Foul Play

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Evelyn

It took me a while to settle in.

Not because nobody was talking to me.

Actually, people were. A little.

Someone asked where I was from. Another girl complimented my boots. A guy whose name I immediately forgot offered me a drink.

Everyone was perfectly polite. And somehow that made it worse.

Because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to relax.

I laughed when I was supposed to laugh. Smiled when I was supposed to smile. Nodded through conversations I barely heard.

it all felt strangely forced, like I was performing a version of myself instead of actually being her.

The truth was, I felt out of place.

And the more I thought about it, the harder it became to stop thinking about it.

Mia, of course, refused to let me stand still for more than thirty seconds.

One minute she was introducing me to people. The next she was dragging me toward the pool. Then the snack table. Then somewhere else entirely.

I was beginning to suspect she had made it her personal mission to make sure I interacted with every single person at Heathside before the night was over.

“Evelyn.”

I looked up.

Mia had already grabbed my wrist. Again.

“Come on.”

“Where are we going now?”

“No idea.”

I snorted. “That’s reassuring.”

“It should be.”

I laughed despite myself and followed her through the crowd. Or at least I pretended to.

Because while Mia was busy weaving through groups of students, my attention kept drifting elsewhere.

Again. And again. And again.

My eyes wandered across the backyard.

Toward the pool. Toward the hot tub. Toward the patio. Searching.

I told myself I wasn’t. I absolutely was.

Every few minutes, I’d find myself glancing over someone’s shoulder. Scanning the crowd.

Looking for a familiar head of messy blond hair. A familiar pair of impossible green eyes. Nothing.

Then two minutes later, I’d do it again. Which was ridiculous. I barely knew the guy.

Hell, we’d never even spoken.

And yet somehow, I kept looking anyway.

Like my brain had decided on a mission and refused to inform me on the details.

“Are you even listening?” Mia’s voice snapped me back.

“What?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Oh my God.”

“What?”

“You weren’t listening.”

“I was.”

“You absolutely weren’t.”

I opened my mouth. Then paused.

Because unfortunately, I had no idea what she’d just said.

And judging by Mia’s expression, she knew it too.

Mia stopped abruptly, that I nearly bumped into her.

“What?” I asked. But Mia wasn’t even looking at me anymore.

Her attention had shifted toward the entrance to the backyard.

I followed her gaze. Three boys had just walked through the gate together.

Well… Two of them I recognized immediately.

Logan. And Mia’s brother.

James…? No. Jameson. Right. The shooting guard.

The third one needed no introduction.

Mr. Green Eyes. Or, technically… Kai.

Although for some reason, I still preferred my version.

His blond hair caught the glow of the string lights as he laughed at something Logan had said.

There was a girl tucked comfortably against Jameson’s side.

Another walked beside Kai, close enough that their shoulders brushed every now and then.

Something in my chest tightened before I could stop it.

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

U don’t know this guy, Evelyn.

Mia gasped. “They’re here.”

Before I had time to react, she grabbed my wrist. “I have to introduce you.”

My feet remained firmly planted on the ground.

“I don’t know…”

She looked back at me. Then followed my gaze. Straight to the girl beside Kai.

Understanding flashed across her face. “Oh.” A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Don’t overthink it.”

I blinked. “I’m not-”

“You are.” She squeezed my wrist reassuringly. “They’re nice.”

Another pause. “And I’m not leaving your side.”

She smiled. “So come on.”

Before I could come up with another excuse, Mia was already pulling me through the crowd.

“Mia-”

“Nope.”

“I don’t even know them.”

“You will in thirty seconds.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I know.”

She grinned victoriously and continued dragging me across the backyard.

They’d claimed a table near the pool.

Not officially. Nobody had put up a sign.

they didn’t need to. People naturally left a little space around them, as though everyone had silently agreed that this was their table. Their kingdom.

Logan spotted us first. His face lit up almost immediately.

“Mia!” he called, standing to wrap an arm around her shoulders for a quick hug. “About time.”

