It’s not like she’s actually expecting to see him again. The pleasantries are exactly that, things you say but don’t really mean it. And yet, on a Friday afternoon she is preparing her essay for the Contemporary Literature class when she is forced to remember Evan again.
“Claire, there’s a hunk downstairs asking for you.” Tessa winks at her. “Finally, it was about time you had some fun.”
Somehow she already knows who her roommate is talking about, which is quite easy to explain actually: Claire doesn’t do boys anymore.
They approached her at first, but the disgusting jerks only want sex, so she started to avoid the male population as plague, and eventually everyone got the hint.
“Green eyes, tall, brown hair, looks like he came straight out of a magazine?”
“Yes! Is that your boyfriend?”
She shakes her head.
“No, someone I knew from high school, he just transferred here recently.”
“Well, if you're not going after him, please introduce me.”
Sighing, Claire just closes her book and grabs her jacket, ready to go out and see what Evan wants from her. The reasons why she can’t ever get along with anyone from the Brown family isn’t something she’s about to explain Tessa. They are on good terms, enough so that they decided to keep being roommates after their freshman year, but they aren’t that close either. Maybe saying that she avoids the male population isn’t accurate. She just doesn’t like to put effort into relationships and friendships. In the end it is just a waste.
“I’m going to the library. Can you please clean up your desk one of these days?”
“Why? We know your hands are itching to do it for me.”
“Bye Tessa.”
“Do me a favor and hold onto this “classmate”, maybe that will help improve your mood, Miss Bossy.”
***
He is sitting on the steps of the stair at the entrance, his head turning from the road to the doors after she opens them, and Claire sees him smile with something akin to relief painted on his face.
Why?
“Hey!”
“Hi Evan.” She makes an effort to sound nice, but… “Now this is a surprise.”
How does he even know where she lives?
“I asked around. You know, for some reason I had this idea that everyone would know who Claire Gardiner was. That you would be super popular on campus.”
Since she was an attention-seeker who settled for being second best to Hannah…
“Things have changed.” Claire shrugs, refusing to elaborate on something they shouldn’t talk about.
Evan stands up, and being one step below her on the stairs, he still manages to match her height.
“Do you want to go for that coffee now?”
He’s always been the persistent type.
“Fine. Do you know that coffee shop that’s on the 4th? They have the most delicious banana muffins.”
“Really?”
Those have always been his favorite.
***
She thinks it’s okay to satiate her curiosity and ask why he transferred from L.A. After all, he was the one seeking out her company.
“I couldn’t afford the tuition anymore.” He says, as if it was that simple. As far as she knows, his family is loaded with money. Mr. and Mrs. Brown made a point to throw the most lavish parties since the first day they moved to Green Valley. As if sensing her confusion, he explains further. “My mom was helping me pay for school, but she is having some difficulties.”
She’s still confused, until something clicks in his mind and she realizes he isn’t talking about his stepmother. Rick had never mentioned their biological mother, and neither had Evan, as far as Claire knew. So she was, in fact, still in the picture.
“But what about your father?”
He winces. “We… had a fall-out of sorts.”
Touchy subject. She decides to keep eating in silence, but the thing about making conversation with someone is that you have to fill the awkward silences with anything. It’s Evan who takes that step, again.
“What about you? Have you gone to Green Valley recently?”
Or maybe is retribution for reminding him of unsavory moments of the past.
“No. I’m too busy with school.”
“Oh, right. You are still working on music, right? I saw on the bulletin board that the Christmas Concert is set for mid-december, so you must be busy.”
Suddenly her muffin doesn’t taste good anymore.
“Actually, I don’t sing anymore.” She says with a smile, doing her best attempt to brush it off. “I’m more interested in literature these days.”
People change. He’s changed too, going from the Brown’s golden boy to someone who might or might not have been disinherited by his father.
“We should go. I still have homework to do.”
He nods and follows her as she stands up, ready to leave the shop. But then, right when she thinks there’s nothing else to say, he asks: “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why don’t you sing anymore?”
