Salem Falls

As Louis approached Evelyn’s house on the outskirts of the forest, his breath caught in his lungs. It was a sweet but modest cottage, surrounded by trees – most notably, a gigantic willow whose dangling branches dangled delicately over the front path. It was like a house out of a fairytale, the product of some sort of good aura that seemed to radiate from the Connors family. In fact, he was coming to realize that there had to be some sort of good magic out there for the universe to have brought him to Evelyn – there had to be.

To say he was nervous would be an understatement. Though he put on a good show, Louis was always a little timid under the surface, especially when it came to girls. His simply awful dates that he took Maggie Snow on were enough to leave him scarred for the rest of his life, turned off from dating forever. But there was something about Evelyn that he couldn’t resist.

He rang the doorbell and took a deep breath to relax his posture, fearful of giving his nerves away. He was fearful of shattering his image in front of Evelyn, the one reason she seemed to have taken an interest in him. She really was an unusual girl.

Evelyn’s mother, Ella, came to the door, her eyes the same beautiful bright blue of her daughter’s. “Louis!” she exclaimed with a wide smile. “You eye is looking so much better. I see that arnica extract really did the trick.”

She gave him a quick wink, causing a laugh to fall from his lips as he reached up to rub at his fading black eye. “Yeah, thanks again for that,” he replied. “Is Evelyn ready yet?”

“She should be down any minute,” Ella commented with furrowed brows, glancing behind her. “Cornelius, do you know if Evelyn is on her way0?”

“Honey, you know I can’t read minds,” a deep voice came from a room buried intricately in the home. “Is my ability to communicate with plants not enough for you?”

Ella let out a nervous laugh, shaking her head furiously. Louis raised his eyebrows and quickly shot them down to normal height in an attempt to not make Ella feel uncomfortable. But it really was a strange thing for Mr. Connors to say, though Louis admittedly knew next to nothing about the man.

“He’s just joking,” Ella chuckled, pressing her hand to her forehead in embarrassment. “Ev would be mortified if she heard him talking like that in front of one of her friends.”

“Oh, what did he say now?”

The sound of Evelyn’s voice piqued Louis’s interest, a smile appearing on his lips. He glanced around Ella to see Evelyn, a sight that took the break right away from him. She was wearing that kind of dress she always wore, only this one was different – the long sleeves were absent, leaving her elegant shoulders exposed to the soft lighting of the foyer. The fabric was dark as the night sky, the way she preferred. Her lips were painted an unusual shade of rosewood, offsetting the pale porcelain quality of her skin.

Louis had to remind his heart to restart.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked after Ella told Evelyn not to worry about her father. The odd comment he made all but slipped from his mind as Louis reminded himself to keep his cool. Evelyn nodded in response, giving him a bright smile and hopping down from the front step next to him.

“I promise I’ll take care of her, Mrs. Connors.”

“A boy like you? I don’t believe you’ll take care of her for a minute,” Ella teased with a laugh, the corners of her eyes crinkling kindly. “But I’ll humor you and say thanks.”

Louis walked her to his ride in the driveway, his pride and joy – his Yamaha motorcycle. He saw Evelyn’s eyes grow wide, a nervous tone pricking at her brows. He bit his lip in an unusual embarrassment of his bike; worried that Evelyn would be afraid. But as always, she surprised him, instead grabbing the spare helmet and buckling it under her chin.

“It suits you,” he hummed lowly, taking his own helmet and strapping it on his head. “You look nice.”

“I could say the same for you,” she badgered in a sing-song tone. “All dressed up, aren’t you.”

Louis glanced down at his body, seeing his boots, dark jeans, and button up. He thought that it wasn’t too much, but perhaps it was. After all, he didn’t know where he was taking Evelyn. Or rather, where Evelyn was taking him.

“But it’s not a date, right?” she continued, the corner of her lip tugging in a telltale smirk. “You’re way too tough for that, huh.”

“Of course, not a date at all.”

As they drove in the path that Evelyn directed him, Louis couldn’t help but revel in the feeling of her arms around his waist. She was a curious creature, that Evelyn Connors. Timid in public and around strangers, but fierce and adventurous once you got to know her. Hanging out with her was like turning a new page, every day he was learning something new. And they were hanging out almost every day, after all.

