February 19, 2010
6:30 a.m.
The Park

“Evalynne!” The sound of someone shouting my name and the feeling of someone shaking my body violently was what woke me up. My eyes fluttered open, and my slightly blurred vision became clearer. I was still exhausted, and in a bit of a daze, but the sight of my mom standing over me revitalized me.
“Mom?” I asked. I blinked a few times, realizing my surroundings. I was in the park, under the tree, leaning against Will. Immediately, I jolted upright and got to my feet. “Oh my gosh!” I cried. I had to have fallen asleep out here last night. How could I have possibly let that happen?
Suddenly, it all came back to me. Will and I had been sitting out here, talking laughing. I had began to grow extremely tired. Will and I had both leaned back against the large oak tree, and were sitting exceptionally close. I remembered staring out at the stars, yawning, my body growing weary, leaning in a bit closer to Will. And that was where the memory left off. I didn’t remember anything else past that point.
“What in the world are you doing out here?” she demanded. “And with a boy? Oh, you just wait till your father finds out about this!”
“Hey, I guess we fell asleep out here.” I heard Will say, his voice groggy. I turned my head to see him stretching his arms above his head as he rose to his feet. He blinked a few times when he saw my mom, clearly surprised. “What’s going on?” he asked, confused.
“Hello,” Mom said to him, her voice sharp. “I’m Evalynne’s mother, and I’m guessing you’re Will.” She contemptuously eyed the blonde streak in his hair, and then shot me a deathly glare.
“Uh, yeah, that’s me.” he replied.
“Well I’d like you to know that Evalynne will not be sneaking out with you anymore. And I’m going to tell your parents about this too. I really don’t feel very comfortable with you hanging out with my daughter.” she said to him.
My cheeks were burning with the blush that spread across them, and humiliated couldn’t even begin to describe how I felt at that moment.
“My dad told me that Evalynne’s my age, and I’m eighteen. So I’m guessing she’s eighteen, right?” he asked my mom.
“Um, yes, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.” she remarked.
“Well if she’s eighteen then she’s legally an adult, which means that she’s legal to do whatever she wants. And that includes sneaking out with me.” he told her.
Mom let out a terse gasp, taken aback that Will would speak to her in this manner. “Evalynne is my daughter, so I have every right to tell her what she can and cannot do!” she shot back.
“Actually, Mom, you can’t.” I stated, fed up with the way she babied me. “Like Will said, I’m eighteen. I’m an adult now, and I’m free to make my own decisions. You can’t keep telling me what to do all my life.”
She pursed her lips, clearly angry with Will for pointing this out. “Fine, if you’re an adult, then why are you still living with your father and I? Why don’t you move out and buy your own house then?”
I really didn’t feel like having this discussion with her in front of Will. Will might not have had a problem with arguing with his parents in front of other people, but I did. If my mom and were going to fight, I’d rather we do it in private, not with an audience.
“Don’t you have to get to work?” I demanded.
“Well, I’m already going to be late, considering I had to come looking for you. What’s gotten into you lately? First you disappear for an entire day without telling anyone, only for us to find out the next day that you flew to Michigan. And now you’re sneaking out at night and not coming back home. This behavior is not normal for you, Evalynne! You never used to act this way before!” she cried. “Do Ash and Lori have something to do with this? Because it seems like ever since the both of them passed away, you’ve become a completely different person.”
“No, Mom,” I remarked hastily. “And I’m not a different person either. You seem to think that before Ash and Lori died I was perfect or something. Well it turns out that I snuck out with Ash too. In fact, Lori caught us and got all furious. And remember when I broke into Ash’s house and almost got arrested? Remember when you found out that I lied to you about sleeping over at Kristy’s so that Cole and I could go spend the night in a hotel together? You know, the time when he tried to feel me up? So I’m not becoming another person, Mom. I was always this way.”
Her jaw dropped and her eyebrows raised in shock. “You’re right, you’re not perfect. And I never thought that you were. I just thought that maybe you’d learn from those mistakes that you made. I thought that by now, you’d be a little more mature than this.” she retorted, her voice thick with rage.
I bit my lip, feeling Will’s eyes on us. Did Mom seriously have to make me look bad in front of him?
“Whatever, I’m done talking about this.” I snapped. “Sorry Will, but I’ve got to go.” I said to him. Then I turned on my heel and stormed off. But about a third of the way home, I felt someone tap my shoulder.
I turned around to find Will standing there. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey, sorry about my mom. Apparently, she thinks I’m still a child.” I informed him, still irritated with my overprotective mother.
“No worries, my parents are the same exact way. Besides, this makes up for the fight I had with my mom and dad when you first met me.” he replied. He was so understanding of all of this. And I was so grateful for that.
“Yeah, I guess it does.” I responded with a weak smile.
“If it helps, I think last night was totally worth the fight you had with your mom.” he added with an impish grin. “Now I know all about your love life.”
I laughed lightly, “Ok, since I told you all about my love life, it’s only fair if you tell me all about yours.”
He shrugged nonchalantly, “Fair enough,” he said. “Well, throughout my whole life, I’ve had a total of three girlfriends. The first one was during freshman year. Her name was Gina, and we weren’t really that serious. We went out for about three months, then she decided that she wanted to see other people, so she broke it off. Yeah, I was upset for a couple days, but I moved on. My next one was during the end of sophomore year. Her name was Valerie, and we were pretty serious. We spent most of the summer between sophomore and junior year together, and lasted until the beginning of senior year.”
