Time seemed to slowly trickle by after that. I'd wait, and wait, and wait. Cautiously looking over my shoulder every minute. But eventually minutes turned into hours, hours turned into days, slowly the days turned into a month.
I soon settled into a comfortable routine in Oakridge. I went to class, hung out with some friends, spent time with the Clark's, went to work, and I even had the odd meeting with Nick. Though that just brings up a whole new problem entirely. Ever since he told me about the accusations, he'd been a little… distant. I don't know whether it was the whole 'guilt and selfish' thing or if I had pushed him too far. What if he felt pressured to tell me? I mean I wasn't too pushy about it, was I?
I don't even know anymore. One thing I do know, is that, Nick, no matter what his reasoning may be, was slowly but surely pushing me away. And I had no idea how to stop it.
#
16:53. I was eight minutes late for work, and the bookshop wasn't even in sight yet. It's not like I'd get fired, Luke's not even working this shift, but that leaves Nick in charge. And I do not want to give him a reason to be pissed with me.
16:55; make that ten minutes late for work. I reached onto my tiptoes to try and peer over the unusually crowded streets, I silently curse my shortness when all I get is an eye full of shoulders. Exasperated, I quickly duck out onto the road, praying there are no passing cars, and, to my luck, there isn't any. I finish my journey on the road, staying as close as possible to the sidewalk, and finally I reach the bookstore.
As I push the door open, I check my watch again; 17:02. Crap. I walk into the small coatroom to the side, shouting my apology.
"I know. I know. I'm sorry I'm late Ni-"
"Nick's not here." The sudden voice shocks me and I jump round stumbling slightly, only beginning to calm down when I see who it is.
"Jesus, Luke. You scared the crap out of me."
"What? Expecting pretty boy instead?" Luke leaned against the counter, jovially smirking over his cup of tea. I roll my eyes slightly, over the past month I've worked here, I've gotten used to Luke's antics.
"Well seeing as he is working this shift and you're not, yeah, I was expecting him." I get started carefully organising the books.
"Yeah he, err, asked for a shift change." I paused my actions. He changed his shift? Why? Because he had to work with me?
"What? Why?" I almost demand turning to face Luke. His face flushes slightly, and that's when I realise he's lying.
"He, errm, had something with Amelia. I told him I'd cover his shift."
"But I thought you had to pick up Alex?" Alex was Luke's nephew. Luke was his legal guardian after Alex's parents died, but he went to some fancy week-day boarding school in Eugene. He would come home at the weekends so Luke only work Monday to Friday afternoon.
"Yeah, Nick said he'd pick him up on the way back."
Eugene was at least an hour away, which meant a two hour journey there and back. So he would rather drive for 2 hours, passing almost nothing but trees, just to get away from me. Well I had to say this was a new low.
After that I went on with working pretty quietly. Luke even came looking for me a couple of times to make sure I was still there. Unfortunately for me, I was still there. As usual, the store was pretty much deserted, leaving me with nothing better than my thoughts. I honestly don't know where things went wrong. Nick and I. We were actually getting somewhere. Somewhere past secret looks and covert meetings. I thought he was finally opening up to me. Well I guess he just got bored. Lucky me.
#
My shift passed by relatively fast. And once it was over I began the walk back home. Usually I would have had Brennan or Logan pick me up but to be honest I didn't really want to speak to either. Brennan was sweet but he was painfully oblivious sometimes and well, Logan and I haven't really been on great terms since the big argument. The chilling air shocked me out of my thoughts, something I was thankful for.
I was about a third of the way home, when a vaguely familiar car rolled to a stop next to me and the driver window started to slowly descend. Part of me expected to see Logan or Brennan, maybe even Anastasia, but none of these was the face I saw.
"Hey, need a ride?" the words roll out, elegant and sophisticated, accompanied by a dazzling white smile. But this just fuelled my anger.
