p class="MsoNormal"strongspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"AN: /spanspan style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'lucida grande', 'lucida sans unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.12px;"This chapter could be called; Evie was always the one in charge! Lol. If you enjoy Evie only in the kind, supportive role this chapter is probably not for you. I'm also not including the scene with Mal and Evie here as originally I had intended to leave it up to everyone's imagination but I have written it as an outtake which I will post separately to my AO3 account for anyone interested./span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"-0-0-0-0-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Carlos and Bed stood uncomfortably in the clearing once they were alone and the girls could no longer be heard moving through the trees. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I suppose we should head back to school." Carlos sighed. "It's getting late." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Ben noticed then that the sunlight was indeed starting to get that warm tinge of twilight. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"He nodded. They walked back through the forest, taking the path in the opposite direction to where Jay had gone. The girls hadn't even used a path, barreling head first into the trees. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Eventually Carlos broke their silent trek. "Just ask/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';", man/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"." he said/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" span style="font-family: Calibri;""I can see your mind has a million questions; just ask them." the boy clarified when Ben remained silent. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Ben thought but then shook his head "I don't know where to begin." he admitted. "I guess first is how long did you know I was there?" Carlos paused to give him an appraising look before shrugging and continuing to walk. They were now entering the school gates. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""From the moment you arrived. You're not at all stealthy you know." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Ben tried to hide his shock. "Why didn't anyone say anything?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I don't think Mal realized until much later and I'm not sure if Jay noticed at all before he left; they were both too focused on each other. Evie saw you same time I did; but that's part of our job; to keep lookout." he explained "She didn't say anything though, so neither did I." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Will the others be mad at you for not telling them?" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Carlos seemed to consider as they reached the landing his dorm was on "No," he said after a moment "If Evie wasn't aware, maybe. But she knew so it was her responsibility/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" first and/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" I followed her lead." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"They were at Carlos and Jays dorm door now. Carlos held up a hand to stop Ben from asking more before he unlocked the door and poked his head inside. After a second he opened the door wider. "Jay's not here." he explained "you can come in and wait with me if you want. Evie will probably want to talk to you when she and Mal are done." there was something about the way Carlos said it that made Ben file away a question about that dynamic for later too. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Will they be mad at Evie for not saying anything?" Ben continued from their earlier conversation. Carlos chuckled. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Evie….Evie is Evie." he said as though that explained it "Even if they were mad, they cant…" he seemed to reconsider what he was saying "well anyway, no one can really be mad with her for long." Ben nodded, relieved. He didn't want the blue haired girl in trouble with her friends for his choices….although considering how she had looked leaving the clearing today maybe she was not the one to be concerned for./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" Ben had many more questions but instead of asking he said "I'm sorry for spying earlier. Fights between friends are hard enough without an audience. I got into an argument with Audrey once and Lonnie was there, it just….wasn't pleasant." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Carlos seemed to consider that. Then he admitted softly "Friendship is different here." Ben nodded; that much was obvious just by watching the four of them. He remained quiet; hoping Carlos would continue. The four spoke so rarely about the Isle and they were so private it had been many months since they left the Isle and Ben still knew so little about them except the small hints and comments dropped in conversation but never a full picture. Carlos seemed lost in his thoughts for a moment before blinking and remembering Ben was there. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Friendship," he continued "is not really a thing on the Isle. Or, we don't call it that. I suppose by your terms I could say that Mal, Jay and Evie are my friends but that's not quite the right word….brothers in arms maybe…." Carlos seemed to struggle to explain. "What you saw today….there are rules on the Isle, rules and hierarchy and a certain way things are done. Its necessary for survival. You find your crew and they're like your everything, but there's also lines and….."Carlos seemed to realise he wasn't explaining himself well at all and his mind was half in memories even while he tried to put into words what the other three were to him. "Sorry," he apologized ruefully "I've never had to try explain this and I don't think you have an equivalent here to draw from…" he fell silent for a long time, thinking through what to say. Ben waited patiently. "Okay," he said finally "you know the Isle is dangerous right?" Ben nodded "Well to survive there you need people who will look out for you, watch your back. If you don't have that you'll likely starve or end up as someones slave or dead or worse than that." Ben paled at his words - he had known the Isle was bad but no/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"t the full/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" extent. "So we form groups for protections; gangs you could say….some are actual families, some are just people with a common interest, some I honestly don't know why they're together…anyway, the stronger your gang, the safer you are and Mal always kept us safe./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" But that safety came with sacrifices as well./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" Mal and Jay have looked out for each other since they were practically old enough to /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"leave their homes unsupervised/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"; and they adopted me into their group a few years after that so we've all been together for a long time. We've al/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"so/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" been through a lot together - it's more than your friendships because when I say I would trust them with my life; I've been in situations where I literally had to do just that. We've all seen each other through so much/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"; it changes how you see a person/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" and I would give myself to protect them. That's a commitment you make when you join…or I suppose a better word for us is form… an Isle gang. It's a real commitment because you could actually end up dying for them, you know." Ben didn't know; he couldn't imagine a life like that or to have that type of connection with another person; let alone three of them, but he nodded anyway, then frowned…./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""When did Evie join?" he asked suddenly, realizing Carlos hadn't said. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""That…Evie has a complicated past. Her and Mal….things happened when they were younger/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';". T/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"hey can tell you if they want. I think though, that Mal only let Evie join us to stop her becoming a rival." Carlos said, almost to himself before freezing, as though realizing he had said something he shouldn't "Don't tell them I said that," he begged hastily "and it's not like that now anyway. Only right at the start…." They were interrupted by a knock on the door. It opened a second later to let in none other than Evie and Mal themselves. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Interrupting something I hope." Mal said; her usual swagger back in place although her amusement didn't quite reach her eyes. Ben eyed both girls who were looking considerably more disheveled than they had earlier. Mal had three faint red lines on her left cheek that looked like…fading scratches, Ben/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" thought to himself/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';", and Evie appeared to have a rip on her jacket. Both their hair was messy and the back of Mals hand was also grazed with smudges of dirt visible. They both seemed to realize their appearance at the same time. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I'm going to go clean up." Evie explained as she walked to/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"wards/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" the boys en suite. Mal made to follow her but Evie shook her head. "Jay first." she instructed. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Mal wanted to argue; it was clear to everyone, but to Bens surprise she didn't. Instead she closed her eyes and took deep, apparently calming, breath. She spared the other two no more than a glance before heading to the door again. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""M," Evie called after her as she reached for the handle, her slight irritation at Mals lack of response only noticeable to two of the other three in the room. Mal turned back in silent question "No segues" Evies tone was playful but there was steel underneath it "…Jay first so he…..knows." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"This time Mals eyes did flash in anger, Evie just waited as though daring the argument but also supremely confident it would not come. Ben watched the exchange with open curiosity; it /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"being/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" so different to how he had always seen them interact in the past. Mal turned back to the door, once again without a word, yanking it open with more force than was strictly necessary. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Mal," Evie called again, her tone sharper this time at Mal's behaviour. Mal bit her lip but turned back to face her again. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I heard you." Mal ground out/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Keep pushing and I'll want a show." Evie warned with faux lightness. Ben didn't know what she meant by that but Mals darkening expression boded nothing but ill. He was considering interrupting to try lighten the tension but Carlos caught his eye. Giving a slight shake of his head to tell the /span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"K/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"ing not to get involved. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""This isn't the Isle." Mal retorted her tone somewhat mocking. Evie knew though it was only because her pride was smarting at Evie giving her an order and demanding compliance in front of Ben. But Evie was also still /span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"rather irritated /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"with how /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"the day had gone and how /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Mal had handled the whole Jay situation /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"so /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"she was/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" in no mood/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" to be disrespected either. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Its not." Evie agreed evenly, "but some traditions can be continued if they need to be." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""You said you didn't…" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""And I don't" Evie cut her off, matching her glare "but that's not an excuse for rudeness….or do you want me to ask for acknowledgement of another type?" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"It was a threat, obviously so from the tone, but of what was a complete mystery to Ben. Carlos knew though and decided to go against his own /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"covert /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"advice to Ben. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""E…" He interrupted but was ignored /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Remember my mother and that little weasel of a man, when he broke a plate…." Evie mused aloud. /span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The way she said it…/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"It was a slightly sadistic side of Evie that Ben had never seen before, and for once he was reminded who her mother was. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Evie…" Carlos spoke louder this time/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" and probably firmer than Ben had ever heard him although his voice still belied how uncomfortable he was with interrupting/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';". Mal looked ready to punch something but was keeping herself contained by sheer force of will. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Evie paused for a moment, seemed to realize what she was doing/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" and she let out a small huff, releasing some of the tension in her body./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" span style="font-family: Calibri;""Fine,/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;"" she said dismissively "/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"go sort out the shit going on between you and Jay."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Evie turned away first this time and went back into the bathroom without waiting for a response. Mal glared at the door as though she could see through it to the blue haired girl beyond. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Mal…" Ben said hesitantly, not sure if he should draw attention to himself or not but feeling slightly more confident now that Evie had left because Evie just then had been….intimidating was putting it mildly. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Mal seemed to remember him then and flushed a darker shade of red than he'd ever seen. She started to say something when the handle to the bathroom started to turn. Mal didn't even hesitate then; leaving the room and slamming the door behind her before Evie had fully reemerged from the bathroom./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" Apparently there was no /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"way was she risking Evie following through on her threat with Ben, or for that matter even Carlos sitting right there. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Evie reemerged looking her normal put together self once again and Ben marveled at how quickly she had done it. "You guys been talking?" she asked the pair as she moved closer to lean against the table Ben was sitting next to; all hint of the harshness from moments ago gone as though they never were. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""A bit." Carlos replied while Ben just nodded in agreement. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Okay, well I think Ben, you and I should talk too. I can wait a bit though if you want to finish talking to Carlos first?" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""No no," Carlos answered quickly before Ben could "You guys talk; I was tying myself up in knots trying to explain everything. Ben can always come talk to me later if he wants." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Okay,/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;"" she agreed "/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"but lets go to your room then." /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"the suggestion was directed/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" to Ben. He agreed and stood up. "Just wait outside for me for a second would you?" she requested. Ben /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"nodded and left/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';", catching sight of Evie pulling Carlos up to his feet and towards her as he turned to close the door. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""You okay?" Evie asked gently once the door was shut and they were alone. "Yeah," he sighed and allowed himself to be pulled into a hug. They held onto each other for a moment, taking comfort with the familiarity. Today had been quite the day and they were both feeling emotionally drained. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Did you have to push Mal in front of Ben like that?" Carlos asked neutrally as they separated. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I probably shouldn't have." she admitted "I just wanted to -"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Make a point?" Carlos supplied /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Yes. It's fine," Evie shrugged, Mal would get over it "besides, now she can empathize with Jay for a bit." They both chuckled at that before sobering "I better go talk to Ben before curiosity gets the better of him and he decides to try eves drop again. You sure you're okay?"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Carlos nodded, appreciative of her concern "Yeah, I know Mal and Jay will sort it out eventually; I just want it to all calm down now so we can get back to normal." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Me too." Evie agreed, leaning forward to plant a soft kiss on his forehead before following Ben out of the room. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;"-0-0-0-/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"strongspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;"AN2: /span/spanspan style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'lucida grande', 'lucida sans unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.12px;"Please take time to leave a review if you have a moment. I will post the outtake in a few days./span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"-0-0-0-0-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Carlos and Bed stood uncomfortably in the clearing once they were alone and the girls could no longer be heard moving through the trees. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I suppose we should head back to school." Carlos sighed. "It's getting late." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Ben noticed then that the sunlight was indeed starting to get that warm tinge of twilight. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"He nodded. They walked back through the forest, taking the path in the opposite direction to where Jay had gone. The girls hadn't even used a path, barreling head first into the trees. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Eventually Carlos broke their silent trek. "Just ask/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';", man/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"." he said/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" span style="font-family: Calibri;""I can see your mind has a million questions; just ask them." the boy clarified when Ben remained silent. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Ben thought but then shook his head "I don't know where to begin." he admitted. "I guess first is how long did you know I was there?" Carlos paused to give him an appraising look before shrugging and continuing to walk. They were now entering the school gates. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""From the moment you arrived. You're not at all stealthy you know." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Ben tried to hide his shock. "Why didn't anyone say anything?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I don't think Mal realized until much later and I'm not sure if Jay noticed at all before he left; they were both too focused on each other. Evie saw you same time I did; but that's part of our job; to keep lookout." he explained "She didn't say anything though, so neither did I." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Will the others be mad at you for not telling them?" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Carlos seemed to consider as they reached the landing his dorm was on "No," he said after a moment "If Evie wasn't aware, maybe. But she knew so it was her responsibility/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" first and/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" I followed her lead." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"They were at Carlos and Jays dorm door now. Carlos held up a hand to stop Ben from asking more before he unlocked the door and poked his head inside. After a second he opened the door wider. "Jay's not here." he explained "you can come in and wait with me if you want. Evie will probably want to talk to you when she and Mal are done." there was something about the way Carlos said it that made Ben file away a question about that dynamic for later too. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Will they be mad at Evie for not saying anything?" Ben continued from their earlier conversation. Carlos chuckled. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Evie….Evie is Evie." he said as though that explained it "Even if they were mad, they cant…" he seemed to reconsider what he was saying "well anyway, no one can really be mad with her for long." Ben nodded, relieved. He didn't want the blue haired girl in trouble with her friends for his choices….although considering how she had looked leaving the clearing today maybe she was not the one to be concerned for./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" Ben had many more questions but instead of asking he said "I'm sorry for spying earlier. Fights between friends are hard enough without an audience. I got into an argument with Audrey once and Lonnie was there, it just….wasn't pleasant." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Carlos seemed to consider that. Then he admitted softly "Friendship is different here." Ben nodded; that much was obvious just by watching the four of them. He remained quiet; hoping Carlos would continue. The four spoke so rarely about the Isle and they were so private it had been many months since they left the Isle and Ben still knew so little about them except the small hints and comments dropped in conversation but never a full picture. Carlos seemed lost in his thoughts for a moment before blinking and remembering Ben was there. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Friendship," he continued "is not really a thing on the Isle. Or, we don't call it that. I suppose by your terms I could say that Mal, Jay and Evie are my friends but that's not quite the right word….brothers in arms maybe…." Carlos seemed to struggle to explain. "What you saw today….there are rules on the Isle, rules and hierarchy and a certain way things are done. Its necessary for survival. You find your crew and they're like your everything, but there's also lines and….."Carlos seemed to realise he wasn't explaining himself well at all and his mind was half in memories even while he tried to put into words what the other three were to him. "Sorry," he apologized ruefully "I've never had to try explain this and I don't think you have an equivalent here to draw from…" he fell silent for a long time, thinking through what to say. Ben waited patiently. "Okay," he said finally "you know the Isle is dangerous right?" Ben nodded "Well to survive there you need people who will look out for you, watch your back. If you don't have that you'll likely starve or end up as someones slave or dead or worse than that." Ben paled at his words - he had known the Isle was bad but no/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"t the full/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" extent. "So we form groups for protections; gangs you could say….some are actual families, some are just people with a common interest, some I honestly don't know why they're together…anyway, the stronger your gang, the safer you are and Mal always kept us safe./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" But that safety came with sacrifices as well./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" Mal and Jay have looked out for each other since they were practically old enough to /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"leave their homes unsupervised/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"; and they adopted me into their group a few years after that so we've all been together for a long time. We've al/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"so/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" been through a lot together - it's more than your friendships because when I say I would trust them with my life; I've been in situations where I literally had to do just that. We've all seen each other through so much/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"; it changes how you see a person/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" and I would give myself to protect them. That's a commitment you make when you join…or I suppose a better word for us is form… an Isle gang. It's a real commitment because you could actually end up dying for them, you know." Ben didn't know; he couldn't imagine a life like that or to have that type of connection with another person; let alone three of them, but he nodded anyway, then frowned…./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""When did Evie join?" he asked suddenly, realizing Carlos hadn't said. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""That…Evie has a complicated past. Her and Mal….things happened when they were younger/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';". T/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"hey can tell you if they want. I think though, that Mal only let Evie join us to stop her becoming a rival." Carlos said, almost to himself before freezing, as though realizing he had said something he shouldn't "Don't tell them I said that," he begged hastily "and it's not like that now anyway. Only right at the start…." They were interrupted by a knock on the door. It opened a second later to let in none other than Evie and Mal themselves. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Interrupting something I hope." Mal said; her usual swagger back in place although her amusement didn't quite reach her eyes. Ben eyed both girls who were looking considerably more disheveled than they had earlier. Mal had three faint red lines on her left cheek that looked like…fading scratches, Ben/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" thought to himself/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';", and Evie appeared to have a rip on her jacket. Both their hair was messy and the back of Mals hand was also grazed with smudges of dirt visible. They both seemed to realize their appearance at the same time. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I'm going to go clean up." Evie explained as she walked to/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"wards/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" the boys en suite. Mal made to follow her but Evie shook her head. "Jay first." she instructed. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Mal wanted to argue; it was clear to everyone, but to Bens surprise she didn't. Instead she closed her eyes and took deep, apparently calming, breath. She spared the other two no more than a glance before heading to the door again. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""M," Evie called after her as she reached for the handle, her slight irritation at Mals lack of response only noticeable to two of the other three in the room. Mal turned back in silent question "No segues" Evies tone was playful but there was steel underneath it "…Jay first so he…..knows." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"This time Mals eyes did flash in anger, Evie just waited as though daring the argument but also supremely confident it would not come. Ben watched the exchange with open curiosity; it /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"being/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" so different to how he had always seen them interact in the past. Mal turned back to the door, once again without a word, yanking it open with more force than was strictly necessary. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Mal," Evie called again, her tone sharper this time at Mal's behaviour. Mal bit her lip but turned back to face her again. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I heard you." Mal ground out/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Keep pushing and I'll want a show." Evie warned with faux lightness. Ben didn't know what she meant by that but Mals darkening expression boded nothing but ill. He was considering interrupting to try lighten the tension but Carlos caught his eye. Giving a slight shake of his head to tell the /span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"K/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"ing not to get involved. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""This isn't the Isle." Mal retorted her tone somewhat mocking. Evie knew though it was only because her pride was smarting at Evie giving her an order and demanding compliance in front of Ben. But Evie was also still /span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"rather irritated /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"with how /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"the day had gone and how /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Mal had handled the whole Jay situation /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"so /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"she was/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" in no mood/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" to be disrespected either. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Its not." Evie agreed evenly, "but some traditions can be continued if they need to be." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""You said you didn't…" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""And I don't" Evie cut her off, matching her glare "but that's not an excuse for rudeness….or do you want me to ask for acknowledgement of another type?" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"It was a threat, obviously so from the tone, but of what was a complete mystery to Ben. Carlos knew though and decided to go against his own /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"covert /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"advice to Ben. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""E…" He interrupted but was ignored /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Remember my mother and that little weasel of a man, when he broke a plate…." Evie mused aloud. /span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The way she said it…/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"It was a slightly sadistic side of Evie that Ben had never seen before, and for once he was reminded who her mother was. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Evie…" Carlos spoke louder this time/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" and probably firmer than Ben had ever heard him although his voice still belied how uncomfortable he was with interrupting/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';". Mal looked ready to punch something but was keeping herself contained by sheer force of will. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Evie paused for a moment, seemed to realize what she was doing/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" and she let out a small huff, releasing some of the tension in her body./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" span style="font-family: Calibri;""Fine,/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;"" she said dismissively "/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"go sort out the shit going on between you and Jay."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Evie turned away first this time and went back into the bathroom without waiting for a response. Mal glared at the door as though she could see through it to the blue haired girl beyond. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Mal…" Ben said hesitantly, not sure if he should draw attention to himself or not but feeling slightly more confident now that Evie had left because Evie just then had been….intimidating was putting it mildly. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Mal seemed to remember him then and flushed a darker shade of red than he'd ever seen. She started to say something when the handle to the bathroom started to turn. Mal didn't even hesitate then; leaving the room and slamming the door behind her before Evie had fully reemerged from the bathroom./spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" Apparently there was no /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"way was she risking Evie following through on her threat with Ben, or for that matter even Carlos sitting right there. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Evie reemerged looking her normal put together self once again and Ben marveled at how quickly she had done it. "You guys been talking?" she asked the pair as she moved closer to lean against the table Ben was sitting next to; all hint of the harshness from moments ago gone as though they never were. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""A bit." Carlos replied while Ben just nodded in agreement. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Okay, well I think Ben, you and I should talk too. I can wait a bit though if you want to finish talking to Carlos first?" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""No no," Carlos answered quickly before Ben could "You guys talk; I was tying myself up in knots trying to explain everything. Ben can always come talk to me later if he wants." /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Okay,/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;"" she agreed "/span/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"but lets go to your room then." /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"the suggestion was directed/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" to Ben. He agreed and stood up. "Just wait outside for me for a second would you?" she requested. Ben /spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"nodded and left/spanspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';", catching sight of Evie pulling Carlos up to his feet and towards her as he turned to close the door. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""You okay?" Evie asked gently once the door was shut and they were alone. "Yeah," he sighed and allowed himself to be pulled into a hug. They held onto each other for a moment, taking comfort with the familiarity. Today had been quite the day and they were both feeling emotionally drained. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Did you have to push Mal in front of Ben like that?" Carlos asked neutrally as they separated. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""I probably shouldn't have." she admitted "I just wanted to -"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Make a point?" Carlos supplied /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Yes. It's fine," Evie shrugged, Mal would get over it "besides, now she can empathize with Jay for a bit." They both chuckled at that before sobering "I better go talk to Ben before curiosity gets the better of him and he decides to try eves drop again. You sure you're okay?"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Carlos nodded, appreciative of her concern "Yeah, I know Mal and Jay will sort it out eventually; I just want it to all calm down now so we can get back to normal." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;""Me too." Evie agreed, leaning forward to plant a soft kiss on his forehead before following Ben out of the room. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"span dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;"-0-0-0-/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"strongspan dir="LTR" style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"span style="font-family: Calibri;"AN2: /span/spanspan style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'lucida grande', 'lucida sans unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.12px;"Please take time to leave a review if you have a moment. I will post the outtake in a few days./span/strong/p
