The Bad Girl and the Good Boy

by Karla Luna

  I chuckled and walked in. “Hey, hey now, Ethan. We’re only here to do some business.” I crossed my arms over my chest and looked around the apartment. “Nice place you got here. Got any fried chicken?”

  Ethan gulped and slowly shook his head. I faked a smile and crouched down in front of him, seeing him shake at my proximity. Then, I placed my hand on his chin and made him look directly at my blue eyes, which probably looked scary as I was glaring into his.

  “Shame… that’s a really horrible shame. I, personally, would forgive anyone with fried chicken in their hands. Oh, but for you,” I laughed and stood up, starting to pace back and forth, “… that ain’t gonna happen now, is it?”

  “I… w-what do you want?” he asked as he started to slide back and away from us. He looked at Darrel and Ian behind me and frowned. “Who are they?”

  “You’ve met me. Don’t you remember?” Darrel asked. “When we sneaked into school to follow Davne and… Oh, shoot!” He covered his mouth once Ian turned to glare at him. “You weren’t supposed to know that, Evelyn. But we did get ice cream and it was goooood.”

  I just stared at him and let that go for now. “You will explain that later. But for now…” I looked back at Ethan and gestured at the two goofs that were considered bad boys around here, “Ethan, I would like you to meet my gang back from Virginia. Oh, but don’t worry! They do no harm.” Ethan seemed to go pale as he heard the word ‘gang’, and he tried pressing himself against the wall, probably hoping he could disappear. “Dare, Ian, show him what nice guys you are.”

  That’s how Ethan ended up with his hands taped together in front of him, along with his ankles. He stayed on the ground, but Darrel stayed seated with him to keep him in place, and Ian stayed standing very casually next to them.

  I was the one asking the questions, they were the ones who were going to do something… if he didn’t talk.

  “S-seriously, w-what do y-you want?” Ethan stuttered as he glared up at me.

  “I didn’t know you stuttered just as much as Zavier, Ethan boy. Do you remember Zavier? Zavier Coin, one of your best friends? What about Jesse? Jesse’s an awesome dude.”

  “He is, he really is,” Darrel said with a cheeky smile as he played with Ethan’s soft brown hair.

  “Don’t act gay again, dude,” Ian told him as he rested the bottom of one boot on the wall behind him.

  “Now, my teddy bear says you’re acting strange and he’s so sure something’s going on with you. I just want to know why or what it is that’s making you like this. If you’re this nervous… Ian, what happened when we’ve dealt with nervous people before?”

  He smirked. “Oh… that. They tend to lie. Or try to lie to us, when we know something’s up. Buddy, if you’re nervous, something huge is occupying that mind of yours. You should be scared instead about what we could do to you, instead of nervously covering up your lie. So for your sake, speak now – or it won’t be pretty.”

  “Great way to put it,” I said as I looked at Ethan. “So?”

  He pressed his lips together and moved his head away from Darrel. And if you moved away from Darrel, he gets a little mad. But I held my hand up as a sign to tell him not to do anything.

  “I liked Jesse, okay,” Ethan said very quickly.

  I just stared at him, not really in shock – more like surprise – since I didn’t expect him to tell me that. Some guys had their guy crushes, and that was fine. Normal. But Ethan here… he had more to hide.

  “No, no, there’s something else to it. Don’t lie to me.”

  “I’m not lying,” he said as he squirmed around. “Just a tiny little crush and that was it. I’m not in love with the guy.”

  “That’s practically two strikes, ain’t it, Eve?” Ian asked, casually looking at the rings in his hands. He wore them all the time, and each meant something to him. The one he was currently playing with was the one he touched whenever he felt irritated or frustrated.

  Ethan was already irritating these two the way no one should ever irritate them.

  “Third strike is pretty scary,” I simply said. It’s where Drake would’ve come in, but since he wasn’t here, it was going to be me.

  Honestly, I wouldn’t hurt this guy too much. Hopefully, scaring him enough would lead him to say something – or so I hoped.

