Silence Is She

four - miss, are you okay?

Evelyn tried her best concentrating during class but it wasn't easy when too many irrelevant thoughts occupied her mind. Zach had already made it stupidly obvious that he has no interest in working with her for their assignment and the sad thing is, she couldn't even blame him.

How was she supposed to finish this alone when it required two people? She obviously couldn't ask Mr Weston for a change of partner as it would strike as both rude and offensive for Zach and she couldn't afford him hating her more than he already does.

She sighed, concluding that she only has one option and that is to try to work on this project by herself. Of course, she will also include Zach's name on their paper once she's done. Hopefully, she would be able to make it up to him this way.

Classes went by in a blur, and before she knew it, school has already ended. She mentally patted herself in the back for successfully staying out of Zach's sight for the rest of school hours and was now on her way home.

It doesn't hurt to walk a bit as her house was only a few blocks away. She was saving money that could've been spent on transportation and was also having some exercises. Overall, it was a win-win.

Her house was dead quiet when she got there. Of course it is when her mom was out working since morning and won't be returning home for at least another hour. Luckily, Evelyn's shift was only on the weekends which means she could focus on schoolwork on weekdays.

She decided to make the most out of her time and get going with the project immediately. But first, she needed a shower so she went upstairs to her room and took a quick one.

Once she's done, she searched around her closet for something comfortable to wear since it's very likely that she'll be spending the whole night writing. She then pulled out a pair of sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt that says "#1 Most Awkward Person" on the front. Fitting.

Only three minutes in, she was already stressing out. Her mind was clear—too clear. She couldn't come up with any ideas in this stuffy room of hers that barely had any space to walk. A desk, a single bed and a closet were all densely packed together in this tiny beige room.

She sighed, realizing that it wasn't working at all. Maybe a change of environment should help her—somewhere that's spacious and quiet. She thought for a while and then brightened up when a particular place clicked in her head—the library.

She quickly packed all the necessary books in her bag and also picked up her library card on the desk. For the last four months, she has been a frequent visitor and finally last week, she has gained the privilege of accessing the library without having to register her name every time she goes there just by showing her card.

Before leaving, she quickly checked herself out in the closet mirror and nodded mentally, approving her look as it doesn't look too shabby considering her rather casual choice of outfit.

She then proceeded to leave the house, but stopped when she realized she needed to tell her mom of her whereabouts as she might not be able to come back home anytime soon. Taking out a black marker and a sticky note, she wrote: Going to the library to work on an assignment. Will be back as soon as I'm done. Love you, Mom. —Eve

She smiled sadly, knowing that her mother probably won't even take a glance at this but that was fine by her. After sticking the note on the fridge, she put on her white sneakers and walked out the door.

———

Evelyn scrunched the paper in frustration and threw it to a pile of crumpled papers beside her on the table. This was a lot trickier than she ought it to be.

Mr Weston will definitely see through her poorly written work that she was desperately trying to force two completely opposite writings into one, structured piece. She has been here for an hour and so far, she has achieved absolutely nothing.

She was screwed—really, really screwed. There was no way she could possibly finish this on her own without it looking suspicious. What is she going to do now? She hit her head continuously with both hands, trying to come up with something but unfortunately, nothing came.

Placing her head in her palms with her elbows supporting the weight, she started to think back to where it started.

It was all her fault. If only she hadn't been so stupid, Zach would've been here working with her on this and she wouldn't be stressing her brains out right now. Why does she always go and make things so much more complicated and worse? It has always been this way ever since the incident with Fiona. It hasn't changed one bit; she hasn't changed one bit.

No matter how much she tries to atone for her sins, it will always find a way to come back and bite at her. Karma really is a bitch, huh? But the most important thing is, in the end, she deserved it. Whatever bad things life decided to throw at her, she welcomed them with open arms because after all, it was no one other than herself that was the cause of it.

Tap, tap.

"Miss, are you okay?"

Just by the mere sound of a person, she broke down. All the emotions that she had always managed to keep at bay finally exploded. She started to sob uncontrollably. She had no idea how it happened...it just did. There was like this switch inside of her suddenly being flipped on.

Wiping away her tears, she tried to stop the flowing water raining from her eyes, but she couldn't. The more she tried, the more it came pouring down. What is wrong with her? Why can't she stop?

The poor guy standing beside her was too stunned to do anything. He had been watching the lonely girl for a while ever since she walked into the library. All she had been doing were crumpling papers and hitting her head repeatedly. He wondered if she was okay which was why he walked up to her to ask her himself.

He definitely didn't expect her to bawl her eyes out this way when he approached her. Right now, almost every pair of eyes looked up at him accusingly, some even shaking their heads in disapproval and disappointment.

He raised both his hands in defeat. "I didn't do anything, I swear!" he whisper cried out (since he was at the library), desperate for people to believe that he had only good intentions.

When he turned to ask the girl again, she was no longer there. He looked around frantically, trying to find her, amused even how she disappeared into thin air. He then spotted her rushing outside the double doors of the library and followed.

This has nothing to do with me. I should just mind my own business. I'm only putting more oil to a burning fire, he thought. Contradicting his thoughts though, he still continued to chase her until he got outside where a figure of a girl bent down with tears glistening in her eyes was visible under the bright night sky.