The Visitor

Evaine found that the longer she talked to Tayshia, the more she grew to like the other girl. Talking with her was easy, even when it was about the school work which Evaine loathed so much, and by the time the lunch bell rang they had devised an easy to follow outline for their first project. Tayshia kept the conversation going even as the rest of the class began to migrate to the courtyard for lunch, and they fell into an easy rhythm walking together.

As they made their way outside, there was a slowdown of the usual lunchtime traffic near the edge of the lawn as the passing students paused for a round of whispers and pointing fingers. Evaine figured it was just some new graffiti, or maybe one of those elaborate school dance proposals if all the giggling was any indication.

"Who is that?" Tayshia asked, finally catching onto the hubbub. Her eyes narrowed as she found the source of the distraction, and a coy smile pulled up the corners of her glossy lips.

Evaine followed her line of sight toward the man standing beneath a cluster of shade trees, his arms folded in a relaxed lean. He wore casual brown slacks with a pressed white shirt, a pair of dark sunglasses against the early afternoon sun, and a visitor's badge pinned to his lapel. By the expertly gelled hair and stern set of his mouth, there was no mistaking that it was Louis.

At her school. In daylight.

"Ah...he's here for me," Evaine said a little sheepishly, instantly wilting under the look of shock Tayshia directed at her.

"Evaine Dawson, is that your boyfriend?" Tayshia demanded, deliciously scandalized and intrigued. Her wide eyes flicked back and forth from Evaine to Louis, her jaw practically on the floor.

"No, no he's not," Evaine quickly remedied, waving her hands to wipe away any possibility of Tayshia believing something so wild. "He's a friend...I think. I should go see what he wants. I'll catch up with you later."

"Yeah, you do that, and find out if he's free while you're at it!" Tayshia bid her, giving her a propelling shove in Louis' direction.

Evaine rolled her eyes but laughed at Tayshia's unabashed interest. Walking away, she redirected her focus to Louis, so at odds with the mundane setting of the high school courtyard, and he straightened upright at her approach.

"Good afternoon, Miss Dawson," he said, inclining his head in a gentlemanly way.

"Afternoon, Louis," she said, and while it felt strange to behave as if they were old friends, she couldn't hide what a relief it was to speak with someone who was aware of her situation, someone she didn't have to lie to. Once she was close enough to lower her voice more privately, she said, "Is...is daylight not an issue? You are like Jesse, right?"

"I am," Louis confirmed with an amused smirk. "Daywalking is a coveted skill among our kind. I am the only person I know who can."

Evaine nodded her understanding, what little she actually understood, and filed that little fact away for when she finally got a chance to have all of her many questions answered.

"Not going to introduce me to your friend?" Louis asked, changing the subject. "I am single, since she was wondering."

Evaine didn't miss the teasing manner of his voice, or the way he glazed over the fact that he had heard that part of her conversation when she had been well over thirty feet away. She was more taken aback by him calling Tayshia her friend, and it made her feel warm in her chest to realize that it was probably true.

"You know, I'm not sure how old you are, but I'm pretty sure she's too young for you," Evaine pointed out, quirking a skeptical eyebrow.

"Your great grandmother would be too young for me," he retorted in a way that almost seemed playful or teasing. Then, as an afterthought, he grimaced and shook his head. "Look, Jesse wanted me to bring you this."

Louis slid something around his shoulder and presented to her what looked like a brand-new book bag, infinitely nicer than the grocery canvas currently on her arm. It was made of finely crafted leather, stained the color of cherrywood, with brass buckles and zippers over the pockets.

"Are you serious? This is way more expensive than my other one," Evaine said, feeling a little guilty at the uneven exchange. Someone must have gone through a lot of trouble to get her something so nice; she'd never seen anything of its equal at the little shops around Jericho, or even the superstores in Redwood. She reached out to open the main pocket, and lo and behold, there were all of her books, her precious case of writing tools, and the less precious folder of homework.

"You obviously don't know Jesse if you think that sort of thing matters to him," Louis commented with a snort. He held out the straps for her and helped to arrange it on Evaine's shoulders as if he were donning her with a coat instead. "After everything that you went through last Friday night, he felt bad that he had to ruin your belongings on top of it all. This is an apology, and a thank you for bearing with us."

"I guess I really don't know him that well," Evaine said more to herself, looking down at the smooth straps hugging her shoulders. It was certainly a nicer gift than was warranted by the value of the bag she'd lost, and part of her wondered if the unspoken truth of the matter was that it was payment for her silence.

"Is there something you want to ask me?" Louis guessed, a curious tilt to his head. He seemed to be entertained by the idea of her struggling to make sense of her new predicament.

"There are a million things I want to ask you," she said truthfully, squinting into those impenetrable sunglasses of his. "But I'll settle for one, if you don't mind."

"Ask away," Louis consented. He resumed his casual lean against the trunk of the tree, preparing himself for a longer conversation.

"Is Jesse okay? He told me about what happened with his friend...at least I think she was his friend. The hunter. It sounded really complicated, but he seemed pretty affected by it, and I haven't heard from him since."

"Complicated," Louis repeated, something like bitterness weighing on his tone. "The Maggie thing was a goddamn mess, if you ask me. She was a hunter through and through, and she never saw him as anything more than a vampire, no matter how much he wanted to read between the lines. It was bound to end, one way or another, and it truly pains me to see my friend suffering needlessly over it."

"How does something like that happen?" Evaine asked, struggling to wrap her head around it even as there was something ugly and hurtful squeezing her chest that felt uncomfortably like jealousy. "How does a vampire see a hunter and not run the other way?"

"That's not really my story to tell," Louis told her apologetically. "There was a lot of history between them, a lot of bad blood and pain, but also familiarity. Jesse...he's sentimental, more than a vampire should be about humans, but he could never bring himself to treat her like a real enemy. I'm not sure how she felt on the matter, but she never seemed able to let him go, either."

"It sounds like he really cared..." Evaine trailed off, caught between wanting to empathize and craving that care for herself. When she met Louis' shrouded gaze, his brows were narrowed in a thoughtful way, and his lips pursed against a frown. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"He wasn't in love with her," was all Louis said in answer. "She was something to him, but never that. Not like you want to be."

"I...I never said—" Evaine stumbled over her words, mortified that she was so easy to read. She could feel the heat rising in her face, and she quickly clamped her mouth shut. At that, Louis cracked a full smile, his teeth perfectly neat and pearly white with two sharp fangs protruding past the top row.

"You are funny," he said in a way that seemed to assume that all of her thoughts were displayed plainly across her face. He pushed himself off the tree and righted himself once more, making clear his intent to depart. "Take it from someone who's known Jesse a long time and has seen him through a fair amount of losses. He will manage this just fine; his wellbeing is not the one you should be concerned with at the moment."

"Okay, I get it," Evaine said, grateful to be done with that humiliating turn in the conversation. "Thank you, Louis."

"Miss Dawson," he said in place of a farewell, tapping his forehead as if tipping an invisible hat. He took off across the lawn at a natural, yet brisk pace, probably not wanting to linger in the sunlight any longer than he had to.