Tease - H.S.-

.:1:.

There was something off with Eve Winters.

Was it the way she didn't put band aides on her cuts? Or was it the way her feet never seemingly touched the ground when she walked?

I could never understand the girl that stood so effortlessly tall at such a young age. I was curious about her motives and the way her eyes never looked full. They were always absent of emotion, of empathy, of pain.

Having been assigned to her case only a few months after the new year had started, I was given a plea by her parents, "Help us figure out what she sees."

That was all. All they could tell me about their estranged daughter was that she had seen things, and these, things, were unknown. They were worried for her; she rarely ever told them her feelings on love, she never cried, and she always seemed to talk to herself.

I wanted to help, but I was so off with my assumptions on this girl, that I couldn't even begin to know where to start.

"What do you feel, Eve?" I asked on one snowy afternoon. Sleet was gently coating the ground surrounding the small building and young Eve's eyes were trained on the window conveniently placed to the side of us. I took her silence as a cue to try bribery, and when I reached for the top drawer on my desk, her eyes fell to my hand.

"If I gave you a notepad and a pencil would you draw something for me?" I asked her sweetly, lingering on the word 'me'.

Eve's eyes slowly fell on mine, and an eerie feeling flooded my system. "Eve?" There was an emptiness to those eyes. I wish I knew how to fill them. I really wish I knew.

I grabbed the book and put it in front of her, but instead of taking it, she looked away again. "Do you ever get bored?" She asked so softly I almost didn't catch what she said.

"Bored with what?" I pressed, happy that she was even giving me her words.

"With trying to figure out other's problems instead of worrying about your own. I mean, you probably don't even know where to start with your issues. So why are you trying to pry into mine?"

I tried to interrupt her but she continued on.

"I mean, I don't need someone who knows just as little as me about how the human brain works." I was stunned with the words flying from her mouth, flying from her brain. Flying from those twisted lips twisted in an odd fashion.

"I know much more, Eve. I studied this in college." I said with a bit of anger residing in my tone. She picked up on it too, because those eyes with little depth suddenly seemed to fill from the sight of my unease.

"College. Yeah. That teaches you everything about individuals."

"Yeah. It does. I learned a lot about the human mind and how to detect several hundred conditions. I want to help you learn a lot about yourself too if you'd let me."

"I don't want help from a guy with a paper to tell him what he does and doesn't know." She was making me infuriated.

"Why are you trying to defy me, Eve?" I took a deep breath to compose myself, making sure I didn't lose it. I was the counselor, after all. She was the patient, the hurt, slightly tainted girl who just needed a push in the right direction.