Sunshine

“I think you need a nickname.”

Evelyn turned her head so she was looking at Jimmy, “Like what?”

The cool March, soon to be April, breeze blew by, Evelyn’s newly cut hair flying to the side. She brushed some of it out of her face and awaited Jimmy’s answer.

“Eevee!”

Evelyn laughed, “You are not calling me a Pokémon.”

Jimmy frowned, “What about…Evie?”

“That’s the same thing.”

“It would be spelled differently. Duh!”

Evelyn shook her head, still laughing, “If you want.”

Jimmy fist pumped the air, “Yes!”

Evelyn observed the tree limbs above her, lightly moving in the breeze. It felt great outside, though a little warm to Evelyn. Even after so many months, she couldn’t get used to the higher temperatures. It would be worse if she kept her decision of going out for softball, which started soon. The summer heat would be torturous.

Jimmy’s face turned serious and contemplative and Evelyn eyed him worriedly.

“Evie, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

He scratched his head, his nearly gravity defying hair unmoving, “Well, there’s prom coming up and--”

“You fucking asshole! I should kill you!”

Evelyn’s head snapped in the direction of the yelling, which was only a few yards in front of her. She frowned at the two guys shoving each other: one wearing nearly all black with his fingernails painted (like the only kind guys who actually spoke to her, it seemed, minus Brian) and the other wearing no shirt and low riding, baggy bleached jeans. He looked like a tool, in Evelyn’s opinion.

“Fuck,” Jimmy muttered under his breath. Evelyn gave him a confused look, but his full attention was on the fight about to commence.

“Bets over here! Place your bets here! Who’s gonna win? The punk or the…other idiot?”

A small girl who looked a couple years younger than Evelyn and Jimmy was walking around to kids, getting money from each of them on who they thought would win.

She spotted Jimmy and quickly turned away, but he caught her.

“Meredith! What the fuck are you doing?”

The girl turned around and gave Jimmy a shrug, “What does it look like I’m doing?”

Jimmy shook his head and laughed, knowing full well that Meredith was just doing the collecting to gain money before she ran off with it all. If anyone came after her about it, her brother wouldn’t hesitate to kick ass. Like he was now.

“This should teach you not to fucking harass my sister!”

The rather large guy dressed in black landed multiple punches on the shirtless guy, making Evelyn wince with each hit. Jimmy turned to her.

“Does it bother you?”

Evelyn was raised a sheltered child in the sense that she had never witnessed someone getting beat up or hurt before, only seen the aftermath. Seeing the process happen before her own eyes was a new experience, and one she’d rather not have to deal with.

“No,” she lied, looking at the larger guy in shock as he hardly took a hit and continued railing on the other guy.

Jimmy said nothing, but stood up abruptly and cheered, “Yeah, Matt! Whoop his ass hard!”

Evelyn sunk down further against the tree trunk, wishing the scene happening in front of her to go away. She soon got her wish.

The large guy, whom Evelyn assumed was Matt, nodded his head in approval and grinned evilly at the shirtless loser, who was now on the ground unconscious.

Jimmy, along with the rest of the crowd, clapped and hollered for Matt. Meredith had long since disappeared with her money, already knowing that her brother would come out the victor in the fight.

Matt neared Jimmy after spotting him and the crowd soon cleared and left the yard, returning back to their own business, Evelyn guessed. She sunk down even lower so she was practically laying down now, with only her neck and head on the tree trunk. She was hoping the large guy wouldn’t notice her.

A glance at the still unconscious kid on the ground made Evelyn nearly shiver. He had bruises already forming all over him and blood ran from his presumably broken nose and jaw. His image brought back bad memories for the mentally fragile Evelyn, and she looked at the Matt kid with fear in her eyes. She was frightened by what he could do.

He and Jimmy shared a laugh and a smile, Evelyn watching them with wide eyes.

“And who’s this?”

Evelyn stared in horror and awe at Jimmy’s friend, who was looking at Evelyn with nothing but genuine curiosity.

