I don't wanna spend the night alone
Yes, I need you and I need to
Make it on my own but
I don't wanna grow up
We can stay forever young

-Stay, Alessia Cara, Zedd

07| Evelyn

"How dare he takes me to a tattoo parlor? Who does he think he is? He is a narcissistic, rude, manner-less asshole, a bad guy. He is..he is, I am going to kill him, argh!" Evelyn thought to herself as she brushed her teeth at night before going to sleep.

"Why does he have insanely blue eyes? He doesn't deserve to look so good with them, argh, he needs to die." She said while brushing her teeth vigorously as if that was going to hurt Mason. That blue-eyed jerkface, how he looked at her tattoo, she remembered. As if Evelyn was in shits or she was going crazy.

Except for real, she was going crazy.

After Evelyn had gotten her tattoo,Mason was up next. He took off his shirt and settled on the bed. Ethan went on tattooing him. Evelyn tried hard not to look his way but anyways.

He actually had abs and also he looked kind of like a Greek God. It had been already a week but Evelyn could still remember the scene clear as water. This whole week Evelyn avoided Mason like a plague yet he sat right behind her in Maths and English Lit. He followed her almost everywhere, to the library, to the cafeteria. He did not say anything, but he always looked like he wanted to.

"No, he looked nowhere near a Greek god. I am just making up things. He is messing with my mind." Evelyn assured herself. Next she would look more closely to see if those abs really were what they looked like.

What am I thinking?

Something troublesome.

Exactly.

Evelyn shook her head again. As reality slowly sank in, she let out a sigh. Her mom called this week. Then she had a panic attack. She had somehow gotten herself even a tattoo. She looked at her forearm at the right side.

Gotta live.

No, it really was there. She had actually tattooed it.

Dad was not at home. He had vanished yesterday as always. As mom called, Evelyn knew this would happen. Now only God knew, after how many days her dad would be back at home.

Evelyn closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. She was tired. She needed to sleep. But she knew what awaited her. Still, she gave up herself to the nightmare.

Letting herself folded in the thin warm blankets, Evelyn drifted into sleep.

They were walking into the streets laughing for no reason at all. Evelyn laughed at his stupid jokes and he laughed back. He watched her silently taking in her every feature and Evelyn did the same. The sunlight fell upon them. His blonde hair looked bright. With his stormy grey eyes he looked like a prince all the time. Exactly how Evelyn pictured him. He was an angel falling on earth only and only for Evelyn.

Then Evelyn saw the swing. She was be very happy and excited. She said, "Hey, can you push me?"

He happily replied, "You want me to push?"

Before he could answer, Evelyn ran up to the swing and he followed. They laughed like they didn't care about anything, only them.

"Okay, then. I will push." He said and stood behind her.

And that's when the scene transformed. Evelyn ended up on the roof of the highest skyscraper she had ever seen and she had lived in New York, she had seen many.

"So, what do you say, I push?" He asked. He was not the one with blonde hair. He was someone else.

Evelyn looked down. She was so high up, if she fell, she knew it would be the end of it. Evelyn turned around shaking in fear.

Evelyn's angel stayed standing far away so Evelyn could not reach him.

"Please no, don't push me." She said with horror to the guy behind her.

"But you said to push." He smirked.

Evelyn looked at her Angel. He saw her but did not say anything. He kept watching her as the guy behind Evelyn pushed her down from the roof. He didn't protest, he didn't try to save her.

He did not try to stop her from being pushed. Not even for once.

Evelyn saw him for one last time before she got pushed. She fell and fell and kept falling. She knew this was only a nightmare. So she fought to get out of it. She tried harder to get out, to stop herself from falling. Yet, she felt the impact of falling, light, void and weightless. Her heart hammered inside her chest as she waited to touch the ground, to end this downfall.

Evelyn sat up with a start and panted heavily. She blinked a few times to adjust her eyes in the dark.

