Sunshine

Evelyn sat Indian-style on her bed, pictures scattered around her. She gave Cooper a scratch as he rested his head on one of her legs. She smiled at her canine companion before returning her gaze to the many pictures as she tried to organize them into an empty picture album sitting inbetween her legs. The task proved more difficult than she originally thought.

It was Saturday, and Evelyn was sure she would have time to herself. She had gotten up earlier, around nine, just so she could have privacy in putting the pictures, her memories, together.

She smiled sadly as she picked up a photo that looked older than the rest. In it was a beautiful brunette, smiling widely and scooping a little girl off the ground. They looked so...happy.

Evelyn was so absorbed in staring at the photo that she didn't notice anyone enter the room. She didn't notice him come and stand beside her. She didn't see him contemplate disturbing her, just going back downstairs, or rudely getting her attention.

Eventually, she heard someone cough and she turned, startled to see him standing beside her. She wondered what he, of all people, would be doing in her house and in her room, before she remembered.

"Weekly breakfast?" she questioned.

He nodded, a bit close to Evelyn for her liking, "Yeah, and Maudie sent me upstairs to get you."

Evelyn sighed, giving the photo one last, longing look before putting it down. His voice stopped her in mid action.

"Um...who's that?"

She could tell that he was uncomfortable asking, since it was kind of weird for him to be nice, but he was just trying to be civil to her, she assumed. She could feel his breath on her neck from him looking over her shoulder.

He was also kind of curious.

Evelyn gave the picture a small smile, not looked up at him.

"It's my mother--"

He stood still, his hands in the pockets of his black Dickies. He brought one hand out to scratch his head, looking from Cooper to the photo to Evelyn.

He was about to make a comment, but Evelyn spoke first.

"--the day before she was sent away."

Evelyn had no idea why she was telling Brian this, but it just felt like the moment was right. She was tired of hiding things. If he wanted, he could think she was a freak who came from a family with issues. She didn't care; it was the truth, after all.

Brian debated asking her what she meant, but Maudie yelled upstairs that the food was ready. Evelyn set the photo down and hopped off the deep purple comforter, careful of the remaining pictures and album. She brushed against Brian, though not rudely, as she passed him. Cooper followed her, his tail wagging slowly, as if he could sense the tension in the room.

Evelyn reached the doorframe and turned around to look at Brian, who hadn't moved from his spot near her bed.

"You coming?"

Brian looked up and nodded, feeling awkward as he followed Evelyn out of her room and down the stairs.

"That was the last day I ever saw her."

Brian stopped, realizing that Evelyn had already done so in the middle of the wooden staircase. One of her hands had a tight grip on the railing, the other hanging loosely by her side.

"You looked pretty young," he managed to say. To be honest, he didn't know how to respond. There was suddenly this weird…tension…

"I was a year and a half."

She began moving down the stairs again, Brian on her heels behind Cooper. Once they got to the kitchen and dining room, she greeted her grandparents and sat down. Cooper looked up at Brian, wagging his tail slowly as he had been before. Brian scooped up the dog into his arms, earning a lick in the face. He smiled and pet the dog affectionately.

Evelyn regretted saying anything, knowing she should've just waited until Jimmy was around. Still, something inside told her that it was okay to tell Brian, that he wouldn't care. Maybe that's just how I want it to turn out, she thought as she watched Brian play with Cooper as if he were his own dog, maybe I just want Brian to really be a nice person, even though he isn't always nice to me.

Breakfast was the same as it was every week, and Evelyn was actually starting to enjoy herself. The Haners weren’t bad company at all. Papa Haner, as she had taken to calling him, was such an entertaining person that Evelyn hated to see him go. Suzy really was a nice lady, and Brian's younger half sister, McKenna, was the cutest girl Evelyn had ever seen. She was also becoming acquainted with his younger brother Brent, whom she learned was the same age as Meredith and that annoying kid down the street from Matt, Johnny.

