..⃗. 🌌 •̩̩͙⁺゜⤾·˚ ༘ ➷̈
𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗬'𝗦 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗧 ━━━━ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗧𝗬 𝗢𝗡𝗘
( 𝖢𝖮𝖭𝖥𝖤𝖲𝖲𝖨𝖮𝖭𝖲 ) ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ
evangeline has actually been doing pretty well the past week ever since her talk with her brother. she still hasn't really spoken to anyone else though, but she was making progress nonetheless. she's cleaned her room, picked up the slack at school, and she's been hanging out with dylan more. she's even thought about brady a few times without panicking and breaking down into shambles! progress!
speaking of which, evangeline has visited his contact at least twice every hour. she usually tries to go and type something, but she never knew what to say. should she apologize for the kiss again, or for ghosting him? should she just text him a simple hey or would that be too casual? she's contemplated every single thing she could text him and none of them were good enough. she wasn't sure if brady even wanted to talk to her anyway.
she was in her room, organizing random clothes that she had left everywhere over the span of a month. her spotify playlist kept her company as she did so and she occasionally hummed the lyrics to each song that played as she completed her chore. delicate by taylor swift started playing after she had hung up one of her shirts in her closet. the second she heard her voice, eva was reminded of the night she made brady listen to the song. she was convinced that the universe was taunting her.
never in her 18 years of living had she felt so passionate about another person. just the mere thought of brady would be enough for her to melt into a puddle of adoration for him. just thinking about him made her brain go la la la. but only until she remembered the kiss and how they haven't spoken in two weeks.
as the chorus of the song approached, evangeline heard a few knocks on her bedroom door. she guessed that it was dylan wanting to borrow her charger or something since he's always losing his. and so, evangeline raised her voice loud enough for him to hear her say, "dylan, go away! i'm busy and i'm using my charger!" she didn't hear a response so she just assumed that he walked away. but then, she heard a few more knocks. she didn't respond to it in hopes of dylan getting bored and leaving her alone, but the knocking didn't go away.
evangeline internally groaned as she rolled her eyes and walked away from her closet. she made her way to her bedroom door and swung it wide open, already beginning to speak, "i'm cleaning my closet, what do you—" she was cut off by the presence of the person she's missed most these past two weeks and her heart dropped at the sight. at first, eva was convinced that she has officially gone insane and she's seeing things because in what world would brady come and surprise her after weeks of not talking. but then, after moments of silence and eye contact, brady spoke up.
"um, did i come at a bad time?"
evangeline's brain short circuited. what was she supposed to do? what was she supposed to say? how is she supposed to act? why is he here? who let him inside the house when only eva and dylan were home? too many questions ran through her head and they were so loud, eva barely heard brady. she still managed to softly tell him, "no. uh, who let you in?"
"dylan." he answered. "he said i could just come up and talk to you." of course, eva thought. she was gonna kill him later for that once brady left. "can i come inside?" brady asked her. his eyes wandered all over her face. it looked like she hasn't gotten any sleep in a week, or maybe even two.
"uh, yeah." she opened the door wider for him to come in her room. he stepped inside and started to familiarize himself with his surroundings. brady's only been inside her room a couple times since her parents always preferred them hanging out in the living room whenever he came over.
evangeline shut the door behind him. as much as she didn't want to, she knew that brady was here to talk to her about the night of her birthday. she just couldn't believe that he'd come to LA to do so. it was silent in her room. evangeline looked down at the wooden floor as she nervously fiddled with the rings on her fingers, one of them being the ring that brady gifted her. "so... you're back in LA." she awkwardly stated.
"uh, yeah. i came here for an audition." he told her. eva nodded her head. brady then added, "and i also came to see you."
"oh." was all that came out of eva's mouth. she couldn't even hold eye contact with him. her eyes usually wandered to everywhere else in her room.
brady couldn't stand it. this weird and awkward air between them needed to end. "eva, what's going on? why have you been avoiding me the past couple of weeks?"
"i haven't been avoiding you." she said, quietly.
"you haven't called me, texted me, you won't even look me in the eye right now." brady replied.
she finally looked at him. "well, you haven't called or texted me either."
"yeah, because when i did, you replied with one word and never said anything else. i didn't know if you even wanted to talk to me, so..." he shrugged as he trailed off his sentence, noticing her fidgeting with the ring on her middle finger. the ring he gifted her. the only ring she was wearing despite eva always wearing multiple rings on both hands. that had to be a good sign, right?
"i did. i just... didn't know what to say."
"eva, you told me how glad you were that we're just friends, then you kissed me, and then you told me that we should just continue being friends." brady reminded her. she winced at the memory like it was salt in a wound. he then said a little quieter, "i don't wanna be just friends with you."
evangeline stared at him. she thought she just didn't hear him properly. with how loud she's been blasting music through her headphones lately, she wouldn't be surprised if she was becoming deaf. "what?" but deep down, she knows what he said. she just needed confirmation.
he knows good and well that she heard him. "i'm sorry if that's weird for you. and i get that you value our friendship. but eva, i've had feelings for you since the first time we ever started talking. since the first day we met, actually. i wanted to tell you that after the kiss, but you kept pushing me away."
eva felt like she had a lump in her throat. she didn't know how to respond, but brady's eyes were on her, so she felt like she just had to. "i'm sorry." she apologized so sincerely. she felt like a complete idiot for genuinely not having a clue that brady liked her since the beginning. and she had the nerve to talk about her crush on grayson while he had to listen to her do so.
