plausible invincibility || s.hyde ✓

three ✿ friends

Evangeline exits the room in a pair of tube socks, the bundle of her clothes and the now-wet towel secured in the crook of one elbow while her other hand finger-combs her hair. As she turns back from shutting the door, she runs straight into a tall, lanky boy wrapped in a giant quilt. "Ope, sorry," she says in surprise.

The boy looks out from under his blanket hood with tired and red-rimmed eyes that widen as they settle themselves on the blonde girl. He pulls the quilt down around his shoulders and gives her a grin that stretches from ear-to-ear. "Ev-Evangeline? Is that you? Man, it's been, what, years? How've you been?"

"Hi, Eric," she says, shifting her weight and the bundle in her hands.

"Man, if I wasn't naked underneath here, I'd give you a hug or something." Evangeline blushes at his comment, but smiles at the happy look on his face. "I must take care of business," he nods to the bathroom door, "but I'll probably see you later." He gives her a weird salute and disappears into the room.

Evangeline furrows her eyebrows at the weird, but pleasant, interaction, a ghost of a smile still present on her lips, as she pads down the stairs to the living room. Kitty immediately greets her with a big smile and hops off the couch to take her clothes from her. "I'll just pop these in the dryer and they'll be ready in a jiffy! Steven's downstairs, if you want to come with me." Kitty narrows her eyes knowingly before laughing and bouncing into the kitchen and down the basement stairs.

Evangeline lags behind her, pulling at the sleeve of the crimson sweatshirt and grimacing at the creak of the old wood as she steps onto each stair. Mrs. Forman is already turning the dryer on by the time Evangeline makes it halfway down the stairs. When they pass each other, Mrs. Forman throws the blonde a wink, gesturing to the curly-haired boy with his arms strewn across the back of the old sofa.

          She says nothing as she takes a seat next to him, trying to figure out what show he's watching. Filled with puppets and weird skits and a few real people, it strikes her as a Sunday morning kids show but like none she's ever seen. "What is this?" she asks after a few minutes, giving up on figuring it out.

          Hyde shrugs, his uncovered eyes still focused on the screen as he ignores her baby blue eyes peering up at him. "Beats me. The TV was on when I woke up and I'm too lazy to change the channel."

          Evangeline snorts, covering her mouth with her hand as Steven turns to smirk at her. "I see you haven't changed much," she says, thinking back to how even as a child, he would resist doing even the simplest of tasks. Like, one time in grade school, he dropped his pencil next to his desk and when the teacher asked him why he wasn't doing his work, he said it was because the pencil was too far away. He'd made Eric pick it up for him after the teacher told Steven if he didn't do his work, he'd miss another recess to clean the blackboards.

          "Yeah," he drawls, tilting his head towards her, a smirk growing on his lips, "I just got hotter. A stone-cold fox." He strokes his beard dramatically, flexing his arms and pushing out his well-defined chest.

          Evangeline giggles, and shoves his hand away from his face. "Whatever," she says, getting up to find something better to watch.

          "So, Evie, what have you been up to? I haven't seen you in a few weeks. Are you feeling better?" Hyde says, following the tiny blonde's movements as she bends over and spins the dial, searching for who-knows-what. He hadn't seen her since she'd slept over that first night back in town, and he'd been secretly worried that she wouldn't want to see him again. He was too much of a coward to call her or go to her grandma's house, one, for fear of rejection and, two, out of fear for her grandmother. She isn't known as being the kindest woman, and tends to have what Hyde has heard called resting bitch face. Now that Evie is here, Hyde hopes she'll stay.