"So, Evvie," Troy began as soon as they got situated on their knees in the dirt. Evelyn was glad she didn't decide to wear shorts. The dirt sticking to her skin would have just pissed her off, and considering she was with Troy, she figured she didn't need anything else making her angry. He continued, "tell me everything."

"What?" Evelyn stared at him cluelessly. This conversation could go many different ways.

"You know," Troy shrugged like she was supposed to know exactly what he was talking about, "everything that's happened since we broke up."

     Evelyn bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to contain her frustration. "We didn't break up," she gritted through clenched teeth. If there were two things Evelyn hated, they would be letting Troy see how his words got to her and Troy himself, but he was just so annoying. She couldn't help it.

     Troy's face lit up and a teasing smirk materialized across his lips. Evelyn knew she was about to hear something stupid and angering. "So does that mean we're still together? 'Cause I really wouldn't mind that," Troy teased. Evelyn felt like throwing a ball of dirt at his stupid, handsome face.

      "No, Troy," Evelyn looked back at him after having her gaze fixed on the ground below her, "we were never together in the first place."

     "Come on, don't say that!" Troy continued to grin and Evelyn felt the violence bubbling under her skin. "It might not have technically been real, but for nine months we spent practically everyday together. We had a relationship whether I liked it or not."

     The way Troy shrugged it off made Evelyn all the more annoyed. She took a deep breath and tried her absolute, very best to let his comment slide. "Yeah, if that's the way you want to see it, but the way I see it is you took advantage of a vulnerable teenage girl and wasted nine months of her life," Evelyn shrugged, trying to make it seem like it was no big deal. The same way Troy did.

     "Well, when you put it like that..."

     Evelyn's facade broke and she gave Troy an exasperated look. With the way his smirk stretched, Evelyn could tell he knew he won.

     In all honesty, Troy had to say he didn't hate every aspect of their so-called relationship, though he'd never admit it to anyone, not even himself. It felt nice having someone love him the way Evelyn did, even though he didn't entirely return the favor.

He'd resented her at first, annoyed that he'd stupidly taken up on the bet and knowing that his friends would make fun of him if he dared to pull out of the deal early. However, a little into their 'official' relationship, the dislike he had for Evelyn died down quite a bit. There came a time when he didn't mind being around her. He didn't have to try as hard to not roll his eyes when he heard her laugh. He didn't have to prepare himself as much before he kissed her, it came more naturally. He didn't mind having her in his arms while she slept. In fact, he had this revelation one night while she slept peacefully, clung to his side. Troy felt a little ashamed for taking a liking to her, but no one could blame him for appreciating the only person to treat him so nicely.

     Evelyn was the only person to have ever shown him unconditional love. He had Jake, but even he felt like his brother's care only ran to a certain level. After all the dumb things Troy did and said, she continued to dote on him as if nothing happened. She held him accountable, but never pushed him away, and Troy liked having such loyalty pointed in his direction.

     Even back then Troy knew she was going to be crushed when she found out it was all a game. She was quite literally a ploy to earn Troy a bit of cash and praise from his friends for putting up with her.

     For a while after his and Evelyn's breakup, Troy didn't really know what to do with himself. In fact, though he really would never admit this to anyone, he was quite bummed hearing that Mike broke the news to her. He was going to break things off eventually, of course, but he wasn't ready for it at that time. They'd spent almost everyday together for nine months straight, and now that it was gone, he was bored and almost felt lost. He didn't dwell on that for long though. After he quickly got over that, Troy's life moved on the same way it did before he and his friends dragged Evelyn into it. He didn't hate this, but he didn't exactly love it either. Evelyn always gave him something to do.

     Evelyn didn't answer Troy's offhanded comment. She looked at him, and she was glad he retained some of the same quirks he had as a teen, because she could tell an idea popped into his head. Luckily for her, he didn't act on it, and the rest of their shift was completed mostly in silence.

After Evelyn's long, hard day of listening to Troy rambling on, she was determined to make her night absolutely perfect. Ethan had previously told her he was going to be busy, so unfortunately she couldn't see him. She was a little bummed at that, because a little make-out session with Ethan sounded absolutely amazing to her, but she was going to have to make do without one.

Prior to journaling while humming along to some of her old records playing in the background, Evelyn took a long, hot shower. It fulfilled her expectations for the moment. She felt grateful that she had the means to even be clean in a world where seemingly nothing good was left. It just sucked that she had to live somewhere where everyone despised her and looked at her as if she had three heads. She didn't have three heads, she only had slightly darker skin than they did. Oh well, she thought. The ranchers were going to have to deal with her presence whether they liked it or not. As long as she had her life, her family, and Ethan, she was content enough. She was not going anywhere.

Evelyn began to feel her eyelids get heavier by the minute. She was doing her best to work her way through a book Jake had lent to her. She was shocked at the fact that she actually liked it. Usually, Evelyn stuck to reading the silly, unrealistic romantic comedies. This book couldn't be any more different than a romcom, but reading Jake's annotations and interpretations in the margins made it a bit more interesting. Not entertaining enough to keep her awake, however, so she put a bookmark in her book and shut it. Evelyn turned her light off and fell asleep fantasizing about Ethan.

