𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 ✔️

28 | The Break

Every few years, they visit Hollow Grove and stay for the holidays. Maya was much more clumsy back then and accidentally spilled her hot chocolate onto my cousin's lap when I first introduced them to each other. He was a high schooler and we were only in middle school.

"I'll be sure to tell him," I assure her.

─────── ☆*･゜ﾟ･*♡ ───────

Thursday, November 28th

─────── ☆*･゜ﾟ･*♡ ───────

There was no word from Ambrose about the assignments I had collected for him. Usually he sends 'thanks' or even texts me something random like a link to a song that I should listen to, but not this time.

I checked my phone for the hundredth time today to make sure my phone was receiving notifications and was connected to the internet. Not one text from him for the whole week.

"Evangeline! No phones at the dinner table," Grandma Lucille scolds.

My mom gives me a knowing look and Josh snickers beside me. I glare at him and turn my phone over behind the flower vase, away from my grandma's view.

"Sorry grandma," I say sheepishly, "I was just checking my emails." I lied.

"She's checking on the status of her college application to Harvard," my dad says, who's sitting next to grandma.

A ripple of awes from my family adds to the lie and I sink my shoulders from the pressure I just created for myself. I couldn't even eat the deep fried bird that's sitting in the middle of the dinner table. I barely touched my mashed potatoes and basically moved all of my sides around.

"When do you hear back from them?" One of my uncles asks.

"Um, I think sometime in the middle of next month," I say.

"Oh wow that's so soon," one of my aunts says.

"She's super smart though and has been at the top of her class for the last three consecutive years. She's even class president too!" My mom gushes at our family.

I feel my cheeks burn from both embarrassment and shame. Shame that I've actually been doing poorly in school. All those days I've skipped school and didn't bother attending the club meetings, it's been biting my ass.

My perfect attendance has also gone down the drain ever since the incident with Ethan. I thought my senior year would be perfect, but it's just all gone to shit now.

"...right Evangeline?" My dad asks.

I clear my throat. "What?"

"You have been offered scholarships from other schools too," he says.

"Oh, yeah, I have."

The rest of the dinner conversation strays from the topic of my accomplishments and towards the gossip of other family members that aren't here.

Once dinner was over, I headed over to my temporary bedroom and closed myself in for the night.

I decided to check my instagram to pass on the boredom only to notice that the more I scrolled down my feed and came across Tiffany and Ethan's post, the more irritated I grew. Sue me for not blocking them both, but I had forgotten and social media was the last thing on my mind.

It didn't take a detective to realize that the garden in the background of one of Tiffany's pictures was the same background as Ethan's post where he stood side by side with his mom. Even though they were posted at different times today, they were at the same place and it was not a coincidence.