"Thanks," I watch as his smile grew, "But no thanks." And I watch his smile fall. I hastily turn to walk away, hoping he'd just leave me alone with my anger.
I was not so lucky.
"Evie? Evie. Come on. What's the matter?" he kept his car gently rolling at a steady pace beside me. If I sped up so did he. I saw an alley opening a few feet away and took my chance with it. Noticing my change in direction, Nick reacted, I heard him call my name a few times followed by a door shutting. Then I feel a warm hand tugging at my elbow, exasperated I spin around sharply.
"What?" I snap, using probably the most vicious tone I've used since coming to Oakridge. Nicks reaction almost makes me want to take it back. His eyebrows pull together, creating a small crease between them, the corners of his lips, usually quirked up in an endearing smirk, now pulled downwards into a frown. And his eyes, eyes that seemed a deep golden brown in the dusk, held so much sadness and concern that I actually faltered for a moment.
But then I remembered the anger, the abandonment, the uselessness I'd been feeling these past few weeks, and I held my ground. "You actually want anything to do with me now?" I wouldn't have thought his frown could have gotten any deeper before I saw it.
"What are you talking about? Of course I do." He slides his hands up my arms, his movements are slow and calculated, as if he's waiting to see if I'll snap again. "Evie, where is all this coming from?"
"Stop patronizing me Nick." I push his arms off of me. "You know exactly where this is coming from. You've been avoiding me for weeks. And don't even try denying it." At this he seems to just give up.
"You're right." He admits after a moment. He stares at his feet kicking the ground, he looks up at me gritting his teeth. "I have been avoiding you." I realise, with a belated horror that tears are cascading down my cheeks. Before I can even think of lifting my hand, Nick is in front of me. One hand cupping my cheek, catching the falling tears on his thumb, the other is rested with his palm against my neck. "But not in the way that you think."
"What are you talking about?"
"Wherever this is going…it won't end well for you."
"Nick, I have already told you. I don't care what people think you did–"
"I know that. But soon, that won't matter. The entire town still thinks I'm a murderer and their just waiting until I'm eighteen to try me as an adult."
"Can they even do that?" I get a humourless laugh in response.
"They're the cops Eves, they can do whatever they like." He takes a deep breath, slowly raising his hand to brush away a lock of my hair, his fingertips leaving a trail of fire in its wake. "That's why I couldn't do this. The most I can give you is four months, and that's if they're giving me the courtesy to actually be 18 for a while before they throw my ass in jail." He tries to pull of his trademark smirk, but it's drowned out in the sadness of his eyes. "You deserve more than that. You don't deserve to be dragged in the middle of some court case."
I try to control my thoughts as I open my mouth to retort, "but- "
"Evie!" I turn my head to look at the person standing at the opening of the alley.
"Great." I mutter, "We'll talk about this later." I say to Nick as I walk away, not even waiting for a reply. I walk straight past the waiting person and don't stop until I reach the familiar car.
"So, what do you want Logan?" I ask folding my arms over my chest defiantly when Logan gives me an appalled look.
"Your shift ended over an hour ago and you weren't answering your phone. We were worried."
"Yeah, well, my battery died." Total lie. I'd felt it vibrating in my pocket when I was talking to Nick.
"Let's just get home. Brennan is waiting."
#
The journey home was as awkward as I would have expected. For the majority of the ride neither of us tried to start a conversation, at least not until we turned onto the long gravel road leading to the Clarks house.
"I wished you'd stay away from that guy." I could not believe he was still bringing this up, had he not the message that I wasn't going to stop seeing Nick?
"Seriously? Don't start that again." I spit through gritted teeth. Logan lets out a defeated sigh, and to my surprise, suddenly slams on the breaks. The force jolts me forward slightly but he sticks his hand out to stop me from hurting myself.
