The Past
The last two years had been difficult to put it lightly. Evee had been trying to graduate early, and loaded up her junior year with as many classes as they’d let her take so for her senior year she could work and commute only taking one or two classes. The plan was to graduate after the first semester of senior year but things started to fall apart. She had gotten a decent apartment with her boyfriend of 2 years, Jason, he worked for a big company about 30 minutes from her school and visited her all the time anyway. She was sure he was the one, they had a lot in common, and he was smart and sweet. They moved in together at the beginning of senior year with two other friends in a great 4-bedroom condo. A few months in Jason started to act different, he was going to parties with his new friends from work, and drinking, a lot. Evee tried everything to get his attention but life was busy with school during the day and work at night. On her days off he wanted nothing to do with her, she would stay awake even after working an overnight shift just to spend time with him but he would just complain that the house was dirty and needed to be cleaned or he wanted to go do other things with his friends. Her other roommates Nate and Lisa, would just tell her he’s tired from working so much and not to worry, things would get better. Evee kept her head down and just picked up more hours working in the summer. Jason worked and partied and invited people over constantly, trashing the house, then the three of them would leave Evee with the mess. Lisa would always have some excuse as to why Evee shouldn’t be upset, downplaying everything that happened. She felt like she was losing it, everyone around her would say she’s over reacting or that things she knew were going on just weren’t.
The gas lighting was maddening, but around October Jason started to get cruel. It was bad enough that he wouldn’t even touch her but he had started picking apart everything about her appearance, like she was a complete failure and it was his job to make sure she felt like trash. “You couldn’t just do your hair for once? You look like a lazy slob if you just put it in a bun all the time.” “How can you expect me to want anything more than a blowjob when I can’t even get my hands around your hips, you need to stop eating.” Everyday he would find something new about her that disgusted him. She spent the majority of her time at work and class more or less a complete zombie and at home just trying to keep the peace thinking once school was over she could spend more time fixing herself and he’d want her again and everything would be fine.
Over winter break she visited her friend from high school just to try to get away from everything, she went with her to a tattoo appointment then to lunch. Halfway through eating though she began feeling like a burden to one of her oldest friends just listing off her problems like a jerk. “I just don’t know what to do Nina, should I break up with him? What would I even do I still have 1 class left.” Evee sat across from her friend at the diner looking hopeless.
“You could always move back home, I’m sure your parents would let you stay there, I know it’s a bit of a commute for class but you can’t just let him treat you that way.” Nina kept checking her phone, her fiancé had been texting her nonstop since they left for lunch, she clearly had problems of her own to deal with.
“You can go if you have to, I got the check.” Evee looked up at her with a hollow smile trying to be supportive.
“I’m sorry, Eve, he’s just worried I won’t make it home in time, his brother is coming home from deployment and he doesn’t want to be late.” Nina started gathering her coat and purse, they had finished eating a bit ago and were just catching up. “Go, it’s fine, was great seeing you.” She smiled again as Nina left and checked her phone - New message from Jason:
“You got another tattoo? You can’t just put stickers over the fat and pretend it’s not there. They’re just going to get stretched out and look like s***.”
Evee ignored his hurtful bs and texted back that she’d be late coming home because she was going to go to her sister’s. She turned her phone off, paid for lunch and left. When she got in the car she just drove, past her sister’s past everything familiar and stopped at a park. The sun was passed the mid-point in the sky behind the clouds lighting everything in an orange yellow glow. She walked a path down from the lot and sat on the swings watching a group of people playing football down on an athletic field at the bottom of a small hill. The guys were cute, probably early 20s playing on a rec league. She watched them play for a good 30 minutes before they all started to disperse, the game must’ve ended, she was far enough away that she couldn’t really hear what was being said. She looked down at her phone spaced out for a long time debating whether she should bother turning it back on when someone cleared their throat just in front of her. Startled, Evee looked up, 3 of the football guys were walking up the hill in front of her.
“Hey lady, aren’t you a little old for swings?” The guy chuckled as he spoke, bumping elbows with his two friends like he was the coolest guy on the planet; Evee rolled her eyes internally. He was tall and broad with dark hair and a sharp jawline, but clearly young, no older than 20 at most. “Sorry, I can leave if you’d like a turn kiddo.” Evee squinted her eyes and sarcastically smirked as she got up to leave; the guy’s friends began to laugh at his expense. One of the guys jogged after her and began walking next to her toward the parking lot. “Sorry about him, he’s an i***t. We saw you watching the game and he bet us he could get your number, I told him you look to smart for him.” He smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, “Looks like I was right.” He laughed nervously, he was VERY cute: sandy blonde hair soft blue eyes, lean and toned. “Didn’t mean to stare, you all just looked like you were having fun, sorry.” Evee started to walk a bit faster, talking to strangers always made her uncomfortable, it didn’t happen often, why would it she wasn’t anything special, and certainly not very approachable. He lightly grabbed her wrist and she turned to look at him, she must have been scowling because he let go immediately. “Oh, sorry, I, damnit…” he fumbled with his phone and she laughed under her breath. “I’m Tyler, I uh, can I make up for my friend by taking you out sometime?” Wait, the cute guy wanted to take her out? She never got hit on, her hot skinny friends got hit on, not her, what was this dudes’ game? Was he trying to draw her back over so those guys could make fun of her? Tyler’s face reddened slightly “Sorry, I just, you’re really cute and, I’m dumb sorry.” He turned to leave, clearly embarrassed. “Wait, Tyler, right?” This was stupid, why did she call back to him, she had a boyfriend, her mind raced, she hadn’t been genuinely complimented in over a year, what could it hurt. He turned around with wide eyes like a little kid. She grabbed his phone and put her number into it, she handed it back and left, half jogging back to her car heart pounding out of her chest. For the first time in a while, she felt really good.