Jimmy followed his gaze to Evelyn and grinned broadly. She smiled weakly back at him, not being able to muster anything more in the presence of Matt.

“This is my Tree Buddy, Evelyn, or as I like to call her, Evie. Evie, this is Matt, one of my best friends.”

Matt nodded at her, his gaze not judging like Brian’s. Instead, it was more observatory, as if he were trying to figure out what Jimmy saw in this girl to like her enough to hang out with her. He didn’t act confused about her at all, which made Evelyn wonder if Jimmy ever talked about her to his friends.

“Nice to meet you, Evelyn,” he said nicely, no trace of hostility. Evelyn wondered if he was bipolar, had anger issues, or if he was just extremely protective of his friends and family.

“You too,” she muttered meekly.

Jimmy raised an eyebrow at Evelyn, sensing her discomfort, “You’re not afraid of Matt, are you?”

Evelyn gulped, hoping neither of them noticed. Afriad? More like terrified. He could probably snap me in half like a twig!

“Of course not,” she said, her voice cracking slightly at the end of her sentence. She pushed her back as far into the tree as possible.

“Matt! I gotta talk to you!”

Matt moved his eyes from the nearly cowering Evelyn to the person who spoke his name.

“Just a sec, Zack! I’ll be right there!”

Matt gave Evelyn a nod and a tiny hint of a smile, which she attempted to return before he and Jimmy exchanged some sort of weird handshake. He left without another word.

Jimmy sat down beside Evelyn against the tree. She relaxed slightly, but was still visibly tensed. She watched as Matt left with who she recognized to be the Zack from her English class, the Zack who didn’t speak to her like an illiterate idiot from Detroit (like everyone else seemed to do), the Zack with the nice eyes.

Shaking her somewhat girly thoughts from her head, she turned to Jimmy, suddenly remembering that he was going to ask her something earlier.

“What were you trying to ask me before?

Jimmy’s spacey expression turned into seriousness again. This time, though, he looked like he was nervous to ask her.

“I don’t know if you’d be up for it.”

“Up for what?” Evelyn questioned.

Jimmy sighed, “Well, like I said, prom’s coming up and me and my friends were gonna have a…hmm…’anti-prom’ party, if you will, at Matt’s house. I was wondering if you wanted to come?”

Evelyn nodded, “Sure. I’ll ask Ma and Pa.”

Jimmy smiled, though something was still on his mind, “You sure you’re okay with it?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

He shrugged, “You seemed pretty…terrified of Matt. Plus I know that you and Brian aren’t the best of friends…”

“That’s not my fault,” Evelyn stated strongly.

“I know, but are you sure you’ll be okay with them? I mean, I want all my friends to get along but I don’t want anyone getting in a fight…”

Evelyn’s thoughts went back to Matt and his fight with the still unconscious kid. She grimaced and shook her head to make the mental images go away.

She began to comprehend what Jimmy said, repeating it in her head.

Friend? Did he actually call me his friend? Is he really showing actual friendly concern?

Jimmy was awaiting her response and she nodded, “I’ll be fine.”

He smiled and gave her a pat on the shoulder, “Cool! You can meet Cam and Micah and the other Matt and Justin and Val…you’ll like her--”

Evelyn laughed as he went on about all his friends that she could meet and how she would love every one of them. Somehow she doubted that, since she didn’t quite ‘fit in’ with their ‘group’, as Brian had so kindly put it once, but Jimmy didn’t seem to mind, so she wouldn’t either. At least, she would try not to mind.

“--oh and Zack, I think you’ll like him too--”

If it was the Zack that she was thinking of, than Evelyn already knew that she would like him, at least at this point. He hadn’t done anything cruel to her…yet.

“We’ll do all kinds of crazy shit! I can’t wait!” Jimmy exclaimed, his arms going in wild motions. He was so excited about getting all of his friends together that Evelyn couldn’t help but laugh.

“Me either, Jimmy.”