last chapter here we go
i know it's kinda long but it's like the grand finale please read it all

"Troy, I'm scared," Evelyn whined, clinging onto his arm like a koala to a tree.

"There's nothing to be scared about," Troy chuckled. He tugged his arm out of his girlfriend's grasp just to put it back around her shoulders.

"What do you mean?" she groaned as she frustratedly covered her eyes. "I don't know these people. I think I have the right to be scared."

"Ev, I know these people. They're my friends. Nothing bad's gonna happen as long as I'm there, and I am going to be there," Evelyn had no choice but to take the boy's word for it and follow him. She focused on the warm feeling of a Saturday evening in April, trying her best to calm the anxious thoughts running through her mind. "You know," Troy started, bringing her out of her out of the forced trance she had herself in. "They've been dying for us to all hang out for almost a year now, since before we even started dating."

"You'd tell them about me?" Evelyn asked timidly, his flattery almost drowning out all of her anxious thoughts. She unknowingly fiddled with and picked at her fingers. She was sure that by the end of the night her cuticles would be raw and red.

"Well, I had to tell them about how pretty that girl I first talked to at the stable was," Troy's words got Evelyn to flash an easy smile. Instead of shaking as a result of her nervousness, she was now blushing because she was so flustered. She really, really liked Troy. "And those idiots had to know that I was the first to get to you, and you were gonna be mine."

"What do you mean?" Evelyn couldn't help her curious grin as the two continued to walk.

"I just couldn't take any chances," he looked down at her with a look in his eyes that made her cheeks flush, if possible, even more.

"So... what are we doing?" Evelyn had only just realized that she was walking with no clear destination. Apparently she had always just trusted Troy enough to make decisions and not even run them completely by her. All he said was that they were going to go see two of his friends.

"Nothing special, they're already there. Basically just sitting in my room. Not much else to it," he shrugged, moving his hand to loosely intertwine with hers.

"Okay... so how should I walk in?"

"What do you mean?" Troy laughed at the unusual question that came out of the blue.

Evelyn sighed. "I don't know- I just don't want to embarrass myself!" she complained. She wished she didn't have to worry about something so stupid as how she should walk into a room filled with a couple of kids who were her age, but what other choice did she have? The only people she'd ever really talked to on the ranch were Troy and her good friend Ethan. She never had to worry about this before.

"Ev," Troy's laugh made Evelyn frown. "You're thinking too much into this. I promise, whatever you think is going to happen, is not going to happen. I'll be there. You don't have to keep worrying so much." Evelyn nodded. Surely Troy's friends wouldn't pick on her right in front of him. Even if they tried, Troy would defend her, right? She sure hoped so. They'd been together for nine months now, why wouldn't he defend her?

Stepping through troy's front door, she realized she'd never been inside his house before—which she found to be pretty peculiar, but she brushed it off. She tried not to be too nosy, but she definitely took a good look around as Troy led her up the stairs. She didn't know when she'd be in the house next. Thankfully his father wasn't home. That man always scared Evelyn to death.

Evelyn took a quick deep breath as they neared what assumed to be his bedroom. Her heart rate was alarmingly high, practically through the roof. When Troy opened the door to the two teenage boys laughing and causing a commotion, Evelyn thought she could've passed out from the fear. She tried her best to look cool and unbothered, but she couldn't hide the nervous quirks like the biting of her bottom lip and the uncontrolled shaking of her clammy hands.

The boys both took a second to greet Troy, waiting for him to introduce Evelyn so they could greet her too. "Uh- you both know my girlfriend."

"Hey, Evelyn," the one she'd never seen before smiled at her. The other one, Mike, only waved.

"Ev, that's Cole, and you know Mike."

"Hi," she shyly waved back. 'It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay,' Evelyn repeated to herself in her mind.

"I can't believe you two have been together for like a year now and we're just now hanging out," Cole, the boy leaning on a beanbag on the floor said.

"Well..." Evelyn responded awkwardly. Her fear put her at a loss for words.

"It hasn't been a year," Evelyn liked to think that Troy stepped in to save her, "and it's not like you guys ever brought it up."

"We brought it up all the time," Mike leaned back against troy's practically bare nightstand.

Troy only shook his head at his best friend before grabbing Evelyn's shaky hand and leading her over to his bed. She took the time to look around his room, given that she'd never been inside it before. It was a pretty normal room for a teenage boy, only a little simpler. Evelyn couldn't imagine it any other way. His room was really plain, the only decoration being a map on the wall opposite his bed.

Evelyn sighed as she half-listened to the three boys talked, only replying timidly when they teasingly asked her a question. She felt herself getting sleepy as she leaned against Troy's body. The nervousness had tired her out.

"I'll be right back," Troy sighed in response to his father calling his name. The man always sounded angry.

Before Evelyn could fully process what was going on, she was left alone in a room with two boys she didn't know at all. She began to panic, trying to play it cool on the outside so they wouldn't make fun of her, but ultimately her body language gave it all away.

