Playing Evelyn

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next day, I was feeling a lot calmer and incredibly embarrassed about the whole incident with Gabriel the day before. As I entered school, I couldn’t help but look around to make sure Gabriel wasn’t anywhere near me. If I happened to catch sight of him, I probably would’ve jumped into the nearest classroom or something equally cowardly.

I didn’t really have much time to think about it though because about a minute after I walked in the doors, Francine and Chrystal were on me. I hadn’t seen the girls this morning as I had left one of my text books at Jam the night before and had left early to go pick it up.

“You are in so much trouble,” Francine said, gripping my elbow hard enough to dig her perfectly manicured nails in a little bit.

“You were out all night weren’t you?” Chrystal asked, barely concealing the excitement in her voice.

I sighed. After I’d flipped out at Gabriel yesterday, I’d gone to practice and screamed my lungs out. The band had stayed later with me, liking the heavy metal vibe we were getting and probably sensing that something was the matter. After practice we’d grabbed some pizza and just hung out until past midnight. By the time I got home, everyone was already asleep.

“Was my mom worried?” I asked ignoring the question.

“Your mom?” Francine echoed, looking at Chrystal for a second before continuing, “Not really. She trusts you.” She grinned like the cat that caught the canary. “We, on the other hand, don’t trust you at all. We heard you’ve been hanging out with Gabriel lately.”

“We also heard that you went over to his house yesterday to work on a ‘school project’.” Chrystal made air quotes as if no such school project existed.

“So, what happened with you guys that made you stay out all night? And aren’t you wearing the same clothes as yesterday?” Francine eyed my outfit and scowled.

“This isn’t the same outfit,” I replied. “And I didn’t stay out all night. I just stayed out late with some friends. Not Gabriel,” I added.  

“Really?” Chrystal asked sounding disappointed.

“Yes.”

“So you didn’t go to his house after school,” Francine asked pouting.

“Well, I went to his house,” I began.

“What!” the girls exclaimed at the same time and each gripped one of my arms uncomfortably.

“O-M-G, what was it like? Does he live in a trailer?” Chrystal asked.

“I heard he has his own penthouse paid for with all his drug money,” Francine said sotto voice.

“Really?” Crystal asked, shooting a curious look at her sister before her eyes lost focus and a dreamy look crossed her face. “That is so much better than a trailer.” Her gaze snapped back to me and with a probing look, she said, “So what was it like, Evie? Was there a rooftop pool? I’ve always wanted to swim in a rooftop pool.”

For a second I just stood there with my two delusional and clearly somewhat dim sisters hanging off of me waiting to hear the dirt on the school’s bad boy who just so happened to be not nearly as bad as everyone made him out to be. In fact, from everything I’d seen, he was a good guy.

I felt revulsion churn in my stomach at the thought of being one of those girls that believed every little rumor without bothering to consider whether or not it was true. It was like a game of telephone played by the entire school and right now, I was the operator.