Left Behind

13.

It's late at night, probably around eleven, but instead of sleeping, Eva is sitting at her desk and frantically doing her math homework that's due tomorrow and that she forgot all about. She's getting stressed about it, because there is so much of it, she cannot care to even try and reread her exercises and correct them. Her hand with a pencil tightly squeezed by her fingers is hurting from all the commotion, but she canfinally see the light in the tunnel, because she has the last page left to do. She takes a deep breath while rolling her shoulders and stretching her fingers open, before going in for the last three of her exercises. But before she can grab her pencil again, there's a loud sound of the doorbell coming from upstairs.

Eva's head turns in the direction of her door with a blank face. For a second she wonders if she should check who it is or just let it be. A terrifying feeling starts creeping up her spine, but she shakes it off in seconds. She decides to head upstairs and check who it is though, but only when the bell rings another time and because she is the only adult in this house and nobody else will do anything about it anyway. The fact that she grabs her tennis racket and has a 112 on speed dial before leaving the room doesn't change anything.

Eva stops for a couple of second before taking a hold of the door handle, just to calm herself down. It doesn't help at all, that's why she swings the door open with a swift move with a racquet in her hand, ready to strike the moment she notices a male silhouette standing at the door.

But it's only Chris.

With a duffel bag hung from his shoulder.

And a taken aback, petrified expression on his face.

Eva can't believe her eyes.

"Fucking hell, Chris," she chokes out, chuckling and bending her body, before resting her hands on her knees. She takes a couple of deep breaths and shakes her head at this whole situation, before looking up at Chris. He hesitantly takes a couple of steps in, closes the door behind  himself, locks it, slightly amused and raising his eyebrow he stares at the racquet in her hand. "You freaked me out, you asshole," Eva laughs nervously after straightening herself up and playfully shoving his shoulder. "Nobody ever uses the door at this hour. You could've texted me or something."

Chris bites his lower lip and scrunches his eyes while scratching his head with embarrassment. "Yeah, I should've probably thought of that."

Eva doesn't know how to call the warm feeling that suddenly spreads through her whole body, when she finally fully takes him in and it's rather terrifying. He looks exhausted though and her wide smile falters as Chris tiredly runs his hand over his face.

"Is everything okay?" She finally asks, taking two steps towards him. Her hand instinctively lands on his side and Chris doesn't wait long before pulling her into his embrace. His head falls down to the crook of her neck and soon Eva internally explodes at the feeling of his soft lips moving slowly against her skin.

"I'm fine, just really tired." The loud noise his duffel bag makes when it connects with the floor seems to confirm his state of exhaustion. It makes them part a little bit and Eva feels like she can somehow breathe again. She looks at him expectantly ,while he reaches down for his bag. "Will it be okay if I stay here tonight?" He finally asks looking straight into her eyes.

As if Eva could be able to say no to that face.

"Of course." She smiles and tugs on his jacket, leading him down to her room. "Is everything fine back home?" Eva asks looking back at him with a soft smile, before descending the stairs.