I sigh settling onto to the cushion of the swing bench as Eve does the same. I wait a second before looking over at her and notice her eyes are closed.

I take this moment to unabashedly stare at her. Eve looks a simple kind of beautiful. Her face is slightly tilted up towards the setting sun which creates shadows that accentuate the features of her face. Her straightened hair has started to regain its soft waves due to the sweat produced from our dancing and her dirty blonde locks blow slightly with the wind. As she takes a breathe in the edges of her lips turn upwards into a small smile. For the first time since I've met Eve she looks what I can only describe as soft, but not quite vulnerable, I can tell deep down her guard is still up ready to fortify the walls around her heart at a moments notice.

And it is for all these reasons I regret the next words that come spilling from my mouth: "Eve," I ask, "how do you know Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor?"

Her body instantly stiffens and her smile disappears into a thin pressed line. She opens her eyes but doesn't turn to look at me and pulls her shoulder away from mine as if she's suddenly noticed we're touching.

Some time passes in silence and when I've finally decided she's never going to speak, Eve asks me a question: "Do you ever wonder why Joseph hates me?"

Startled by the sudden question I start to choke on my bite of cake before finally getting out, "yeah sometimes. What does that have to do with the O'Connors though?"

"Everything," Eve responds, "since they're Anna and Seph's step-parents."

I choke on my cake in surprise for a second time. "How could I not have realized that?"

Eve shrugs.

"I don't understand though," I inquire, "what does that have to do with Seph's feelings toward you or with the fact his parents seem to, not to be harsh, hate you?"

Eve starts to nervously tap her fork against her plate.

"Because they had me arrested for beating up their son on an aggravated assault charge."

I'm suddenly thankful the previous piece of cake I choked on was my last because Eve would have had to give my the heimlich to resuscitate me after that shocking confession.

"What," I say bewildered. "How, when?" Is all I can get out before Eve sighs and begins to explain.

"A few years ago, Seph started to get involved in the business of underground fighting. At first he was just a bookie. He did pretty well at it when he first started out, started racking in cash. Cash he didn't really need," Eve adds. "Then one thing lead to another and the thrill of the gamble got to him, so he started getting greedy and more risky and eventually he started to lose money, a lot of it. One by one his men started to leave him, tired of the plummeting income. Seph decided if he couldn't make money anymore through that part of the business, he'd make money through the other: by becoming a fighter himself."

Eve pauses and looks over at me for the first time and I can tell through her eyes she's asking if she should continue. I nod.

"So one day I'm in the ring and Mr. Hender announces my opponent's name and in steps Joseph O'Connor. He at the time was surprisingly undefeated and his dollar deficit was no more. Now he fought for the status, his new addiction was the fame. Seph had invited a bunch of his rich buddies to come watch him. I figure that's how he collected so much money for a single fight.
Anyways, the start bell rings and we're circling each other and he goes to throw a punch. I dodge it of course and return his jab with one of my own. I lay him out right there. His body hits the mat before he could even process what happened and he didn't get over the shock of it until after the crowd yelled 1. And all though I'm sure the busted lip I gave him hurt like hell, his pride was what I really damaged."

"You humiliated him in front of his friends," I say more to myself than to Evelina.

"Yeah," she breathes, "and that didn't sit well with Seph."

I see her begin to clench and unclench her jaw. Then she crosses her arms, but not in the way one would when annoyed, she crosses her arms like she's trying to embrace herself, like she's giving herself a hug.

I feel guilt start to seep into my heart. "Look Eve, you don't have to tell me the whole story if you don't want to. I didn't mean to make you..."

She cuts me off, "no, no, it's ok. We're friends now and friends tell each other these things. Right?"

The fact that she even has to ask that makes my heart feel as if someone is squeezing it.

"Yeah," I reassure her, "good friends, true friends, tell each other everything. But only because they feel safe enough to."

Eve nods and relaxes her arms setting her hands on her thighs.

"Seph and some of his buddies waited for me outside the gym after everyone had left. There's no cameras outside of it because of
Mr. Hender's side hustle, which I'm sure Seph's lackeys were aware of when they caught me by surprise. One ripped my bag from my shoulders while two others restrained me by both arms. I tried to fight back, I really did, but no matter how strong I seem there's only so much a 5'5 girl can do against two 6'5
two-hundred pound guys.
Seph was livid. He grabbed me by my hair and forced me to look at him while he chewed me out for embarrassing him in front of 'spectators of such high status,' who apparently were also mad at me for the money my win lost them. When he was done with his speech, he passed the task of holding my head straight by my hair to the man who was restraining me on my left. With both hands free Seph socked me right in the face and as blood from my busted lip trickled into my mouth, I spit it into his face."

I suck air in sharply indicating to Eve just how bad of an idea I thought that was. She looks at me and chuckles darkly, "I know," she admits, "what a dumb idea, but all I wanted in that moment was to wipe the arrogant smirk off his face."

Then she continues, "he wiped the saliva and spit from his face in disgust before hitting me again, and then again, and then again. Not just in the face, everywhere. I guess his posse started to get nervous the slacker my body became in their hands, so they pleaded with Seph to stop before he did something they'd really regret. He complied before telling the boy who grabbed my bag to take my winnings, then he grabbed my jaw by his hand and brought it close to his face. 'Don't ever embarrass me in front of anyone like that ever again,' he snarled. After that they left me money less, bruised and bleeding, lying on the ground behind the gym."

