.xii. A Decent Friend

When Evelyn opened her eyes, she saw Christy in her truest morning form. Her red hair looked like a bird's nest, dipped in paint, sitting on top of her head; her makeup was smeared, leaving black streaks only on one side of her face; and the down-comforter was pulled up to her chin, encasing her in a fluffy cocoon.

She smiled at the memories from the night before. Christy let her vent for several hours, and offered some very good, helpful advice. They'd painted each other's toes, prettied their nails, and a little hair braiding even took place. It was a genuine sleepover, two girls just having fun and being girls. It was something that Evelyn had never experienced before.

Her parents were renowned Doctors, who couldn't settle in one place. They loved to travel, so when Evelyn was around four or five, they accepted a job offer they couldn't refuse, to tour with a group of archeologists. They were a part of an elite medical team, and counseled the archeologists they traveled around the world with and various natives to the places they'd visit. Evelyn was constantly moving with her parents, an only child. The longest she'd ever lived in one place was 13 months.

She hardly ever had a proper relationship with a group of people her own age. Her parents were best friends with the Harrington's, so she'd always been close with Derby. And one of the doctors her parents traveled with had a daughter, but she was a little younger than Evie, so they hadn't much in common.

As much as she'd hated the idea of being stranded by her parents, she'd gained a lot at Bullworth. Upon her arrival in September, she'd immediately made friends with Christy and Pinky. There was something deeper in her friendship with Christy, though. Their bond was a little stronger. Christy was definitely a unique character, but she was overwhelmingly kind. Kind enough to initiate a sleepover on a school night to help a friend. It was nice. Having friends was nice.

Evelyn yawned, turning on her back, and stretched out her limbs. Her body began to wake up, but her mind was a little groggy, and she was just so comfy. She glanced at the clock to see how long until she had until the alarm would go off. Her eyes widened.

"9:45AM."

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, shooting up from the blankets and sheets, immediately turning to shake Christy. "Christy! Wake up!"

She gave a sleepy groan.

"Christy! Wake up! We slept late! It's nine forty-five! We're late for class!"

Her eyes shot open, and her body shot up in bed.

Both girls jumped out of bed and began bumbling around the room, picking clothes up off the floor, throwing things into book bags, stripping off pajamas and haphazardly pulling on bath robes. Evelyn always showered in the morning, and there was no way that Christy could go to class in her state.

Christy gasped, once they were in the bathroom and she saw her reflection in the mirror. "Wow, I look like somebody ran over my face and left a tire mark."

"Isn't Mrs. Carvin supposed to make sure that the building is cleared on school mornings?" Evelyn retorted, peeling her robe off and climbed into the shower stall.

"Maybe she thought we didn't have class?"

Evelyn shook her head at the idea. At Bullworth, once you passed a class, you didn't have to attend anymore. It was only mid=October! There was no way that anyone had completed a course, yet!

The girls took their showers as quickly as they could, and each separated to get ready in their own rooms. Before not long at all, Evelyn was banging on Christy's dorm room door.

She always takes too long to get ready! "Come on, Christy! Let's go!"

"Almost ready!"

A few seconds passed, and Christy emerged. Both girls bolted downstairs, Christy leading the way, now, and headed for the front door. Evelyn stepped aside as her friend heaved open the giant, wooden, door. Christy went to take a step outside, but came to an abrupt stop, right in the doorway. She twisted on her heels, and gave an awkward smile.

"Hey, Evelyn, don't you want to go grab a sweater?"

Evelyn gave Christy a confused expression. "What? It's not even that cold," she replied, dismissing her friend's attitude, and moved to step around her.

But Christy deliberately stepped in front of her. "Oh, I think it's actually supposed to get colder. October can be a cold month!"

"What is your damage?" Evelyn retorted. They were late for class and did not have time for this!

With determination, she managed to step around Christy and make it outside. But as soon as the cool air hit her face, receiving a sweater was the least of her worries.