"Look, despite what you might think Evie, I'm not doing this to be a prick! Okay? I care about you, you're like family. I know that you say that everybody has him wrong and to be honest I don't know. I don't know if he's innocent or guilty. All I know is that it can't end well with you two. You can hate me for it but I'm doing this for the right reasons Evie." He presses his head back against the seat, sucking in long deep breaths. "I might not know exactly what happened, but I know it was bad. I know that you've been through a lot. Too much. Way more than you should have to. You've been hurt way too much in this world already Evie, I don't want you to have a broken heart too."
"We're not together, it's not like that." I get a pointed look in response.
"Sure Evie. You know I hate to be the one to break this to you but it's kind of obvious how you feel when you're making googly eyes at him."
"What? You mean like you and Selena?" I ask feigning innocent. He raises a finger to point at me before replying, "That, dear little Evie, is irrelevant." I let myself laugh at this, and I know that Logan and I are going to be alright. He starts the car again and begin driving up the road.
"Well, I can assure you, even if I did like him, he doesn't like me so that point is irrelevant." I hear Logan laugh at me and turn to see him shaking his head at me.
"Oh, Evie, Evie, Evie. That guy practically worships the ground you walk on." He parks the car in the garage and turns to smile at me.
"Then why are you afraid he'll hurt me?"
His face quickly turns sober before replying, "Guilty or not, he's been through some pretty bad things, he's bound to be messed up."
I nod, and when I'm out of the car I turn to him and give him a sad smile. "Well, so am I."
#
The weekend disappeared within a blink of an eye. I hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep the night before so when Monday morning rolled around I was practically sleep walking. I'm sitting in homeroom desperately trying to not fall asleep at the monotone sound of Mr Cook's voice, when Peyton slides next to me.
"So, I bet you're happy huh?"
"About what exactly?"
"You know, there's a new kid coming today. You no longer the newbie." She gently nudges me with her elbow.
"Oh, thank God. Being the new girl was so hard. I could barely handle all the responsibilities." My sarcastic remark gains me another elbow in the side, but Peyton's amused grin lets me know she's not offended by my humour. We eventually part ways and soon it was lunch. I stopped off at my locker to grab my lunch and I was relieved to find no notes. I'd received a few in the last month but they were kind of cliché. You know the classic 'you're not safe' and 'watch you're back' clearly whoever was stalking me had way too much time on their hands. But to be honest they still kind of worried me. Nothing had happened, yet, but I knew this wasn't a joke, soon sending these stupid notes wouldn't be enough for this psycho.
I walk into the cafeteria and cut across the room to where my friends are sitting in the back corner. I don't make it far though until someone grabs my arm, when I turn to see who it is, I find myself rolling my eyes. Great. Just what I need.
"What do you want Danny?"
"I was just wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with us." He smiles, completely oblivious of my dislike towards him. After how he treated Nick I want to tell him where to shove it but I was raised to have 'manners' and doing that would probably give my mom a heart attack, so I act nice.
"Thanks, but I'm actually eating with my friends." I point over my shoulder to the table where they're sitting.
"Oh well, that's cool then, as long as you're not sitting with Nick."
"And why would it be a problem if I was?" I raise an eyebrow, hoping I look intimidating.
"Well, you do know about him now right? The guys a psycho."
"Oh, I know. But I don't think he's a psycho, I think he's misjudged. Now if you don't mind I'd like to get pass." I try to walk past him but he puts his arms out to grab me again, but as soon as his fingers brush my arms, he's pushed back into a table. I feel a warm hand cover my wrist and pull me to their side, looking up it just confirms what I already knew. Nick.
His eyes are focused on Danny and he doesn't look happy at all, he reaches out to point a finger right in Danny's face. "You don't touch her." He spits out with more venom than I thought he was capable of. That same look of fear shoots past Danny's face again but he regains his composure.
"Possessive much?" he turns to me and continues, "See what I mean about psycho Evie? I think you might have a stalker on your hands." He smirks trying to get a rise out of Nick, but he's just greeted with another stormy look.
