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One-year milestone.
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To Duet With You Let's get a family portrait that looks pretty normal.
He remembers Claire’s mother was a beautiful woman, and yet she wore a permanent scowl on her face that made her look older than what she probably was. Now he meets Mr. Gardiner’s current wife, and can see the man definitely had a type (blond, slender, with milky skin and big eyes, she could easily pass as Claire’s older sister). It’s disturbing, actually, and he kind of understands how a person could become bitter and filled with hatred after such a betrayal. Evan would be more willing to sympathize with Claire’s mother if her treatment of her daughter had not been so awful. He keeps this judgment to himself, since this visit is already a challenge for Claire as it is. “Well, then I’ll let you both rest until dinner is ready.” “Thank you, Helen.” At the stairs, the little boy is staring at them with curious eyes, but he keeps his distance, and when Evan waves at him, he runs away. A timid kid, then. The baby, Jossie, is too young to remember Claire later, but her brother, Tom, is
To Duet With You You can run, but you cannot hide from the family line
Life is like this. She doesn't have a perfect family, with two parents who have been negligent (to put it nicely), a stepmother who could have been her sister, and two young kids who are her actual siblings and have no idea of the messed up world of the adults. Contrary to her expectations, the week goes by without incidents. She suspects her father might have said something mean to Evan again, but he is tight-lipped about it and anyway it appears to have been resolved, so she doesn’t ask any further.Perhaps the only detail that made her feel uncomfortable is that, in such a big house, she still gets woken up by Jossie crying at 2 a.m. Rushed footsteps from Helen always follow and Claire thinks babies are indeed cute, but they suck all of their parents’ energy, there's no doubt about it. They are leaving after breakfast, and she doesn’t get much sleep afterwards. Her gaze falls on her boyfriend, who doesn’t seem to have the same problem.“How unfair…”In the silent hours before the
To Duet With You Back in town
Mr. Brown died in a car crash. He was driving drunk, apparently. Evan still doesn’t know much besides the few words his stepmother told him on the phone, and a text message with the details of the funeral.In this kind of situation, Claire doesn't know what to do or what to say except help him pack,“Do you want me to go with you?”She has not been back to Green Valley for so long, and the prospect of doing it now fills her with dread. Evan must know that, too, because he shakes his head and mutters that it is not necessary.“It won't take long. I’ll just be away for a couple of days and you have classes.”Perhaps he just can’t handle that, too, at a moment like this. There is no doubt that going with him means encountering Rick face to face, and she isn't ready for that.“Okay. I’ll take you to the bus station, then.”“I can drive, we’re just a few hours from the town.” He cups her face and kisses her forehead. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”He barely slept a couple of hours, but even
To Duet With You Throw out our cloaks and daggers, it is morning now
“How could it go like this? You were here just three hours earlier than me…” She complains while pressing the bag of ice to his lips, “and now you have bruises here and there.”“He got it worse.”This is no comfort for her. Claire decided to come because she worried Evan would be alone at a time like this, but she did not imagine he would get into a fight with Rick as soon as they saw each other. That horrible, hideous bastard.She only had to see him for a couple of minutes, but it took all of her strength to remain calm in his presence. Unexpectedly, Evan could not do the same. How did Rick provoke him so?“You did not need to come, Claire.”“I know you wanted to protect me, but I didn't want you to be alone.”“I have to go back to the house tomorrow, after that I’ll pick you up and we can go back home.”He wants to spare her from having to face Rick again, and frankly, she is grateful for it. Since she chose to love Evan, it was inevitable that some encounters would happen even if
To Duet With You Same old tired and lonely
The voice mail from her mother asking her if she is going back home for Thanksgiving left her with a sour mood for the rest of the day, and she hasn’t even replied yet. Go back to that awful town? Claire remembers when she was seventeen, the happy and brilliant cheerleader and star of the glee club who’d be valedictorian by the end of their senior year. Her future looked bright back then because Claire had always been an optimist, and after getting admitted into her dream school, it felt like nothing could go wrong in her life. Now she can’t even sing or stand on a stage. God knows she’s trying hard. But when she stops to look back and count the horrible memories that are all linked to the hometown she left behind, she just knows that going back there is impossible. It is a bit ironic, because Green Valley is considered to be an idyllic place by most of the people who live there, and the occasional visitors who pass by. A town kissed by sunlight every day, and yet all Claire can a
To Duet With You On a Friday in a cafe
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
To Duet With You Wounding up at her door
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
To Duet With You The girl nobody loved
“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
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