-noah-
Isn't it funny how life can be one thing, and then, in an instant, everything changes?
That's how it was for me on the day that I rediscovered Evelyn. She'd always been there, in the back of my mind, sitting shyly like the new girl in the back of the class.
And then, in Chicago, Illinois, I rediscovered her. I saw her standing there, angelic as ever, with wispy blonde hair and rosy red cheeks, and I really do think that it was love at first sight. Well, second sight, I guess.
I was standing outside of the Shedd Aquarium alongside Ellen and Logan, obsessing over the way Evelyn parked her white car. It was an adorable thing, how she cautiously looked behind her with her lips slightly parted- she had such a nice profile- and how she eased the car exactly where she wanted it.
I glanced at Ellen. "Is she perfect, or is it just me?"
Ellen narrowed her eyes and popped out a hip. "Gee, I don't know, Noah."
"I think it's just you," Logan piped in. I saw Ellen shoot him a grateful look, but I ignored them. Logan would side with Ellen on almost anything, and that was something I'd learned to live with.
Evelyn walked up then, looking lovely as a raindrop. Her hair was drifting around in the slight breeze, and she was a little flushed. "Hi, everyone. Sorry I took so long."
Logan and Ellen stayed silent. I lightly jabbed Ellen with my elbow, and she hastily replied, "That's fine. We didn't wait that long anyway. Besides, I love waiting!"
Evelyn raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Um, that's good. Anyway, let's go see some fish, shall we?"
She shyly slipped her hand into mine and we walked into the aquarium together. I saw Ellen cast a firey glare at us, but then she sighed and her shoulders drooped. Logan put an arm around her and they too walked in as a pair.
The Shedd Aquarium was massive and breathtaking from the moment you entered. It was a stately marble building that was both sophisticated and welcoming at the same time. The air had a slightly rubbery scent that I couldn't quite describe, but it wasn't necessarily unpleasant.
The four of us paid for our admission and walked around for awhile, admiring the sea life. There were lots of kids, something I didn't particularly mind, but Ellen sure did. She detested kids with almost every ounce of her being- I wasn't sure why, she just loathed them. One time, when we were at a park together, she called them "ungrateful little leeches". We got some dirty looks from a variety of mothers that day.
"Look, a shark," Evelyn giggled, pointing to a gray lump swimming lazily through the water. It was actually kind of disgusting, it didn't look like a shark to me at all.
"Are you sure it's a shark?" I asked uncertainly. "It looks like a..."
"A shark," Evelyn replied surely. "It's a basking shark. I took a marine biology course in high school."
"Well, they're disgusting," Ellen decided.
Evelyn furrowed her brow. "Not really. Their mouths open very wide because-"
"Oh my god. This thing is adorable."
Ellen had completely interrupted Evelyn and was making a beeline for the beluga whales. I rolled my eyes and threw a casual arm around Evelyn.
"Sorry about that. El's very, er, headstrong," I said apologetically. Evelyn smiled and said nothing.
The four of us made a lazy lap around the aquarium, pointing out things we found interesting or funny or whatever. Logan showed us this thing called a frogfish- it looked like a grumpy old man and it could change color to match the coral. We watched it for a solid half hour, narrating its movements like it was human.
"Hello, I'm Frogfish Fredrickson," Ellen had grumbled in a deep voice. "Get out of my way, rock. I hate you, minnows. Harumph. Bah humbug."
"You know, I'm not sure why people sterotype old men like that," Evelyn began. I held my breath- this was going to get Ellen started, I just knew it.
"I met an old man once who was very sweet. He always kept candy canes in his pockets and gave them out to children on the playground," Evelyn continued passionately.
"Isn't that illegal?" Logan interjected. "I feel like it's illegal."
"No, it isn't," Evelyn snapped. "And my point is that it's unfair that you're making fun of old men like this."
"Oh my god," Ellen exclaimed. "Take a pill or something, Evelyn, we're not making fun of anyone." She made quotes in the air with her fingers as she said 'making fun'.
"Guys, chill out," I jumped in, defusing the tension before it got any worse. "Evelyn, they weren't trying to be mean, and Ellen, you sort of overreacted. Can you please just apologize to each other?"
Evelyn shook herself out, straightened up, and thrust her hand forward. "Sorry, Ellen, I was out of turn."
Ellen bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Sorry." They shook hands and then separated, Ellen standing defiantly next to Logan and glaring at Evelyn.
We walked around some more, but the aquarium had lost its fun. After some discussion, we decided to call it a day and head back to the RV.
"Chicago," Logan proclaimed as we trekked back through the aquarium. "The Windy City. Anything can happen in Chicago. It's so big. So open. So full of possibilities."
"Maybe we should make a few of our own," Ellen murmured into his shoulder.
I sighed and placed a hand on the small of Evelyn's back. I knew that Logan was a lot more intimate with Ellen than he was with anyone else, and it sort of bothered me. They had their own relationship that was hovering somewhere between platonic and romantic, which seemed confusing to me, but apparently worked out fine for them. I didn't know Logan that well, he was just some sort of brainy idiot as far as I knew, but Ellen had mentioned that he was a lot more.
For the first time since I'd met him, I began to wonder about Logan. What was it that had convinced him to pack up all his things, leave his friends and family, and join a couple strangers on the road? What was it that happened at that party, that party that seemed so long ago?