  Ethan breathed heavily and clenched his jaw. “Fine. It has to do with me, Zavier, and Davne.” So we’re starting with that… And at the mention of those two names, I grew even more curious as to what was up. Ethan here had a little secret and that much was clear when I slammed his door open, surprising the motherfucker.

  I raised my eyebrows at him to continue.

  “I-it was when we were all little, barely in grade school.”

  We all stayed quiet and looked at him, waiting for him to continue. He was breathing hard and looking down, giving us the look that said it all – fear, anger, and possibly guilt. Guilt... That was the most important one to me.

  “I… it was j-just some s-stupid lemonade stand my mom and I decided to do. Because we lived right in front of the park, the kids would come over, right? D-davne, he had a sister and she was younger than us. She… was with us. I mean, she was with me, and she had a big purple ball with her. I-I was left alone with her, so I guess I was supposed to be looking after her until my mom returned for some more lemonade, back inside the h-house.”

  My heart was sort of getting quicker by the second as I wanted to know what had happened. Ethan had paused to breathe to at least stop some of his stuttering, but he soon continued.

  “S-so I was with her, but I turned away for a single s-second. And when I looked at her again, she was… Okay, she dropped her ball somehow, and it rolled a-all the way to the middle of the road. She ran right for it, and I didn’t stop her. I just looked. I-I-I didn’t yell, didn’t run to save her, nothing.” He put his hand over his face. “She… got run over and got killed.”

  He pressed his lips together and looked up at me. I saw the tears in his eyes as he faked a smile up at me. “Simple as that.”

  I just nodded and thought it over a little.

  She was just an innocent little girl, who shouldn’t have even crossed the street by herself in the first place. Or even be alone for that matter. Davne should’ve at least been with her, but it didn’t seem like he was.

  “What happened then?”

  “I ran. I just ran out of there and hid. But everyone was looking over the accident and the ambulance and I… I overheard Davne talking to some random lady there with her kid. Davne asked her, he was very angry but also very sad, ‘Was she with anyone? Was anyone looking after her before this happened?’ And she responded with, ‘I think this kid at the lemonade stand. He was the only person I saw her with.’”

  Ethan licked his upper lip and moved his head up to look at the ceiling. Possibly to stop his tears from flowing down, but I had no pity for him at all. “Since I was hiding, he didn’t see me. But perfect timing, there was one kid by that lemonade stand when Davne came to look, covering his face from how scared he was by...”

  My teddy bear…

  “I-I had no idea he was there, or why. But from then on, Davne made sure to make his life miserable. He thought he let his little sister die. But Zavier was just an innocent kid and I know he would’ve ran for her and tried to s-save her, if he was in my p-place. But I was the idiot, and I was the wimp and the horrible kid. Zavier never knew any of this…”

  He was cut off when we heard the door burst open.

  In came Zavier himself, and when he saw us all, he looked worried and concerned by the look on all of our faces. “Evelyn, what are you doing to him? I told you…”

  “Come here, teddy bear,” I said in a serious tone, making him frown. But he came over to stand next to me anyway, looking down at Ethan who seemed about ready to cry and let it all out.

  “Evelyn, look at him. I understand this is what you guys did, or do, but please… please just let him go. He doesn’t deserve thi
s…”

  I ignored that and looked at Ethan. “Well, go on. Tell him what you just told me.”

  Ethan looked down and Zavier just stared at him in confusion.

  “Tell him,” I demanded.

  “Ethan, what’s she talking about?”

  “He has something to tell you, Zavier. Just listen.”

  Calm Zavier was no more after he found out everything. He seemed like he wanted to punch everything but he was majorly shocked at the same time. Just like we all were.

  I thought he would forgive and forget, like Zavier Coin would, because he was just that nice. But that wasn’t who he was at that moment.

  Like those other times, he laughed but I knew just how angry he was on the inside, considering how he immediately stopped and looked as scary as hell.

