EVE’S APPLE

There are two versions of me.The one people see quiet, polite, responsible.And the one I keep locked inside. The version that aches to scream, to run, to feel something more than this suffocating numbness.I’ve spent most of my life being what everyone expected.The good daughter. The obedient sister. The girl who doesn’t cause problems.But the truth?I am a problem.I just haven’t exploded yet.Noah, my brother, who is seven years older than me carries the weight of our family like it’s his punishment.He’s strict, protective in a way that sometimes feels more like a prison than love.I know he means well. But I’m not a little girl anymore.I don’t know how to tell him that.Or maybe I do, but I’m just too scared to say it out loud.Most nights, I stay up reading.Books are my only escape.I like the ones where girls get chosen. Loved. Fought for.Sometimes, I imagine what it would feel like to be the kind of girl people lose control over.The kind of girl men write songs about.T

EVE⸻“Do you mind coming over? I miss you.”That’s what Ian texted me.And like always, I said yes.I showered, got dressed, and a few hours later, I was at his place, curled up beside him, watching some random movie neither of us paid attention to.“Can I kiss you?” he asked.The question was strange. He didn’t asked the first time he kissed me. That rainy night when he leaned in and stole my first kiss. No permission, no warning. Just rain, silence, and the warmth of his mouth on mine.Now, he was asking.I nodded.He kissed me, and I kissed him back. It wasn’t new, but it felt… different. Like the beginning of something I couldn’t name.The first time he tried to have sex with me, I panicked and pulled away.I gave excuses, vague ones. He said it was okay, that he’d never force me. That I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to.That made me trust him more. It made me feel safe, made me think that everything I’ve ever heard about him was a lie.He kept texting me after that, t

EVESleep never came, only the kind of restless half-dreams that kept dragging me back to the same memory. I kept twisting my legs around my sheets, my skin felt too hot, then too cold, and I hated that my chest still ached.I had always imagined giving myself to someone who loved me, someone older, sure, but gentle, patient, experienced… someone who would make it mean something. At some point I must have slept off due to exhaustion, because the next thing I knew, the knock on my room door woke me up and I realized that it was already morning, I didn’t see Noah through out yesterday, since everything that happened and Agatha had to leave because she had work to do. I managed to get up with my body aching all over. When I opened my room door, Noah stood there with his hands buried deep in his pockets, eyes fixed on the floor.“I shouldn’t have…” His jaw clenched. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper. But, Eve… you disappointed me. You really did.”I nodded, unable to meet his gaze, and h

EVE Agatha had shown me how to use the pregnancy test strip, then stepped outside the bathroom to give me privacy. The test strip felt like it weighed a hundred pounds in my hand. My fingers wouldn’t stop trembling. “Eve? You okay in there?” she called. “Yeah,” I lied. I did the test and finally forced myself to look. Two lines. Positive. For a moment, the world tilted. My stomach knotted, and my ears started ringing. I had lost my virginity to my brother’s friend, a man six years older than me and now I was pregnant with his child. Keeping the pregnancy was never an option, I didn’t even want to think about what my parents would do to me, they were out of the country for now, but if they found out, I’m pretty sure they’ll be on the next flight home, and they wouldn’t come with comfort, they’d come with punishment When I didn’t answer for a while, Agatha pushed open the bathroom door. One glance at my face told her everything. We didn’t speak. She just took the strip from

EVEI knew I was going to regret my decision, but I had to do it, I needed to proof something to Ian, I wanted to go against his wish, I wanted to let him know that he couldn’t control and manipulate me anymore.Getting rid of the pregnancy was going to be the end of our relationship, knowing that he was lying the whole time, hurt me so much.If the incident with Noah hadn’t happened I would have probably still been used by him. This pregnancy was the only connection I had with Ian, I knew he wasn’t who I thought he was but at the back of my mind, I wished it could change everything, make him realize that he really wanted me.A girl could only wish…I was going to take control of my life for once and I wasn’t going to back down.Days went back, weeks went by and I didn’t hear from Ian after our last conversation, he never called back to explain what I heard over the phone.He was probably having fun in Paris with the other lady.The pregnancy symptoms