She clenches her fists.
“I can’t.”
“Is it because of…” How much she wishes he wouldn’t mention that person. He doesn’t. “Because of the injuries you got then? But the doctor said there wouldn’t be long-term effects.”
She turns to look at him.
“How do you know about the problem with my vocal chords?”
This was something she never wanted anyone to know, for a matter of pride more than anything. So she hid it from everyone, even those who cared enough to support her through the trial, and she did not use it against Erick either.
Claire thinks of it as her secret. Evan isn’t so close to her that he should know.
“I visited you when you were at the hospital.”
He did?
“Or well, I intended to. But Kat helped me see I would be the last person you would have liked to see back then.”
No, that would be Erick. But just like she feels his pity like a slap on her face now, it would have been so much worse when everything was recent.
She purses her lips and gathers the courage to cross the doors of the cafe.
“Claire, wait.”
“We don’t have to do this, you know. Being friendly, or hanging out with each other.”
There’s a frown that ruins his perfect face, but then she sees his shoulders falling, as if he’s resigning to this truth.
“I’m sorry.” He whispers, “I guess I was being selfish. Of course you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” she blurts out without thinking. “I just… Evan, I appreciate what you did for me back then. Truly. You are one of the nicest people I have ever known, and I know you are nothing like your brother. But still-”
“I’m his brother.” He offers a weak smile of understanding. “I know. Take care, Claire.”
Both of them are supposed to go back in the same direction, but he takes the opposite road and wanders somewhere else. She stands there, staring at his back until she snaps out of it.
This was the only possible outcome of their meeting.
Chapter 3. Wounding up at her door.“How’s school going, dear?”He’s just seeing his mom through the screen of his phone, but it’s clear enough she’s lost weight again. Still, he masks his worries with a smile.“Good. I even met a friend back from high school.” It’s a lie, as Claire has just reminded him the term ‘friends’ does not apply to them, but even so… “I think coming here was the right choice.”“I’m glad to hear that. Julie was asking for you these days, but now she’s in her soccer practice. She’ll be pissed when she learns you called when she wasn’t here.”“I’ll just greet her next time. How is she doing? An
“You are crying.” Tessa points out the obvious, but it sounds like she is actually concerned about her when she continues, “don’t tell me that guy was actually an ass. Did he do something to you?”Like she is about to go out and give Evan a piece of her mind.“Nothing,” Claire wipes out the tears with her sleeves, and flops in bed, hiding her face between her legs. “It certainly doesn’t look like ‘nothing’ to me.”It would have been nice if Hannah’s response had been like this back then, too. But it wasn’t.“Mind your own business, Tessa.” It comes out a bit harsher than she intended to, and as the door shuts loudly behind the other girl, Claire feels the words of an apology stuck in her throat. But the moment is gone, just like Tessa, and this is exactly why she cannot make new friends.There's this thing her wild imagination does sometimes. She would imagine her mother apologizing. Hannah apologizing. Erick begging forgiveness. Even if it wasn't something that would make her feel
Claire is not good at drinking, she learned that years ago and that's why she has avoided alcohol (and consequently, parties) like plague ever since she came to college. She doesn't miss the noise, or the crowds, and putting up with jerks and double faced friends, but still… It is lonely, at times like this. The only phone calls she has received (and ignored) have been her parents, now that they both realize she lied and didn't go to visit either of them. Of course, this is the result of her own actions, she has been successful in pushing everyone away, even Tessa. She used to be the life of the party back in high school. As she walks back to her dorm, passing across a building where the loud music reaches her ears, the tune makes its way to her body, and she starts humming without realizing it. Now, she is just pathetic, that much is clear. “Claire!” The voice calling for her from behind has become familiar. Evan is carrying a bag similar to hers, filled with junk food and soda