Jameson looked up from his drink. “There she is.”

Then his eyes landed on me. “And you brought the new girl.”

I resisted the urge to look behind me.

Right. That was me.

“This is Evelyn,” Mia announced proudly, placing a hand on my shoulder like she’d personally discovered me.

“Evelyn, this is my brother, Jameson.”

He offered me an easy smile. “Nice to officially meet you.”

“You too.” I nodded, smiling.

“And that’s Logan.”

“The famous Logan?” I asked before I could stop myself.

He laughed. “I don’t know if famous is the word I’d use.”

“Mia talks about you a lot.”

“I’ll pretend that’s a compliment.”

“It depends on the day,” Mia interrupted.

Everyone laughed. Everyone except one person.

I could feel it before I looked.

Mr. Green Eyes.

Kai hadn’t said a word. Not once. He simply watched. Quietly. It wasn’t intimidating.

But, Somehow… It was worse.

Because while everyone else filled the silence with conversation, he didn’t seem interested in competing for anyone’s attention. Definitely not a scholarship student.

He just… observed.

Every now and then, I’d catch his eyes on me. Not staring. Just… Looking.

Like he was trying to figure something out.

the longer I stood there, the more it started to feel… personal.

Like he wasn’t just quiet. Like he had decided I wasn’t worth the effort of being included in whatever this was.

Ridiculous. I knew that. I barely knew him.

He barely knew me. He had no reason to think anything about me at all.

And yet, I still felt it. The quiet distance.

The way his attention drifted past me instead of toward me.

Like I was background noise he didn’t feel the need to acknowledge.

My fingers curled slightly at my side. Suddenly I was painfully aware of everything I was doing.

How I was standing. Where I was looking.

What I was doing with my hands. I straightened my shoulders almost instinctively.

Don’t shrink. Not here. Not now.

I’d spent too long wanting to be seen to start disappearing the second someone didn’t look at me the way I wanted.

Still… I couldn’t stop myself from wondering if I’d already been dismissed, before I could even open my mouth.

“So…” Logan said easily. “Is Heatside to your liking so far?”

“It’s…” I searched for the right word. “Different.”

Jameson laughed. “That’s usually what people say.”

“I’ll take that as a good sign.”

“It is.” His smile felt genuine. Warm. The kind that asked for nothing in return.

For a brief second, I wondered if he was only being nice because I was Mia’s friend.

The thought disappeared as quickly as it came. Or at least I tried to make it.

Beside them, the two girls exchanged a quick glance before smiling at me.

“You’ll get used to it eventually,” one of them said sweetly.

“If you survive the first semester.” The other laughed.

“Oh, don’t scare her.”

“I’m not scaring her.” She smiled again. “I’m just being realistic.”

There it was again. That tone.

Like I was something fragile they were discussing over dessert.

I smiled back anyway.

Because sometimes pretending not to notice was easier than asking if the knife was actually there.

I tilted my head slightly. “Oh, don’t worry,” I said lightly. “I’ve survived worse introductions.”

A beat. Not dramatic. Not sharp. Just… calm.

The kind of calm that didn’t ask for approval.

Logan laughed under his breath. “Okay, fair.”

Jameson glanced between us, amused.

The girls paused for a second too long.

Then one of them smiled again, a little tighter this time. “Good,” she said. “Then you’ll be fine here.”

“Yeah,” I nodded once. “I’m counting on it.”

༺♥︎༻

The music was still pounding somewhere behind us when Mia suddenly leaned closer.

Her eyes had that look again.

The one that meant I was about to be introduced to another “Heathside thing” I wasn’t emotionally prepared for.

“Oh,” she said, like it had just crossed her mind. “I almost forgot.”

I narrowed my eyes. “That sentence is never comforting.”

Mia grinned. “It’s tradition night.”

I blinked, taking a step back. “Tradition… night?”

“Senior tradition night,” she corrected, like that made it sound less chaotic than it was.

I stared at her.