Evelyn looked around. The night had turned darker. A cold breeze was blowing. The weather of Fallholt was absolutely confusing, they had bright sunshine in the morning, then the sky got cloudy, and then again the night was cold. Through her window she could see the beaming moonlight falling inside her room, making it brighter.

She got up from the bed to fetch a glass of water. Then she saw it. First, she thought, she was hallucinating, but she looked at the thing harder.

It was there. A body was lying on the floor by the side of her bed.

Evelyn tensed up. She picked up the nearest thing she could find. A book.

"No, it's not gonna work." She whispered.

She picked up the perfume bottle from the table. It was made of glass, maybe it should work.

"Ouch, ouch," The body however had another idea. It sat up and Evelyn could not see its face. It was covered in a clown mask.

"Who kicks while sleeping? You broke my jaw, ouch." He said. The voice sounded disturbingly familiar.

"Wha- what are you doing here?" Evelyn put down the perfume bottle immediately and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I was only trying to scare you. God, take a chill pill." He said as he took the mask off.

Mason Stewart didn't look bad in the gleaming moonlight.

"What time is it? Is it when you play your usual prank on girls?" Evelyn spat out.

"Usual prank? I don't know what you are talking about. I have never done this before." Mason brushed a hand through his locks as if to tame them, "Whatever, I am hungry. Do you have something to eat?"

Mason stood up. He was quite tall but not too tall so Evelyn could still look at his eyes without looking up. His blue eyes looked bluer in the moon.

"It is dead at night and you sneak into my house, my bedroom and ask me if there's anything to eat? Are you drunk again?" She asked.

"No, I am completely absolutely utterly sober. And it's not really that dead at night. Only like 1 in the morning. I am just hungry that is why I am asking." Mason said.

"What do you think my dad is gonna say about this?" Evelyn said tapping her foot at the floor.

"Your dad is not at home," Mason replied.

"How do you know that?" Evelyn jerked up.

"I just, I just do." He said looking away from Evelyn.

Evelyn took a step forward to threaten him. He looked back at Evelyn.

"How. Do. You. Know. My. Dad. Is. Not. At. Home?" Evelyn demanded.

Evelyn could see his Adam's apple bobbing. He slowly said, "I saw him getting out of the street with your car so I knew."

"How did you know that's my car and what were you doing here then?" She narrowed her eyes.

"I saw it from the other day, an old model of Volkswagen, right? Your dad must have a good taste in cars." He said coolly.

"Don't try to change the subject. What were you doing here? As long as I can remember, your house is totally the opposite way from here." She raised her eyebrow.

"I was sightseeing. Yes, sightseeing." Mason said scratching the back of his head.

Evelyn knew something was up with him. He wasn't obviously telling the truth.

"Now, you are gonna give me something to eat or not? I just came from the garage and I am all worked up. I am dying of hunger." He said and walked past Evelyn and unlocked the bedroom door.

"Mason! How did you get inside?" Evelyn asked with her eyes wider and Mason had already started climbing down the stairs. Evelyn followed him hurriedly.

"Hey Mason, how did you get into my room?" She said as she saw Mason opening the fridge and bringing out the leftover pizza slices. Evelyn had ordered a pizza in the evening but thanks to the stomach knots she only ate two slices.

"Next time you sleep, don't forget to close the windows." He said while shoving a slice of pizza in his mouth. He must be really hungry to eat frozen pizza like that.

"Mason, why are you doing this?" Evelyn said as she sat down on one of the chairs of the dining table. Mason had already settled himself in one.

"I am doing what?" He asked looking as innocent as he possibly could.

"You are sneaking up on me. Aren't you? You have been following me the whole week. You know there is something wrong with me, you saw me crying and you saw the tattoo and you thought I might be in a danger zone. So you are sneaking up on me." Evelyn said looking down at her fingers. Then she slowly looked up. His blue eyes rested on hers. But he was looking through her, thinking something.