Evelyn returned to her room with Cooper once everyone left. Her mood was better, but she knew just what she needed: a night away from those pictures and from her male friends.

She picked up the receiver sitting on her nightstand, hoping Ma wouldn't try to use the phone while she was on it and hear her conversation. That was always so embarrassing, especially when she was on the phone with Jimmy.

She dialed the number, hoping she remembered it right. She wasn't extremely close with the younger girl or her brother’s friend, so she hoped this worked out.

"Hey, Meredith, Val. It's Evelyn. Mind if I come over?"

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Instead of being greeted by Meredith, she was greeted by Matt, the one person she didn’t want to open the door. Zacky, Jimmy, and another kid she remembered to be Justin stood behind him.

So much for getting away from the guys.

"Evie!" Jimmy exclaimed, shoving past Matt to give her a tight hug.

Her laugh was somewhat forced and strangled, "Hey, Jimmy."

Meredith rolled her eyes and gave Jimmy a small shove to give Evelyn distance. He frowned.

"She came to see me and Val, guys. Go be baboons somewhere else."

Matt scowled at his sister before ushering the guys, including a waving Zacky, back inside and towards the garage.

He smiled at Evelyn, who was waving back at Zacky, "Nice to see ya, Evelyn."

She nodded back and allowed Meredith to lead her inside and to the kitchen, where Val sat. Evelyn shyly greeted her and sat next to Meredith.

"So, you finally decided to take a break from Jimmy?" Val laughed, meaning to be joking.

Evelyn chuckled and nodded, "I guess. I just needed some...girl time."

Meredith laughed at the look on her older friend's face, "You sound so awkward saying it."

"It's true! I hardly ever had girl friends...and now...well…it's weird."

Val smiled, grabbing Evelyn's wrist and pulling her up off the chair. Loud noises were coming from somewhere, presumably the garage, and Val lead her in that direction.

"Even though I'm not much a girly girl, we can get to that kind of stuff later. Right now, though, I think you should listen to the guys' band."

Evelyn tilted her head to the side, trying to the read the sound a bit better. Just as they almost got out to the garage, Meredith following, the noise stopped. The girls huddled behind the door and listened to what was going on.

The voice was a voice she had only heard a few times before and found the owner of to be quite annoying, but it was a voice that, eventually, she would come to know and love. If the giggle from behind her was any indication, Meredith was already there.

"You guys should really get a better bass player."

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Evelyn cursed as she stood, arms crossed tightly across her chest. She kicked one of the wheels of her car and huffed. She sighed and observed her surroundings, keeping aware.

It was close to pitch black outside, and the September night air was getting cooler. Evelyn was glad she chose to wear pants, but the thin, ripped material wasn’t doing much good. She buttoned her flannel up to her neck, but was still a bit chilled. She had told her Ma and Pa that she was staying the night at Matt’s house with Meredith and Val, and was packed to do so, but decided not to stay. She felt more comfortable sleeping at home, so she had told them.

In truth, she was going to park her car at home and sneak over to the spot with Jimmy and Brian. Her grandparents would already be asleep, and she could just tell them she went to visit Jimmy at Brian’s if need be.

She hated how sneaky she had become, but part of her loved it. Obviously, having a police officer for a father restricted her from doing stuff like she did now, and he was probably turning in his grave knowing what she was doing, and yet, she was young and wanted to have fun. Her parents had been the same way.

But Evelyn’s plans had been ruined because of her car. She kicked at it again in frustration. All she wanted to do was have a good time with her best friend and his best friend, who had been acting really weird around her the past couple of weeks since she told him about her mother. Now she was stuck in the middle of a crappy section of town with a piece of junk car and no place open with a phone she could use. How would she explain this to Ma and Pa?

Evelyn decided her only choice was to walk home. She sighed and locked the car, taking her keys with her and deciding to worry about it in the morning. It was probably just a bad battery and could easily be taken care of tomorrow.

