Run Away

Chapter 22

Evie locked herself in her bedroom, threw her backpack into the corner and sat on the bed with her phone clasped in her hand. Taking a deep breath in an attempt to settle her nerves, Evie opened the search browser once more, looking at the school blog page where she had found the photo of herself as Evie Taylor, Owen's cousin.

With a quick glance over the page, Evie noticed through the various photos from the blog that people were able to comment on the photos. There was a photo of Owen with Zane and some of their other friends; students, mainly girls, had been commenting on how hot the boys were or who they would date.

Scrolling back to the picture that featured herself and Evie studied it carefully. She was dancing with Harley, Paige and Rebecca; looking like any typical teenager. Evie looked at the comments for the photo. The comments were from students, commenting on if they had a class with one of the girls, very normal given the circumstances, Evie thought.

Sighing with some relief, Evie closed her phone off as a knock came at her door.

"Come in," Evie called and the door opened slowly.

Owen's head poked in hesitantly, when he saw Evie sitting on her bed watching him, he entered stopping a few feet from Evie. In his hand, he held his Modern History textbook, Owen now feeling unsure of himself.

Evie waited quietly for Owen to speak first, wringing her hands in her lap nervously.

"Uh," Owen tried to remember why he had even come up to Evie's room. His clasp tightened uneasily on his textbook, drawing his eyes down to his hand, he held it out to Evie. "I thought you might want to borrow this to study."

Evie reached out and took the proffered book. She held it on her lap and her eyes grazed the cover before trailing back up to look at Owen.

"Thank you," Evie whispered, feeling the awkwardness between them filling the room like heavy smoke.

Owen lingered, not making any move to go. He wanted to ask Evie how she was but didn't want to overstep any of her boundaries. How did Zane manage to talk with Evie about her emotions so easily? Owen wondered if he should have just sent Zane up how he had offered to do.

"Was there something else?" Evie found her voice, feeling restless having Owen standing in her room, towering over her, watching her.

Owen cleared his throat before talking, "I was wondering how everything is, you know, with you?"

Evie eyed him suspiciously, wondering what Owen's angle was.

"You seemed upset when we came home and, in the car, you looked stressed out."

Owen shuffled on his feet, waiting for Evie's response.

Evie's eyes flittered down to where her phone lay on her bed, taking a deep breath to keep her nerves intact and not to show Owen any of her fear. It surprised her that Owen had even noticed her mood in the car.

"I'm fine," Evie lied quietly, avoiding eye contact with Owen, fiddling with the corner of the textbook he had given her.

"Are you sure? Because the last thing I would want is for you to have one of your, you know, attacks."

Evie's brow furrowed at Owen's suggestion, still acting as though the corner of the book was the most interesting thing to her in that moment.

Silence ensued.

Owen looked around the room for any clue of Evie being upset. He noticed her backpack dumped on the floor, not on the chair in the corner like usual. He sighed, trying to convince himself that he didn't care about her, but that niggling feeling that he did attempted to claw its way out once more.