"The world's a little blurry..

..or maybe it's my eyes?"

...  

School bell clancked through the hallway, allowing all the students to find their ways out of the classrooms as I stayed in my place, glancing at the teacher who's been gathering some assignment papers.

Should I go talk to him?

I'm worried that I might mess up everything.

He might think I'm crazy or mentally ill.

Maybe if I gave him the hint that my situation is very complicated and serious he might actually feel that I'm not just playing around.

I'm gonna do it.

I've got nothing to lose.
I already lost everything.

I pulled the courage to advance as I stood in front of him, receiving no observation.

"Ahem-.." I slightly coughed getting his attention.

"Yes, Miss Evelyn?" he nodded looking down, still collecting papers.

This man is so formal. I hate it.

"Evelyn, just Evelyn." I clarified.

He disturbingly looked at me as he stopped what he was doing. "Yes, Evelyn?" he sighed as a hint of impatience.

"I have something that I need to tell you" I muttered.

"I'm kind of busy now, maybe later?" he unconcernedly continued checking the assignments.

"But it's something seriously urgent." I spookily whispered, receiving his attention again.

"How?" he questioned with confusion.

"It's a matter of life or death." I whispered dramatically and he actually fell for it as I saw his eyes widen.

"Say no more," he paused wandering the whole classroom as he checked that no one was there but the two of us.

He then picked up a paper note, writing on it his address, "Meet me at six pm." he whispered, so invested. "Don't tell anyone that you're coming at my place." he added.

I uneasily nodded and took his address, receiving a shoulder pat from him. He grabbed his work bag and left the classroom.

Did he just invite me to a one night stand or what?

Or is he an FBI agent who secretly wants to interrogate me?

Or maybe he's a murderer who found the opportunity to kidnap me, murder me and he took it.

Whatsoever, I'm not going to this man's house alone, or at all.

I don't know what he might be capable of.

...

As I walked my way to the Cafeteria, I encountered Liam who was about to pump into me but I managed to shrink from.

"Yo, Evelyn." he uttered as I sighed at him.

"Sup." I said, scratching the back of my neck.

"How've you been doing since the coma?" he grilled, desperately wanting to hear me say that I've been in deep shit without him.

"Uh... Never been better!" I bluffed.

I don't want him to know how I actually felt, or what I was suffering from. If he did, he won't stop laughing at me because he's always thought that I'm always wrong and that I have no control over my life.

"Really? That's great to hear!" he chortled as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders. Muttering to my ears, "Why didn't you allow me to drive you this morning, though?"

"Because you're not my boyfriend, nor my friend." I outlined as he looked at me with a frustrating look.

He stopped walking and he fixed his gaze on me, I didn't bother to notice him anyway.

He then ran to me as he paused me with his tough hands on my shoulders. "But what am I to you?" he pathetically asked, and I surprisingly let out q chuckle.

I waited for him to give up and just leave me alone, but he stayed fixed, looking for answers. "You're just an Ex boyfriend, Liam." I stated as his mouth was left opened and his light brown eyes were widened in shock.

"What about our childhood memories?" He inquired with a pout. "Did you forget all of that?"

I stared at him, not believing how was he just about to victimize himself. "What you did to me was more than enough to let go of all these things we did together." I boldly stated to him as he defeatedly sighed.

"But I said that I'm sorry, million times actually." he declared as he received a sarcastic chuckle from me. "What?!" he asked with confusion.

"You can apologize as much as you want. Million times, Billion times, Trillion times." I argued. "Still, it won't take back the scars you mentally gave me." I concluded and gave him a disgusted glance.

As I made my way out, I heard him behind, begging for me to forgive him, but I didn't care to look back.

I then entered the Cafeteria, I found Emma sitting with the rest as she waved at me to come and sit with them.

"So, Olivia told me that you all have a double date tonight." she smirked.

Yeah, you mean the one I wont be attending.

"Yes! I honestly can't wait for it!" I faked a giggle.

"We can go shopping after school to buy new outfits! What do you think?" Olivia asked with eyes full of excitement.