  “I can’t believe you,” he said in a serious tone, clenching his fists as he stared down at Ethan.

  “Zavier, you don’t know how scared I was.” He couldn’t even make eye contact with him anymore. He felt ashamed and extremely guilty. But it’s been years and I’m sure that if I hadn’t come over here, he would’ve kept it to himself for the rest of his life. “And Evelyn is bad, too,” he added in desperation.

  I raised my eyebrows and watched him nervously speak out.

  “I just… thought she’d turn you into a bad person like Davne. And then, I was afraid of you finding this out. Even worse, I was afraid of her finding out.”

  “My girlfriend would never turn me into someone like him, and I know it,” Zavier snapped back at Ethan. He looked up at us, surprised at the news but Zavier was more concerned about something else. “You never even told me. Ethan, he almost beat me to death and you never even gave me the courtesy of telling me the truth. You should’ve told me, at least. I would’ve helped!”

  “I’m so sorr—”

  “Apologies don’t get you anywhere once it’s already been done after so long,” Ian said. And it was true. For some, they may let it go. But it doesn’t seem like Zavier was forgiving him any time soon… or ever, for that matter.

  “Know what,” Zavier laughed again and then turned serious as he started walking away, “don’t even talk to me. Don’t even come near me. I just... I’m done with you.”

  “She’s already turning you. From day one, she’s changed you into a horrible person like her!” Ethan yelled out, making Zavier stop in his tracks and turn back around. He stared at him as if he didn’t believe what he just heard. Then, he crouched down in front of Ethan and stared at him.

  “You say one thing, one single bad thing about her, I swear I will hurt you.”

  “The real Zavier would never threaten his best friend like this.”

  Zavier chuckled without humor. “Yeah, well, some best friend you are! You let some guy almost beat me to death just to save your own skin. So no, I’m not going to let some former ‘best friend’ of mine insult the girl I love. I haven’t changed, Ethan. It’s people like you that made me this way.” He stood back up and resumed walking away. “I’ve just been hiding this side of myself this whole time.”

  • Zavier •

  I lay in my bedroom alone after the incident with Ethan, just thinking things through since it felt like such a long day already.

  Ethan, one of my long-time best friends, has been lying to me all these years. Or just didn’t say anything to me. Whichever worked best in this situation. I didn’t even care, really.

  He just… he really just watched from the sidelines as Davne beat me up? He never said anything, and that was probably what hurt the most. I didn’t know anything, and I didn’t know why Davne always hated me so much. He just hated me so much that he almost killed me and as a result, I began to have these panic attacks.

  I thought it was because he hated seeing people happy. Or because he simply hated ‘nice’ people like me. But I never thought it was because of this. I never even knew he had a sister until that day we followed him to school.

  The day of the accident, I felt sorry for the poor girl. If Davne was really a good big brother, he would’ve been looking after her. But he clearly wasn’t. So this was partly his fault as well and it made me furious that he blamed me.

  I hated Davne.

  I hated Ethan.

  I just hated it all.

  It wasn’t my fault that Davne’s sister died, and he just assumed it was. I know he still had a plan from that day we all followed him, and I still wanted to find out, even if it was far too dangerous. Maybe because it may or may not involve Evelyn. And I was willing to do anything to keep my girl safe.

  I didn’t move my eyes away from the ceiling when I sensed her come in. And I certainly didn’t say anything.

  But luckily, she talked first. So I just stayed lying down on my bed, my arms crossed behind my head.

  “Darrel and I stayed a little while longer with Ethan,” Evelyn began.

  Even the name sickened me. I don’t know, maybe I was exaggerating, but wasn’t this the reason Davne was here? After us? Could this also possibly be one of the reasons he practically became ‘the bad boy’? “And Dare told me about you guys breaking into the school and following Davne,” Evelyn continued as she walked farther in, locking the door behind her.

  Dammit. She wasn’t supposed to know about that. Clearly, I didn’t want her to know. I didn’t want her to know anything about it for many different reasons.

