𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 || 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞

Four

❥ "Oh thank goodness, she's awake."

I peeled my eyes open, but immediately closed them when the windows light shined into my eyes. Fuck. What time was it? What—

The garden. Grayson. Him. It all comes back at once and all I want to do is cuddle up to my stuffed animal, cuddles and listen to Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.

"Ev?" Libby comes into view and my vision clears, the blue haired girl staring into my eyes with worry. "Oh my, you freaked us out."

"Us?"

"Still here." Avery smirks. Her expression quickly turns to worry as she huddles close next to Libby, "Grayson found you passed out in the garden, what happened last night?"

"I— last night?" That felt like two minutes ago, but I guess that explains the bright light considering it was late last night.

Grayson. Gosh, get that name out of your head Evelyn.

"You sleep light, bed head." Libby runs a hand through my hair, "Okay. Now that you're up, why the hell is fucking master-manipulator-matthew texting you?!" Libby rarely swore, and under any other circumstance I would have been laughing.

I sat up on the bed, thinking about how the hell I'm gonna get out of this one. "Libby—"

She shakes her head, and both her and Avery back up. "I thought you were done with him? He fucking gave you these brusies on your arms and sto—"

"Oh, like dickhead drake is any better. You haven't even stopped talking to him."

I got her and she knew it, but slashes of hurt still crossed her face. "That's different."

"How? I blocked Matt, but he must have gotten a different number or something. He's coming here, and he's gonna do something—" I was rambling at this point and then there was a knock on the door. Oren was leaning against the doorframe.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Evelyn and Avery have to go to school." Me and Avery make eye contact and a groan slips out of my mouth. School.
—
❥

School was the last place I wanted to be, but after Oren and Alisa found out about the text Matthew send me, it wasn't an option for me to go.

I still hadn't seen Grayson, not that I wanted to, but I at least owed him a thank you. He clearly wasn't heartless because he could have left me to faint in the garden.

I was at my locker when a face popped up in front of me, causing me to jump. "Jesus Xander." I held my on my chest, catching my breath.

"Sorry, but I heard about your little accident in the Garden." Oh gosh. Had everybody heard? "Don't worry, we deal with much worse at Hawthorne House daily. But you and Avery are in the spotlight right now, so we Hawthorne's are generously getting a break, thank you very much."

"Yeah, welcome." I mumble, slamming my locker shut. "I tried to bring up Emily to Jameson and Grayson and—"

"Bad idea." Xander cuts me off, "Emily is one of those off limit topics."

Xander seemed the most level headed and unaffected by Emily, so I decided to test the waters, "Jameson said there was another girl. She died a long time go."

Xander's eyes popped up, and this seemed to get to him more than Emily did. "I don't really remember her. Nash does the best."

Xander starts to walk, and I quickly follow him, "I don't understand. What was she like?"

He shrugs, "Everyone said she loved the games, puzzles, riddles." He turns around to face me, "Then again, Tobias Hawthorne made us all love it, besides Nash."
—
❥