Things That Are Red

Chapter Three, Red

She came in like that storm. I can’t keep up with the unforeseen events that have occurred after accepting Eva’s tomato that stormy afternoon. She was the last thing I expected. Even now, I cannot believe I talked with her so much, even if I acted a bit standoffish. And just now, to a paper-thin fifteen year old, I just gave him advice that I didn’t even know I had. No, that’s wrong. I knew what I was saying, because I had experienced it myself with my mother. I just never thought I would tell someone else.

But, right now, Lucy and Eva are looking at me with blank stares, as if I had just said something foreign. “What?”

“Well why else did I even say you could come to my house? Of course you’re staying over. It’s obviously too late to be outside, anyway. You’re kind of thick, aren’t you?” Eva says. Was I supposed to get the idea that you’d let a boy with wild hair and piercings, who you’ve only known for two days, into your home?

“But I have school tomorrow, so I’m heading to bed now. Tomorrow morning, you can come with us,” Eva continues.

I nod, and follow her into her room. Once I walk inside, I feel as if I am in a cemetery. There is literally only gray, blue, and black in her room. There’s so much of it that it seems like none of the colors of her things exist. In the corner of her room, there’s one strange, white statue of a half-naked Roman, and both of his arms are off. I question its existence very intently.

“His name is Oscar. My mother brought that for us on her way back from Italy. Lucifer did the naming,” Eva explains, which urges me to ask where her mother is now, but I don’t want to invade her privacy.

I take a peek at her closet, and I thank God that it is colorful. I watch as Eva takes out an air mattress. “I can do the rest myself, it’s okay,” I tell her, but she doesn’t seem to listen.

“Guests are guests,” she says. I shrug and leave the work to her. When she’s done, she stops and stares me down. “What are you going to sleep in?”

“I can sleep naked,” I joke.

Eva’s ears turn slightly red, and I laugh inside. “I have my father’s old clothes somewhere, so just hold on.”

When she comes back after what feels like a century, she hands me really big sweatpants and a really big t-shirt. Another century passes once we finally settle down into our beds. I can’t sleep, though. I highly doubt she can. “Eva,” I say. “You awake?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought so.”

“Hey . . . thank you.”

I don’t ever remember being thanked so suddenly like this before, and I certainly cannot understand what Eva has to be thankful for. Especially from me. All I’ve done is tease her a bit and invade her household. “What are you thanking me for?”

“For Lucifer. He handled your advice well, so I’m glad. Our mother passed away during our family vacation to Moscow when I was eight. She fell off stairs and hit her head. Ever since then, our father treated us like strangers, and left when I graduated middle school. The landlord of this building let us stay in this apartment alone, coming to check up on us often. So I worry about Lucifer more than anyone. I failed to protect him before, and our father failed to protect us, so that’s why he’s like that.”

I really did not expect to hear Eva’s back story in a matter of seconds. I just thought Lucy was in his rebellious stage or something. “I’m sorry for your loss,” I tell her, and I truly am, because I understand how she feels.

“It’s in the past. Anyway, let me ask you something. Why were you up in that tree that day?”

“Oh, that. I guess you could say I was running away. I had a fight with Matthew, and ran from him. Trees are kind of my safe zone. Or, were.” Because someone managed to sway me with tomatoes. I look up at Eva with curiosity. How can she talk to me so normally, even thank me? I’ve neglected others all my life. She sits up and looks down at me. Her dark brown hair is noticeably long, probably up to her hips. Her eyes can even shine in the dark somehow. I think her existence defies everything that I’ve thought the world was. Dark and pointless. But hers, it’s beautiful.

“Hm. Alright, fair enough. Let’s try and sleep now; I bet it’s already three.”

She says sleep, and she ends up doing so, but me, for some reason, I can’t. I just can’t.

<><><> 

It’s morning. Right now, Eva is cutting a tomato up for me. It’s really pointless to cut them. The inside just gushes out when you do.

I head out with her and Lucy. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, because don’t have to get to school as early as they do (Eva is in the student council). But after seeing them off to school, I wander around the area aimlessly. It’s kind of nice to have nothing to do. You don’t have to deal with troublesome things, and you can be free. But that kind of thing does not last forever.

I wander onto the campus of some college. The buildings were all a dark red color, reminding me of someone I hadn’t thought of in a long time, someone who I didn’t want to think about in the first place.

But the very fact that he comes out right at the entrance makes me wonder what kind of game fate is playing on me. Is it Jenga? Taking my pieces out one by one until the whole tower collapses? To my dismay, the guy notices me, who is meters away. He narrows his eyes, and then widens them. He takes out a pack of cigarettes and lights one up. He runs up to me in a matter of seconds, and is annoyingly too close to my face now, yet I don’t feel like doing anything to change it. I want to annoy him just as much as he annoys me. Carmine, my arch-nemesis.

“You!! I thought you were dead!” he exclaims, as if he hadn’t already made it clear to me that he wanted me to be so. The cigarette falls out of his mouth.

“No, you can’t get rid of me that easily. Moreover, what are the odds of us meeting again? We both made it very clear that we didn’t want to see each other again. You should stop smoking, too.”

Carmine stops being angry, and just stares at me for a long time before saying, “You seem different.”

“Do I? But why do you care?”

“I don’t. It’s just weird. Your entire existence is weird.”

“Thanks. Anyway, bye. I don’t really like being around you for too long.”

“Same here.”

I’m glad I was able to end our conversation before we began barking at each other, or had some pointless conversation about why we don’t like each other. Seeing him again has put a fluctuation in my pace. I lose my head whenever he’s around. It’s not even like something dramatic and life-changing happened to us, and that messed up our relationship. We just can’t get along. It’s that simple, but it’s also that sad.

The worse thing is that I bet the both of us know that we’ll seeing each other again very soon.

<><><> 

By the time school hours are over, I’m waiting for Eva again at the stairs. After ten minutes, I get a text message from her. I didn’t even know she had my number. It reads:

Hey, it’s Eva. Sorry for the short notice, but Lucifer and I have to stay after school for a while to do extra paper work and stuff. Apparently, he’s joined the student council. I’m going to need you to do an errand for me. There’s a sale on broccoli today at the supermarket and it ends at around five. I’m going to need you to get that broccoli for me.

She can’t be doing this to me. She just can’t. Doesn’t she know how scary the housewives are in this part of town?