Chapter Eighteen: If The Shoe Fits
~~~
Eva wandered around Main Street in search of the beacon, but there were two problems. Firstly, she had no idea what the beacon looked like, and secondly, she was too hungry to focus on anything besides food. It plagued her mind: cheesy mac n cheese, fall off the bone baby back ribs, creamy mashed potatoes... Food flooded her mind, her thoughts.
She found herself standing inside of a Jamba Juice, inspecting the area behind the counter. The air smelled sweet and tangy, like a tropical paradise. Digging around, she pulled forth a hand of bananas. Her stomach rumbled at the view of food, and she pulled the hand to the ground, before proceeding to eat all six bananas.
Eva sat back against the counter, surrounded by banana peels. She pushed around the counter, finally finding a stash of apples. Without standing she reached forward, fingers grasping at the little red balls of fruit. Her hand finally wrapped around the tray they were sitting in and pulled it forward. The tray fell before she could catch it, and it crashed to the floor next to her. She cringed, waiting, listening for something to jump out next to her.
Just when she found it safe to dig in, a voice nervously said, "H-hello?"
Eva stood quickly just as Kenji rounded the corner, the two teens coming face to face and screaming.
"Kenji! What the hell?"
Kenji clutched his chest, wheezing. "What the hell, me? What the hell, you? Why were you hiding behind here?"
Eva swooped down, picking up a piece of fruit. "Apple?"
His eyes lit up and he took the apple from her hands into his own. He opened his mouth, then hesitated. "Wait, is this poisonous?"
"Who do you think I am, the Evil Queen?"
"If the shoe fits?"
Eva rolled her eyes and took the apple back, taking a large bite out of it. She chewed and swallowed, then said, "See? Not poisonous."
After dropping the apple back into his hands, she picked up the other apples and set them in the tray, then picked up the tray and set it on the counter. Kenji began eating the apple, moaning in pleasure as Eva looked around for bags to carry the fruit in.
Dropping the fruit into a bag, Kenji reached out for another, but Eva smacked his hand away. "We have to feed the others," she said, sliding the bag up her arm and to her shoulder. "Come on, might as well look for more food."
Kenji followed her on a scooter as she walked across Main Street, heading for another restaurant. Restaurants meant prepared food, which meant there was a chance of something edible still being good enough to eat.
It had been a few days since they were left behind, and in turn a few days without electricity, which meant all the restaurant level food would be going bad soon.
Eva ducked into Margaritaville, the windows of which were shattered. Kenji came to a stop behind her, leaving the scooter propped up against the building's wall.
The two teenagers wandered around the restaurant, the scent of half eaten food that had been sitting out for days on end filling their nostrils. Eva gagged at the smell, heading into the back to the kitchen. The two began digging around, finding an array of canned goods, sharp knives, and a disgusting amount of dirty dishes.
They worked in silence, Eva filling her Jamba Juice bag with supplies as they did so.
But then a thought crossed her mind, and she couldn't help but ask away. "Hey, it's been two days since we were left behind, right?"
Kenji nodded.
Eva's lips turn up in a half smile, "Merry Christmas."
He frowned, "I didn't even realize..."
"Hell of a gift we got. Merry Christmas, you're stranded on dinosaur island!" She chuckled. "Damn, this has gotta be my second worst Christmas."
His eyebrows furrowed, "Second worst— what the hell is worse than being hunted by dinosaurs that wanna eat you?"
Eva's eyes bore into the stovetop, then the sink filled with dirty dishes— basically, anywhere where Kenji wasn't. She had fucked up, saying anything at all, and now her mortal enemy was standing across from her, eyes big and curious, wanting to know her worst secret.
She looked to him next. He was quietly standing there, hand resting on the counter beside him, and she could hear him nervously tapping his shoes. She swallowed, blinking slowly. Her ears itched. She didn't talk about this with anyone— Kai knew, but only the basics. They didn't know that it happened because of her.
She sighed heavily, wringing her hands together.
"Like, three years ago my dad got into a car crash on his way to pick me up from school... Heavy ice and shitty breaks, and, I don't know... he collided with a street lamp in the middle of an intersection. Totally fucked up his car, and he's dead now, so..."
