ohmygoodness its been so long since i updated! so sorry! but hello to all my new readers! i hope to update much faster now because i've written up to chapter twelve. i've got some exciting things planned...
and when I'm with you I feel better
SEVEN: "you think i'm adorable!"
Evie made her way to the dormitory as fast as she could for two reasons: one, she knew she probably looked atrocious and didn't want anyone to see her, and two, she was eager to spend time with Jay, who could lift her spirits and get her to think about something other than her broken heart.
Jay had been so kind, making Doug leave, comforting her. If he hadn't shown up… She didn't want to think about the state she'd be in. How could she have known that Doug could be so cruel? Wasn't he supposed to be good?
She didn't even tell Jay all that Doug had said. It was like some switch went off in him and every prejudice he'd ever been taught about the island just poured out. Not only that, but he had terrible things to say about all of her friends - even Ben.
Those were the things she hadn't shared with Jay, and never would. Doug had called Jay some absolutely horrible names and accused him of terrible things, thoughts that made even Evie's blood boil. She'd been so paralyzed by Doug's change in character she hadn't even defended Jay, or herself for that matter. She just caved in, drowning in the insults...like she used to with her mother.
Evie shook the scary thoughts from her head and walked faster still. Don't live in the past. Move on. Be brave.
By the time she made it to her room her phone had dinged four times. She hadn't stopped to search for it in the depths of her bag, but in the safety of her dorm room she fetched it from a pocket. The screen lit up with four text messages.
The first was from Carlos. He wrote:
Jay just told us what happened! Are u okay? You can borrow Dude to snuggle if u want.
Evie smiled, and felt her the prickling sensation in her eyes again at his kindness. She felt ridiculous for being touched by the simplest gesture, but hey, she was in a fragile state. She quickly typed back:
I'm ok :)...but I might have to take u up on that offer.
The next two messages were from Mal and had almost comically different tones to them.
HOW DARE HE?! HE IS NOT GETTING AWAY WITH THIS! I AM GOING TO CURSE THAT SHRIMPY DWARF SPAWN SO BAD HE'LL WISH HE NEVER
The message ended abruptly. The following, coming in only a minute later said:
This is Ben. I'm making sure she doesn't actually put a curse on him, but I'm also very angry, so no promises. I'll definitely be having a talk with Doug about this. I'm so sorry, Evie.
Again Evie smiled at the different ways her friends showed their affection. She wouldn't trade them for anything. She replied to the messages:
Thanks, guys. And Mal, I appreciate the thought, but please don't do anything that will get u expelled!
The last message had come a while after those and was from Jay. Evie tapped on it, confused as to why he'd need to text her when they were going to see each other in a few minutes. The text had a picture attached and it said:
This should be enough, yeah? ;)
The picture was of a lunch tray overflowing with pretty much every kind of food the dining room offered. The thing probably weighed ten pounds and there was no way the two of them could finish all of it. She rolled her eyes and sent back:
You're crazy.:P
Setting down her phone, she stepped to the mirror and took in her appearance. It wasn't so bad, but it was obvious she'd been crying. Her eyeshadow was reduced to smudges and her mascara had clumped together on her lashes. She fixed it up, easy, and from the outside she looked same as always. Her insides were another story…
She needed to get back to Jay quickly. He'd make her feel better. He'd help her forget.
She gathered the study materials she had for Jay and replaced her own things with them. It wasn't long at all before she was out the door and on her way to the tourney field.
The hallways were empty with most people in classes, a fact Evie was glad for. She didn't feel up for dealing with anyone else today.
Reaching the sunny grounds surrounding the castle cheered Evie slightly. She couldn't help but love the feeling of the sun on her skin. It made her feel like life could be good and warm and happy, though recent events had proved that feeling inaccurate.
It wasn't a long walk to the field; in fact, she could see Jay from across the castle lawn. He sat in the very top row of the bleachers, leaning back against the top railing. She hurried her pace, not knowing if it was because she was hungry or just because she wanted to see him.
"Hey, slowpoke," he greeted her as she began to climb the stands. "Don't worry, I saved some food for you."
"Some? You mean like two meal's worth?" She retorted as she viewed the still heaping tray of food.
"Well, it would have been less if you had just told me what you wanted," he bit back with his boyish smirk.
"I did tell you," Evie insisted as she finally reached the top bleacher and put her bag down. "I didn't want anything."
"Which was dumb, because you do want something. You haven't eaten all day. You have to be hungry," he said with an arrogance that knew he was right.
Evie simply stuck her tongue out at him and reached for a banana off the tray. Jay sported a smug smile but didn't say anything further on the subject.