Off to the side of the small courtyard, that surrounded the girl's dorm building stoop, were two greasers. Johnny stood there, a grin on his face, but he wasn't grinning at Evie. She heard him talking, but was unable to make out his words, as his volume was so low. He leaned against the wall of the courtyard, and was looking down at none other than Lola.

Her body language was so obvious, her hip was cocked out to the side, her leather jacket was falling off of her shoulder, exposing naked skin, and her hair was wrapped around her finger.

Johnny was standing there with Lola, and from what it looked like, they were flirting!

Her shoulders slacked, her face fell, and her heart dropped.

Really? she thought.

She felt Christy place a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly. This had been why Christy didn't want her to step out onto the stoop.

Not realizing how long they'd been standing there, or how plain they were in sight, Evelyn saw Johnny look up at her. His facial expression changed immediately.

He'd seen her, now. She didn't want to look shocked or disappointed, so she did her best to ignore that terrible gut feeling that she had in the pit of her stomach. She held her head up, and began down the stoop, at a moderate speed, and headed out of the court yard.

Evelyn began away from whatever it was going between Johnny and Lola, and didn't look back.

When Christy and Evelyn arrived to class, they were almost an hour late. The Prefect who'd decided to escort them, as if they'd ever had any trouble with Evelyn and Christy before, stalked away with a hard expression on his face, leaving the girls on Mrs. Phillip's door mat.

Phillips was in the middle of a sentence when the girls entered. Evelyn tried to look as meek as possible. Hopefully they'd receive a soft blow.

The art teacher's face immediately fell.

There were a bunch of students who liked Ms. Phillips . She was a beautiful, nice lady, but for some reason, she just didn't seem to like Evelyn and Evelyn didn't really like her all that much either.

"You're an hour late for class, girls," she scolded, in her soft, sultry voice.

"Sorry, my alarm clock didn't go off," Evie defended.

"Both clocks, I'm guessing?"

Evelyn would have rolled her eyes if the woman hadn't been standing right there. She wasn't interested in giving details, and didn't say another word. They made their way towards the back of the room, toward the only two empty easels.

"You can make up for the hour you missed this Saturday, for detention," Ms. Phillips called to the girls as they took their seats.

Evelyn didn't say a word to the woman. She was just furious, by this point, after seeing Johnny and receiving lip from a teacher who doesn't even teach a real subject.

Christy responded for the both of them, letting Phillips know they understood.

Phillips continued her lecture, but Evie didn't tune in. She wasn't concerned. Reading the assignment on the board, she pulled out her sketch pad, and began to draw. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Christy keep glancing over at her. After about the third time, Evelyn put down her pencil, and turned to Christy, who was wearing a concerned expression.

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Johnny and I aren't together," she responded curtly. "He can do whatever he wants."

She could tell that Christy didn't believe her, that she knew that Evelyn wasn't okay, but she turned around anyway, and left her alone.

The class didn't last much longer. She'd managed to finish her assignment, and hoped that she could get out of detention, since her sketch was already completed. The bell rang, and the students bustled out of the door.

At lunch, Christy filled Pinky in on Evelyn's mood, who wasn't talking very much at all. She wasn't necessarily upset anymore, just confused, and a little bummed. But her friend's words of wisdom rang in her ears. What more can you do? There wasn't much Evelyn could do about Derby, and the same applied to Johnny. She could only control her own feelings and actions. One would assume, by the sight she saw that morning, that Johnny wasn't through with Lola. Well, that was on Johnny.

Her friends sat at the lunchroom table and chatted as she worked on the English assignment she should have started on the night before. Pinky had managed to convince Evelyn to eat, who tried, but overall didn't really have an appetite.

Lunch period came to an end, all too soon, which signaled her next class: Chemistry. She would see Lefty, and hopefully make a little progress with his tutoring, which was good, but she was pretty sure she'd see her other chemistry classmate, Derby.

Reluctantly, she gathered up her items, said goodbye to her friends, and headed off.


