Evelyn

Evelyn - Chapter Fifteen

The almost unfamiliar view of my house became clear as I approached the small building. Everything had changed from when I left only months before. The white paint on our picket fence was chipped, and the original colour of brown was seeping through the cracks. The bushes and plants in the garden were overgrown and the small hedge hadn't been cut in a while, I could tell this due to the stray branches. The plaque that held the number '43' on it had fallen and been fixed again, giving it cracks that distorted the numbers, which were already lacking paint. My eyes widened at the sight as I had never seen our house look so untidy. It was as if nobody was living there. Although I knew people were living there, besides, why would my father have agreed to let me visit if they were no longer present?

After rapping on the door several times I decided I was out of luck. They must've gone somewhere. I could still see our old furniture through the front room window, so it became evident they still lived here. As I began to retreat to my car, the sound heavy feet dragging across the floor flooded my ears. The front door swung open to reveal my dad, his appearance had changed just as much as the house had. His big toothy smile had been replaced with a frown, which caused the prominent wrinkles to cover his forehead, making him look much older than he was. His eyes weren't happy like they always were, they looked dead, adding to his dull appearance. His lips tightened into a weak smile when he saw me stood on the doorstep. He wrapped me in a tight hug.

"Good to see you son! How are things?" He asked, pulling away from me.

"Besides mum being gone, and school being a bore..." I decided to leave Evelyn out of things. "And everything else, things are great thanks."

"Oh, well, good. Everything else?" He pushed standing away from the door and welcoming me inside. The warmth of the house was relieving after being stood in the cold for so long.

I really didn't want to tell him about the situation with Evelyn. Because then I would have to tell him about my grades, that wouldn't end good. My grades have plummeted to the ground since she left.

"Yeah, school you know? Stressful!"

He nodded closing the door, the sound of passing cars muted slightly. By 'School' and 'Stressful' he probably assumed I was finding the work difficult, but it was finding Evelyn that was proving to be the problem. Jonah wasn't lying when he said she's high maintenance. But she's worth it. By now I had realised that I had feelings for her, I wouldn't call it love, because the feeling should be mutual, right? But there were definitely feelings. There was no guaranteeing that she would feel the same, but I would find her, just to get an answer. There was no way you couldn't like her, the way her hair bounced as she walked, and how she was so different, she didn't care what everyone else was doing, she was her own person.

Olivia appeared at the top of the stairs in her pyjamas. Same old dead look as my father, her hair un brushed. "Charlie!?" She half whispered, half shouted.

"She hasn't been to school in days, she won't leave her room, I have to take food to her." He whispered as she ran down the stairs.

She wrapped her thinning arms around my torso and I hugged her back. "Hey kiddo, everything's okay?" I asked.

"You don't have to call me 'kiddo'." She quoted. "I'm 14 next month!"

"Oh wow, I forgot! You're growing up now aren't you?!" I exclaimed ruffling her hair. She squirmed as I messed it up. "Stop it Charlie, you're going to mess up my hair!"

I raised my eyebrows in shock. "Since when have you cared about how you look?" I asked.

"All the other girls in my class are wearing makeup and they care about how they look. So I do too!" She replied.

"Olivia could you set the table?" Our dad piped up. She nodded and rushed to the kitchen, the sound of cutlery rattling filed through the hallway.

"Looks like she finally lightened up!" He smiled. The grin was wiped from his pale face as he spoke. "She will probably hide away again once you leave though."

I gave him a sincere smile, knowing that she probably would retrieve back to her cave. I wouldn't want her to end up bad like I was last summer after our grandpa died. I wouldn't talk to anyone, he was the only one I could talk to. I wouldn't eat. I wouldn't go to school, and when my parents forced me I ran away. That's when they got me a psychiatrist. It helped, but I would never be the same again. I didn't want Olivia to end up like that. She was too delicate, and too young.

We sat around a small wooden table and devoured the dinner my father had made. I guess he threw away our large one, it must have been to painful to eat without her there. Without her laugh filling the conversations passed between my family. Her glass of lemon iced tea next to every meal she had. Her perfume afloat above the table. Still, sat up to an unfamiliar table made no difference to how empty it felt. The conversation was non-existent and the food didn't taste as good without her presence.

"I've booked us a little holiday. I called up both your schools and they said it was fine for me to take you out of school for a while." My dad said.

My eyes widened as I remembered Evelyn. Not only had this little trip set us off course to finding her, but if my dad had booked us a holiday then we had no hope. My father must've noticed my alarm as he assured me everything was fine with school as they understood the situation and thought it to be healthy for me to take time off. I guessed they hadn't told him about me missing classes for the past few months. I had turned up for the odd few every week but I was drastically lagging behind. Any time I had free to revise was spent helping us get closer to finding Evelyn.

"How long for?" I asked. "Only I don't want to miss too much of school..." I hoped it wouldn't be too long, then we could get back to our main priority.

"We go tomorrow, for two weeks. To the Isle Of Wight!" He chirped happily. All my hopes were crushed. 'Tomorrow', that wasn't nearly enough time to find her, she would have already left the hotel she was staying at.

"Really!! That's so cool. We haven't had a holiday in ages! All my friends will be jealous!" Olivia said. "It's a good job you left some clothes here before you left, right Charlie?"

I nodded emotionless. "Excuse me..." I started, setting down my cutlery and pushing my plate away. "I have to make a quick phone call!" I scurried off down the hall and reached the land line at the bottom of the stairs. I dialed the number of my dorm and hoped that Jonah was in.

"Hello?" A monotone voice replied. I could tell it was Jonah from the slight Australian accent lingering in his sentences.

"Jonah? Bad news, I won't be back for two weeks, my dad is taking me and my sister on a holid-"

"We went Charlie, and she wasn't there. Apparently she left this morning. The receptionist must've passed on a message!" He said sounding frustrated.

My heart sank even further. Today was just not my day. "Are you kidding me. Well that's it. Everything we've done, for nothing. We have no way of finding her now!!" I shouted, trying not to alarm my family.

"You're right, she left a note-"

"What does it say?!" I urged.

"Calm down!! It says, 'Don't bother trying to find me. This is what I want, I need to do this. Thank the receptionist for telling me by the way. Ciao, Evelyn.'"

"Ciao? Ciao?! That girl is messed up. Is she serious! Does she know how much trouble we went to?"

"Unfortunately not. I don't think there's anything we can do. We should probably just leave it, get back to school, we've missed loads mate."

"Yeah, I guess so. I'll see you in two weeks then, I guess."

Ciao? If I ever see that girl again, she won't be getting a warm welcome!