"you don't need to apologize." brady assured her. "i just needed to tell you how i felt because i was actually going insane. and i didn't want to text you or tell you that over the phone because i felt like you deserve to know in person."
this sealed the deal for evangeline. she was a thousand percent sure that brady was way too good for her. i mean, look at this! he went to go see eva from across the country to confess to her that he had feelings for her because he wanted her to know in person! and what has eva done recently? avoid him. why was she trying to vilify herself? i don't know. she doesn't know either. it's not like it was her fault. feelings are just confusing sometimes! nothing wrong with it. but her mind just couldn't accept the fact that brady liked someone like her.
brady then continued when eva didn't respond. "and you don't have to feel the same way or anything, i get it if you don't, but i just had to let you know. if you genuinely wanna stay as friends, i'm fine with that. as long as you're still in my life, i'm fine with anything." and he meant it when he said it. "if you're uncomfortable with it, i get it. just tell me to go and i will."
evangeline felt a little weak in the knees. she stared at him with complete adoration in her eyes, struggling to find the words. when she still didn't say anything, brady took that as his cue to leave. it was fine that she stayed silent. brady was there for one reason and one reason only: to confess his feelings. and that's what he did, so his job here was done. he took a few steps towards eva's door as he pressed his lips together. eva's heart started pounding in her chest when he moved. he was about to leave and eva couldn't stand the thought of it. so, without much thinking, she gently grabbed brady's wrist. "wait."
brady stopped in his tracks and looked down at her. anxiety coursed through his veins and he was certain that eva was going to reject him. if she were, he'd rather her silence speaking volumes than her verbally rejecting him. "i, um, i just, uh wanted... to tell you that i also... have feelings for you." evangeline stammered. she admitted her truth so slowly, it almost killed brady. she was petrified to confess, but if brady could do it then she could too.
"you do?" brady muttered, confusedly.
evangeline sheepishly nodded her head. she then started to ramble, "i probably have for a while now, but i realized it too late. like, i didn't even figure it out until after we kissed and i just feel so shitty about it because you're such a great guy and all i've been doing is talk about grayson or friend-zoning you. and i started ignoring you because i was so scared of hurting you or ruining our friendship even more, which is the last thing i'd ever want. i don't ever want to lose you in my life 'cause i just got you, you know? and you're also the best person i've ever known, so hurting you would actually be the worst thing in the world. and i feel like you deserve so much better than what i could give you..."
there she was. his favorite yapper. brady couldn't help the slight grin that formed on his face. honestly, he stopped fully paying attention once he got the confirmation that eva had feelings for him the same way he had feelings for her. evangeline kept going on her tangent, but she was saying way too many words way too fast for brady's mind to take in everything she was saying. he just heard that she liked him, she felt bad, she's scared. he did a double-take on that last part and shook his head a bit.
"eva, you have nothing to be scared about." he assured her once her rambling was starting to die down. how could she possibly be scared of hurting him? that would never happen in a million years. and even if she did hurt him, he wouldn't mind too much. his heart was only hers to break anyway. "there's nothing you can do that could hurt me." eva was the most loyal and caring person he knew. so, in what world would eva martinez hurt him?
"i mean, like, i've never been in a relationship before. i've never even gotten to this point of liking someone who likes me back, i don't really know what to do. what if we start dating and i do something that makes you realize that you wanna leave. like, what if i fuck up or give you the ick or something. i'm so scared of fucking up." she told him. eva brought her hands up to cover her face in embarrassment. she was humiliated. she's never been so vulnerable.
brady thought she was cute though. he delicately took ahold of each of her hands and brought them back down with a grin on his face. "that's why you talk to me." he responded to her. "i would be there to help you every step of the way whenever you need me to. i would also never leave you, by the way. i was being a hundred percent serious when i said in your birthday letter that we're stuck with each other forever."
a smile was now etched on eva's face. she hasn't done that in a while and it felt so liberating to. brady missed seeing her bright smile that was like a beam of light. "good, 'cause i think i'd actually kill you if you left me." she joked. oh, how it felt so good for the two of them to feel like nothing has changed.
"valid reaction." he chuckled.
brady's hands were still holding evangeline's. there was barely a gap between the two of them as they stood in front of one another with a tiny sparkle of affinity evident in their eyes. he wanted to kiss her... like bad. and since eva has always made the first move when it came to him, for once, he finally returned the favor. he leaned down and kissed her. and this time, eva did not freak out about it.
she missed the feeling of his lips on hers just as much as he did. for the first time, the girl who overthought everything in her life had no anxieties about where she and brady were headed. any feeling of terror she previously had vanished and she was only met with complete and utter happiness.
ANGIE'S NOTES ☺︎
got lazy towards the end lol... sorry 🫤
but guess who finally made the first move 🤗
prepare for the eva & brady happiness era coming
soon 🤗!
also since we're confessing,
i got another fic brewing in the drafts ngl......
& i can't decide if it should be another brady one or
connor
bravangeline nation is so back 😊!!!!!!
bye guys
love u
have a great day 🫶🫶🫶🫶