Evade (The Ever Trilogy) (13 page)

I remained silent, unwilling to engage.

“So, what now?” Ariadne asked as she took a seat at my desk. She flipped through one of my books, and I stared hard at her fingers, willing them to stop assaulting my stuff. It wasn’t even natural to have her in my room.

She brought her eyes back to me, but her fingers still rested on my book as she continued speaking. “I mean,
I
dated Toby, then
you
dated Toby. Now
you’re
dating Frankie, so I should…”

She trailed off, but she didn’t have to finish. By the way she looked up at Frankie from behind thick, mascara-covered lashes, I was well aware of what she was going to say.

Fat chance getting Frankie. Fat freaking chance.

“Ariadne, that’s enough. Seriously. What’s wrong with you?”

“God, Toby,
relax
. Always jumping to her rescue, aren’t you? But fine.” She spun the chair to face me. “Seriously, though, what the hell, right?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

“What do we do now? I mean, I don’t want to be friends or anything.”

“Great. Me either.” I shrugged. Was I supposed to be offended by her statement? I wasn’t sure. But I definitely wasn’t offended. She was pretty much the last person I wanted to be friends with, sisters or not.
Ugh. Sisters.
I shuddered involuntarily.

Why couldn’t Jessie have been my long-lost sister?

“Great! So that’s settled,” she said as she stood up and headed for the door. “I’m going to go on pretending you don’t exist, and you can go on pretending you don’t wish you were me every day of your life. Deal? Deal.”

She walked out the door, closing it behind her.

I shook my head. No need to bother dignifying her craziness with a response. Other than punching her of course, but was I allowed to punch my sister? Probably not.

I was pretty sure that was frowned upon.

I
was basically still in the same place I’d been in all night, only I was alone, and it was way past lunch time. Toby left right after Ariadne last night, and I was slightly disturbed to see him go, which in itself was much more than
slightly
disturbing. But he’d wanted to grab some stuff and make some arrangements for our next step. Apparently
Operation Ruin Ever’s Life
had only delayed—not canceled—
Operation Run For My Life
.

Jessie and Greg left shortly after Toby last night, because Jessie hadn’t been home yet since getting back from Mexico. Not to mention that watching me stare at the wall like a crazy person probably wasn’t all that fun.

I hadn’t wanted to leave my room the rest of the day yesterday, for fear that I’d have to talk to my mom, or Ariadne would have taken her place as my sister, moved into the house and redecorated, or something equally silly and not at all likely. But nevertheless terrifying.

I had a sister. A sister who was not my dad’s daughter as I’d thought she was all these years, and who was also—clearly—
not dead
. Big shocker, that one was. Then there was the fact that my mom was a liar, and oh hey, I still hadn’t confronted her about it. Not for a lack of trying—on her part. She’d made attempts well into the night, and continued all day today. I’d ignored her all night. And all day.

Like I ignored her now.

She knocked on my door. Again. I felt a bit guilty ignoring her but I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say.

Gee, Mom, thanks for the sister, but I really wanted a puppy?

Right. Somehow I didn’t think that’s what she’d want to hear. But what did she want to hear? More so, what did I want to hear? What could she possibly say to make this okay? Since I didn’t have the answer to that question, I continued ignoring her.

I shrugged at my own train of thought. Made sense to me.

Frankie would come back down the hall again any minute, bringing me a late lunch…or, well, dinner I guess now, since it was almost five o’clock. Linner. At this point, I didn’t really care if his presence in my bedroom bothered my mom. For one thing, I was eighteen. For another, she was a liar and I was angry.

I heard her address Frankie when he got to my door. Her tone of voice could only be described as
pleading
.

“Please get her to talk to me, Frankie.
Please.
”

“You know how she is, Mrs. Van Ruysdael. She can’t stay mad at you for long.”

Well, hmph. Is that so?

All right, yes. It was true. I was surprised I’d held out this long, truthfully. Almost a whole twenty-four hours. Wow. That was probably a record for me but I hadn’t been keeping count. And frankly, nothing had ever warranted a silent treatment of this intensity before now.

I didn’t hear my mom’s response, or see her when Frankie opened my door, so she’d obviously walked away again to give her knocking hand a rest. Frankie sat down next to me on the bed. I dug into the microwaved taquitos, not worrying about the guacamole smeared on the side of my mouth. I was starving. This was the first time I’d eaten today. There was way too much on my mind, so I hadn’t been hungry. Until I was, of course, and by then I was so far past hungry I thought I was going to die of starvation.