And Evelyn. She was an enigma as well. The more I thought about it, the more surreal it became: Ellen was the only one out of all these people that I truly knew. Logan and Evelyn weren't exactly strangers, but they were far from people I knew well.
I was uncomfortable with it. I was drifting away from Ellen, this girl I used to be infatuated with, this girl who used to be my only thought. And for what, Evelyn? Some blondie I picked up off the street?
I wasn't sure how to feel. I wasn't sure of anything. It was as though there was a war in my body and peace was nowhere to be found.
"Hey, Ellen." I said suddenly. "I have an idea."
She groaned. "Great. You're really on fire with these ideas lately, I'm so excited to see what this one will be. Who's the surprise girlfriend this time?"
I rolled my eyes. "No one. This time, it's all you."
• • •
"So what's the plan, Stan?" Ellen asked as she kicked a pebble with the toe of her black vans. She was in black skinny jeans and a grey long-sleeved shirt that read "cool kids don't dance" in some weird font. The shirt sort of spooked me, and I don't think it meant what Ellen thought it meant, but I wasn't one to stop her.
"I don't really have a plan," I said with a nonchalant shrug.
Ellen feigned shock. "Wait, the great Noah Reynolds has no plan? Strange!"
I chuckled and reached forward to give her a playful shove. "Oh, stuff it, Ellen. I figured we could just walk around, you know? Talk."
She nodded with pursed lips. "All right. Works for me, dude."
We headed away from the RV and down the street toward the city. It was mid-November, but there was no snow at all and I wasn't that cold.
"So how do you think Evelyn and Logan are getting along?" Ellen asked with a slight smirk playing on her lips.
I chuckled. We had decided to leave them in the RV, alone together. The two of them had had barely any interaction, so Ellen and I had our fingers crossed that they wouldn't hate each other.
"I think they'll be okay," I decided. "I mean, Logan's pretty laid-back and Evelyn is easy to get along with. Yeah, they'll be fine."
Ellen nodded somewhat uncertainly and sighed, looking toward a tall man with a little girl on his shoulders. The girl was probably about six, with rosy cheeks and blonde hair not unlike Evelyn's. She was giggling and clutching onto her father's ears.
"Missing your parents?" I asked softly.
Ellen shrugged. "I'm not sure. It comes and it goes, you know? Sometimes I get this random wave of homesickness, but I don't think it's my parents I miss. It's the familiarity."
"Yeah, I get it," I murmured. "I mean, this trip is cool and all, but it's kind of exhausting at times."
"And then everything with Kate, and Logan, and Evelyn," Ellen agreed. "I just... it just sucks. This isn't at all what I thought it would be."
I nodded and sucked in a huge breath. "Well, I'm not about to kick them out. Are you?"
Ellen shook her head. "Nah. But is Evelyn, like, coming along?"
"If she wants," I replied.
"And she'll live in the house," Ellen said. The way she phrased it didn't seem like a question.
"Right," I said slowly. "But it's your house, I guess... I just don't know if she'll find another one so easily."
"She could get a job," Ellen suggested crisply.
I rolled my eyes. "How? She obviously hasn't been to college."
"McDonald's is always an option."
I sighed and let the matter drop. I really wasn't in the mood to argue with Ellen, though she was a very opinionated person, so it was a hard thing to avoid.
"Let's reminisce," I decided with a tone of authority. "Remember our first sleepover?"
"Oh my god, yes," Ellen gasped. "How old was I, like sixteen? I had to tell my mom that I was going to Sarah's, but really I snuck out to your place."
"My mom was fine with it," I replied, looking back to that night. "She loved you, El. Still does."
Ellen smiled fondly and nodded. "Yeah, your mom's cool. But we didn't even do anything that night, we just sat in your room and watched re-runs of Friends."
"And a tradition was born," I replied with a dramatic wave of my hands.
Every Friday after that night, Ellen came to my house and we chilled in my basement. We'd watch movies, play video games, listen to music, one time we tried baking cookies but we didn't have eggs so they ended up terrible. That "tradition" went on for years until we graduated. If Ellen's parents were out of town, which was fairly often, we'd go to her place instead. But her family had a strict no-boys-in-the-house rule and I was in no place to break it.
"That was fun," Ellen said with a gentle smile. "I wish we could go back to those times... sophomore year. Those were the days, man."
I nodded. "Yeah, no kidding. Life was handed to us on a silver platter."
Ellen furrowed her brow and looked down at her feet as we walked. "I remember that I was so eager to leave. To get out into the real world and just be boundless, you know? But I had no idea."
I nudged her with my elbow. "Hey, cheer up. We're not doing so bad, are we?"
Ellen shrugged. "Well, we're almost out of Lucky Charms, so I'd say yeah, we're doing pretty badly."
I rolled my eyes for the millionth time that day and took Ellen under my arm. "How does it smell down there, Ellie?" I teased gleefully, using the nickname I knew she hated.
"It smells disgusting, but you better keep me here for awhile longer because I'm going to kill you when I get out."
I laughed and scruffed up her hair a bit. "Works for me."
(A/N)kind of edited yeeee
wattpad is being screwy and it doesn't look like any of my paragraphs have breaks inbetween them? idk what's happening so i'm sorry about that, but i'll try to get it fixed. later nerds (hope you enjoyed)