Evelyn was all too caught up in her thoughts to register what was going around her, as she fought through the crowds on the way to class. She was a little stressed out with everything that had been going on around her, with her confrontation with Derby, and now Johnny, who had her under the impression that he liked her, was apparently back with Lola? Was she mistaken to have assumed such? It certainly didn't seem foolish, the way they were in such close quarters, as Lola smiled up at him. From what she heard from Christy and a few other friends, this shouldn't have been surprising. Johnny and Lola were off and on all the time. That's fine, Evelyn decided, but why did Johnny have to go and throw her in the cross fire?

However, considering that there really was nothing she could do, she decided to just push it off and worry about it later. Focus on Chemistry class, right? Lefty was going to be in class, and hopefully he could either ease her mind or at least give her some insight on the situation. Perhaps they could even get some tutoring done.

Though, as Evelyn stopped right outside the doorway to Professor Watt's classroom, her thoughts were completely stripped of anything concerning Johnny and Lola. Derby stood, leaning against the locker, hands in pockets, with a blank stare on his face. Then, he caught sight of Evelyn from the corner of his eye and quickly straightened up.

"Evelyn, hi!" he said, eyes wide. He seemed sort of jumpy. Had he been waiting there for her?

"Uhm, hi," she said, slightly unsure of what to think of Derby's demeanor. She really didn't think she deserved to be talking with him right now, the way she blew up at him before.

Derby looked down on her with a solemn expression, almost apologetic. He sighed, and then looked around, as if to ensure that they were alone. Everyone had already sorted into their classrooms, and the hallway was clear, save a few individuals. He placed an arm on her shoulder, and guided her away from the doorway, where they were secluded.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Evelyn paused, furrowed a brow, and looked up in utter amazement. "What?"

"I'm sorry," he repeated, just as earnestly as before.

"Why are you sorry? I was a complete and total-"

"Stop," he interrupted, shaking his head. "I acted inappropriate."

"I was inappropriate," she corrected. "I totally freaked out and-"

He held up a hand. "Let's just forget it ever happened, okay?"

Evelyn stood there totally unsure of what in the world was going on. She thought she wanted Derby to accept her apology, and now she realized the all his accepting of her apology did was confuse her.

She took in a deep breath, held it for a second, and exhaled. "Okay. I don't understand what's going on, but-"

Derby apparently wasn't even tolerating Evelyn's profoundly impressive talent of thinking herself in circles, because he held up his hand again. "It's okay, Evelyn. Really."

She chuckled. "Okay," she gave in. Derby accepted her apology, was making amends, so she gave up. Evelyn didn't want to over think it. She just needed to be happy about it.

Evelyn felt her bag drop to the ground as Derby caught her by surprise, took her into an embrace, wrapped his arms around her waist, and buried his face in her shoulder. For a moment, she thought she needed to pull away. Being this close to Derby was dangerous. But, she ignored that need, and allowed herself to enjoy the moment, wrapping her arms around his neck, burying her own face into his chest. He smelled exactly the same. Lavender, but there was kind of a musk to it. Closing her eyes, she realized that they could have been in a completely different place, at a completely different time. She would have never known the difference. He was the only person on the planet, in that moment.

God and he felt so familiar. The sensation of his skin on hers, his natural scent, the sound of his breathing as her head lay on his chest, and having his arms wrapped around her was absolutely intoxicating.

It was moments like this that had made it difficult for Evelyn to quit Derby. For almost two years, she gave him anything he wanted, even though he never wanted to commit. She went back and forth. There were times when she told herself that she deserved better, when Derby would escort other women, while avoiding an exclusive relationship with her. Then, there were times when she felt special, like she was the only one he treated so beautifully like this. Leaving the Summer House was like quitting a bad habit.

Although their embrace only was for a minute, it felt like an eternity, a very beautiful eternity. They pulled away, so reluctantly, and as Evelyn turned to head into class, she knew that she'd made a mistake. It was a mistake to let Derby back in, to relish that embrace as she did. She'd spent months forgetting the sound of his voice, and the way that she felt when he looked at her.