She laughed under her breath, already glancing toward the edge of the yard where people were starting to move in clusters.

“Okay,” she said. “So every year after the first big game, the seniors go down to the beach.”

“At midnight.” She paused, then said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Obviously.”

“And then what?”

Mia paused. Just long enough for me to regret asking.

“And then we skinny dip.”

I froze. “…Come again?”

She sighed like I was the problem. “It’s not that deep, Evelyn.”

I blinked. “You are literally describing the opposite of deep.”

Mia laughed. “It’s just tradition. Nobody cares. You just…” she gestured vaguely, “let go.”

From somewhere near the house, I saw people already starting to kick off shoes.

Drop bags. Laugh like this was completely normal.

My stomach tightened.

“You’re joking,” I said slowly.

Mia tilted her head. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

I opened my mouth. Closed it again. Because unfortunately… she didn’t.

And then I saw him again. Kai. Moving with the others like this was just another part of his night.

Like rules didn’t apply to him in the same way they applied to everyone else.

My brain short-circuited for a second. Nope.

Absolutely not focusing on that.

Mia leaned closer, lowering her voice. “Don’t overthink it,” she said simply.

“I wasn’t-”

“You were.”

And before I could argue, she grabbed my wrist again. “Come on.”

༺♥︎༻

We didn’t go straight into the water.

Of course we didn’t.

Because saying something is a tradition and actually doing it are two very different things.

Mia stood there for a second longer than everyone else, her arms crossed tightly over her chest like she could somehow negotiate her way out of it.

Around us, people were already laughing, peeling off layers without hesitation, voices mixing with the sound of the waves crashing somewhere in the dark.

Mia shifted on her feet. “Okay,” she said, too casually. “This is insane.”

I glanced at her. “You were the one who called it tradition night.”

“I know,” she said quickly. “I just didn’t think I’d actually be… participating in the tradition part.”

A pause. I raised an eyebrow. “So what you’re saying is you lied.”

“I didn’t lie,” she snapped. “I… marketed it differently.”

That made me laugh. Softly. Then I nudged her shoulder.

“Come on,” I said. “It’s not like future Mia is going to thank you for chickening out.”

She frowned. “Future Mia?”

“Yeah,” I said, like it was obvious. “Future Mia. The one who wakes up tomorrow and finds out she missed Heathside Senior Tradition Night.”

Mia stared at me. I continued, more serious now but still light.

“She will not be okay. I’m talking mental breakdown. Possibly identity crisis. Maybe she moves to another country.”

That got a small laugh out of her. “There’s no way she cares that much.”

“She will,” I insisted. “She’ll absolutely care. And she will absolutely hate us for letting her miss it.”

Mia exhaled through her nose. “You’re very persuasive,” she muttered.

“I know.”

That earned me a look. Then she finally sighed.

“Fine.”

And for the first time all night, she actually moved with intention instead of hesitation.

We didn’t make a big deal out of it. No dramatic moment. No countdown.

Just the quiet shift of fabric, the feeling of letting go of something that suddenly felt too heavy to keep carrying onto the beach.

Mia glanced at me once, then shook her head.

“This is insane,” she repeated.

I smiled. “Yeah.”

A beat. “But kind of fun?”

She hesitated. Then, reluctantly said, “…Kind of fun.”

And just like that, we started walking again, closer to the water, closer to the noise, closer to the kind of night that didn’t really belong to the kind of people we used to be.

༺♥︎༻

Hey my lovely girl, how r u all doing?

Here’s our fifth chapter, I… think?

Ohhhh, what waiting for you in the couple of chapters, ahhhh I’m soo freaking excited!!

The next two chapters are going to be full of tension, adrenaline, danger, touch and soo much more.

I’m those kind of people who don’t have a specific planned plot, I just flow, so that’s why we didn’t get an actual dialogue just yet, but trust me we’ll get one very soon…

That’s all for today’s episode, I love u all soo soo much, Audrey

Xoxo 💋