The Consequence

The room was silent. Save the dull ticking of the clock above the oven. The kitchen was spotless. Every single surface wiped, all dishes taken out of the dishwasher and dried, put back in their proper place. The fridge had been cleaned and all food that had long passed its sell by date had been thrown into a black bin bag and taken out to the bins outside. Everything smelt like lemon disinfectant spray. It was a scent that really got up your nose and tingled your senses, messing with your thoughts.

Cleaning helped Evie think. Sorting things out made her hope that maybe it would sort her thoughts out. Set them in a coherent order, force them to make sense. She was sitting at the kitchen counter, her books splayed out before her, papers covering the surface. Text and numbers screamed from each crisp white page as Evie tackled the problems set out by her lecturer.

“Evie Annabel Vickers, what the hell are you doing?”

She didn’t even look up from her frantic scribbling. Her train of thought was set in full motion. She wasn’t about to break that for anyone, not even her loving boyfriend. “It’s called school work, you should try it sometime.”

Justin walked around to the opposite side of the counter and picked up one of her sheets of paper. “Velocity and frequency and sound waves. I thought you wanted to be one of those people who designs roller coasters and big moving monuments like that. Why would you need to know about sound waves?”

“It’s on the syllabus, idiot.”

Justin placed the paper down and sat himself down on a stool, sniffing up. “Did you clean?”

“Uh-huh.” She was still scribbling.

“That lemon spray stuff is disgusting.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m having an affair with Ryan.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We’re having a wedding in Vegas, if you wanna come. You have to dress up as a llama though.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And then we’re going to Wonderland for our honeymoon. The Mad Hatter’s making us a cake and maybe we could get a threesome with the Red Queen or something.”

Evie finally looked up. “Justin, don’t be ridiculous. Everyone knows you’d rather marry Stephen.”

He grinned. “So she was listening then.”

“I’m a girl, I have that multi-tasking ability, unlike yourself.”

“Oh shush. Can you ditch work today? I wanna go out.”

“No. Some of us have important things to finish.”

“Eves, since when did you care about school work? Seriously? You’re the smartest person I know, you know you don’t have to pour over books. It just sticks with you. So come on, ditch sound waves and frequencies and lets go get weird somewhere.”

“You wanna go drinking?”

“Not just now, but maybe later, yeah.”

“Jay, seriously, I wanna do my work, not lose a few brain cells and watch you and the guys pass out.”

“Then bring your work and watch us pass out.”

“Justin!”

“Evie!”

The pair of them faltered and laughed lightly. “Let me finish this. I might come and meet you later, yeah?”

“I can’t believe your blowing me off for physics, really, Eves.” He stood up and walked around to her, wrapping his arms around her tightly and kissing the top of her head. “I love you, ‘kay? Don’t forget that.”

“I love you too.” She leaned up and kissed his lips gently, releasing him and watching him leave the kitchen, followed by the quiet slam of the front door.

The cupboard door opened and Logan stumbled out, bringing the mop with him. It clattered to the floor and he hastily picked it up and shoved it back, closing the door. He glared at Evie and folded his arms. “He’s feeling guilty about something, don’t even try and deny it.”

“When I said you could come over, I didn’t think Justin would be here too. Or was that some sort of sick plan you devised? Get yourself and Justin here at the same time as me, so you can finally reveal your school boy jealousy issues.”

“Evie, babe, if you were as disgusted with me as you act like you are, you wouldn’t have me hidden in the cupboard after a make out sesh, would you now?”

She scoffed and gathered her work up into a neat pile. She slipped off her stool and headed for the stairs.

Truth be told, Evie was in deep water. Ever since Logan had spilled his jealous guts to her a few days ago, she’d been seeing him in secret. The same night, he’d thrown stones at her window and the pair of them had sat on the Vickers’ roof, kissing sweetly until the morning. Ever since, he’d been sneaking in and out of the house, usually for quick make out sessions or to simply whisper words every girl would love to hear fall from Logan’s lips. On this particular day, Logan had arrived a mere twenty minutes before Justin, forcing Evie to shove him in the kitchen cupboard and try and get rid of her boyfriend.

She felt guilty. But was kissing cheating? She’d always thought it could be considered just that. She’d never put much thought into the boundaries of cheating and not cheating, but now she was beginning to question them.

She climbed the stairs, knowing Logan was right behind her. She knew what he wanted. To fall into bed and wake up in a few hours, then run around acting like he’d done nothing wrong. He had no ties. Only to one of his best friends. Logan and Justin’s friendship probably ran much deeper than Justin’s relationship with Evie. She knew if it came to it, she’d be the one erased from his life. Logan might get a bloody nose and a busted lip, broken trust, but nothing a few days, weeks, months, years of healing couldn’t fix.

She stopped at the top of the stairs and spun round to face him, chewing her bottom lip. “Is it wrong? What we’re doing, is it wrong?”

Logan stepped up onto the top step and placed his hands on her hips, pulling her close to him. “Is it wrong to go after the girl you’ve longed for since you saw her?”

“Logan, that’s not what I asked.”

“I don’t think it’s wrong, why? What are you thinking?”

“About Justin. About all of this. You two are best friends, and I don’t want to be the reason you two fall out or something. I don’t want to break up with him, I love him, even if you think I don’t.”

Logan moved his hands away from her quickly. It was almost as if she’d burned him. “Love? What the fuck is that anyway?”

She raised her eyebrows at him and turned away, heading towards her bedroom. “I thought you were in love with me and Zara, so surely you should know what it is.”

“I never mentioned anything about ‘love’. I said I liked you. I still do. But I never said anything about loving you, Eves.”

She glowered at him. “Then if this means nothing to you, maybe we ought to stop.”

He shook his head. “I love you okay? Don’t fucking forget it.” He stormed down the stairs and let the front door slam behind him.

Evie sunk to the floor, clutching her papers and folders close to her chest as tears began to run down her cheeks.