After Gil, Mal noticed that Evie had a lot of different people coming around in the next few weeks. She saw Gil a few times at different parts of the day. A few other men that didn't stick more than one night at Evie's apartment.

One morning she was even greeted by a very gorgeous dark-haired woman with blue eyes. The woman was tall and was wearing only a white tank top and her underwear in a matching color. Mal thought she was probably some model since she was tall and well fit. The unknown woman's features also reminded her of a young Angelina Jolie.

Let's just say that Mal has seen Evie with more people in the past few weeks than since she moved in here. The blond couldn't remember if it was like this before or if she just hasn't noticed it. Seeing Evie with so many different individuals made Mal realize that she knew very little about the woman and at the same time she felt like Evie was always in her life.

Mal felt frustrated when she caught herself thinking about Evie for no particular reason. She would simply sit in her office doing paperwork when she would randomly get the dark-haired beauty in her mind. The blond would sometimes ask Uma at the most random of times about such things as:

"Is it normal for a person to have so many nightstands?"

"Is it possible to feel someone you barely know so close?"

"Why does Ben love more strangers than me?"

And Uma would look at her like she was an alien and would laugh at the randomness of it all. They would be getting work done and Mal would drop stuff like that. Uma knew that Mal has been struggling to make connections with people and that she is the only friend of Mal's that understand her best. So when these questions started popping up and there she got curious about who is she talking about.

The chocolate-skinned woman would always give her a normalized answer since she would see that her friend was low-key freaking out about this stuff. Uma tried her best to assure Mal that these things are normal and most people do them, even her sometimes.

When Mal got home one day after serious consideration of why she was so drawn to Evie lately, she thought it would be best to get to know her. Mal would crave to ask her if she feels it too, but that would be too weird and will probably ruin their good relationship.

She was lost in her mind once again when she noticed that her balcony door is barely slid open. In a matter of seconds, she went through a few emotions; she was furious that Ben has escaped yet again; she was also impressed by his ability to open the glass door and get out; she was just a little concerned that her cat might have went on a suicidal mission following a bird and jumping out off the balcony. Her heart almost leaped out of her chest after thinking the worst.

With quick steps, Mal was out on the shared balcony scanning for her furry friend.

"Ben?!" she called him out but he was nowhere in sight.

She went back into her apartment checking all of the rooms just in case. Mal started panicking just a little when she couldn't find him in the next 10 minutes. She went out on the balcony again praying to God that Evie was home and he was with her.

The blond walked in front of the glass door that led to Evie's living room [unlike hers, which lead to her bedroom]. Mal knocked carefully on the glass door, hoping to be enough. When there was no reply, she realized that it would be best if she went and rang the bell instead. She was so worried that she didn't even remember walking to Evie's front door and clicking multiple times on the doorbell.

Finally, Evie opened the door with a smile on her face and a greeting pouring from her lips, which fast died down when she noticed Mal's worried expression.

"Mal, what's wrong?" Evie asked when Mal sighed in relief.

"Is Ben with you? I couldn't find him anywhere! I searched my whole apartment and- and he wasn't on the balcony and the door was slightly open so I thought-"

"M, slow down," the taller woman interrupted her and put her hands on Mal's shoulders in a calming manner. Mal felt the tension leaving her body for a second.

"Ben is in my living room, he is fine," Evie started explaining, moving from the door to guide Mal into her apartment. The blond sighed in relief upon seeing her furry cat in the lap of an unknown man with long hair and a beanie.

"Jay, this is Mal, Ben's her cat," introduced Evie, smiling at how cute little Ben was in Jay's lap.

Jay tore his eyes from the cat and looked at Mal with a small smile on his lips.

"He is the cutest little buddy," Jay said. "Right buddy, right?" he said with a more childish voice and rubbed the cat's head. Ben would purr and seek his attention more.

"Ben walked into my apartment again, I tried contacting you but you weren't home so I let him stay with me until you come home," Evie explained the situation and made her best to calm the shorter woman.

"Thank God, I thought he jumped out of the balcony. I am so so sorry that he found his way here. I swear to God he has found a way to push the balcony door open! I need to fix that," the blond said worriedly.

"Is that what you are doing? Scaring the shit out of your momma, you little bad guy," Jay spoke to the cat again after hearing the whole story. "It is nice finally meeting you, Evie wouldn't shut up about you," he added after looking at Mal.