Eve is silent again after saying this and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. She's not looking at me, instead she just stares at the valleys and mountains ahead of her. My eyes wander to her hand resting on her left thigh. It'd be so easy for me to reach my hand out and hold hers. But I don't get the chance because she runs her fingers through her hair and then places her palms under her thighs. I wonder for a moment if somehow she had read my mind.

"When I finally hobbled home and made it into bed, I got a phone call in the early morning from the mom who's house Eli was sleeping over at. She had thrown up in the middle of the night and was running a fever. Elizabeth was sick for a week and because Seph and his goons had taken my cut of the winnings, I didn't have enough money to take her to the doctors, I didn't even have enough money to buy her medicine. I also wasn't close enough to the Hender's then to ask for a loan. All I had to give her was children's Tylenol and Gatorade. After this is when I started saving up emergency funds."

I see Eve's jaw clench in anger as she continues on. "I had to stay at home for a week watching Elizabeth suffer. She cried and cried that her head hurt, that her ears hurt. I was powerless to help. To make matters worse my dad would come home drunk off his ass. In the morning when he was hungover and Eli would cry, it'd agitate him and he'd yell and yell for me to get her 'whining' under control. I could only take so much of his demands at a time and eventually I'd start yelling back at him. Then we'd be fighting and beer bottles would go flying and Elizabeth would cry even more because then I would start crying.
Eventually the virus ran its course and Elizabeth gained most of her energy back and my dad stopped yelling because Eli stopped crying.
I laid in bed that Sunday night, with Eli's head resting on my bruised collar bone and I promised myself that Seph would pay for what he did."

"So as revenge you jumped him like he jumped you," I ask looking over at Eve and I think I see the corner of her mouth lift slightly into a smirk.

"Yeah," she says. "I jumped him the next day, at school, during lunch, in front of everyone. I waited until he was sitting at the same table he does now. Before he even knew what was happening, I ripped him by his shirt out of his seat and went at him. All that pent up hurt and frustration moving out of me and into him through my fists. I was pulled off of him pretty quick but the damage was already done. He had a broken nose, a busted lip, a black eye, and a bruised ego."

I realize that's the reason Anna called her psycho. She must not have known what Seph had been up to in his spare time so Eve attacking him would have seem crazed.

Eve takes her hands out from under her thighs and wipes them down the front of her pants.

"Immediately I was sent to the guidance office. I lost it, completely broke down. Probably due to a combination of stress, and fear, and lack of sleep, but I told everything to Mrs. Hender without her even asking. The whole story starting at the fight.
Seph's parents were quick to press charges, I guess Anna had called them in the midst of me beating her step-brother and I didn't even make it home from school before I was detained. Mrs. Hender said she would take Eli with her to stay at their house and that Mr. Hender would bail me out as soon as he could. I spent the night in jail before I was released and received my court date.
I got one of those court appointed lawyers and even though I pleaded guilty, I mean there was no way I could seriously deny the charge, I also made a case that it was in a way self defense. The Hender's had taken pictures of my bruises after bailing me out and because Seph didn't have an alibi for that night at the gym, his attorney couldn't technically prove Seph did or didn't cause my injuries, and as this was my first offense as a minor who had a crystal clear record, the judge bumped my charge down to a misdemeanor assault charge. Fortunately the judge was a kind man; I got 2190 hours of community service and 2 years parole."

"Well that's uh, that's good I guess, right?" I look to Eve for confirmation. I've never been in this position before so I'm not sure what to say.

"For me, definitely," she states, "but to the O'Connor's I got off easy.  They were horrified that I would accuse Seph of what he did in court. Plus, the case was huge news around here and popular tabloids were spreading around not so savory rumors about Seph. It only took minutes for all the videos taken in the lunchroom to go viral. His parents were worried I had ruined his reputation enough that he'd never recover. Of course that didn't happen though," Eve says casually," as you can tell by the drastically different ways we're treated at school."

As I let her words sink in I begin to feel guilty for having befriended them. If I had known all of this before I would have never agreed to sit with them at lunch. I would have denied them the ability to walk with me to class.

I begin to express all of this to Eve when she cuts me of by placing her hand on my tricep. I instantly lock eyes with her, acutely aware of the fact that this is the first time she has ever touched me in any level of an endearing manner.

She keeps her hand there as she tell me not to be upset. "I'm not going to tell you who and who not to be friends with Renan. I may find Anna immensely annoying but you can't deny that she's loyal to those she cares about. She doesn't really know what Seph did for sure, and what sister wouldn't defend their brother in any way they could. Also, everyone else who you sit with at lunch, besides Seph, have never done anything to me to cause me to have ill feelings towards them." She gives my arm a light reassuring squeeze before bring her hand back down to her lap, "so don't feel bad about the choices you've made or the people you've hung out with."

She gives me a sad unsure smile, "I'd understand though, if you didn't want to be friends with me."

I let there be a moment of silence between us. "Well even if I didn't want to be your friend anymore, I can't ditch you now," I say in mock seriousness, "I haven't tried those pancakes yet remember."

At first Eve was taken aback by my words but then she smiles and shakes her head. "You are something Mathews," she says, "really something."

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A/N:

Hey y'all! Hope you enjoyed this chapter :) I feel like I dumped a lot of info on y'all but I figured this was the best way to explain the animosity between Seph, Anna, and Eve.  I'd also like to point out that I am currently going to school to major in creative writing and humanities... and certainly not law lol so I'm sorry if those aspects of the story weren't entirely accurate!

All reads, votes, and comments are very appreciated! Thank you for taking a chance on my story :)

Anne <3