The cheerleaders slowly filed out of the gym with the rest of the students, and Chris was feeling uncomfortable with the speech that had just been given by Oliver. He didn't necessarily hate the guy, he just didn't like that he was using the deaths in a mall fire and different events that caused the people named to die.
He was also uncomfortable with the fact that Oliver had his arm draped around the shoulders of Justina and was laughing and talking to her, just ignoring everyone else around them as they chattered as they went into the brisk cool air of outside.
Chris wrapped his arms around himself, burying his hands inside the sleeves of his white letterman jacket as he walked behind them, and they weren't paying any attention to Chris. Chris was about to walk to the entrance of the school when he suddenly heard an ominous ticking sound in the air. Chris's eyes widened, hearing the clock again.
"Not again," he whispered as Oliver and Justina turned their heads to Chris, Oliver dropping his arm from around Justina.
"What's wrong?" she asked as Chris shivered, shaking his head.
"I'm just cold," Chris said as he smiled as he shivered not from the cold, but to hear the ominous ticking sound again, and a loud chime that echoed loudly in his head. He turned his head to the forest, a small clearing in the forest. "I-I'm just going to get some fresh air, the uh nervousness for today's game is getting to my head," he said, the anxiety creeping in his voice.
Justina furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Oliver, who just shrugged as his gaze met hers. "Okay," she said, slightly concerned as Chris turned away, walking across the field of the school to the clearing. The ticking got louder as he approached the forest, the grass bristling against his ankles as he walked, his pace slowing as the anxiety made his stomach churn.
Why am I doing this... Chris thought as he entered the clearing, walking as the forest thickened and the grass became dirt as he walked into the clearing, being met with a sight he had never seen before.
The space was empty, the clearing being made of a few trees spaced from each other as they surrounded a falling apart brown picnic table that had a few nails sticking out of the wooden planks. Chris froze as he saw the same grandfather clock embedded into the tree, the pendulum swinging back and forth as the hands pointed to the twelve and three, showing it was three o'clock.
It loudly chimed, tick tick tick tick tick, chimed again, tick tick tick, and chimed again, but it sounded distorted as the glass of the screen of the clock crackled, forming harline fractures as it cracked and split in a tiny hole in the middle, many black spiders crawled out of the clock. The sight shocked and terrified Chris and sent him stumbling backwards into a curved and hard body. Chris spun around, freaking out when he saw Evelyn standing there with a surprised and concerned look on her face as her obsidian eyes studied his. He whipped his head back towards the tree, seeing there was no spiders or clock.
"You...okay? Didn't mean to scare you," Evelyn says as her left thumb slightly moved on the handle of her black metal lunchbox, and the other holding a cigarette pack.
Chris was too stunned to speak, and he tried his best to compose himself as nerves wracked his body, and he could already feel a panic attack stirring as his breath slowly began to pick up. His eyes frantically searched the forest as he tried to calm himself down, closing his eyes.
"Hey," Evelyn said, concern in her voice as she placed an arm on his bicep, causing Chris to open his eyes. Hers were looking back at his, looking at him. "Come on, I'll sit you down so you can calm down, okay?" she says as she gently leads him over to the picnic table, sitting him down as the metal lunchbox clanged as she quickly sat it down. She pushed an unruly curl of hair behind her ear as she used her hands on his shoulders to make Chris look at her.
"I need you to calm down, Cunningham, okay? Nothing's wrong and nobody's out here but me and you, and maybe a few squirrels. It's going to be okay," she says, looking at him seriously.
Chris looked into her eyes, and he could see tiny specks of grey in them. He studied her face, her pale skin with her curly hair that framed her face and her firm shaped lips, and he began to calm down, his breath slowing and returning back to normal.
The corners of Evelyn's mouth widened, making a sort of a smile. "Good, you're calmed down," she says as she gets up, grabbing her lunchbox as she sat across him, crossing her feet and setting them on top of the table.
Chris swiveled his body to face her diagonally, fidgeting with his hands knowing that he almost nearly had a panic attack in front of the school freak, who barely knew him. But none of his friends truly knew him for who he was anyway.
"You okay now?" Evelyn asked as she looked at him. Chris timidly nodded as Evelyn reached over and grabbed the latch of her lunchbox and opened the top, it creaking as she did so.
"There's uh...there's nothing to worry about, no one ever comes out here. You're safe," Evelyn says as she eyes him warily as she takes off her light blue denim coat as she tosses it on the bench, sitting down. "I promise,"
"So...how does this work exactly?" Chris asked as he looked at the contents of the black box.
"Oh, just like any old sale," Evelyn says, propping her chin on the palm of her hand as her elbow pressed into the table. "Except uh, cash only and no receipts, for obvious reasons," she cracked a smile at him as his nervous expression didn't change and he looked at her.
"I'll do you a half ounce, for, say, 20," Evelyn says, picking up a Ziploc bag with crushed dark green ingredients and waving it around. "What do you say? Plenty of bang for your buck and perfect for beginners, should last you a while,"
Chris turned sharply and slightly when he heard a squirrel scutter up a tree, and everything in him went on edge until he saw it was just a squirrel.