“What happened?” I wondered aloud.
“I found out that she’d been cheating on me with my best friend ever since the summer between junior and senior year started. I accidentally walked in on her and David, my best friend to find them kissing in her living room. I have to admit, I kind of went into a depression stage after that. It lasted for a couple of months too. But then I started hanging around with Vince, John, and Lacey. That’s kind of when I turned to the dark side. Or at least that’s how I put it. Before Val and I broke up, I’d never been the kind of guy I am today. I planned on going to college and becoming a doctor just like my parents wanted me to. But when Val and I broke up, something inside of me changed. I started listening to music a lot more, but this time, I really listened to it. I paid more attention to the lyrics, and I found songs that I could really connect to. Soon enough, music became a passion of mine, and I knew that I wanted to pursue a future in it. So Vince, John, Lacey, and I formed a band. Soon enough, Lacey told me she had feelings for me, so we started going out. Then my parents got all mad and decided that we had to move, so that I could start over and make something of myself.”
“Wow, I’m sorry.” I said to him sympathetically.
“Why are you sorry? You have nothing to apologize for.” he pointed out.
“Yeah, but what Valerie did to you was awful, and it obviously hurt you. I’m just sorry that you had to go through all of that.” I replied.
“Well if Val had never cheated on me, I’d probably never discovered how much I really love music. I’d never have discovered who I really am as a person. While I was dating Val, I was so head over heels for her, that I revolved my entire life around her. She wanted what was best for me, and she thought what was best was to become something like a doctor or lawyer. She was actually a lot like Michael and my parents. But after she was out of my life, I didn’t have that barrier holding me back anymore. And I realized that being a doctor wasn’t something that would satisfy me. I realized that what I really wanted was to become a musician.” he explained.
“Wow, you’re pretty positive about your breakup with her.” I commented. “I know that whenever I had a fight with Ash or Cole, I was anything but positive.”
“I guess that’s just because you aren’t as mature as I am.” he remarked jokingly.
I grinned at him, gazing into his deep brown eyes. They were warm and friendly just like him. “I’m mature.” I told him, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Fine, let’s say you’re mature.” he said. “If you’re immaturity isn’t the problem, then I guess it’s because you’re a drama queen.”
“Am not!” I cried, placing my hands on my hips.
“You so are!” he disputed.
“Whatever,” I muttered, turning away from him as if I were angry with him.
“Are you trying to act like you’re mad at me or something?” he asked. “Because if you are, then not only are you an immature drama queen, but a bad actress too.”
I turned back to face him, deadpanning him intensely. Or at least trying to. But as I tried to intensify my death stare even more, he began laughing. “Why are you laughing?” I demanded. “I’m mad at you right now! It’s not funny!”
“If you were actually mad, you wouldn’t be squinting at me like someone whose half-blind.” he retorted teasingly.
“You’re a real jerk, you know that?” I snapped.
He chuckled lightly, “Yep, I know.” I sighed, shaking my head, acting as if I were irritated with him. But it was pretty hard to keep this act up when I liked him so much. We just got along so greatly. It was so easy for me to hang out and talk with him.
“I’m hungry.” he stated.
“You’re also very random,” I replied.
He grinned widely, “Random’s my middle name.”
I laughed softly, “Will Random McKnight,” I announced.
“Yep, that sounds about right.” he said. “But seriously, I’m hungry. You up for some bagels and coffee?”
“Sure,” I replied, smiling at him.
“Cool,” he responded just as we reached our houses. “Get in,” he told me, motioning for me to climb into the passenger’s seat of his car. I got in, and plopped down on the smooth leather interior of the seat.
The car was a sleek black Volvo. It was shiny with not one traceable speck of dirt on it. And once I was inside, I couldn’t help but notice the small photo sitting on his dashboard. It looked kind of worn out, kind of like it had been picked up many times. The corners were beginning to yellow and fold in a little bit.
The photo was of a boy and a girl. I could tell that the boy was a slightly younger version of Will. He also sported a pine green Abercrombie sweater, and his hair was shorter and neatly parted to the side rather than spiky and messy. It also was completely brown. No blonde streak. He looked much different. A lot more preppy…but still hot.
And the girl in the picture was absolutely beautiful. She had long, glossy chestnut hair that fell down over her shoulders in undulating waves. Her eyes were a pale grayish blue, that really stood out since she had dark hair. She was probably the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. Well, her and Katrina.
In the picture, Will had his arm wrapped around her shoulder and their bodies were pressed together. The girl was laughing, and Will was grinning contently as he gazed into her eyes. She was looking right back up into his eyes, and had both of her arms wrapped around his waste. They both looked very happy together. And I knew by the look Will had in his eyes, that he loved her.
Will opened up his car door, making me jump. Immediately, I tore my gaze away from the picture, not wanting him to know I’d seen it for some reason. He sat down next to me in the driver’s seat and shut his door with an unintentional slam. “Ready to go?” he asked me.
I nodded, stealing one last glance at the picture when he was backing out of his driveway. I’d thought he wasn’t looking, but apparently, he’d seen me. Because when we were out on the street, he grabbed the picture off of the dashboard and stuck in his pocket, deliberately keeping his eyes fixed on the road. Deliberately not meeting my wondering eyes as I stared at him, baffled by what I’d just witnessed.