I tug on Nicks arm, "Let's just get out of here." He gives a curt nod in response and we turn to leave. However, Danny decides he's not done. "Evie, wait!" he grabs my arm and yanks me back, I cry out as I feel something in my shoulder pop and pain shoots up my arm. Before I can even register what's happening, I'm pushed behind Nick as he lunges for Danny. I'm too in shock to notice exactly what's happening. I only know that Nick and Danny are fighting and it definitely seems like Nicks winning, and I belated notice a wave of teachers rushing towards the fight.
Horrified, I jump in front of Nick quickly. "Stop!" he had his arm pulled back, ready for another hit but he freezes as soon as he sees me. I step forward, wrapping my hands the best I can around his arms, "Calm down. Okay? This isn't helping anything." I keep him looking straight at me, and within a few seconds his body relaxes and he nods. I sigh in relief but then remember that our problems aren't over with yet.
"NICHOLAS COLLINS! YOU REPORT TO THE PRINCIPLES OFFICE THIS INSTANT!" Yikes.
#
After the drama at lunch the teachers quickly dispersed, one of them escorting Nick to the principal's office, and students were told to leave early for their next class. This, however, left me with nothing to do. Usually I would spend my free periods in the library but after what just happened I was too keyed up to just sit in silence. So, knowing that Nick was probably going to be in the principal's office for the rest of the day, I decided to have a walk outside.
The school, much like everywhere in Oakridge, is surrounded by trees. The school usually uses this to mark the edge of the property but it doesn't really stop people from wandering there. I spend some time just walking the border the trees make before I get to the Art building, it sits out of the way so I won't be disturbed and I can wait for Taylor to be done with her class and go to Gym class with her.
Settling down against the back wall, I lean my head back and take some deep breaths.
"Trying to escape the drama huh?" the sudden voice startles me and I lurch away from it, hitting my head on a window sill in the process. Holding my head, I look around to see a guy around my age, maybe a year or so older than me, I also notice that I've never seen this guy before. I know I'm pretty new to Oakridge myself but there's not that many kids here that I would forget someone, so this must be the new kid Peyton was talking about earlier.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he adds after seeing head before continuing with a smirk, "I guess it's a good thing your boyfriend isn't here, that was quite the show back there."
"You saw that huh?"
"Hey, I'm not judging, that other guy had not right grabbing you, but just remind me never to get on your guys bad side." I'm too exhausted to even think about correcting him for calling Nick 'my guy', so I just stick to the basics.
"So you're the new guy?"
"Yeah just moved here with my cousin."
"I moved here not long ago from Boston, where'd you come from?" I turn to look at him, only now taking in his appearance. He's tall, about Logan's height, but he's quite muscular, like Brennan, his short black hair is styled into messy spikes and his deep blue eyes look distracted.
"Um, kind of everywhere. We travel a lot." It's kind of a vague answer but I don't exactly know the guy. I just nod in response, not knowing what else to say in that situation, luckily he takes control of the conversation.
"So, what class do you have next?"
"Gym."
"Well I have French so I could walk you on my way there?"
"Aww, is that a gentleman I see coming out?" he chuckles in response to my tease, and out of the corner of my eye I see him pull something out of his pocket. "And the gentleman's gone. You know you're not allowed to do that here." he takes a long drag of the cigarette before turning to answer me.
"Last I checked you're not allowed to skip class either."
"I have a free period."
"Oh, well looks like I'm breaking two rules then, one for each of us." He smirks and lightly nudges me.
I shake my head and laugh, "I'm Evie, by the way." I stand up to stretch my legs when I hear the guy laugh again. "What?"
"Nothing," he says standing to join me, "I just didn't realise how little you are. Maybe I should just call you shorty instead."
"Try it buddy, see where it gets you." I smirk patting his arm. I peer around the corner and see people trickling out of the building, "Well, I should get going, see you later…" I trail off remembering I don't know his name.
"Stee, my names Stee." He corrects with a smile that I return.
"Well, see you later Stee."