Seasons of Ferne, Summer's Passion

Chapter 34

"Oh I like the boy too but young people have urges and-"

"Ok, ok," Evelyn said jumping out of her seat. "I love you mom, I do. But I got to go to school before I throw up." She kissed Becca on the cheek and rushed out the door, hoping her face wasn't nearly as red as it felt.

She found Brandon waiting for her on the front steps of the school in his usual jovial mood. Evelyn dropped beside him and groaned as she lightly banged her head against his shoulder. "And what's wrong with you?" he asked brightly.

"Nothing, just mom making me want to crawl into a dark hole is all."

Brandon laughed. "She still going crazy getting ready for your birthday?"

"That, and she's determined to make me die of embarrassment. Why are you sitting out here?"

"Oh, I've just been casually listening in on conversations. Lots of interesting news spreading around the school, should be quiet around here for us the rest of the year," he told her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he leaned back against the steps and chuckled. "It looks like your friend Jessica is getting sent away this weekend. According to the gossip she refuses to leave her room and puts up one hell of a fight whenever her parents try to get her out. I guess she's getting sent off to some hospital up north next week. As for Derek, it looks like he's already been shipped off somewhere. No one's seen or heard from him since he got himself expelled."

"For attacking you... because of me," Evelyn mumbled.

"Hey, I'll take a shot to the head if it means getting certain people out of your life," Brandon said, pulling Evelyn in close. "In the meantime, I'd say things are looking up for you. People who caused you trouble are gone, Puck hasn't been around to cause trouble, and soon we'll be graduated and moving on with our lives. Heck, I've even got a job lined up for the summer, so it looks like I'm sticking around town for a while too!"

"Really? Where at?"

Brandon grinned. "Just up the street at a garage. My uncle got me an internship learning to work on big rigs, and if I do alright they'll pay for me to get certified at it. And in the meantime, I'll be making enough to afford my own place!"

Evelyn pulled Brandon into a hug. "Oh, that's great! But is it what you want to do?" she asked, secretly fearing Brandon was only doing it to be near her.

Brandon shrugged. "For now it'll be good. To be totally honest I never really gave it much thought, you know? Guys like me, we don't tend to get too many lucky breaks. And if I'm being honest, I feel like I've had more than my fair share of lucky breaks lately."

Evelyn blushed. "Well you better not be putting your life on hold for me. I'd never forgive myself for holding you back."

Brandon laughed. "Holding me back? Ha! Evelyn, I feel like you pull me forward. I've never thought of or really even cared about what I was going to do with my life until I met you. Now, I'm not trying to get all weird and plan marriage and kids and stuff, but right now all I can think of is a future with you. Well, if that's something you want to try for at least."

"More than you know," Evelyn said, leaning up against him. "But are you going to be bored with me when I'm not special anymore? Once what I have is gone I'll just be an ordinary, uninteresting girl again."

Brandon chuckled. "Great, now I'm going to have to get all cheesy and tell you that you couldn't be uninteresting if you tried. Because you really can't. It's not what you can do right now that I'm falling for, it's who you are and I think will always be. Even when everything different about you fades away, you'll always be special to me. I've never met anyone as caring, anyone as selfless, and trust me when I say I've met a lot of people. You care about those who don't deserve your care, even defending those same people from someone you love. If that's not something special, then I don't know what is."

Evelyn kissed him. "Thank you."

"No problem, just call it like I see it! So what about you? What do you want, really?"

"I honestly have no idea," Evelyn admitted. "I'm kind of like you, I never thought about it. I guess I didn't have much hope that I'd have a lot to look forward to. I know that's my own silly self-doubts, but when you have a past like mine it's hard to shake those kinds of thoughts. But now, I don't know. It's like a hallways of doors have suddenly opened up to me. I never thought I'd have as much as I do and as much to look forward to, it's almost overwhelming, really."

"A good type of overwhelming, I hope."

Evelyn smiled. "Yeah, a very good type." She looked up at Brandon. "Am I horrible?"

"For what?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Evelyn sighed. "For choosing this life, for not doing what I'm supposed to do to help with the other."

"Your life, your decision. Besides, how do you even know what Puck was telling you was the truth? Honesty didn't exactly seem to be Puck's strong suit if you know what I mean. Why should you give up your life for something so uncertain and dangerous?"

"I know," Evelyn groaned quietly. "But what if it was true?"

"And what if it wasn't? Look, this may just be me being selfish, but I don't trust him and I don't trust what ifs. I trust what's certainties, I trust what I can see. What you'd have going with him is uncertain at best, whereas what you have going on here is a life and people who love you. Not some crazy fairy queen who hates you or dangerous little guy who lies to you about a fight that may or may not happen in a place you'll never see."

"I hope you're right," Evelyn whispered.

"I know I am," Brandon said, kissing Evelyn's hair. "Oh, by the way. I won't be meeting you out here after school. You'll have to come find me."

"Oh really?" Evelyn sat up and turned to meet Brandon's mischievous grin. "And just where are you going to be where I'll have to find you?"

"Now I can't tell you that, that's taking the fun out of it! But you know as well as I that I'm not all that creative, so I have faith you'll find me. I'll have a surprise waiting."

"Well now I'm intrigued. Can you give me a little hint?" Evelyn asked, pretending to pout.

"Nope, except to say that I was helped out a little bit by your dad. Call it an early birthday present."

"Oh, now that's really not fair! You've been conspiring against me! Tell me!" Evelyn said, shooting Brandon another pouty look.

"Don't you dare flash those big eyes at me, girl!" Brandon exclaimed. "You'll find out when you find out! Just come find me!"

The school buzzer rang, signaling the beginning of the day. Brandon helped Evelyn up and led her into the building, both laughing and in good spirits. Both unaware that someone had been listening to the entire conversation.

Listening and planning.