About four hours later, Evelyn had woke to the sound of her stupid, blaring alarm clock. Troy let out a tired sigh. It had woken up as well. She groaned as she thought of the long long day she had ahead of her.

"Morning," he spoke with a raspy voice as he stretched. Evelyn didn't respond, and only buried her face into her pillows, "don't you have to get up?"

"Ugh," Evelyn noised. "Don't remind me," when she turned her head, she was immediately made aware of the close proximity between the two. It almost made her flinch. She remembered troy basically pulling her flush against his chest. She fought it as much as she could, but she couldn't remember if she'd gotten what she wanted or just gave up. She quickly rolled away from him.

"Ev, come back," he whined, reaching out to grab her arm, "I'm cold."

"No, Troy. That has nothing to do with me."

"You're so rude."

Evelyn sat up and stretched her tight muscles. She turned to the boy invading her bed. "How are you gonna leave? Someone's going to see you."

Troy stared at her ceiling, deep in thought. "I didn't really think that through."

"Obviously," Evelyn rolled her eyes as she reluctantly stood up, "try leaving while my dad's bringing Katie and I to school. My mom won't be here and Carson will probably be asleep."

"That's what you said last time. Carson was not asleep and he almost killed me!"

"Killed you?" Evelyn exclaimed as quietly as she could. "He almost killed me!"

"Yeah, whatever. If he catches me today it'll be all your fault."

Evelyn huffed. "Okay then," she raised her eyebrows. "I have to go get ready."

"Bye, Ev. I'll miss you!" he reached out to her from her bed. Evelyn found this image so surreal, and certainly not in a good way. She thought back to the conversation she had with Katie. She had to stop being to skeptical. As much as she didn't like him, she really hoped that he wasn't just messing with her. The fact that he'd gone out of his way to hurt her this way would be enough to crush her little soul, and she didn't dare put it past him.

'Why am i still thinking about this?' she thought to herself. She'd already made an agreement with herself and Katie. She was going to give Troy somewhat of a chance.

"Hey," Evelyn greeted quietly after shutting her bedroom door.

"Hello," Troy literally greeted with open arms. "What if I picked you up from school today?"

"Uh— why?" Evelyn questioned a little too truthfully. She sat down beside him on her bed. Even after the scolding she'd given herself in her bathroom, it still felt too weird to see Troy laying comfortably under her warm blanket, right next to her. She shook her head at the thought of this, as if to shake the repetitive thought out of her head.

"Why not?" Troy shrugged, pulling her down so that she was laying close to him. "I think we have a lot of fun on our car rides."

"Every car ride we've had has led to me getting mad at you."

"Yeah," Troy winced, "I don't think I'll ever understand why you pretend you can't stand me."

Evelyn's head slowly turned toward him. She was carefully calculating what to say next without ruining her and Katie's agreement. "Yeah, I'll never understand either," she responded with a hint of sarcasm.

"So just stop, Ev."

Silence filled the room. "...Maybe I will," Evelyn turned her head to look at the boy. Her features unusually softened and there was a look in her eye Troy couldn't quite read. She figured that if she showed Troy she was "warming up to him" he would show her what he was really expecting to get out of their friendship. Or at least she hoped that it would.

Troy was going to answer but was rudely interrupted. Three consecutive knocks on the door made the two teenagers jump.

"Ev, you have to go!" Michelle called from the other side of the door.

"I'll be right out!" Evelyn carefully rubbed her tired eyes. "I'll see you later," she crawled over Troy, getting out of her bed. He watched as she exasperatedly grabbed her bag and slipped out of the room. Now all Troy had left to do was find a way out of her house without anybody seeing.

"So guess what?" Evelyn asked her younger sister as they walked on campus together.

"What?" Katie replied, manicured hands smoothing out her carefully planned outfit.

"I think troy and I are 'friends' now," Evelyn put air quotations around her words. Her little sister was now her confidant.

Katie looked to Evelyn with a surprised look on her face. "Yay!" she exclaimed, linking her arm with evelyn's. "Why the air quotes though?"

Evelyn shrugged. "I think that if I pretend to be his friend then he'll show me what he really wants out of me. If he wants to hurt me, he'll do it."

Evelyn heard a noise of annoyance come from her sister. "You are so paranoid," Katie shoved the older girl.

Evelyn rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you would be too if you were in my position," the bell rang but the girls ignored it. "Even you thought it was weird how Troy and I suddenly started hanging out, out of nowhere!"

"Yeah, but maybe I was wrong!"

Evelyn sighed. "Carson says Troy's the devil in disguise."

"So?" Katie nudged her sister. "Carson says tons of dumb things."

"Can't deny that."

"Just give it a shot, sis. Is this not literally what we just talked about?"

"You told me not to let my guard down!" Evelyn accused the younger girl. "That's what I'm doing. In fact, letting my guard down is what I'm not doing."

Now it was Katie's turn to roll her eyes. "You're such a pessimist."

"Just being real. Troy's scary."

"Can't deny that," Katie repeated her sister's words.

"Like— what does he want from me? Why does he have to do this to me of all people? Everybody else on the ranch hates me, so why would he be different? He's so weird sometimes! All the time actually!" Evelyn's head fell back in both stress and frustration. She didn't even care enough to acknowledge the almost empty courtyard.

"Look, Ev," Katie started. "I would love to hear you rant, you know I'm always here for you but I really have to get to class. We will talk about this later."

"We can't talk about this later," Evelyn groaned. She felt like crying. "I think Troy's picking me up today."

Katie chuckled. "So then I'll meet you in the bathroom at lunch," Evelyn sighed, but agreed. "See you then."

a/n
me being anxious like all
week but still updating
because i'm a real one!
anyways i'm not sure this
chapter makes much sense?
it's not very self explanatory
but i hope y'all can kinda see
evelyn's frustration. think of it
as like the devils and angels on
people in movies' shoulders. the
devil would be evelyn's common
sense and the angel would be katie
lol. hope you guys enjoyed fr sorry
if it's getting really repetitive
wc: 1218
02.25.22