Her slumber was short-lived.

"Psst, Ev," a hushed voice and calloused hands pulled Evelyn out of her rest. She quietly groaned and took a second to absorb what was happening. The voice continued, "wake up, it's important."

Evelyn's eyes shot open when the situation registered in her mind. There he was, kneeling beside her bed, waking her up in the middle of the night.

"What the hell are you doing here, Troy?" Evelyn pressed a bit too loud for either of their likings. The overwhelming nostalgia she was feeling left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Shh!" Troy scolded, as if she was being the unreasonable one, "are you trying to wake everyone up?"

"That doesn't answer my damn question," Evelyn ended up lowering her voice, but couldn't exactly tell why.

"No time for questions," Troy said hurriedly, perhaps just to shut her up, and moved to stand up, "just get dressed and meet me in the hallway."

"No, Troy! What is wrong with you?" Evelyn sat up in her bed. She pulled up her sheets so that they were still covering a good portion of her body, just to show Troy that she really was not going anywhere. If he thought he could break into her house in the middle of the night and get her to leave with him, he was severely mistaken.

"Evelyn," Troy spoke with a bit of an irritated tone, "your only options are to either get up and come with me or stay there with me sleeping over," Evelyn rolled her eyes at the threat of him staying in her room for the night, "so pick your poison, because you know I'm not going anywhere."

Evelyn bit her lip in an attempt to reel her patience back in. "My god, you suck," she muttered, but remained in the same spot on her bed.

With this, Troy knew she'd given in, "I'll be waiting in the hallway."

Evelyn felt like crying. There was no way Troy was shoving her way back into her life like this. This was exactly what he did when they were teenagers—he woke her at an ungodly hour to spend one on one time with her, and ultimately, the time spent with him was what got Evelyn to grow feelings for him. First it was to spend the night in her bed, then it was to take her to the place he'd deemed as their spot, and finally it was to bring her to the beach, where they kissed for the very first time. Evelyn remembered how utterly ecstatic she'd felt after that kiss. To teenage her, it was perfect in every sense of the word. She had to cut off her thoughts. If they kept going, she'd begin to bawl her eyes out at the unfairness of it all, but she couldn't with Troy right outside her bedroom, so she blinked back the few tears that had already welled up in her eyes and got up to get dressed.

"Where the hell are you taking me?" Evelyn's fingers frustratedly scratched at her jeans once she was situated in Troy's truck. She couldn't believe the circumstances she was in at this point, and part of her was waiting for the moment she'd wake up from the nightmare it was.

"Woah," Troy lifted a hand, signaling he had an issue, but Evelyn could tell he was just teasing, "no need for the attitude."

Evelyn squeezed her eyes shut. This man really knew how to get on her last nerve. "Nothing about this situation is normal, I'm asking a very valid question," she crossed her arms and stared at the quiet ranch outside of the window.

"What if I told you I was taking us to our spot?" Troy's question made Evelyn's stomach drop. She felt like she could be sick at any moment. "I'm not, but wouldn't that be cute?"

Protesting the way her stomach wanted her to throw up everything she'd eaten the day prior, Evelyn kept her cool. "That still doesn't answer my question. Where are you taking me, Troy?"

"I'm taking you outside."

"What?"

"I'm taking you off of the ranch," Troy spoke with a certain severity Evelyn had heard before, but wasn't at all used to.

"Why?" She asked nervously. Being 'taken off the ranch' could mean a million things, and it didn't help that her mind immediately went to the worst. What if he left her out there? She would never be able to find her way back.

"I heard Jake was giving you shooting lessons, so I'm just doing you even more of a favor. You'll have moving targets out here, and an instructor who actually knows what they're doing. The guns are in the back," Troy explained to the timid girl in his passenger seat. "I'm not doing this to torture you, Evelyn." Evelyn couldn't detect any playfulness or deceit in his promise, but Troy wouldn't be Troy if he didn't do his best to get on her last nerve. They both knew that well enough. Evelyn just hoped to get it over with as quickly and painless as possible.

a/n
hi guys! hope you enjoy
the last chapter of 2023,
i might extend the scene in
the next but i'm not sure yet.
here's a little bit of insight on
troy's perspective of the
relationship... turns out he
really didn't hate evelyn! but
what he did was still terrible.
i know i'm a little late but happy
holidays and happy (almost)
new year! this little series
has been ongoing for two
years now and i just
can't believe it like literally
how? i've gone through so
many phases and have
grown sooo much with my
writing since the first chapter
i wrote lol. by the way a new troy
fic is in the works but i promiseee
i won't publish until i finish this.
i love ev and ethan and troy and
katie and carson too much to just
move on like that, yknow? but
enough of my yapping, hope you
enjoyed and sorry for any mistakes!
wishing you all the best for 2024 ;)
wc: 2195
12.31.23