Paranoia swept over Evelyn, gaining in intensity every time she stepped on a twig, or the breeze blew a bit too hard, or a bird flew overhead. She hadn’t seen a single car since she began her walk, which she guessed to be about twenty minutes ago. The entire time she felt like she was being watched, but not in a bad way. She looked up to the sky and watched an airplane fly by. A familiar feeling swept over her, like it had that night in Detroit, and she immediately knew that her father was still with her.

Smiling and shaking her thoughts of the paranormal aside, she continued her walk. Instead of walking up her own driveway, she walked up Brian’s and around the backside of his house. She expertly snuck under the bushes, though her clumsiness got the best of her and she tripped coming out of them, causing her to land flat on her face. She chuckled a bit at her own stupidity and brushed herself off, continuing down the dark path in the park.

Another airplane flew overtop of her head, and she wondered what was with all these airplanes tonight. It was the middle of the night; why were there so many flights?

Evelyn allowed a large smile to sweep over her face as she heard two familiar, hushed voices. From the sounds of things, they had gotten started without her hours ago.

Without warning, she jumped into the secluded area and tossed her hands up in the air, effectively startling Jimmy and Brian. When they realized who it was, they started laughing and Jimmy pulled her in for a noogie, handing her a beer after he was done.

Brian sent her a glare, as if he were upset with her presence. She got the vibe that he wanted to be here with just Jimmy, and not her.

She frowned and leaned against Jimmy, sighing as she opened the beer and began to drink it. He gave her a curious look.

“You okay, Evie?” he asked, taking a drink from his own bottle.

Brian sat quietly across from the two on a large rock, one leg propped up. His elbow rested on his raised knee, his wrist moving so he could take a sip from his beer every now and then. He watched Evelyn with a look of dislike.

Jimmy followed her gaze to Brian and sighed, “Bri, can’t you play nice? For me?”

Brian rolled his eyes and mumbled some kind of positive response.

Jimmy gave him a look, “What was that?”

“Hi, Evie,” Brian said, sarcasm lacing his voice.

Jimmy frowned because of Brian using his nickname and Evelyn frowned because she was back to square one.

“I thought you were beyond your ‘immature ass’ stage,” Evelyn commented, being uncharacteristically outspoken.

Jimmy tried to hide his small smile and Brian scowled, looking away.

Evelyn, still leaning on Jimmy, looked upwards to see another plane flying by.

“You know, sometimes I wish airplanes were really shooting stars,” she said quietly.

Brian watched her with his head tilted down so as to not be suspicious. He was more interested in Evelyn and what she had to say than he would have liked to be.

Jimmy decided to ignore Brian’s weird behavior and allowed his head to rest on Evelyn’s. Brian looked on with a scowl.

“Why is that, Evie?”

She chuckled, slightly ashamed of her answer, “You’ll laugh at me.”

“No I won’t.”

“Brian will.”

Jimmy laughed, “He’s just in a bad mood; don’t worry about him. He won’t say a thing.”

Brian hated being like this, but something about Evelyn just made him feel weird and he didn’t know why, nor did he like it. He didn’t really feel comfortable talking about it to Jimmy either.

“I could make a wish whenever I please. I could wish for whatever I wanted,” Evelyn answered.

Jimmy lifted his head up and nodded, “That’s not weird. That’s actually a cool way to look at things.”

Silence took over as the three nursed their beers. The alcohol didn’t seem to be relieving any tension between Brian and Evelyn like it normally would have.

“I think I know one thing you would wish for,” Jimmy said slyly, elbowing Evelyn in the side.

She let out a small laugh, truly curious as to what her tall friend would say, “And what would that be?”

He gave an intrigued Brian a glance before settling his gaze on Evelyn. He smiled mischievously.

“Zacky.”

Evelyn gaped at him and playfully smacked him in the arm, though she didn’t try to deny it.

“Shut up!”

Jimmy raised an eyebrow at Brian’s deepening scowl and chugging of his beer. He turned his attention back to Evelyn and laughed. He knew just how to make that little blush of hers worse.

“Don’t worry, Evie; Zack would wish for you too.”