Eva remembered hearing about it on the news before anyone contacted her. She was one of the last kids left at her middle school— it was also a boarding school, much like Rutherford. A faculty member brought her into the front office to keep warm, her suitcase at her feet and her backpack tight around her shoulders. She was swinging her feet, and repeatedly checking her phone. The TV in the front office switched to news, and showed a helicopter's POV of the car wrapped around a pole. The car was blue-grey, like a storm cloud you'd see over the ocean. There was an ambulance beside it, and they were loading a body into a body bag. Without a doubt, her gut told her it was her father. Hell, it was four blocks down from the school, and her father was running nearly an hour late.
She didn't tell anyone in the office. She just sat there, her stomach dropped, and her eyes stuck to the floor. Her eyes were glossy with tears, but she just sat there. An hour later, one of the desk ladies took a call and gasped. Eva knew it was about her father. She ended up spending an extra night at school, and the following morning, her Opa and Oma— who she only used to see during spring and winter breaks— were picking her up.
Her grandparents were obviously distressed— their only son had died rather abruptly. But they were very cold about it, too. They took Eva in on the school breaks, let her stay, but any time she brought up her father— her mother, too, her grandmother would tell her, "Don't cry. Crying doesn't do anything for you, except make your face ugly, and you're too pretty for that." And they would leave it at that— not even offer condolences or tell her it's okay to feel upset. They moved on, cold, and Eva was left to keeping it all inside.
"I... Shit, I'm so sorry...When you talked to Darius on the monorail about losing a parent..."
She shrugged. She felt the urge to rip off her hat and leave it behind, but she let it stay atop her head. Instead, she left the boy there. She didn't have it in her to talk about it anymore. She didn't have it in her to talk about anything. Her eyes stung, straining them as she left.
She entered the front of the restaurant and took a seat at one of the many chairs at the bar. Head buried in her arms, she weeped quietly.
She knew she was stronger than this. She knew crying was useless, but as much as she willed herself not to, her eyes still wept. Her breath was still shaky. She still curled into herself, forehead against the table, hands grasping her sleeves.
"Hey, Eva?" Kenji's voice came from the other room.
Eva lifted her glasses and wiped away her tears. "Yeah?"
"You would not believe what I just found." His voice was shaky, as if he was scared to talk to her.
Eva entered the room he was standing in— still the kitchen, to find him surrounded by pizza boxes. She gasped, eyes widening. She pulled her walkie to her lips, "Nice find, Kenji."
He stared at her a moment longer. "We should get these pizza slices back to the others."
Eva nodded in agreement. She filled a bag with the cardboard boxes as Kenji did the same with a bag he found.
Kenji rode the scooter back to the others, while Eva slowly walked after him.
It was weird. Watching Kenji, seeing him as she used to see him. Dimples and bubbly laughter, the way his shoulders would quiver when he laughed, or the way his eyes would light up talking about something he loved...
Eva shivered, shaking those thoughts away. Because when Kenji was with Prince and Roy and Nico, there was no saving him.
She could still see the boys, clear as day, laughing at her demise as she was all but dragged into the principal's office. She could see Prince and Roy sitting side by side, lying to the rest of the disciplinary committee that it was Eva who pulled the prank. It was Eva who pissed off all those teachers. It was Eva who was at fault here.
Her hands curled into fists at her sides and her eyes narrowed, watching Kenji skate around the debris on the street. She was blamed for something that was not her fault, and she had been taking the blame every day since then. It was a miracle she got out of her fight with Jayla with a few detentions, instead of the suspension she was expecting.
~~~
"Anybody order frozen pizza from the world's dopest delivery boy?"
"And Eva," she yelled, still a good twenty feet away from the campers.
"And Eva," Kenji grinned.
"Food? Finally, yes!"
"I'll get napkins from the rock!"
Kenji and Eva passed around slices of pizza. She unboxed one slice as she took a seat. Raising it to her mouth, she bit down. It was like biting into a rock. She grimaced, and pulled the slice away from her face. Looking around, she realized the others had done the same.
"Ow!" Brooklynn yelled.