"Okay," she said after a couple of bites, switching into academic mode. "Let me see what you've got."
Jay handed over the work he had done the night before after she'd left, looking a bit nervous. Evie scanned the problems and his answers while she munched on the rest of the banana. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jay run a hand through his hair the way he did when he was feeling anxious. His fingers tightened and released in the dark waves near his scalp, then combed through from crown to tip, tossing it back from his face. Not a moment later another lock fell down to frame his face and he pushed it aside in annoyance.
"So?" Jay probed, too soon for her to have finished with her brief distraction of thinking about him and his hair. She hoped he didn't realize she was staring.
She bit her lip to keep from smiling and held up a finger of pause, silently and without looking at him. He ran another hand through his hair in a huff of impatience, which she consciously ignored.
A few moments later, after checking each conversion and equation, she flashed him a bright smile she couldn't bear to mask. "Jay, these are all correct."
He froze, looking at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. "No way." He scooted closer so he was right next to her, leaning in to look again at his work. He pointed to a problem and only then did she then realize she was looking at him and not the paper. "Even this one?"
"Yes, completely correct!" She stressed again, finding it funny how slow he was to understand that he actually got all the questions right. She wasn't surprised, of course. She knew Jay was smart; he only needed a little direction and encouragement. Apparently that was still difficult for him to believe.
"That's crazy! You're sure? You wanna double check?" Jay said seriously with a controlled excitement, still examining the paper intently.
Evie giggled, his almost childlike excitement too endearing not to. "I'm sure! I don't need to double check!"
"Why are you laughing at me?" He turned to her, a playful scowl coloring his features. Evie floundered in surprise, mistakenly just spilling the thoughts in her head without thinking of consequences.
"I'm not! It's just...I've never seen you so worried about something. It's kind of adorable," she trailed off her last sentence, wondering why the heck she would say something like that out loud, to Jay.
She meant it, of course - his worried expression meant his eyebrows scrunched up and his lips pouted slightly and something in her just wanted to say 'aww' - but she never meant to actually tell him so. Complimenting Jay on his physical appearance, which he was already so fond of, only ever resulted in one reaction.
"You think I'm adorable?" His worry was instantly replaced with cockiness and his voice was flirtatious. Fluffing Jay's already oversized ego was definitely not her goal - he got enough of that from the several girls on campus pining after him.
Evie rolled her eyes and tried to refute his assumptions. For some odd reason she felt her face heating up, making matters worse. "No. That's not what I - Not you, but -"
"You're blushing!" He laughed, pointing at her cheeks, and Evie felt herself get more embarrassed. This was only Jay though; it shouldn't matter that he teased her. He did it all the time. It was literally one of his favorite pastimes, so why couldn't she laugh it off? "You think I'm adorable!"
Evie whined in frustration and shoved his paper back at his chest so she could cover her cheeks with her hands. "I said kind of, okay? And even if I did think you were adorable for like a second, I don't anymore!"
"Okay, sure," Jay chuckled in clear disbelief, raising his eyebrows suggestively and sidling in even closer to her. She knew he was messing around, but with his actions her heart rate spiked involuntarily and her face felt even hotter. Why did this keep happening?
Instead of considering, Evie shoved his shoulder and scooched away before her body could respond to him in any other illogical fashion. When there were a few inches between them again she felt herself calm down. When had these reactions to Jay started? He'd always flirted like this, but it hadn't always bothered her. Did this happen with other guys? Well, she didn't exactly get this close to other guys...
That had to be the source of these involuntary reactions - her inexperience. Sure, Evie flirted a lot, but she'd never dated a boy, or even kissed one, for that matter. Back on the island her mother had forbade any romantic contact because Evie was to save herself for a rich prince whose throne she could overtake. Princes didn't like princesses who weren't pure and innocent and untouched. Since then Evie understood how ludicrous the Queen's beliefs were, and that she didn't need a prince at all, which was why she'd felt it perfectly acceptable to like Doug. But it wasn't like Doug had given her any romantic experience, unless she counted heartbreak...
Evie made a mental u-turn at that thought. No way would she let herself venture down the path of reliving the incident again if she could avoid it. She wanted the whole ordeal put in the past. She wanted to forget and move on as fast as possible. No more tears here.
"Eves, you okay?" Jay burst into her thoughts with his casual question, though one look at his face and she could see the worry he was fighting. The poor boy was trying so hard to help her forget and here she was getting lost in her own thoughts. Bless him.
"Yeah, I'm good!" Evie said, with a touch too much enthusiasm. "Let's get back to chemistry."
