Once Upon a Plot Twist

Intertwined

  "Leave then, you coward! Go! Get out!" Mom screams back.

  Mike puts his hand on the small of my back and tries to push me up the stairs. I don't really want to move. I can't.

  "Gwen, please. We shouldn't be listening to this," he scolds apologetically.

  "But what if he leaves this time?" I whisper more to myself than to him.

  It gets awfully quiet, but seconds later, angry steps are marching towards us. Dad breezes past us and knocks his shoulder into Michael's as he escapes my mother. He pulls his rather full duffer bag higher on his arm, unlocks his car, and hops in.

  I run out the front door myself and try to beg him not to go, but Michael catches my wrist and shakes his head at me. I snatch my hand away from him. He made me miss my chance to hold the family together.

  I gladly march myself upstairs this time.

-_-

  Monday morning rolls around too fast. All of Sunday I spent in my room, avoiding my mom and my brother. They tried to get me to at least eat something. I was so sick at the situation and at them, I couldn't bring myself to even eat a cracker. I kept my door locked, and thank God for en suite bathrooms.

  Unfortunately, I have two tests, so I can't stay home.

  But I can call Nicholas to avoid getting in the car with Mike. And that's exactly what I do. He's more than glad to pick me up and take me to Starbucks before homeroom. He even offers to do it every morning. I turn him down, but it's definitely really nice of him.

  Rita meets me at the front of the school once again, and she bullies me into telling her what happened at the party.

  I'm almost too scared to say, but there's nothing I can hide from her. Either I tell her now, or she'll force it out with some crazy escapade.

  "Well, last time I checked, you weren't anywhere to be seen at the party either. Stephawn wouldn't let me hear the end of it when I went home the morning after," I retort.

  She looks as if she wants to say something, but she stops mid-sentence. A blush trails from her neck to her nose.

  "Who's the boy?" I gasp.

  "I'll tell you if you tell me," she says.

  My eyebrow raises. "Who ever said it was a boy?"

  "Well I sure as hell know it wasn't a girl."

  I roll my eyes but oblige. "On the count of three, okay?" Rita nods. "One... two... three! Evan Matthews."

  "Chris James!"

  Our eyes go wide, and the two of us remain speechless.

  "You slept with Chris James?" I query.

  "Yeah, we've actually been going out for a few weeks now... you're not telling Steph, are you?"

  I scoff. "Are you kidding? I slept with an actual Matthews. Can you promise not to tell Steph... or anyone for that matter?"

  She motions zipping and tossing a key across her lips, and I sigh out of relief. We start down the hallway, and out of my peripheral I see Evan. He stares at me and waves for me to come to him.

  "Hey, tell Gerald I had to pee so she doesn't mark me late," I tell her. I don't give her the chance to respond, and I follow Evan. He grabs my wrist and pulls me into none other than the janitors' closet.

  Bleach and men's body spray assault my nostrils. Evan and I are almost chest to chest in the small space. I almost think he can hear how hard my heart is pounding.

  "Listen, Sawyer, the other night was a mistake," he breathes.

  "You think so?" I ask calmly.

  Maybe it's the fact that I'm so nervous I can feel my heart in my butt, or the cleaning supply fumes are getting to my head. Whatever it is, it's giving me a surprising burst of confidence.

  "We were drunk, Gwen."

  Shivers go down my spine when he says my name, even if he is just scolding me.

  I put my hand on his chest. I'm shocked at my own boldness, but that doesn't stop me. His heart is beating just as fast too.

  "Are you drunk now, Evan?"

  His Adam's apple bobs nervously, but his eyes never leave mine. I challenge him to look away with my own.

  He doesn't.

  "You don't seem drunk. I know I'm not," I tease.

  Evan grasps my hand, but he doesn't push it away. In fact, he traces my finger tips and leaves a trail of fire all the way up to my shoulder, then down my waist until he stops at my hip. His other hand follows the same motions on the other side of my body.

  I can't hear his breathing, and I can't hear mine.

  "I don't know what I'm doing," he admits, "but I don't want this to stop. And this is wrong, so wrong, but—"

  "Stop talking." And I raise on my toes and kiss him. My logic draws a blank, and I don't want to escape whatever dream this is. Evan is right when he says this is wrong. But I think I've run clear of how many fucks to give.

  We kiss each other breathless.

  "I'll see you around, Matthews," I say, and I leave him in the janitors' closet.

  Rita lifts her head from her desk when I walk into homeroom. I sit in my seat behind her, and she turns in her chair.

  "That was one long piss to have had just one cup of coffee before school," she chastises.

  I'm just about to come up with a lame excuse when a red-faced, disheveled Evan walks into the room and speed walks straight to his desk with his head held low.

  Rita's jaw almost drops to her toes.

  "Crazy bitch," she laughs and turns back around in her seat.