"It's been two days," Eva grumbled. "Why is the pizza this cold?"
"Ugh," Darius groaned. "Put it in the sun to thaw out, I guess."
"This sucks," she groaned as she tossed her pizza slice on the ground a few feet away. She propped up her feet on the table in front of her, sliding down her seat. She closed her eyes, electing to rest. Her stomach was growling, begging for food, to the point that she was starting to cramp.
The chair was uncomfortable, so she moved to the floor, using her arm as a pillow.
About twenty minutes later, Sammy asked, "Okay, is the pizza thawed, now?"
Kenji sighed and stood. "I'll check."
He stepped over Eva's body to reach the large pile of pizza slices they had accumulated. Eva rolled on her other side to watch him. He reached for a slice from the top of the pile when out jumped a compy. Kenji yelped, backing away as three others ran out to flock the first.
A compy approached Eva curiously, and she quickly jumped to her feet. A wave of dizziness hit her like a truck and she found the ground coming closer and closer.
"Oh shit, Eva!" Yasmina yelled from behind her.
"Woah," she laughed, rubbing at the new scrape on her knee.
More compies joined the party, jumping off the rooftops and landing on the umbrellas and tables, skirting around debris and up to the campers.
Eva stood up, slowly this time, and got into a fighting stance.
"Throw the pizza! Throw the pizza!" Yaz shouted as she tried to shoo away the compies near her.
"Awe man, all of it?" Sammy pouted. Another compy dropped down in front of the noirette, who gasped and ran towards Kenji's side.
Darius joined the pair, and the three of them threw the pizza slices in the direction of two large, wooden doors. The compies ran after the pizza eagerly, the dozens of creatures leaving the campers for good.
Kenji wrestled with a singular compy that was left behind, the two each with hand or mouth on a slice of pizza. Kenji finally ripped it free of the compy, who gave the campers one last look before running off to join its friends.
Sammy placed her hands on her hips, watching the compies run off with their pizza. "I'm really starting to dislike them compies."
"Ugh, they're like the rats of the dino world— they'll eat anything," Brooklynn said.
"Yeah, but so will Kenji," Yaz teased.
"I object to that."
Kenji stared at his lone pizza slice, then handed it to Eva.
She took the slice warily.
"It's not poisonous," Kenji said.
"Right, but I have a distinct memory of you telling me you would never share food with me."
Kenji shrugged as he flushed. He turned his back on her. "Yeah, well, you're more starved than the rest of us..."
She took a bite from the slice of pepperoni pizza. "Thanks, Kenj."
~~~
As night fell, the campers took shelter in Café TriceraMuffintops. Everyone had claimed their own bench, Eva sharing a booth with Brooklynn. While the pink haired girl was fast asleep, Eva was lying on her back staring up at the ceiling. It was less of an ambience noise problem, and more so one of fear. She may have entrusted her life to the campers when she was passed out and didn't have much of a choice, but now that she was awake and lucid, she wanted nothing more than to protect herself.
So, she was awake. Regardless of how tired she was, she simply could not see herself falling asleep and putting her life in the hands of Yaz. No offense to the Track Star, of course.
Eva sat up and cracked her back, taking in the cafe. Kenji was asleep on the table of a round booth, his radio in his hand as he mumbled random things into it, dead asleep. Sammy was half on her bench, half on the floor and seemingly sound asleep. Darius wasn't even in a booth, but leaning up against one of the walls with his eyes closed. Yasmina was right beside Darius, and when Eva finally looked to her, she found the brunette already staring in her direction.
She jumped slightly, Yaz mouthing an apology.
Eva slid off her bench, headed for the outside. Yasmina met her, stopping her before she could take off.
"We should stick together," the brunette whispered. They both looked back to the sleeping campers.
"I'm just getting some air," Eva curtly responded.
Yaz raised an eyebrow.
"I won't leave Main Street," she promised. "I just wanna look around, maybe find some food. Some supplies. I can't sleep, and it won't hurt to look."
Yasmina contemplated her offer. "You promise to be back soon? I don't think the others will be too pleased to find another... camper missing."
