Left Behind

1.

Eva doesn't consider herself a lonely person.

Not anymore, at least.

Her life has gone through some major ups and downs in the passing year, shaping her as a person, forcing her to grow up, to both burn and rebuild some of the bridges, to set her priorities straight and finaly put herself first. She's focused on finding out who Eva is now.

So she learns history and spanish twice as hard as she used too, she keeps in touch with Jonas, spends all of her free time with her group of girls that has somehow become her family along the way, she's been even talking herself into forgiving Isak lately, trying to understand his motivation.

And although she's pretty content with her life right now, she feels a little bit off.

Eva doesn't really want to either party or hook up with anybody anymore. Especially today, since it's William and Noora's farewell. And even though she would never try to convince her best friend to stay, let's just say she feels a little bit nostalgic.

Because one year ago she was lonely even though she wasn't completely alone. She had Jonas. But Jonas had Isak. And Eva had nobody else. But then Noora magically appeared in her life. And she was everything Eva wasn't. Vilde might be the one who asked them to join her bus but all of them knew it was Noora who glued them together. But they worked so well. The five of them and the two of them separately.

She loves Vilde, her brilliant smile, her enthusiasm and excitement. Eva doesn't think she's coexisted with someone so naive but pure before. Chris is her party animal. She is the one Eva texts when she needs to stop overthinking things. Chris is easy and Eva likes easy these days. Sana is the force of nature, really. And Eva is so glad she met someone so loving and observant. Sana is the one she goes to when she has a decision to make. And Eva wishes she was as mature as this beautiful girl.

But Noora. Noora is her better half, Eva knows that. She's the most caring person she's ever met, so sure of herself and her beliefs. She's the one Eva looks up to the most. And maybe because Noora is always so grounded, her and Eva are such a great fit.

(And maybe Eva has had a little not so platonic crush on her for a while, but that doesn't matter anyway.)

So here she is, in William's apartment, surrounded by people but alone.

The plush white couch she's sitting at hides her in the corner of the room as she drinks her champagne straight from the bottle. It leaves a weird taste in her mouth, or maybe it's just the bitter feeling in the pit of her stomach that keeps twisting her guts for some time now. She doesn't feel drunk yet and she's never been a sad drunk anyway but she can feel things changing, energy shifting in her life again and it makes her more dizzy than any alcohol has ever had.

Chris is too obsessed with Kasper to really even notice her. She lost Vilde in the crowd some time ago and Sana isn't even here, still being in Tunisia visiting her father's family. There's still three days of vacations left. And Noora's with William pressed to one of the walls smiling at whatever the asshole is telling her even though they're leaving to London tomorrow morning and should be spending time with their friends. Eva takes another sip.

So maybe she is lonely after all.

Eva plans to leave, really. There's no point in being here anymore. It's not like she can or want to change Noora's decision. And she's almost out of her champagne anyway.

But then the couch dips drastically to her left and she sighs as the person that basically falls on it is Penetrator Chris. And he's trashed.

He tries to pull himself up with his left elbow. A can of beer still glued to his lips. An opened four-pack of Tuborg swinging from his fingers. He's face is stone cold, his trademark smirk nowhere to be seen, his expression full of sorrow and he's staring at the same spot she's kept glancing at for half of the night. Straight at Noora and William.

"Eva." He greets her, acknowledging her but not sparing her a glance. His moves are sloppy but he manages to put both elbows on his thighs. His grip strong on the can.

Eva blinks once, nods and immidiately looks back to the view in front of her. Somehow her bitterness feels so much smaller compared to his.

She shakes the bottle upside down trying to taste the last drops of her drink and sighs disappointed when only a few of them land on her tongue. She throws the bottle behind the couch and hears a soft tud when it hits the white carpet not even shattering.

Eva's so done with being here.

But when she tries to get up, there's a warm hand on her wrist. She looks down at Chris surprised and he glances at her with vulnerability she's never seen on him before.

"Sit down." He slurs a little.

And when Eva obeys hesitantly, he puts a can of beer on her lap.

They sit like that till the end of the party, silently sipping beer together, her glancing back at Chris from time to time thinking that maybe she's not the only one that gets to feel lonely after all.

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So here I am, also on Wattpad. Let's see if anybody recognises this story.

Let me know if you do.