The final bell rang, notifying all the students that they needed to be inside their classrooms. The prefects rounded all the students into various rooms like cattle, and even threw a few nasty glares at Derby and Evelyn.

"You two! Stop your public displays of affection and get to class!" one yelled, pointing a finger of judgment at their direction.

Evelyn rolled her eyes, and Derby stepped aside as she led the way into class.

Lefty was already sitting at the usual table, with his head buried in his folded arms. It looked as if he were asleep, as he sat there very still. With an amused smile on her lips, Evie approached the lounging greaser, dropped her bags behind her chair, and pulled out the giant, thick chemistry book.

"SLAM!"

Lefty jerked up in complete shock, quickly shooting his head from side to side, surveying his surroundings, trying to find out what in the world the noise was. Looking up, he knew that it had been Evelyn as he caught the glimpse of the sly smile on her face.

"Not cool, man," he groaned with tired, squinted eyes.

"You look tired," she mused, settling in.

Lefty rubbed his eyes and straightened himself up. "Yeah, I was up late last night."

"You have a rumble to get to or something?" Evelyn picked.

He rolled his eyes at the remark. "Had a test today."

She cocked a brow, interested in his short, baiting statement. "How do you think you did?" a smile of excitement on her face.

"I think I did alright," he replied in a yawn. "Oh, by the way," he added, turning to look at Evelyn with an apologetic expression. "Sorry about the other day?"

"The other day?" She was blank.

"In the garage."

Evelyn's heart immediately sank into her stomach. After the pleasant apology she shared with Derby, she'd forgotten about the witnessed disgrace this morning. The disappointment that she'd pushed aside and buried deep down resurfaced. With a suddenly hardened expression, she broke eye contact with Lefty and turned in her chair to face forward. "Don't mention it," she said, with almost clenched teeth.

It seemed that Evelyn's were read on her face easier than she would have liked, because Lefty's apologetic expression immediately contorted into that of concern. "Is everything okay, Evie?"

Silently, she chastised herself over feeling such intense disappointment over a boy she hadn't even known properly for more than a whole week. Sucking in a large breath, she composed herself. "It's okay. Don't worry about it."

Lefty leaned forward, trying to get Evelyn to look at him, attempting to break her gaze as she stood straight, staring directly forward. "Evelyn," his tone was now serious as he dropped the friendly nickname and opted for the full name, as one appropriately would do in times of worry. "What happened?"

Her eyes fell down to her fingers, as she entwined them together, trying to focus on one thing as her brain went in one thousand directions. The image of Lola and Johnny together jumped around in her mind, those two intensely hot, and profoundly confusing kisses she'd shared with Johnny, and the all-around confusion she was experiencing at the moment with her own emotions. "It's nothing to worry about," she insisted, half lying, shaking her head. (Evelyn knew that she wasn't really okay, which was Lefty's main concern, however she didn't think it warranted any concern.) "I just saw Johnny with Lola this morning and I think they're back together. That's all…"

She stared down at her fingers on top of the old, worn chemistry table. There were dents from students carving out chunks with their pencils, the holes cluttered with led marks. Smudges littered the general surface, as the janitor tried to clean the sharpie smudges off of the desk. Evelyn wondered how old this table was. Surely a private boarding school, such as Bullworth, as proud as Crabblesnitch seemed to be with the institution, would have vandalized property such as this regularly replaced, correct? But, Evelyn was merely trying to distract herself.

The table shifted as Lefty fell back in his chair, exhaling what sounded like a defeated sigh. "Sorry, Evie. They've gone on and off for a long while." He shook his head in disdain.

She appreciated the kindness and friendly support Lefty was showing her. Despite the current flowing emotions, she felt a swell of gratitude. She fell back into her sight as well, now parallel to Lefty. "It's okay. I'm just disappointed is all. If he wants to be with her, that's completely fine, it's just-" There was an involuntary sigh.

