[Chriseva] A Family We Chose For Ourselves

4. Kollektiv

"So you and Chris, huh?"

After the initial shock of what happened finally begins wearing off, Eva can finally think straight and like herself again, she's beginning to find this question particularly grating.

She's standing in the corner of the room, facing the monotonous white wall for some inexplicable reason, not like there was a plant or an awful painting in sight to blame her distraction on. Maybe she wasn't as completely back to herself as she thought.

It's one of the Penetrator guys loitering around that approached her. A handful of them had left about half an hour ago and the rest were nonchalantly strewn across the room in various positions. Her own set of friends were scattered around, a few of the guys were conversing with a couple of the Penetrator guys and Noora was messaging someone (most likely William) while seemingly lost in her own little world. Isak and Even were huddled together a decent ways away from the nearest group of people, Even looked slightly unnerved but Isak was holding his hand and speaking in low whispers into his ear. Eskild was engaged in a far too animated conversation with one random Penetrator member who looked confused about whether to feel disturbed or slightly turned on, or disturbed that he was slightly turned on. Magnus, Vilde and the others were huddled together in the opposite corner while Sana surveyed the surrounding with an unnerving poker faced glare.

"Yes, me and Chris," she says, almost like a challenge as she turns to look at him in the end, daring him to say one misogynistic word.

"Oh," he says which was not what Eva was expecting at all. "That's great. He really likes you, you know. I can tell." He adds, and on a scale of one to ten on the list of what Eva absolutely did not expect to hear, that was about a twelve.

"Oh," she says eloquently in return.

"He's a lucky guy," Perpetrator Guy #3 adds and Eva decides that she really should find out his name.

Admittedly of all the times she's found herself having this conversation tonight, this was arguably the sweetest outcome of them all. Who would have thought?

A commotion near the entrance draws her attention and the attention of pretty much everyone in the room.

The door swings open and in comes William, flanked by the Penetrator guys who had left earlier, strolling in like he owns the place and the souls of everyone in the room, which at the moment didn't seem as farfetched at it sounded. William looked both pissed and distraught and guilty at the same time, like his mind couldn't decide which emotion should take precedence. Considering the allegation that the Yakuza guys were involved, Eva couldn't blame William for feeling guilty. Chris and the guys got beat up because William beat up someone first. They were looking for him while he was off wooing Noora on some hilltop with hot chocolate and serenading her with tales of his misspent youth (or so Noora said). Instead the guys paid the price. And now, Chris got attacked while he was off gallivanting in a foreign country wooing hot upper-class British ladies with tea and mini sandwiches (or so Chris said).

Noora approaches William without hesitation and pulls him into a hug when he gets close enough. William melts into Noora's embrace and Eva looks away, feeling like the intimate moment wasn't theirs to infringe on.

She doesn't even know what time it is right now, a glance at the clock tells her it's fucking late o'clock but no one's come out to talk to them or tell them about Chris yet and the waiting feels like hell. Some of the guys look like they're one sheep away from dozing off but forcing themselves to stay awake until they get news about their friend.

"Eva?"

She hears her name and it sounds weird rolling off this unfamiliar tongue. She turns around to face William and he looks terrible. His hair is dishevelled and his eyes are bloodshot from lack of sleep or crying or both. Not that she blames him. If she was in his position and Noora or Jonas or someone she cared about got hurt as a result of something she'd done, she'd be wrecked. But even if it wasn't anything she did, the thought of Jonas hurt, the thought of Noora or Sana or Vilde or Chris or even Isak hurt was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She couldn't even imagine what William was feeling. She heard from Noora that Chris was Williams best friend, he'd said so himself, and the more she paid attention to it after she found out, the more she noticed how close they really were, even going beyond Russ and Penetrator stuff. If William was there then Chris was always hanging around somewhere close and vice versa. When William decided not to leave for London—before he then decided to leave for London again—it was Chris he stayed with when he didn't want to go back to his apartment.