"No," Mason smirked. "I was not sneaking up on you. I only wanted to scare the hell out of you because you dented my car." He took another slice.

Hearing that, Evelyn felt stupid and embarrassed.

What was I even thinking? Why he would even think of me like that? He didn't know me and he didn't care.

"But Evelyn, I am no one to save you. If you don't want to get out of that danger zone you are in, who the heck I am to save you? I am no knight in shining armor." He said looking down at the pizza.

The blood rose to Evelyn's cheek for no reason at all. "Exactly. You can't save me. I don't want anyone to save me."

"My question is, do you want to save yourself at all?" Mason asked. Evelyn could see a flash of emotion in his eyes. She was not sure what it was

She held up her hand to show him the tattoo. "In case, I forget, I got it tattooed." She smiled at it.

"Isn't it cool?" Evelyn asked him but he kept silent. He rose from his chair and took the empty plate to sink. The air hung between them, heavy and filled with unknown emotions.

Evelyn watched him. He looked so calm and careless. The way he moved around, it was as if he owned the place and Evelyn was the outsider.

"If you are done killing your hunger, you can go home now. It is late at night if you haven't noticed and I want to sleep."

"Nah, actually, I can't," Mason said as he came forward at the dining table.

"What do you mean, you can't?" Evelyn crossed her arms.

"I said, I can't, Carolina has gotten herself a date. I don't want to disturb her." He said as he went around the living room.

"You are not serious. You are not planning to sleep here, are you?" Evelyn said as she followed him.

The TV was switched on and a movie showed up. It was some weird horror movie Evelyn had never seen before.

Mason settled himself comfortably on the couch before the TV. One look at him and Evelyn knew he was not going to move for the next few hours. She groaned loudly.

"What, why, at my house, why?" Evelyn said with her hands on her hip blocking Mason's view of the TV.

"Oh, can't you just go and sleep? Please, you are blocking my view. Move a bit. Thank you. And oh, I am nice down here. You don't have to worry about me. I will be fine sleeping on the couch." Mason said as he watched the movie with pure attention.

There were some zombies on the screen walking on a deadly street eating people"s brain. How Evelyn wished they were here to eat his brain.

"So you are staying the night here?" Evelyn asked for one last time and he didn't bother to reply. Groaning again, she climbed upstairs. Reaching her bed, she nestled up in her blanket and closed her eyes.

What am I doing? there is a guy downstairs. Not just any guy, Mason Stewart.

Evelyn sat upright in a second. She wondered if she was having a dream. She looked down at the floor and saw the mask. No, it was definitely not a dream.

She heard a distinct sound of laughter from downstairs. It was Mason's laugh of course. He was crazy if he thought horror movies were funny.

Evelyn slowly set her foot on the floor. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep with Mason under one roof with her. So she was going to check on him instead.

She climbed downstairs and found Mason lying on the couch watching TV. When he saw her, he sat up.

"Hey," Mason gave a small wave and went back to the movie.

"You don't have to sit up, you can lie down you know," Evelyn said as she sat on one of the recliners.

"Is Evelyn Reyes is telling me to lie down? What is she thinking? What are her intentions?" Mason said stroking his chin, trying to look thoughtful.

"My intention is to murder you with my sharpest knife when you close your eyes to sleep." She replied.

"Then, I guess, I am going to skip sleeping." He smirked.

"You are a jerk, you know that?" Mason smiled in reply. He had a small dimple on his right cheek.

Evelyn realized it was the first time she had ever seen him smile.

"Nobody has ever called me that before." His words brought up the memory of Saturday night when Mason called her trouble. It was unusual. Nobody had ever called Evelyn trouble before.

They looked at each other as the seconds ticked by. Finally, Evelyn looked away, but she could feel his eyes on her.

The situation was so surreal, it made Evelyn's stomach tighten.

Life is weird sometimes or maybe all the time.

• • •
Edited.