Eva found Terrence leaning against her locker a few weeks later; it was one of those days where Eva miraculously turned up early at school instead of just seconds away from the warning bell.
"Heya," he grinned, windswept red hair and all.
"Hi," she smiled back.
"You're early today," he commented, tucking his hands into his pockets as he scooted away so that she could access her locker. "Usually I'd wait a few minutes after the first bell and you'd still not be here so I'd take off to my class."
Eva stopped rummaging inside her locker, and glanced at Terrence in pure surprise. "What?" she asked, the slightest bit amazed. "You wait for me here every morning?"
He shrugged, as if it wasn't that big of an issue to him. "Sure, yeah," he replied. "I think this is the third time it has actually worked though considering how rarely you're on time." He grinned at the end, eyes crinkling with warmth at the edges as he gazed at her with something Eva couldn't name.
"Right," she blinked, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that the handful number of other times she'd found him at her locker weren't mere coincidences; that he somehow always found his way to her on the days that she was early.
But that he was there, by her locker, waiting every single day even with the knowledge that eight times out of ten, she wouldn't show up until after he'd left for his first period class. Terrence was always waiting for a possibility that had a good chance of never happening, and that softened Eva a little bit.
"What if I'd never shown up early on any of those days?" she asked curiously. "Or today?"
"Then that bell would've still rung, and I would've still gone to class," he smiled gently. "You weren't making me late for class or anything, Eva. Stop worrying."
Eva sighed and shut her locker. "Good," she muttered, but with a kinder edge to her voice. "You're all the teachers' favourite, I don't want to take that away."
Terrence furrowed his brows, his expression turning serious for a moment. "You're not taking anything away."
Eva adjusted her bag on her shoulder and began walking down the hall as the first bell cut through the relaxed air, sending students flying to their classes with loud bangs of locker doors. "Yes, but, you know. You're the star student. Don't spoil that because of- of me. It's stupid."
A familiar hand curled around her wrist, making her pause in her tracks and turn around. Terrence's hand was familiar, yes, but that gentle grip was not. He held her like she was a ceramic doll, or something made out of glass, and Eva wondered why he'd be afraid of breaking something that was never fully built in the first place.
"You're not holding me back, Eva," he told her, pale blue eyes that reminded her of April mornings staring right into hers. "You could never hold me back."
But there was that tremble in his voice again. Like he was speaking to a wish that he'd made when he blew out the candles on his birthday cake; a wish that had come alive in the form of flesh and bones and a beating heart.
And it made Eva step away on the outside, but recoil violently on the inside, as she tugged her hand out of his hold and stumbled backwards. She opened her mouth, knowing she should say something but finding that for the first time she wanted to speak, words have abandoned her.
So instead she just gave him a quick nod and a small smile, and continued down the hall. Away from Terrence, away from the way his voice shook when he spoke to her, away from the way his hands touched her like she was worth handling with care.
Eva walked away from one thing, but she was also walking towards another.
---
Terrence and Maite had tried to get Eva to join them for lunch, again. And just like all those other times, she refused. Three felt like too much a crowd for someone still getting used to the feeling of putting herself out there and interacting after years of isolation.
She still craved for the time before Terrence and Maite sometimes. When it was just her in her own bubble.
Eva let out a soft sigh and walked aimlessly down the corridors, finding her way towards the back of the school where she knew the rowdy kids usually hung out. Before she could get there, however, a familiar voice fell on her ears.
"Well, look what we have here," he sneered.
Eva froze, turning her head slightly to look at the boy who usually followed Heather around like her tail.
"Still not eating, I see," he remarked, raising his brows as he swept his eyes over her thin figure. "Such a shame. That body could do so much more if there was some flesh in it."
Eva let out a breath, waited for a few more seconds, and then began walking away.
This time the hand that grabbed hers wasn't familiar. But the rough grip was. He held her like she was carved out of stone, a wall with too many cracks that it wouldn't matter if he added more to it.
He yanked her back by the arm, nails digging into her skin like it was his canvas to stain red with her pain- like it was everybody's canvas but her own.
There was a loud bang of a door somewhere nearby and both their heads turned to see a tall figure walking out of an emergency exit like he owned the place.
Eva's eyes widened when she recognised Vincent, with that messy dark hair and pretty almond eyes.
He came to an abrupt stop in his tracks when he finally noticed both her and the boy standing in front of him, their eyes on him too.
"The heck are you looking at?" he asked the guy in a gruff voice, eyes narrowing. And then those eyes moved downward, trailing down his arm and landing on where his fingers were wound around Eva's wrist.
Pretty almond eyes flickered to Eva's, and she wondered if maybe they didn't seem so pretty anymore with the way they were burning with a kind of anger. In the previous weeks that she's continued to interact with him, make conversation with him, she'd never seen him act so... Eva didn't know the word.
"What are you doing with him?" he asked her, mouth turned down at the corners in distaste.
"None of your business, man," the other boy said, scoffing slightly and Eva knew it was the wrong thing to say by the way Vincent's stance changed, as if he was predator now. A predator staking claim, marking territory. She should know- Eva should know. She'd seen this stance a million times before.
"Take your hands off her," Vincent's voice was almost a growl, eyes flashing and making Eva wonder if maybe they weren't pretty almonds but embers of an angry fire.
The guy must have sensed something that Eva didn't because while she was mentally drawing closer to Vincent, the other boy was physically stepping away.
He let her hand go, cursing under his breath and muttering, "Jesus, fine, she's not even worth fighting over. I don't know what's got your boxers in a twist."
And then he was gone and it was just Eva and Vincent that were left standing.
"Thanks," Eva said because that's what she felt like she should say.
"What were you doing her with him?" he asked, eyes narrowed at her slightly.
She shrugged. "I was just walking, trying to kill time till lunch is over," she mumbled, looking down at her feet and letting her hair fall around her like a curtain.
She heard a sigh and then footsteps that told her he was coming closer.
Then she felt his hand on her chin, tipping her head up so that her eyes would meet his. Actually, they looked like pretty almonds again. Maybe Eva imagined that glint of anger; maybe that raging fire was a trick of her mind.
"Spend the rest of lunch with me, then," he said softly, thumb grazing her lower lip.
"I- I-" she struggled to breathe, her heart skipping and her stomach curling into knots as her breathing faltered. He was touching her. This boy with the messy dark hair and pretty almond eyes. He was touching her like he thought she was worthy of belonging to him and Eva's chest constricted at the thought.
"Come on," he urged, tugging on her arm with his other hand. "You owe me that, don't you? If I didn't show up, you don't know what that boy could've done."
And Eva gave in. Because Vincent was right. In a way, he'd saved her and she ought to be grateful. Wasn't that what pa had said anyway? Wasn't that what Logan had said?
That Care was a damned woman because no matter how much they did for her, she was never grateful?
But Eva didn't want to be like her mother, she wanted to be better. The way pa wanted her to be better. The way Logan said he'd teach her to be better.
So Eva smiled and nodded, and let Vincent, the boy with messy dark hair and pretty almond eyes, take her by the hand and pull her out through that emergency exit, making her keep him company while he lit a cigarette on that old and rusty stairwell because he didn't want to be alone.
Eva let herself be taken away, because she wasn't hers to keep.
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Written on; 18th August 2017
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