Lefty waited for her to finish, curios.

"He shouldn't have made out with me twice if-" She couldn't bring herself to finish, tasting the foolishness on her tongue.

"Johnny's like that. He's the Greaser King, remember? He thinks he can do whatever he wants."

Or maybe she wasn't so foolish? She didn't know. What she did know was that even if randomly making out with someone didn't necessarily require any loyalty boundaries, she knew that that was the last kind of relationship (or in this case non-relationship) she needed.

She thought of Derby, who was an important person to Evelyn, even now. She'd grown up with the guy, and their parents were close friends. She'd spent two summers with him at the Harrington's Summer House, but her entire romantic involvement with him left her totally emotionally exhausted. She'd loved him for the longest time. One could go so far as to say that they'd been in an open relationship, considering they'd been best friends for so long, and eventually integrated regular sex into the equation. However, Derby was able to happily function in that manner, but not Evelyn. She wanted Derby's mind, body, and heart exclusively. Foolishly, she'd entertained his play-boyish ways for two summers, and once she'd realized that nothing was going to change, she left. Granted, she bailed without properly confronting him, without so as much as a goodbye, but she did what she could manage considering the emotional damage she'd endured.

Given all she'd endured with Derby, she knew that this nonsense with Johnny wasn't helping. If Johnny wanted to go around making out with random girls, he wouldn't be doing it with her. Evelyn refused to be just some "random girl" for someone to get his kicks with. She was fed up with being under appreciated.

Doctor Watts eventually popped into his own classroom, which led Evelyn to think he was actually going to teach today, instead of mumbling crazy nothings about lab experiments. She realized how wrong she was when he instructed the class to pull out the syllabus and work on the next scheduled assignment.

"Is it just me, or is he getting crazier and crazier?" mused Lefty, as they wandered to the back of the classroom to gather the necessary supplies for the assignment.

"No, that is total descent into madness."

The two of them collected their supplies, returned to the lab table, and set up. Lefty did some of the book work and took a few initial notes as Evelyn tried to set up the equipment and samples.

"We're mixing solutions today," Evelyn announced in an underwhelmed tone.

"You sound so excited," said Lefty. Sarcasm.

"It's taking all I can to contain myself." More sarcasm.

Evelyn set up the appointed amount of beakers, filled them with the listed amount of liquid, and then had to remove the packaged solute from its container. She had a little trouble with this, the various liquids sealed in these air tight plastic tubes.

"You want some help?" Lefty offered.

"Nope," she suggested stubbornly. "I got this. You keep working on the hypothesis." Independent Woman refused.

Since Evelyn apparently didn't want any help, Lefty folded his arms, having already finished the three hypotheses, and watched her struggle, needlessly.

"There's a bike meet next Friday," he said, trying to fill the silence as he witness the pitiful view.

"Oh, I think Johnny mentioned that," she said, handing the tube over to Lefty, hushing Independent Woman, "before he was a total ass wipe." Evelyn knew she was already feeling better, because she was already insulting Johnny.

"I'm gonna compete in it. They're giving this sweet bike to the winner." Lefty handed her the three, open containers.

"That's cool." She was disappointed in her lost struggle against the containers.

"Johnny's gonna be in it, though, so you're probably not gonna wanna be there, huh? You're prolly not gonna wanna see 'em or nothin'." There was disappointment in Lefty's tone.

Independent Woman scoffed. Evelyn was insulted. "Lefty!" she scolded. "I am a better friend than that!

His eyes widened in surprise. "I didn't mean nothing by it!"

She shook her head. "I know, I know. But Lefty, I'll totally go watch you race if you want me to."

"You'd really come watch me race?" His tone was sincere, as if he truly thought that Evie would miss something like that.

"Look, Johnny can be a jerky "Greaser King" all he wants, swapping spit with whomever he likes, but that's not gonna keep me from being a decent friend."

A smile on his lips, Lefty turned away, clearly excited. "You're a cool chick, Evelyn."