

"Kill me now." Evelyn groaned into her pillow to no one in particular, closing the physics textbook she had been trying to read for the past two hours, in preparation for the exam.

"Honey, you alright back there?" her dad's voice came from the hall where he had been getting something out of his toolbox to fix the kitchen sink faucet.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she lied, getting off her bed and stepping out in the hall. "How's that sink working out?"

"Tricky little bastard, but I'm sure I'll get there sooner or later." he admitted and spotted the textbook on her bedsheets. "Got a test coming up soon?"

"Tuesday." Evelyn told him and they walked downstairs to the kitchen. "But I think I'll take a break for now. God knows how hard I've been working."

"I sense sarcasm in those words." her father glanced at her. "And how hard can reading a book be when meanwhile, I'm struggling with the monster sent from the depths of hell."

"That'll be fifty cents in the swear jar." his daughter pointed out casually, pointing to the mason jar located on the bookshelf in the living room.

It had been there ever since she had been a little kid, but after her mother passed away, it had kind of lost its meaning and nowadays, it was hardly used, although frequently mentioned.