  “Oh, and Ethan was apparently there. So that’s where he and Darrel met. He just appeared out of nowhere. He said that Jesse called before the plan was made and so he followed you guys into the school.”

  I almost scoffed. Probably a lie.

  “And teddy bear,” Evelyn sniffed and came over to sit next to me. I looked at her this time and she caressed my cheek, helping me calm down. “I don’t want you doing dangerous things like following Davne around. It’s stupid and I don’t want you getting hurt. It’s okay. We’ll get rid of him soon enough. Just please…”

  All I did was stare at her and give her a small smile. Then, I took her hand and kissed it. It was almost as if her eyes seemed to glow whenever I did that.

  I was going to deal with Davne myself – since he still hurt my girl. But I actually had a heart. So I’ve decided I wasn’t telling Davne that Ethan was the one that let his sister die. Because I just wasn’t like that. And he probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. I was sure of it.

  I could care less about getting hurt, but he was definitely not going to get away with hurting Evelyn.

  I was going to get him when I could. I didn’t care about anything else.

  I didn’t care.

  43: All Are Virgins

  • Zavier •

  My mother still hadn’t talked to us and I felt a little bit scared about what exactly she might be thinking. And her being a professional in therapy and psychology… well, she knew quite a lot of things. I just didn’t know what she could possibly be thinking or even planning in that head of hers.

  But no matter what, I was going to stay with Evelyn. I love her and she loves me. I wouldn’t want my mother breaking us up or something. So I was really hoping she wasn’t going to do anything crazy like send her away.

  I’d be absolutely heartbroken.

  Due to us having a few snow days (obviously meaning no school), I’ve been staying in my room all day, not eating, and just thinking about everything that went down the other day. I did love Evelyn, but she knew I needed time to myself so she left me alone, only knocking on my door a few times to check if I was okay. She even chose to respect my decision to lock my doors and didn’t pick the lock.

  I knew I needed to at least go out or something, but I think it was best to calm myself down first. Jesse had come over a few times, staying outside my door to ask me stuff or say something ordinary – or rant like the guy he was. But I never replied or said much.

  Evelyn had filled him in and he felt like ripping Ethan’s throat out when he found out. I guess hanging out with these people (aka Evelyn, Ian and Darrel)
made us a bit violent. But actually doing something would be far too much. I mean I had perfect angle. I could’ve easily punched Ethan or something, but I didn’t. Because I knew it wasn’t right. So in the end, I decided to just walk away from him.

  I was allowed to be angry though. I came to the realization that he just probably felt scared and guilty. He was just a kid – we were all kids then. But still, he only thought of himself. If I were in his place, I would’ve own up to it and say it was my entire fault. Then, I’d still get the same beating – nothing new there. But at least, I would’ve deserved it.

  Groaning, I decided to get up and look for a clean shirt. I had been shirtless the whole time, only wearing my sweatpants and socks. My stomach was growling, wanting to be fed – and I felt stupid I turned down all of the food that Evelyn had brought up to me.

  She was really sweet with me, and it made me feel special. If it were anyone else, she would’ve eaten the food. But she never did with mine, I think.

  “Dammit,” I muttered as I kept looking around for a clean shirt. There seemed to be none around and I didn’t want to dig into my drawers or closet for one. So I decided, to hell with it. This is my house. It’s okay to be walking around shirtless.

  I touched my messy dark hair with my right hand and pushed my glasses up as I opened my bedroom door and started to walk down the hall. I was about to knock on Evelyn’s door to at least greet her and thank her for what she’s done, but when I heard the shower turn on, I knew she’d just be about to take a shower. So I just sighed and started to walk downstairs instead.

  To my surprise, Ian and Darrel were there, sitting on the couch as if this was their own home.

  Didn’t they get an apartment already?

  I wanted to walk past them, pretending I didn’t even see them. But instead, I heard them talking, and the first thing I heard wasn’t quite a pleasant topic… so to speak.