Eva instantly thought of Ben, the short, terrified kid they lost to the dinosaurs. He didn't deserve the ending he got, and the rest of the campers didn't deserve the feeling of helplessness that came with losing him.
"I'll be back soon. Before sunrise," she promised.
"I'm holding you to that, Eva."
Eva nodded, looking around Main Street. Where would she even start?
Yasmina rested a hand on her shoulder, offering her a smile. "You have a watch. Don't forget about it."
Nodding, she left the store front, headed in the direction of the main restaurants.
She spent time going through a clothing store, picking out a pair of clean yoga pants and a pack of dinosaur themed socks. She filled her bag with snacks and chocolate bars from one of the gift shops. And then she found a restaurant— The Rose— and dipped inside. It quickly became clear to her this was the place to be, because she got right to work cooking breakfast with the limited supplies in restaurant.
When all was said and all was done, she balanced plates of food, heading out of the The Rose and heading back towards Café Triceramuffintops. She whistled loudly, catching the attention of Darius, who was on watch after Yaz. He opened the door for her, excitement taking over at the sight of food in her arms.
He gasped loudly, "When did you have the time for this?"
Eva shuffled over, placing the food down on the table Kenji was at earlier, but was now nowhere to be found. She yawned and stepped back from the table, admiring her work.
Kenji appeared behind her, gasping loudly. "Food!"
His shouts awoke the others, and everyone slowly made their way over, gasping in delight. The teenagers all squished into the round booth and began digging into the food.
Eva laughed, watching as Yaz stuffed her mouth with scrambled eggs. Eva had tested all the eggs she cooked with, guaranteeing freshness for the campers.
She bit into an apple, smiling in delight, happy the other campers with happy, too.
"Oh my god," Brooklynn moaned. "Hey... how did you carry all this here?"
"Oh, I used to waitress over the summer," She said.
"She was a waitress over the summer," Kenji said.
Eva stared at Kenji.
"It- it was June, I think—"
She held up her hand. "I remember," She said.
She worked this little diner, Pond's, where her and Kai and Jenny frequented in the spring. It was four blocks from campus, situated between an Olive Garden and a tattoo shop, Ink City. She worked Pond's because her grandparents weren't big on the idea of an allowance, and she needed money in her pocket to breathe.
One day in late June, Kenji, and three of his friends, Nico, Roy, and Prince— his real name was Curtis, if she remembered correctly— came into the restaurant. They sat in her section, were demanding over their drinks, and then complained about the wait on the food. They were exactly how Eva remembered them from the spring semester, snide remarks and all— except Roy, who was on her lacrosse team, was nicer on the field than he was in the restaurant, as if he was keeping up with appearances in front of his friends.
At the end of the night, Nico dropped a few ones on the table after paying the bill, which was nearly a hundred dollars for all four boys. Roy, Nico and Prince left the table curtly. And then there was Kenji, rolling over his words, hands shoved in pockets, cheeks pink as he apologized for his friends' behavior. Then, he offered her a tip—three times as much as the bill. "For the trouble," he had said. Insisted she take it when she tried to tell him it was too much, and he hurried from Pond's before she could give the money back.
That coupled with his actions outside of Prince and Nico and Roy, she believed he wasn't all bad. He was one of her closest friends, anyway. And then The Incident happened in September, and who else to blame than Kenji himself?
"Oh," Kenji muttered, his cheeks tinted pink like that night.
"Yeah." She didn't know what else to say. Why had he been so nice that night, and so annoying in September, and every day past that one fateful afternoon? It was like the second The Incident occured, that was all he was known for.
Eva made a plate before the campers ate all the food, and slowly began eating it herself. Her exhaustion was finally starting to kick in, and she couldn't stop yawning. But, the food was delicious, and that took top priority. So, she ate away, confident in how the day was going already.
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Happy Christmas!!! Extra chapter as a gift to you all and a bit of a long one at that.
I see we got a little background into Eva's life-- why she lives with her grandparents. I hope you enjoyed!
Also, I'm currently experiencing my first concussion and it makes me feel like I went too hard with Eva's concussion, but that's fine. It's a learning experience, and it's too late to change it now. And yes, I know not all concussions are the same for everyone. Still, I'll be better in the future <3
- Atha