He shot her a brief look of something like pity but turned away too quickly for Evie to analyze. He gave an affirmative response and they both settled in to studying again.
Evie thought Jay was doing exceedingly well considering where he began just a couple of days ago, but she could see that Jay didn't share in that positive outlook. He seemed listless in the way he worked - never content with anything but total understanding and her approval. She'd never seen that kind of drive in Jay and she wondered if it had something to do with tourney. This class stood between him and the one thing he found worthy of actual hard work and dedication, not to mention his friendships with teammates, so of course he would attack it with the same strength and determination as he did the sport. After seeing how much work he'd done in just a few short days, Evie had the feeling that Jay could accomplish anything he applied himself to.
The pair sat up at the top of the bleachers for the majority of the afternoon though it felt like only a few minutes had passed when Evie saw the Auradon Prep cheerleaders begin to take the field for their practice. Evie watched as the girls chatted and stretched in clusters of three and four, front and center their beautiful leader, Audrey. As much as Mal would kill her for thinking it, a small part of Evie wanted to be like those girls, pretty and perfect with their ponytails and pompoms.
A few of the girls began to take notice of the pair - one half of the pair in particular - and they waved their arms and squealed his name in delight.
"Jay!"
"Hey, Jay!"
"Hi!"
Evie turned her face away from them, but it wasn't like they couldn't tell who she was. She was the only person in all of Auradon with blue hair, after all. Of course all the girls knew Evie and Jay were friends, but in Evie's mind...the two alone on the bleachers could lead others to some dangerous assumptions.
After a few endless moments of their incessant chanting, Evie realized Jay was totally unresponsive to their calls. When she turned to look at him he was staring at his textbook, in his own world, brow furrowed in concentration, looking completely adora-
"Jay," Evie said, cutting off her own worrisome thought.
He immediately broke his reverie and looked at her, eyes wide with questioning. "Hmm?"
She nodded her head to his admirers silently, hoping he would acknowledge them and get them to stop.
"Oh!" He said in realization. That familiar flirty grin sprung onto his features and he waved a hand to the girls with a wink. Evie rolled her eyes and laughed, but the girls practically swooned.
However, when they had the attention they desired they quickly realized that someone else was occupying it before them, namely Evie. To them, that was unacceptable. Evie knew at least five of the cheerleaders had crushes on Jay, and the jealousy in their faces was palpable immediately. She watched nervously as the girls started to whisper and point at her, their coy smiles replaced with scornful glares. Her skin began to crawl, knowing that the words being said about her this moment we're far from kind.
She looked to Jay, but the oblivious boy had already buried himself back in his textbook.
"Um, I think I'm gonna go," Evie said quickly, wanting just to escape the sick feeling in her gut. She had enough of her confidence chipped away by Doug; she didn't need this too.
"What? Why?" Jay reemerged from the book as she gathered her things, his eyes confused. "You have somewhere to be?"
"No, but -"
"Then stay. It's only a little while until I have to get ready for practice and I need your help." He made a good argument but automatically her eyes shifted anxiously to the gaggle of girls watching them. If she stayed with Jay much longer they'd hate her for sure and she didn't want that.
Before she could protest again, she felt Jay's rough hand clasp her wrist in a gentle grip, stopping her from packing the rest of her supplies.
Her eyes flashed to his face - her first mistake - where his eyes were soft and pleading. She didn't attempt to pull away from his touch - her second mistake - and the warmth crawled up her skin and rested in her cheeks.
Then he said softly, his voice deep, "Please, Eves. Stay?"
In that sudden moment, none of her insecurities mattered. The cheerleaders could start hurling their pompoms at her head and she still wouldn't be able to look away from Jay. Did he have some magical power she didn't know about? Was this some kind of spell?
She felt her head twirl again, though aside from his fingers wrapped around her wrist he was a good distance away, so there was even less logic to the reaction.
"Okay," she nodded helplessly, giving in to a certainly bad idea - her third mistake.
In another earth shattering moment his face lit up with a grin so bright it felt like he was the sun, and he swiftly pulled her back down to sit on the bleacher, close to him. This didn't help the fuzzy feeling between her ears, in fact it only magnified it. But as she felt the warmth that came with being near Jay, she thought maybe this time giving in to it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe she was overthinking everything and should stop worrying about what others wanted and do what she wanted.
She wanted to stay with Jay.
And anyway, they were in Auradon! Cheerleaders were perfectly nice. She was probably worrying needlessly. They wouldn't hurt her.
Right?
ahhhh pretty cute, huh? they're getting flirty... and maybe with a little foreshadowing there at the end? see you soon!
- m.g.