"I can't, told you I'm grounded." I mentioned, narrowing my eyes.

"Oh, come on Eve, we can sneak out from school right now!" she whispered waiting for a response.

"I don't like sneaking out and you know it!" I frowned.

"But you snuck multiple times before!" she blurted as the rest of them hushed her, realizing that what she said wasn't supposed to be spitted.

But they were too late.

"Emma meant that you had the chance to sneak out multiple times before and now it's time to take the step." Mia said, covering the front of her throat.

I'm just so surprised of how everyone was lying to me without realizing that I'm more than smart enough to figure it out.

I understand people's actions clearly and I can read your mind with just one gesture. It's my primitiveness. I've also learned a lot about body language.

So from what I feel, is that someone behind all of that planned to use my friends as a distraction for me to not focus much on the past.

Just like Olivia set up a date for me, it was because they want to get me distracted with another man so that I would easily forget about my relationship with Mikhail.

Gradually, they're going to plan on making him fade away from my life, as if he was never there. It hurts me to think of it. Why would they?

"I won't be sneaking out anywhere, and I won't go to that stupid double date!" I angrily said as I bogged off, not giving them a chance to negotiate.

That was an inconsiderate thing to do from a smart person but my blood was boiling in rage. I had to.

...

Three hours passed since I came back from school, I did my assignments, I practiced violin and painted. I had nothing else to do but think about the possibilities of going to the adress that Mr. Ethan gave me.

Why would he tell me to keep meeting him a secret if he wasn't going to do something bad? In fact, I was the one who was supposed to tell him that. It's odd.

I badly wanted to go. I wanted to know what would happen if I did and what would if I didn't. At the same time, I was afraid of taking the risk because something felt wrong.

The night was spiritless and boring, I glanced at the clock to find it almost seven pm.

What else to do except for sneaking out and secretly going to your teacher's house?

I gave it a shot as I arrived and stood in front of his house. The street was colorful with tall trees and fascinating buildings with an unexpected ocean view.

I carefully rang the door as I checked on the small blade knife I grabbed from the kitchen, making sure it was still there in my bag.

I had no other choice, no one knows what might happen the moment I enter that house.

"Who?" A voice of a broke man buzzed from inside, making me flinch.

"The freaking FBI, god just open the damn door you old man." I irritatingly yelled, he recognized my voice as I heard multiple locks getting unlocked and the door went open.

I found him wearing a very old styled pair of pyjamas, holding in his hand a cup of coffee as he disappointedly looked at me. "It's eight pm, do you know that?" he pointed at his watch. "You're very late." he glared.

This man can't be a murderer nor an FBI agent. He's just an awkward nerd on his regular daily night routine.

"I wasn't planning on coming in the first place." I said as he gestured me to come in with an annoying sigh.

Once I entered, he got out to check if there was anyone who saw me entering his house.

He let out a breath as he told me to quietly follow him down stairs, it was completely dark but he lightened the way with a candle, like an old scout boy.

I slowly grabbed the knife from my bag, trembling with fear and smelling rust.

Wait, rust?

We finally entered the room as I found a very large area full of metals, copper, wires and a lot of other things. It was a invention laboratory that he secretly built.

Neither an agent nor a murderer,
but a contriver. How ironic.

I slightly gasped covering my mouth as I jumped in surprise. "No freaking way!" I yelled, "You're a secret contriver?" I inquired as he responded with an unruffled chuckle.

"Nah, I just invent things in spare time." he explained and calmly sat on the couch, sipping on his coffee.

Is he serious?

"Are you kidding me?! Spare time?" I folded my arms at him with a brow raise, "You could literally be a famous inventor with these cool inventions!" I stated in disbelief.

"Believe me, I tried-.. but no one was interested in my inventions, not even the government." he discouragedly said as he again took a sip of his coffee, "They'd laugh at me and reject my intelligence every time I show them my inventions."

I totally became disgruntled and frowned, "Why would they do that?!" I reached to the opposite couch as I sat on it, staring at the man for an answer.

