That Summer

The next time Paul encountered Evangeline was a week later at the graduation ceremony.
She was wearing her white graduation gown with the matching cap, a golden tassel hanging into her face which she kept moving nonchalantly, as if it didn't bother her.

Evangeline spent the time before the actual ceremony talking to her friends and ignoring Paul's eyes on her.

"God, Evangeline, he's staring again," Amber scoffed.
"Just ignore him," she shrugged her thin shoulders and allowed her eyes to skim over the hoards of other seniors around her. She ignored the boys staring back.
"How long has he been obsessed with you? Like three years?" Lauren asked.
"Try like ten," Amber mumbled.
"Drop it, guys. He's not worth it," Evangeline sighed.

She fidgeted uncomfortably in her robe. She hated the stupid hats they had to wear and the way everyone kept commenting on her bright red three inch pumps as if they were the work of a god.

Amber and Lauren dropped the subject of Paul rather hastily, quick to please the head of their "group." Evangeline was the reason they'd ever reached any sort of height of popularity in their school. They wouldn't jeopardize it, even on this day when the school year, and their high school career, was technically over.

"When do you find out about the ballet companies?" Lauren's disposition brightened a bit at the finding of a subject Evangeline wouldn't mind so much.
"Today. When I get back from graduation," a small smile slipped its way onto the porcelain face.

Paul, who was still across the school courtyard, had his dark eyes fixed on Evangeline's small frame. Martin, John and Bryan were holding a steady conversation to which the fourth friend was completely oblivious. It took some time, but after a bit Martin followed Paul's line of vision to the petite blonde.

"Seriously, dude. It's getting creepy," he mumbled.
"What?" Paul turned back slowly as if awakening from a dream.
"You drooling over my sister," Bryan rolled his eyes.
"I'm not drooling," his eyes made a full 360 while his fingers simultaneously felt at the corners of his mouth for a lie.
"Close enough," John mumbled but Paul's eyes were already turned away and back to the petite Donahue across the way.

Bryan only shook his head and started up a completely separate conversation, implying to his friends that Paul was, in fact, hopeless and to even bother reasoning with him was a lost cause.

John and Martin followed suit and soon enough, Paul was left alone in his own little world.
Back across the yard, Evangeline's skin was beginning to crawl. She hated the feeling of being watched like that. It was different from how eyes felt on her while she was performing. When she was on stage, she was playing a character - she wasn't herself. But she was just herself when someone was watching her. She was just herself when Paul was watching her.

And Paul has always been able to get under her skin.

"Come on, Evangeline. We've got to take our places," Amber told her.

Nodding silently, she stole one last glance at Paul who was staring right back. He didn't make a move to take his eyes from her.

She only shook her head and got in line.

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Paul had been invited back to the Donahue's home after graduation.

Mr. and Mrs. Donahue had always been under the illusion that Evangeline and Paul were great friends. This was mostly due to the fact that Evangeline pretended to be nice when they were around and, well, Paul was just a lost puppy.

But the last thing on Evangeline's mind as she walked through the door of her home and shed her robe was the tall boy following her through the threshold. Instead she hurried into the kitchen where the dropped the mail and sifted through it quickly.

Everyone in the room knew exactly what she was looking for. The envelope that would be filled with ballet companies interested in her with contact information. And there it was.
Her future.

They all surrounded her; her parents beside the kitchen window, Bryan was leaning against the wall and Paul was standing in front of the sink. As she opened the envelope, they watched her face for any trace of emotion. And sure enough she pulled out one, two, three sheets of paper full of contacts.

"Holy shit," Bryan mumbled under his breath in disbelief as his sister and mother embraced in a tight hug.

Paul saw his friend's eyes light up with pride as he watched his baby sister celebrating her acceptance to however many companies were on those sheets of paper.

"I didn't even know Japan had a ballet company," Bryan commented as he scanned the sheet he'd picked up from the ground after Evangeline had dropped it.
"It's all there, Bry! All of them," she smiled brightly. "Paris, Moscow, New York, Los Angeles, Quebec, Milan. Everywhere."

The two Donahue siblings hugged at that moment and for a second Paul could see them as they used to be, before Evangeline worried over her image and before Bryan pretended not to care.

It was one of the few moments in life that Paul realized it just wasn't his place. After he stole one last glance at the petite blonde jumping around in her red heels and white dress, Paul exited the house out the back door quickly and quietly.

And as Evangeline spun around the kitchen, basking in glory and congratulations, she was a bit confused to see a certain brown eyed boy missing from the room altogether.