He heard the slam of a lunchbox and he turned his head back around as Evelyn had put the bag back. "Hey, uh, we don't need to do this, just give me the word and I'll walk away," Evelyn says as she avoided his gaze, staring at something in the forest.
"No, it's not that, I don't want you to go," Chris said quickly, getting a curious and confused look from Evelyn. "It's just that...do you ever feel like you're losing your mind?"
Evelyn tilted her head at him as she furrowed her eyebrows. "Um, just, you know, on a daily basis," she says, charmingly smiling, making Chris's heart run laps in his chest. "I mean, I feel like I'm losing my mind, doing a drug deal with Christopher Cunningham, the King of Hawkins High," Evelyn said as she looked at Chris, who slightly smiled and looked at her. Evelyn began tapping her knuckles against the table as she broke the glance.
"You know, this isn't the first time we've, uh, hung out," she said as she fidgeted with her hands.
"It isn't?" Chris said, suddenly his mind pulling a blank.
"You don't remember?" Evelyn said as significant hurt showed in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I-"
"That's okay," Evelyn said as she stared at Chris, not moving for a moment and then clasped her fist over her heart, thrusting herself backwards into the pile of leaves, which scared and shocked Chris. He gasped out as Evelyn stumbled to her feet. "I wouldn't remember me either, Chris," she says as she turns around, looking at Chris as leaves poked out in her hair. "Honestly, do I have stuff in my hair?" she says as she grins, brushing some of the leaves out of her hair, getting Chris to laugh.
"You don't remember me?!" Evelyn says as she crosses her arms over her chest, her hands hidden under her armpits.
"I'm sorry," Chris said, grinning at Evelyn's antics.
"Middle school, talent show, you were doing this cheer thing," Evelyn said, walking around with her arms crossed and uncrossed them to do an unenthusiastic shake of her hands to imitate her holding pom poms, which make Chris purse his lips trying to remember what had happened.
"You know, the thing you do," she says, moving her hands to imitate a cheer, getting a laugh out of Chris. "It was pretty cool actually. And I was there with my band-"
"Corroded Coffin!" Chris suddenly blurted out, having a sudden memory of the event, remembering seeing Evelyn in her racoon eye makeup.
"Corro- You do remember!" Evelyn says, enthusiastically clapping and pointing at Chris.
"Oh my god, yes, of course! With a name like that, how could I forget?"
"I don't know, you're a freak," Evelyn says, grinning and teasing him, as that was her usual nickname. Chris laughed and looked at her, grinning and not coming up with words.
"No you just...you looked so-"
"Different? Yeah, well my hair was buzzed, and I didn't have these sweet old tatties yet," Evelyn said, tugging down a portion of shirt to show a tattoo that she quickly covered up.
"You played guitar, right?" Chris says while remembering Evelyn playing her guitar.
"Yup, still do, still do," she said as she slid her hands into her back pockets. "You should come see us, we play at The Hideout on Tuesdays. It's pretty cool. We get a crowd up to abouttt, five drunks," she says, grinning as she slid her hands under her armpits again.
Chris laughed. "It's not exactly the Garden, so you've got to start somewhere, right? So," Evelyn said as she walked to a tree and playfully began to punch it, and then began to walk back over to the table.
"You know you're not what I'd thought you'd be like," Chris said, looking at her. He honestly thought she was going to hate him and not be as charming as she was being right now.
"Mean and scary?" Evelyn says, joking as she pulls a strand of hair in front of her face, making her look ominous.
"Yeah,"
"Well I actually thought you'd be mean and scary too," Evelyn said as she played with the end of her hair, walking over to the table, sitting down as Chris watched her.
"Really?"
"Terrifying," Evelyn's eyes were amused as she sat down and re-opened her lunchbox. "Uh, so, in other news, flattery works for me, so..." Evelyn said as she looked at him, perching her chin onto her fist. "Twenty percent discount for the half," she said as Chris smiled, and then it occurred to him that he wanted something that would take away everything that he was seeing and hearing, and he wanted it all to stop.
Evelyn slapped the bag of crushed contents onto the table. "Fifteen bucks. You're robbing me blind here you know," she joked as she looked at Chris.
"Do you... have something stronger?"
Evelyn quirked an eyebrow. "Stronger? Now what kind of losing your mind are we talking about now?"
"I-" Chris didn't know how to explain to her. "I just need to distract my mind from everything going on,"
"School, parents, girlfriend?" Evelyn shot guesses at Chris and he nodded.
"All of the above,"
Evelyn tilted her head at him. "Didn't know that you had so many problems, Cunningham,"
Chris shrugged and Evelyn thought, pausing for a second as silence occurred between the two.
"Tell you what Chris, I have a DnD meeting tonight. After your little balls-in-laundry-baskets game," she said, making Chris slightly laugh because of her speech from earlier. "Meet me near the entrance of the school, because I have stronger things that you might want to try at home. The stronger shit,"
Chris nodded happily, knowing he would finally get help.
"We got an agreement?"
Chris nodded and smiled. "We do,"
Evelyn nodded and placed the bag back in her metal lunchbox and stood up. "I'll see you around," she said as she stepped over the branch and walked away to the clearing that led out to the gym field.