Stolen Time

A new direction

"Evie."

"Yes?" She instinctively straightened herself, ready for orders from a high tier.

It made Seraphina feel bad about how she approached this.

"Can we go to a more secluded area? I want to ask you about... him."

Evie blinked at her for a long moment but then fervently nodded. She led them to a classroom barely used apart from club activities which weren't due until that afternoon. She made sure no one saw them entering as she closed the door behind them. Seraphina quickly learned that the girl like most low tiers was an expert in finding safe hiding places in the school.

She breathed in relief after confirming there were no prying eyes around and took a seat far away from the windows.

"Okay, what do you want to know? I apologize in advance if I can't answer something. I wasn't close to either him or you before this whole mess started."

It wasn't ideal, Seraphina knew, but from the looks of it, there was no one who would have been close enough to them to better answer her questions. Apart from the person himself of course, but right now asking him directly was out of the question. At least, Evie was someone she could trust, unlike Elaine.

First, she wanted to confirm a few things she learned but before that, she laid out what happened during the mall visit and the day after.

"So that's why you didn't come to school yesterday. You were trying to get better and also went through the things Elaine gave back. I don't want to defend her for what she did but it might be a good thing she didn't hand them back to you sooner."

As much as Seraphina hated to admit she couldn't exactly argue with that.

"Do you trust her words though?" Evie asked, nervously fidgeting with her fingers.

She leaned back against the wall going through everything that happened during that night.

"No, but that's why I'm here. To get some confirmation."

The other hummed fixating her eyes on something invisible in a faraway corner.

"I hope I can help, but to be honest, I doubt it," she said with a resigned sigh but then quickly added. "But we should still try, of course!"

Seraphina nodded. She wasn't placing too much hope in the conversation but wanted to try nevertheless.

Evie looked at her with worry. "But are you sure this? It can very easily trigger another episode."

"I can't avoid this forever. It's better to do it with you in a safe environment than run into it unexpectedly when I have nowhere to run."

"Alright," Evie inhaled and exhaled deeply, clearly nervous. "Just try to focus and don't let your brain wander."

"Okay, first question. What was my relationship with this... John guy?"

She still flinched saying his name but it was better than before.

"What do you mean exactly?" Evie curiously peered at her now and it made her self-conscious.

She cleared her throat several times before she could finally find a better wording for her question.

"I know we were close, but how close exactly? Were we just really close friends or something... different?"

She could feel her cheeks heat up and it didn't help that Evie was blushing too as the meaning dawned on her.

"Oh. Well..." Her fidgeting intensified and she refused to look her in the eye. "We weren't sure."

"We?" Seraphina raised an eyebrow.