Evie sent him a glare and a warning "Jay", feeling embarrassed that her best friend would give her away like that. Mal felt flattered and more at ease at his comment, she went to sit next to him on the couch. Mal wondered if this was one of Evie's one-night stands as well, but they looked close so she decided to force herself to stop such thoughts.

"Good things, I bet," the blond remarked with a smile on her face when Ben went to her and cuddled on her lap.

"Traitor," Jay added, addressing the cat's actions but smiling nevertheless.

"E, you have changed your bathroom curtain? I thought you said you will take it down when it breaks?" a white-haired boy emerged from the corridor into the living room.

He stopped next to Evie with a surprised expression at the new addition on the couch.

"Yeah, Ben tore it down, but I thought it is best to fix it at this time," the taller woman explained and picked up a cup from the coffee table in front of the couch. "This is Mal, by the way," she added after taking a sip from the cup.

"Oh, the neighbor with the cat," stated the freckled boy and smiled sweetly. "Name's Carlos, pleasure to meet you,"

"I feel famous already," Mal laughed.

The four of them would talk for a while and Mal learned that in fact, the two men were Evie's best friends. Carlos was a vet and praised Mal that she was taking such good care of Ben. Jay was a professional athlete which made Mal feel ashamed she has never heard of him. He assured her that he was famous in a new sport that he tried to explain but it was too complicated for Mal to understand.

The blond-haired woman was so fascinated how these three so different people would have gotten to know each other. Of course, as with every good story, it all started in high school. Carlos eagerly started explaining how they all met.

"I was a freshman and like any other small boy, I was an object of bullying," started the story, Carlos. "They would make fun of my hair, my clothes. I was a nerd and liked to build random stuff of everyday materials,"

Mal didn't want to make the boy uncomfortable, but he insisted on telling the whole story since it was his favorite.

"One day, things got so out of hand and these guys caught me and started punching me. That is when I met Jay," Carlos smiled while looking at the man next to him.

"I couldn't just stare at how they beat him for no reason so I stepped in and fought them off," Jay proudly added.

"Teachers didn't see it that way and both me and Jay got detention for starting a fight. Ugh," Carlos rolled his eyes still annoyed with the situation.

"That is where we met with our beloved Evie," Jay smirked at Evie. Mal was surprised by that information. There was more to Evie after all.

"Oh my, what did you do to get to detention?" Mal asked, amused by the other woman. Evie laughed and started explaining.

"One of the teachers called my mom because she saw me leaving the men's bathroom so I went and painted her whole cabinet with graffiti," everything was quiet for a few seconds before all of them burst into laughter.

"I can't even imagine that. Bad girl Evie," Mal said amused, and drank from her glass of water.

"We were a pretty evil little group back then," Jay said nostalgically, thinking about the old days and how much they have changed.

"Did I mention that Evie was with blue hair after that because her mother grounded her?" the smaller boy remarked. "Quite the rebel girl she was,"

"Blue hair? I would love to see that," Mal replied looking at Evie playfully.

"Yeah, you haven't met my mother. I made sure she has a hard time as much as I did back then."

"I understand that. I had a similar experience with my mother when I dyed mine purple," Evie's eyes sparked with excitement upon the new information.

"Purple hair would look so good on you though!"

The four of them continued talking about past experiences and silly incidents.

Mal learned that Jay and Carlos have been together since their last year at school and are going strong. They were living together and were thinking about what their next step will be. Carlos blushed the whole time they were sharing their journey.

Evie loved her friends and Mal felt that she might have fallen in love with them too. She has never imagined that meeting someone can be so refreshing. They could talk for hours with such an ease that made Mal question if she has ever met so unique people in her life. She hoped they could play a big part in her future.

Something was telling her this won't be the last time she would be seeing them all together.

a/n:

heyo, first off, sorry if this story sucks so far dkfaskfsdkfj i swear, it is so different not leaving a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter but we will get there, i promise.i forgot to mention many times before that the title is from dove's song "bloodshot" in case

 anyone was wondering [sadly this song is not up anymore]. this story is majorly inspired from that song and sofia's "gray area", in case anyone was wondering [prob no one but imma say my shit].

and lastly, if anyone is listening to music while reading i have a playlist with songs that have inspired me to write this story that you can listen here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ooKdJSKJpJmEyX9mAXnIc?si=f5dc4278741841b8

[yes, i am aware you can copy this links in wattpad, just hit my dms for the link or something]