Frankie watched me in silence, a crooked smile on his face. After a few minutes and practically licking my plate clean—though I could have eaten at least a dozen more taquitos—I stood and set the plate on my desk. Halfway through turning around, Frankie’s hands were on my waist, pulling me toward him. In a mess of giggles, I fell on top of him on the bed.

“Shh!” he whispered between laughs, mock-chastising me. “Don’t let your mom hear you having fun in here! She’ll never believe you’re still mad at her and then I’ll have to leave!”

He was right. Which meant we were totally taking advantage of my mom. She was probably only letting Frankie stay in here—with the door closed—because she knew I was mad at her and probably felt guilty.

I’m a total jerk.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?”

Okay, I’m a beautiful total jerk. Ha.

“Ha,” I whispered in response, then licked the guacamole from the corner of my mouth. “What does it for you, the plate of food I just inhaled, or the guacamole on my face?”

“That’s easy. It’s the guacamole. Hands down.” Making his point, he reached to run his finger across my discarded plate, then smeared a bit of guacamole on his cheek and grinned. “See? I’m practically irresistible now.”

“Yeah, um, not so much.” I wiped his face, then tossed the napkin on top of the plate on my desk.

I leaned down, bringing my lips to his, and kissed him, happy to be able to forget about everything else for just a moment. He slid his hands from my waist, following the curve of my back, until his fingers slid into my hair. Slowly, he turned us over so he was stretched out on top of me, my head on the pillow. I melted into his kiss, wanting to forget everything else, and remembering how less than a week ago it had just been Frankie and me. No Mexico. No drama. No Seekers.

No sister.

And
no
Toby.

Frankie pulled his head back, breaking our kiss way before I was ready. I pressed my lips back against his where they belonged, and laced my fingers behind his neck, pulling his head towards mine. He kissed me for a few more minutes, and I ran my fingers lazily up and down his torso, then through his hair, feeling the lean angles of his shoulders, the slight curve of his neck, keeping my hands on him at all times. After feeling disconnected from him for a little while now, then experiencing the fear of being kidnapped, I wanted to immerse myself in my safe place.

Frankie moaned, then deepened our kiss. He pressed the weight of his body into mine, resting on his elbow, then ran one hand down the length of my side, gripping behind my thigh, then pulling my leg up and around him.

Ha. I win.

Smiling, as if he knew what I was thinking—because I swear he probably did—he pulled away once more.

“Dollface,” he said, the word coming out as almost a groan. I was pleased to note he was a bit breathless, even though he was the one pulling away from me. “First of all, your mom’s in the other room.” He planted a small kiss on my bottom lip. “Second of all, your mom’s in the other room.”

I sighed. He was right, again.
This sucks.

“When are you going to talk to her, anyway?” He extricated himself from my arms then stood beside the bed. I glared at him as he did so. “Oh, come on, don’t look at me like that. You know you want to talk to her. You’ve never ignored her this long.”

That’s not why I‘m glaring.

He leaned down to kiss me briefly, then ruffled my hair.
What the hell? Talk about romance.

“So?” He smoothed his shirt and jeans, then sat down at my desk chair.

“So, what?”

“When are you going to hear what your mom has to say?”

“Tomorrow. I’m still not ready.”

“I get that. But she’s really upset about this, Doll. I think she’s worried you won’t forgive her for keeping the truth from you.”

“Of course I’ll forgive her. She’s my mom.”

“I know that, and you know that, but right now, she’s out there pacing holes in the carpet and psyching herself out. So maybe you could just—”

“No. Not yet, Frankie.”

“Okay, I won’t force you. Want to tell me what you’re most worried about?”

“No.” I climbed off the bed and approached him, then leaned in to kiss him again, but he rolled the chair out of my reach.

I swung a fist at his chest. “Jerk!”

He grabbed my hand before it connected with his body, pulling me into his lap to straddle him. He held my hands behind my back, and wouldn’t let me kiss him.

“Stop, Ev. I’m serious. I want to talk to you, and we can’t do this”—he paused to nip at my bottom lip, then lowered his voice to a whisper—“while your mom is most likely lingering outside your bedroom door.”

“Fine,” I said, unable to keep the disappointment from my voice.