There is a simple reason that explains why all the three calls from Kat went to voicemail. Claire didn't realize she left her phone at the dorm until she was leaving her History class, and tried to find her library ID. She has the bad habit of leaving it inside the case. And then, when she stops by, Tessa is working on her corner, but turns to look at her. “You were in high demand this morning. Your phone was ringing nonstop, you should remember to put it in silent mode.” “I’m sorry. I left half sleepwalking this morning.” Claire lets out a sigh, and half expects to find messages from her mom again, nothing out of the ordinary. But it’s Kat. They haven’t talked in months either. They stayed in touch after leaving Green Valley, but the calls became more sporadic as time went by. The thing is, Kat was always closer to Hannah, and no matter her intentions to stay friends with both of them and act as a kind of bridge, that situation was just impossible. Claire does not care much a
She seems shy at first, her eyes fixed on the music sheets in her hands as she sings the first notes of that Taylor Swift song he just started learning a few days ago. Then he can feel how she slowly starts sounding more confident, as if she is testing the water and remembers she still knows how to swim just fine. And she is a delight. Now that he recalls the first time he saw Claire, she had been singing this song, although it was a much more cheerful version back then. He'd turned this attention to the stage and saw her, and they had met before, but Evan had to admit it was only at that moment she made an impression. To his defense, he had been smitten with Hannah from day one, and the sunny girl was one of her friends, so it made it a bit awkward for him when Claire invited him to Homecoming right after he started school in Green Valley High. He was young, and admittedly a bit of an asshole, because he can't remember having ever started a conversation with Claire those first weeks
“Here. I brought cupcakes from Mary’s.” Tessa looks up from her desk and frowns slightly. “Wow. So considerate. Who are you and what have you done to Claire?” She just rolls her eyes and shrugs it off. Trying her best to be nice is the only way she knows to make peace with her roommate after her behavior last month. “How do you even know I like this?” “You buy them every time you have money at the beginning of the month.” The other girl smiles. “So you do pay attention. I knew it. But you have never done nice things to apologize for being a bitch before. Are these the effects of Mr. Hot Green Eyes?” “Please, he is just a friend.” But the truth is, she is in a light mood now, after spending the afternoon rehearsing with Evan. Tomorrow they will record the song and upload it to the radio’s website for the contest. In the past, Claire used to worry more about doing things perfectly, but now she is just having fun, and it feels good. Without realizing it, she starts humming at th
“And she went quickly up to the church-door; but when she came there, the red shoes were dancing before her.” When she was younger, Claire had thought that the spoiled girl in the story just reaped what she sowed. She was warned against wearing the red shoes to church, then she heard the curse and still went ahead and danced. Such a spoiled child, she preferred to wear her red shoes and go to dance right after her mother passed away. Those sins couldn’t be forgiven even if she cut her feet to get rid of the shoes, as they followed as if making fun of her, reminding her of her previous actions. Later, Claire wondered if everyone had their own red shoes. She thought Rick was her own version of those damned shoes. As much as she tried to cut it off, that past was always there, mocking her stupidity. But these days, she is coming to another realization… “What are you doing with that dead serious expression?” Evan whispers as he takes a seat next to her on the table. “Re-reading some f
Compared to the times she watched the rehearsals, the auditorium has quite an audience in the evening of the show. Claire has avoided places with large numbers of people for a while, but now Evan is holding her hand so they can find seats together without getting separated by the crowd.“Hey, Evan! I did not know you were still around.” A couple of guys approach them to greet him. “And Claire, right?”“Hi.”It makes her feel uncomfortable, when strangers know her name. Thankfully, she still has Evan’s hand, and she squeezes it tightly trying not to shrink in front of others again. “We’ll leave tomorrow and spend the holidays with my family.”“Ah, so you are taking your girlfriend home. See Jay, they just started dating and she is not afraid of visiting his family. What’s your excuse again?”“Hmm, have fun, guys.” Evan clears his throat rather loudly. “We’ll sit over here. See you around.”Her heart is thumping against her chest.“Your classmates?”“One of them, yes.”“Why are they un