She took him to a restaurant in the small, stifling downtown that Louis was still trying to get used to, even after the several weeks he’d lived there. He’d never noticed the place on the many days he spent on Main Street when he was supposed to be in school, but Evelyn approached the door with relaxed ease. That is, until her posture went rigid at the sight of someone standing just inside the entrance.

“I see you couldn’t conjure up something better to do for tonight, Evvie,” intoned a deep, rasping voice from a figure leaning up the wall. He raised his head to reveal a smirking grin, green eyes shrouded by a mop of dark brown curls.

“Fuck off Harry,” Evelyn muttered in his direction, her gaze cast to the ground.

“No really, the moon is in retrograde,” he continued, scratching at his lower lip with his thumb before glancing out the window to the darkening sky. “You really should be able to do better than this.”

With a disgusted look, he gave Louis a once over. Louis began to feel himself lose his cool, his fists curled into tight weights at his side. “Hey man, if you’ve got a problem-“

Evelyn cut him off, turning her gaze to the man in the shadow. “You know, I would say that your prickish attitude is in your blood but since that’s the one thing we have in common, it must be something else,” she countered voraciously. “Maybe we’ll just chalk it up to bad lifestyle choices.”

Evelyn’s biting attitude caught Louis off guard, a side of her he had never seen before. Clearly she knew this guy – even was related to him, if Louis was interpreting their dialogue correctly – and wasn’t afraid to let him have it. And as upset Louis was at the situation, the same way he had been at the prick at his school, he couldn’t help but find Evelyn’s attitude a bit of a turn on.

“Who we are isn’t a choice, Evelyn,” he argued, eyes glinting. “You know that as well as I do.”

“What you choose to do with it is,” she replied flatly. Louis glanced between the pair, absolutely confused as to what was going on. He just wanted to have a nice dinner with Evelyn to thank her for all she’d done for him in those few short weeks. But with the dark, hateful glance the guy gave Evelyn before stalking out the door, he was worried that all would be lost.

He glanced at her and before he could even get the words out, she said, “My family is complicated. I don’t really want to talk about it. Just know that’s my cousin Harry Styles and he’s an insufferable imbecile.”

“Are you sure?”

She paused. “The rest of my family is extremely talented at something, Harry included, as much as I hate to admit it. I guess I’m just a little bitter sometimes, especially when he always insists on rubbing it in.”

Louis didn’t see how exactly he was rubbing anything in; he hadn’t gotten that from the awkward encounter at all, only the biting hate between the two. Either way, he wanted to punch the asshole’s face in for messing with Evelyn for even for one second, much less a lifetime. Her eyes were sad for a moment as she picked at the amethyst necklace she always wore, and Louis pressed his lips together in a concerned line. A moment later, though, she turned her sights to him and let a wide grin play up on her lips.

“Whatever, forget him,” she chimed. “Let’s eat. I’m starving and I can’t wait for you to eat this food.”

And she couldn’t wait with good reason. When his burger arrived alongside her plate of vegetable-heavy spaghetti, he found his mouth watering. When he looked up at Evelyn, he caught her wiping a dribble of drool from the corner of her mouth. He broke out in a smile through a chuckle.

“Looks good, huh?” he asked.

“It’s Audrey Hepburn’s favorite,” she chirped through a beam, her perfectly straight white teeth peeking from behind her full lips – Louis’s favorite feature. “I’m a vegetarian, I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

“Not at all.”

For the rest of the night, there was not a moment of silence between them – always talking, laughing, or teasing about something or other. He couldn’t help but watch her the entire time, even when trying to consume his delicious burger, enthralled by her unusual mannerisms. She was so oddly interested in pop culture, quick as a whip, and endearingly curious about every detail of his life – down to his equally strange family. It was impossible not to want to be her friend.

“Thanks Louis,” she hummed when he walked her to the door at the end of the night. “I had a nice time.”

“Of course,” he replied, sad to see her going. “I owed you that at the very least.”

She made a funny face before turning to a small, quiet smile. “Sure, tough guy. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And then she pressed the sweetest kiss to the hollow of his cheek.

And then she walked into her house and disappeared.

Louis stood stunned on her front step for a moment, the heat from her lips still warm on his cheek, the sight of her blonde curls vanishing behind the door fresh in his mind. A smile blossomed on his features, growing and growing as his heart swelled. He whistled all the way back to his bike and hummed the whole way home.