To The Moon And Back

Chapter 6

Braden's POV

I wake up with a start from the dream I don't remember. After rubbing my eyes and stretching, I reach over and grab my phone, checking my messages. There is one from Evelyn. It reads:

Hwy come heres

I chuckle at the misspelling because she was probably drunk when she sent it at one in the morning.

I get up off my bed and grab black shorts from my drawer and a white shirt that has a little bird symbol on it from my closet. I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth and fix my hair to make it look nice.

Heading down the stairs, I grab my keys and yell up to my parents. "Hey Ma, I'm leaving!"

She yells back to me. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Ev's. I'll be home later."

"Okay honey, drive safely! And be home by four! We have dinner with the Sanders! Love you!"

I sigh then chuckle. "I will. Love you too!" I turn around, opening the door then get in my car.

******

On my way over, I stopped at the store and bought some chocolate for Ev, because she loves to eat chocolate when she is hungover.

When I get to Evelyn's house, I walk to the door, chocolate in hand, and pause for a moment before knocking. I see the curtains swish from my side view, then I hear the door being unlocked. Ev opens the door, and I smile at her.

"Hey what's up, buddy?'

I look her up and down, a see she's in a men's white tee-shirt with a black bra underneath and has no pants and only black underwear on.

Seeing this, my face turns red and I become very angry and confused. Did she sleep with someone? Why am I angry? And why do I feel like protecting her?

Then I hear footsteps, and see a familiar face come out shirtless. Shon. A tight feeling is in my chest, and I furrow my eyebrows.

"Hey Ev, who's here?" Shon looks at me, as I look at her and him back and forth. Shon? She did it with this kid?

I clench my fists and take a step back, the chocolate being crushed. "I should go, it seems I came at a bad time."

I turn around to leave, and then feel Ev's hand on my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks.

"Wait! Don't go. I can explain everything. I know it looks bad but it's not what it looks like."

I sigh, then turn around. I feel so many emotions. Anger, confusion, frustration, and... jealousy. I look at Evelyn's face and notice that she's reading my face, noticing my emotions. I look away and clear my throat. Evelyn looks away then breaks the silence.

"Let's head inside." I notice her eyes wander to my hand, the chocolate box still crunched up. I follow her gaze to the broken chocolate, then hand it to her. "I um... I thought you could use this. For your hangover." She looks at it for a moment, then starts to giggle as she takes it. "Thank you, I definitely could use some right now," she continues," come one in, I'll explain everything."

We head inside, where she tells me the whole story. When she finishes, I sit there for a moment, laughing. Evelyn and Shon are sitting there flustered and blushing, not knowing what to say, and both looking at the ground. My laughter subsides, and silence fills the room. Finally, Shon decides to stand up and scratches his head.

"I better go. I have to work soon." He grabs his phone on the side table, then heads to the door. Ev follows him, and they exchange some words before he opens the door and walks out. Ev hangs on the door, smiling and saying," okay, see you later, I'll text you." Before she shuts the door. See her smile like that at him makes me tense up, a rage of jealousy consuming me.

I turn to Evelyn, my jaw clenched, and my hands folded on my knees. She looks at me, then slowly approaches me, a look of worry spread across her face. She sits down across from me, and puts her left hand on one of my knees, and looks in my eyes.

"Are you alright?" Her tone was a bit worried, and it made me clench my jaw even more.

After a moment of silence, I rub my hand over my hair, and blurted out, "Do you like him?"

I'm shocked that I said it, and so is Ev, because her eyes grow wide and her mouth drops open. My face goes red, and I look at the ground, avoiding her stare.

"Why should that matter to you?" She mumbles, a tone of irritation in her voice.

"What?" I look up at her, confused.

"I said, why should that matter to you?" She looks at me, her eyes clouded in anger.

I sigh. "C'mon Ev, I didn't mean to say that out loud. I'm sorry-"

"Didn't mean to say it out loud? What is that supposed to mean?" Her voice has gotten louder, almost yelling.

"Nothing! It means nothing! Forget I said anything."

"No. I'm not going to forget you said anything." She holds up air quotes. "Why is it any of your business on who I like or date? It's my life, not yours. And you know what, maybe I do like him. Maybe I'll call him right now and ask him for a date, or maybe to come over tonight so we can-"

Anger builds in me, and as she mentions those vulgar actions she might do, I snap. "Don't you dare say that. Do you know why I wanted to know? Because I care about you! Because I want to protect you! Because you don't care about who you fool around with, and how it could put you in danger! Did you ever even consider that Shon could be another one of those manipulative guys who takes advantage of drunk women!? Did you!? No, you didn't because you were to busy drunk-kissing him to realize!"

She jumps, then stands up and starts yelling back," Well guess what? I wasn't drunk when we kissed! I had one beer!  And Shon is a great guy, he would never think about doing those things! I don't need you protecting me and I don't need you to care for me! I need you to back off and get out!"
Her voice and breath are shaky, and she's trembling, on the verge of tears. We stand there, looking at each other in shock and pain.

"Wh-what?" I say, my heart aching, and she sees it because tears start flowing from her eyes. My eyes start to burn, but I restrain myself from crying because I don't cry. I can't cry right now.

Evelyn breaths in deeply, and tries to calm herself down while saying," I need you to leave Braden."

I stand there, looking into her teary eyes, and take a step back towards the door.  Swallowing hard, I turn around towards the door and leave.

No apologies, no forgiveness, just heartbreak.

******

Hey guys! Sorry, I'm late with this chapter, it took a bit of time and thought into it. I hope you guys like it, and again I'm sorry it's late, I will do my best to upload soon. But with school and lots of homework, it gets difficult to have time to write.

Please tell me how it is and share your thoughts by commenting and voting, please!

Anyways, thanks for reading!

Ash~

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