It was bright and early in the morning when Evelyn was walking to her shift. She was tasked with restocking items in the pantry, which sounded easy enough. Evelyn just didn't want to have to deal with the ranchers flowing in and out all day. She was beginning to feel exasperated just thinking about it.

Evelyn struggled to suppress her yawns. Her and Ethan had a late night at his cabin. She smiled thinking of it. Ethan always knew how to cheer her up when she was upset. He had walked her back to her house to make sure she made it safe, and he wasn't quite holding her hand, but he continually brushed his fingers against hers. She blushed. She felt wanted. She hoped maybe their relationship would go somewhere—somewhere where they could just be a little more than friends.

Evelyn looked up and her smile faltered. The scene in front of her felt too familiar. She stood in front of the pantry, scared. Just like how she did when her mother asked her to leave her house alone for the first time when she was sixteen. She brought her surprisingly steady hand up to her chin, fingers running over the faded scar.

     She shook her head and blinked. She was acting like a child. She knew she had to carry herself well if she wanted even the slightest amount of respect from the people around her. She pulled up her shoulders and huffed.

     Carefully stepping down the stairs, Evelyn looked around and realized not much had changed since she'd been there last. Standing there was a man that looked only a couple years older than her. At the sound of her footsteps, he glanced up at her and immediately grimaced. Evelyn internally groaned, mentally preparing herself for the treatment she was about to receive.

"Can I help you?" He asked, unamused.

     Evelyn cleared her throat before speaking up. "I'm supposed to be restocking things for the day. What can I do to help out?" She tried to keep her voice steady and push down her nervousness.

     He stared at Evelyn like she'd said something stupid. It made her want to roll her eyes. She only tried to be polite and this is what she got in return. He gestured at the several boxes behind him and the empty shelves next to them. Evelyn was already sick of the attitude.  "Restock, that's what you're here for."

     Evelyn ground her teeth together in annoyance. She expected this. She knew very well that something like this would happen, that she'd be looked at this way, but it still ticked her off. She tried her best to redirect her thoughts—her shift was supposed to last another three hours—but they just circled back to the attitude the older male had just given her, and she couldn't help but treat the items she restocked with roughness and no care.

     "Woah, easy with those," the teasing voice made Evelyn drop the small boxes of bandaids in disbelief. Right when she thought her day couldn't get any worse.

     "I'm telling you right now, Troy—if you came here just to annoy me, spare me the energy and go away," she picked up two more packs from the large box they were in and roughly placed them on a shelf, completely disregarding what Troy had just told her.

     "What's got you all riled up this early?" He smirked at the girl's irate state. "It's not like I meant to run into you."

     Evelyn huffed and allowed her arms to fall to her sides. "I really don't care, Troy. I'm not doing this with you."

     "Looks like you got a lot of work to do," he gestured toward the numerous packed boxes behind her. "Why don't I help you out?"

     "You have got to be kidding me," she chuckled to herself and felt her eyes begin to sting from all the frustration. She would never understand why he chose to play these games with her.

     "Come on, Ev. I think you and I need to have a talk too. We didn't really end on the best terms," Troy acted as if his words had no effect on Evelyn, and he watched in amusement as she struggled to keep her composure and not break down.

     "I know that, Troy," she hissed, not once looking him in the eye. She didn't need to see his expression, she could guess and she knew she would be right. "There's nothing for us to talk about."

     "That's where you're wrong," he chuckled and moved past her. He purposely stood close to her to observe her reaction when he said what he was about to say. "You weren't supposed to find out that way, just so you know."

     Evelyn visibly tensed. She hated talking about this. She gulped. She knew there was no way to get out of this situation, so she decided to not feed too much into it. "Well, I'm glad I did," she conceded after a moment of silence.

     "Why? I thought you and I had fun together," he shrugged and winced. "Well, not so much on my part."

     Troy's statement made Evelyn unconsciously suck in a breath. "Just leave me alone, Troy," she muttered with a weak voice. If he said another word about what he did to her, she could cry, and the very last thing Evelyn wanted was to cry in front of the boy who broke her lonely, teenage heart.

     "I've been holding this in for, what? Four years now? I think it's time you really hear the truth, Evelyn," he shrugged, bending down to grab more boxes of bandaids as if his presence wasn't torturing her.

     "I know the truth, Troy. You played me into nine months of a relationship and none of it was real," Evelyn shook her head and clenched her teeth together. She needed to distract herself before she let her emotions get the best of her. Her thoughts ran wild for a moment before they landed on Ethan. She knew she told him that she would be a big girl and suck it up for while, but she could really use his help. She was helpless, though. Ethan would be asleep for at least another hour.

"I'm one hell of an actor, aren't I?" He laughed and nudged her shoulder. For the first time that morning, Evelyn glanced over at Troy. His appearance had changed a lot. She almost had trouble believing it'd been so long since she'd last been there. He stood a bit taller, his shoulders were broader, and he'd grown a bit of facial hair that he obviously kept trimmed. Though he'd changed so much on the outside, Evelyn had a heavy feeling that he hadn't changed as much in the inside. Evelyn bit her lip. "You can tell me what you're thinking, Ev."

She didn't realize she'd been staring at him in silence, but once she did, she didn't care. She turned her attention back to the task at hand, taking a deep breath. "You don't deserve to know."

"That's fair. You can hate me all you want," he reached over her to organize a couple packages of bandaids Evelyn had carelessly placed down. "I don't hate you though. Even back then, I didn't. I learned to tolerate you, just barely, but still. You did get me a lot of praise and respect. You know, everything I got you was paid for with the money I got from it. Actually, I didn't even get you the necklace, Mike did. He's always been the more romantic one."

Evelyn let out a sigh. Whether it was laced with exhaustion or sadness, neither of them could tell. She tried her best to tune him out, but it was so hard. He was giving her answers to the questions she'd asked herself when they 'broke up'. "Why are you telling me all this? What does it matter now?" Her shaky voice dropped an octave, and Troy could tell she was trying not to cry.

"I just think you have a right to know," he spoke with a nonchalant tone. Evelyn found it ridiculous. How could he be so calm while tearing her apart? He knew what he was doing, she figured he probably planned it out beforehand, and she was giving him exactly what he wanted by reacting. She couldn't help it. "I'll keep my distance, Ev. It's not like I have a mission this time. I mean, unless I don't want to. Watching you get all riled up is pretty entertaining. That hasn't changed."

"That's fine by me, Troy," she tried to speak with as little emotion as possible and continued to focus on stocking the shelves.

a/n
okay so troy in the last book
was very out of character for
obvious reason. there were
a lot of things that haven't been
mentioned that have definitely
played big parts in who troy is
and why he is the way that he is.
from this point on i'm going to
try my best to make his character
and the plot overall to seem more
realistic since we know the truth
and now everybody has to adapt to
the new world. i think it's gonna
be tough since everything is so
complex but i think i am better
equipped to do it now. even though
this chapter is very heavily reliant
on dialogue lol. hope you guys
enjoyed :) sorry for any mistakes
wc: 1586
03.30.23