"So, Evelyn," Cole spoke up, "you and Troy have been dating for a while, right?"

"Um- yeah, nine months," she kept her voice low and her responses short, hoping they two would get bored of her speaking and start a conversation of their own.

"You think you know him?" Mike asked. he somewhat stretched his neck and lifting her head so that he could see Evelyn, which made her even more nervous.

"I mean, yeah," Evelyn shrugged. That was a lie. She basically knew nothing about Troy, but what was she supposed to tell them? That Troy hadn't told her practically anything in the entire nine months they'd been together? She'd never admit that out loud, especially not to his likely hateful best friends.

"Yeah? What's his favorite color then?"

Evelyn almost sighed in relief. Thankfully they'd asked an easy question. "He says he doesn't have one because they're 'all the same,' but I know it's navy blue."

"Wow, you really do know him," Cole joked and shrugged from his spot on the floor. "What?" He asked when he heard Mike chuckling to himself from his spot on the floor.

"It's nothing," he shook his head with a smile. "I just can't believe you and Troy are still together. We stopped paying him a little while ago."

Evelyn's blood immediately ran cold. She sat frozen as she watched Cole throw something at Mike with a look on his face that showed Mike obviously wasn't supposed to share that. "What do you mean?" her chest was tight and she held back her forming tears as she asked the simple question. "You guys were... paying him?"

"I think we should let you and Troy figure that out," Cole spoke blankly, turning his gaze to the other boy in the room, "you know, like we were supposed to!"

"No, tell me now!" Evelyn's dejected voice cracked. "You paid him to date me?"

"Yeah," Mike nodded in affirmation. Evelyn couldn't read the look on his face but she knew it was anything but sympathetic and guilty. "I'm surprised you've gone this long without realizing it wasn't real, but I wouldn't really expect much from someone like you."

"Dude, you're making it worse. The deal was to let Troy figure it out when he was sick of it," Cole scolded his friend.

Evelyn barely paid any mind to the mildly racist comment or the banter between the two boys. All she could think about was how none of it was real. It all started to piece together. No wonder he only took her out at night and never opened up about anything. To Troy, Evelyn was just a way for him to make money. She was a stupid bet, and that was all she ever meant to him. She always knew it was suspicious—the racist ranch leader's likeminded son taking a liking in her out of nowhere, but she was naive, and she so stupidly chose to give into his dumb game instead of her own logic.

The stinging in her eyes and the lump in her throat became to hard to ignore. She made a break for Troy's bedroom door without saying a word. It wasn't real.

Evelyn could hear Troy and his father's voice exchanging words from somewhere in the house, and it only made her even more upset. She made her way to the front door and slipped out as quietly as she could. At the moment, her only objective was to get back home as quickly as possible before she began sobbing beyond comprehension.

She shakily sighed in relief when she saw nobody was in her home's living area. She had the freedom to start crying, but she decided to wait until she reached the comfort of her own room.

Leaning against her now closed bedroom door, evelyn broke down. She walked over to her bed, not even caring enough to lock the door. It wasn't fair. Evelyn never did anything to deserve this kind of treatment. It wasn't like Troy tricked her into one stupid kiss, he tricked her into nine months of a relationship. She spent all her time on him. All of her days consisted of thinking of Troy and everything he'd done to make her fall for him. It wasn't real.

Evelyn internally panicked when she heard the door handle turn. She should've locked the door, but she didn't, and that was only another stupid decision she made without thinking it through.

"Hey, Ev," Evelyn's stomach churned with disgust as she heard the voice she wanted to hear least. "What happened? I went back to my room and you were gone, the guys wouldn't say where you went."

She looked up at him with a tear-stained face. "Take your stupid necklace... and your stupid ring," Evelyn took off the meaningless pieces of jewelry he gave to her, "and get out!"

"Ev... what?" he shook his head. "What are you saying?"

Evelyn couldn't believe him. "I would say we're over, but we were never really a thing in the first place."

The look on Troy's face read that he finally understood what his girlfriend was talking about. "Evelyn-"

"No!" she cut him off. "How could you do this to me?" Troy didn't answer. "Nine months, Troy. Nine months!"

"I know, Evelyn, and I'm-"

"Don't you dare say you're sorry! Don't lie to me even more than you already have."

"Evelyn... I don't know what to say," Troy watched as the tears continued to fall down Evelyn's flushed cheeks. He's never seen her so upset before.

"When were you planning on ending it?" Evelyn's voice was quiet, but rough. She wanted the boy to leave her be so she could cry into her pillow for the remainder of the year, but she needed answers. It was the least he could do. This is what he owed her. She looked at him and felt nothing but resentment. It was hard for her to believe that she'd once looked at him with admiration and love, but this revelation had changed everything. "Was it gonna be after I lived out my future plans that I changed just so that I could be with you?"

"I don't know, Ev- I'm sorry," he spoke in a low voice, shaking his head.

"Just leave, Troy. Please."

a/n
crying maybe
wc: 2150 (my longest)
06.30.22