“I’m here when you’re ready to talk about it, you know? But I’m also here if you’re not.”

“I know.”

“There’s something else, though, isn’t there? Something about your dad?”

Ah.
So last night’s slip-up hadn’t been forgotten after all.

I sighed, resting my forehead against his and wishing he’d let the subject go.

“You can talk to me, you know? No matter what it is, Ev, we’ve always been able to talk about anything.” He rubbed my back and waited.

“I’m the reason my dad died.”

“What? Why would you think something like that?”

“Toby told me.”

Frankie tensed, his hands quitting their back and forth motions over my back. He wrapped his arms around me and drew me tighter to him.

“That’s bullshit. Why would he say something like that to you?”

“He wasn’t telling me so I’d be upset, but there were parts of that night that didn’t make sense, questions I had that he’d never answered. So I asked. And now I know the truth. I was supposed to die that night, Frankie. Not my dad.”

“You? What do you mean?”

“I guess that they hadn’t come here for just your soul. Mine was on the list, too.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No. Toby took me away from the house that night thinking he could protect me if he just changed the plans, changed fate. But it didn’t work. Someone else died in my place.”

“Your dad.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, tears beginning to slip out again.

“It’s not your fault, Ever. You can’t believe that it is. Toby saved you. He kept you alive, and now you have to—”

“Now I have to run, Frankie! Now I’m branded or something, and soul Seekers, or whatever, are after me. And I’m going to die when I’m nineteen anyway, if they don’t find me first, so what does it matter? What was the point in saving me if I’m just going to die this year anyway? What did it even matter?”

“Don’t look at it that way. Your dad would never blame you for his death, and you can’t blame yourself either. You have to let this go.”

I kissed him. He let me. I’d
let it go
by not talking about it anymore. He could just assume the subject had been dropped. I’d never forgive myself for the simple fact that had I died that day instead of my dad, he’d still be alive, and my mom would have only lost one person she loved.

Now she was about to lose two.

Frankie tangled a hand in my hair and rested the other in the dip between my hip and rib cage, underneath my shirt, skin to skin. His kiss was deep once more, penetrating, as though his mind spun with the concept that I should have died that night.

Maybe he was soaking me in, tasting me, not because I should have died, but because I was going to in the very near future. This kiss felt like possession and goodbye all at once, and I didn’t know how to feel, how to respond, so I just kept kissing him back.

He squeezed my side, his fingers digging hungrily into my flesh, and I wasn’t shy or embarrassed about his grip on my soft stomach. It felt so natural to be with Frankie. So comfortable. So safe.

Briefly, my mind flitted to Toby. I’d never felt quite so natural with him. It was exciting and new, my first real relationship, and there was something dangerous and thrilling always lurking in the shadows. His touch was pure adrenaline to my system.

I squeezed my eyes tighter to the memory of Toby sweeping through my mind all uninvited and unwelcomed.
While I’m making out with Frankie. I really
am
a jerk.

A tap at my window made us both freeze. My eyes popped open wide, as I pulled my mouth away from Frankie’s. His eyes held none of the shock I felt. Instead, I saw anger. His face tightened, the set of his jaw hard.

He knew as well as I did who waited outside my window.

Frankie stood, pushing me not-so-gently aside. He headed to my window and pulled back the curtains.
Shit.

Sure enough, Toby stood at my window, eyes wide. The expression on his face was as shocked as Frankie’s was angry. Clearly, he’d not been expecting anyone but me to come to the window, though why Toby was here I had no idea.

Frankie slid the window up. The screen was still missing. I hadn’t realized. I just never got around to replacing it after Toby left.

Toby’s eyes searched the room, landing on me and causing an intense heat to flood my cheeks. What a time for him to show up at my window! Luckily, we were both fully clothed. Not like Toby hadn’t seen it all before, but still—

“What are you doing here? You can’t just knock on her window anymore, Toby.”

Toby looked stunned, though he knew I was with Frankie, so he shouldn’t be shocked to find us together. He also shouldn’t think he could just waltz back into my life and start knocking on my window at night like he used to. It wasn’t okay.

“Hey, I’m…” Toby looked at me as he spoke to Frankie. “I’m sorry, bro. I shouldn’t be here. I just wanted to see if she was doing okay, or…or if she needed anything.” He pulled his eyes away from mine and looked up at Frankie. “I’m sorry, man. I was way out of line in coming here like this.”