"They think that there's already a lot of inventors in the country and there won't be any need for other uninitiated ones." he clarified.

"Well, that's bullshit!" I stated with irritation as he finished his cup of coffee.

"It's just bad luck. I won't be telling anyone about my inventions again." he said, calmly placing down the cup on the table, "I'm done getting humiliated by others."

I looked at him with frustration as I stared at my hands noticing that I've been playing with my fingers.

I tiredly sighed as the teacher broke the silence. "You said you wanted to tell me something seriously urgent, what is it?" he questioned, receiving an embarrassing giggle from me.

...

As I provided all the details about my problems to him, I received a shocking stare as he jumped out of the couch.

"You made me introduce you to my dear secret laboratory, only for you to ask me for help on a childish teenage love triangle!" his voice was raised as his neck veins went throbbing.

"It's not a love triangle!" I got up, yelling at him as the knife accidentally fell down from my pocket, causing a loud metallic noise.

Well, that was out of the blue.

He surprisingly stared at it for a while as he reached down to pick it up. He then glared at me.

"I can explain-" I cowered as I took few steps backward.

"There's no other explanation except that you came here-...distracting me with a pointless story to kill me with fresh blood." he grumbled.

"That's not true!" I denied shrinking back from him.

"Why would a eighteen year old hold a knife in her pocket?" he snarled.

"I'm still seventeen actually-..." I clarified as he furiously interrupted me.

"You know how illegal you are right now?!" he argued, putting both hands on his hips.

I took a deep breath as I let it out, "How would I know what I was doing when you literally acted like a weird murderer back in school when you asked me to come over!" I awkwardly questioned. "You could be a pervert!"

"I thought you knew about my inventions and you wanted to imply an urgent detail on it!" he uttered.

"No, I didn't!" I said as I knitted my brows. "How would I even know?!"

"You seemed like you did!" he added with an angry gaze as we both went silent. He then calmed himself down as he pointed at the stairs for me to reach, "It's getting late now, please go."

I sighed with despair and I reached to him with puppy eyes, "Please, hear me out till the end, I need your help!" I muttered and he closed his eyes shut

"No I'm not, this is pointless" he said.

"Fine then, as soon as I get out, I'll tell everyone about your secret absurd laboratory." I said as I ambled to the stairs, flipping back my hair.

"Wait!" he rushed to me as he gently grabbed my shoulder. "If I approved to help you, how would I know that you won't scandal me?" he nervously asked, receiving a galling smirk from me.

"If I approved your help, how would I know that you won't tell my parents about it?" I inquired, crossing my arms over my chest as I raised one brow.

"I simply won't tell them." he mumbled, irritatingly looking down.

"Well, I simply won't scandal you." I stated as I offered him my hand to shake, "Deal?" I asked, and he took my hand.

"Alright." he said with a sigh, shaking my hand.

Honestly, I'm surprised till now that he thought my situation was childish, but not insanely impossible.

"Please, sit down." he gestured his hand at the couch as I followed him to sit down.

"So?" I rubbed both hands together, "How are we gonna solve the puzzle?" I asked.

He sighed with a hint of inspiration, "We will need to conspire that matter, in order to find answers." My eyes glowed at him as I excitedly waited for his next words, "But firstly, I need you to tell me how you met him. The guy who disappeared." he added.

"And why would you wanna know my love story?" I blinked in confusion.

"In addition to be conscious of why your parents are hiding his identity from you, we'll have to know every single detail about both your relationships first." he declared, and I cleared my throat with unease. "But for now, we'll start on how you both met."

"Well then," I hummed as I took a look at the phone's clock, "Get ready for a first mind blowing impression," I tilted my head. "Unless you're used to cry yourself to sleep."

———

[Caim] (n) : "sanctuary"; an invisible circle of protection, drawn around the body with the hand, that reminds you that you're still safe and loved, even in the darkest times.

...

Are y'all excited to know about their love story?!

How do y'all think they both met?

Don't forget to vote! xoxo.