heavenly | p.hockstetter

eleven

she's real.

she can't be real.

she has to be.

there's nobody else real in this world but me.

but you saw it.

patrick groaned loudly and smacked himself in the temple. all weekend his mind was filled to the brim with this very question - was she real? his entire life he considered himself to be the only real being. everybody else was fake, a simulation, a sheep awaiting slaughter. the only people he could relate to were the villains and murderers he would occasionally see on the big screen or his mother's favourite soap operas. until the she-devil appeared. at first he was merely irked by her innocent facade and that she had chosen to show her insanity only to him. now he had a much bigger problem. what if he had found another just like him? a massive tear in his theory that the only real being in the world was himself.

he was so consumed by these musings that he rejected the offer of a ride from belch and the rest of the gang to school that monday morning. he needed as much time as possible to gather his thoughts, opinions and a game plan for when he next saw her. he hadn't yet reached the latter topic when he looked up from the footpath to see the only other person in sight.

evangeline.

his feet acted before his rationality, storming up to her with long strides and pure adrenaline running through his veins. he quickly caught up to her, walking behind the much shorter girl who was humming a church hymn.

"well aren't you just a regular old elmer fudd" he smirked, earning a gasp from evangeline as she quickly spun to face him.

fucking stalker, evangeline thought. unlike patrick, she had already thought their next interaction through and through, knowing exactly how she wanted to get to him where it hurts. already having put on her church-girl shell for the day, the gasp was her 'natural reaction', not out fright but merely to keep up her innocent lamb facade.

"i-i'm sorry, i beg your pardon?" she asked meekly, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

"you know what i'm talking about, rabbit girl," he deadpanned, not believing her bullshit for a second, "there's no-one around, you don't need to pretend. i saw you." he stared into her eyes, looking for a glimpse of the psychopath he knew resided underneath.

"when did you see me?" she asked timidly.

"saturday morning. don't play dumb, little girl, i know what you did."

"at church? but you don't go to ch-"

"i said don't play dumb with me. i saw you with that rabbit. i know what you did" he punctuated each word with spit as he stepped closer to the girl, leaning down to continue his stare.

"i don't have a rabbit, my brother eddie is allerg-"

"WHAT PART OF DON'T PLAY FUCKING DUMB DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?" he boomed, grabbing her tightly by the top of her arms and shaking her. he held her closer to his face, forcing her to stand on her tippy toes.

"patrick, please," she whimpered, closing her eyes momentarily as his breath fanned her face, "just let me go, i haven't done anything to you."

"you're doing it right now." he whispered furiously, his face so close to hers their breaths mingled in the morning air.

"maybe you got confused. maybe it was someone else. o-or a dream," she whispered back shakily, looking down at her now scuffed shoes and back up to meet his eyes, ensuring a tear ran down her cheek at the perfect moment to egg him on as much as she could. "please..."

before she could continue her 'begging', he threw her to the ground, her palms and ass grazed as they harshly met with the pavement. he bent down on his haunches, leaning over her as she looked up at him.

"don't think for a second that you have me fooled. i'll catch you in the act and you'll be sorry when i do." he spat at her one final time before standing up and storming off towards the school. 

it was a fucking hare, dumbass. as soon as he was far enough away she dropped her terrified mask, blankly looking at her palms which were now covered in blood and dirt. the scab from her weekend escapades had been opened once more, gravel now pushed deeply inside. she looked around for a clear coast and immediately pressed her lips to the wound, savouring her favourite metallic flavour with the added texture of the ground below her. she hummed in delight as she stood once more, keeping the blood and gravel on her legs for evidence and continued her walk to school. as she rounded the final corner, chewing on the gravel that remained in her mouth, she once more elicited two tears to fall from her eyes and down her cheeks.

evangeline walked through the front gates with her shoulders slumped and head down as though she was deeply effected by this encounter. just like clockwork, her friends ran up to her and immediately noticed a change from the girl's usual cheery nature.

"evangeline, are you alright?" cissy asked, trying to take a look at her face.

"oh my god, jelly! what happened!" another friend exclaimed, pointing at her bloody knees as soon as they caught her eye. evangeline looked up to greet her friends with a tear stained face. cissy immediately came to jelly's side, gently placing an arm around the shaking girl and using a soft voice, asked what happened.

"i-i was just walking to school. a-and one of those bowers boys came up to me, and he was y-yelling at me about confusing things. i-i didn't understand and he just kept..." she let another tear stream down her face to the end of her nose, "yelling."

evangeline heard her friend mutter 'patrick' to her other friends who shared a silent agreement. 

"let's go tell someone jelly, he can't do this to y-"

"please, no. i don't want to give him any more reasons to do this. if we tell it'll just make him angrier."

"jelly-"

"please heather. i just want to leave it." she begged with watery eyes.

"alright jelly. let's get you to a nurse though, your cuts look nasty. we can say you fell." cissy suggested, rubbing jelly's arm in comfort.

"thank you girls" she whispered.

what nobody realised is that evangeline had planned every interaction that morning to a T, including the exact location of where her friends had ran up to her. jelly had observed from the first day that the bowers gang had a tendency to loiter against the large oak tree planted near the school gate, which is where she and her friends had met that morning. and just like she anticipated, the bowers gang were there, on the other side of the tree, listening intently as patrick seethed with rage, his teeth sinking so far into his cigarette he bit the filter off, the lit end falling to the ground. 

evangeline trod up the steps to the school, and with one swift turn sent a dead eyed wink towards patrick who she already knew would be sending her daggers from behind the tree.

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a/n: OH. MY. GOD. i've been stewing on this chapter for the longest time, and finally, after many nights of planning out this interraction - you've got it. thank you so so SOSOSO much for 4k! holy shit! i love seeing all the new reads and comments and votes, keep them coming! i wanna know ur thoughts and feedback! stay tuned freaks hehehe