Freshmen Dorms

Alexis pulled her legs up against her chest and rested her knee on them, giving Evelyn a "seriously?" kinda look as she blew hair out from tickling her face.

Evelyn ignored Alexis' look. "So how about simplicity here. I think Luke made his point clear. Most of it. Now thing is, we need to fix this. Luke, you can't say mad at her forever. It's unreasonable. Why drag out something from the past and twist it into this ugly mess?" She'd learned the hard way that that was too painful to go through again.

Luke exhaled, taking his sweet time and she resisted an urge to slap him. He finally said, "She keeps messing up Admit it, she's a judgmental bitch. Even James said so." He shot Evelyn a look that implied he'd deliberately brought his roommate up. If she was going to harass him, he'd even the score and Evelyn tried not to flinch.

She swallowed and glanced at Alexis. "You can defend yourself anytime now. No insults, just explanations."

"...Yeah, I am judgmental some-..most of the time but lately, so are you."Alexis replied lightly, gripping onto the ends of her sleeves as she glanced over at him. "You judged me that night at the party before I could explain, ya know..."

Luke frowned at her. "I judged Ev too when I found out. I'm sorry, Lyn, " he interjected to the redhead standing silently, "but when a girl's been through shit like you did, Alexis, and then I see her dressed like that on the street, I come to conclusions. It's human nature. You, you judged Ev without seeing that damned video. You judged her before that too, I hear -"

"Hold up," Evelyn said quietly, and she swallowed visibly again. Luke felt a stab of guilt. He shouldn't have brought James up. He was deliberately hitting her low to throw her off. And it partially worked. Which made him feel worse. He doubted that video had been real but he still wasn't sure whose side he was on.

"This isn't about me at all," Evelyn said. "If you're mad at her for something she did to me - you're a half-wit." She sounded more like herself again. "It's between me and her and you don't need to choose sides."

I'm not," he protested. "I just feel like her attitude to you solidified my view of her."

"You didn't think so last Tuesday," Evelyn snapped, finally releasing her Irish temper. She wanted to punch this boy. "Why now, all of a sudden? Why when she needed her friends after what...what happened last weekend?"

She shot Alexis an apologetic glance. Luke was still a moment and then said, "I just...I felt bad, but I felt like...if I showed up at the hospital, I'd be showing something other than what I sometimes felt but ignored."

"You've been listening to him," Evelyn blurted and then looked like she wished she'd shut up. She continued in true Evelyn style anyways. "Just because you had a few itches, you ditched her? So tell me, if I tell you exactly what I'm doing, which is worse than you realize, to James, would you ditch me too?"

Luke bit his lip. He was suddenly finding it suffocating in here. He glanced at Nova to buy time and then said to Alexis, "So, maybe I did judge. But you brought it on yourself. Ev's not the only one acting out. I'm just disgusted by all the things I'm understanding about your personality that I don't like."

Alexis was pretty sure all color from her face- and possibly the rest of her body- was gone. She swallowed visibly, and fidgeted with the ends of her sleeves.

"And you are starting to sound more and more like James." She retorted calmly as she could sum up, which was easier then what she was expecting. She swallowed hard again and gripped firmly onto the ends of her sleeves to stop her fidgeting as she stared at Luke. "You're... disgusted?"

He didn't break eye contact, saying steadily, "Yes. And the thing is, you seem to never learn."

Alexis swallowed visibly again and lowered her eyes to her lap instead. She nodded slightly, not sure what to else to say, and if she was, she sure didn't know it and it really wouldn't come out.

"Don't you believe in second chances?" Evelyn decided to interject, feeling the room temperature drop to the negatives. Before they all froze from sheer awkwardness, she added, "Lucas, you're always the forgiving type. She's human, she messed up. Where's that decent, uninfluenced boy inside you gone?"

Luke threw her a scathing glance. "He grew up, learned second chances are bull and changed his attitude."

"Why? Just because she was human enough to fall into that ridiculous teenage-infatuation moment?"

Luke snorted. "She's not the only one suffering through that. The rest of the world didn't kick aside everything. And she does it again, time and again, to you, admit it."

Evelyn rolled her eyes. "I'm not playing witness for you. This is a case based on instances you never got over, apparently. So okay, she's flawed. What about you, you and your myriad of flings, huh? She might have fallen for one guy and drifted off, but you're no better than....than..." She bit her lip when her stomach knotted, and quickly went on. "You ditched Ashlee, even if you didn't mean to. Then it was TIff, then maybe Haley - "

"Haley wasn't involved," Luke interrupted, aggravation in his voice. Evelyn plowed on.

"Then those girls in Seattle - "

"Hey!" Luke exclaimed, sounding livid now. "I went out with most of them once. Don't pin James' bad attitude on me."

"You're a promiscuous bastard," Evelyn informed him irritably, feeling her temper spike at the mention of Luke's roommate. But at least James hadn't led on a slew of girls. "You can't fault her for sticking to one guy, even if she did get carried away."

"Carried away? That's not even the problem. It's her repeating that ditch-whenever-she-feels-like-it attitude that bugs me."

Nova whined softly and padded across the room to nudge Evelyn's ankles, sensing her worsening mood.

Alexis gnawed hard at her bottom lip, not daring to look up as she listened in very closely. She was starting to taste copper from her lips and winced as they stung but continued, it being the only thing she could do other then feel sick and fidget.

Evelyn decided she'd had enough James references to last that day - preferably forever. She straightened from her slouch against the window, scooped up Nova in her arms and said quietly, "Do me a favor, Lucas? Don't drag this out like James and I did. You know how it'll end." She swallowed the lump in her throat and stalked to the door, grabbing her purse and Nova's leash on the way out as she shut the door behind her.

***

Luke gritted his teeth and then felt a little nauseous. He didn't envy James for what he'd seen him go through. And he had no real inclination to be in that position.

Instead of reconciling with Alexis, I've managed to piss off both her and Evelyn, he mused. Way to mend things.

He sighed and sat back, cracking his knuckles as he stretched. "You know what, I'd rather not be in the screwed up position she and James are in. And she was right, I did mess up. But you need to learn to stop blaming other people, stuffing your opinion in their faces and getting mad over things that don't concern you. As a bonus, it'd be nice if you stopped ditching but that's just optional."

"Everyone else constantly gets mad over James and Evelyn. So what- I should just keep my mouth shut?" Alexis said quietly, rubbing at her eyes. "If that'll fix things then I'll do it- honest, Lucas, I'll do whatever to fix this because I'm sick of it and I'm sure Evelyn's sick of hearing it... and no one likes it when you act like James either."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not acting like James. Why do you two keep saying that? Honestly, it's like an anti-James association in here." He shook his head, running a hand through his hair in agitation as he stared her down.

"All James did was tell me not to be such a pushover. And that's okay. I'm just mad because I'd rather not fake niceness to someone I'd rather stay away from lest she turn around and bitch at me about something she didn't find up to her standards."

Alexis flinched and just nodded a little, resting her chin on her knees. She still felt kinda sick, and paleish. "..Okay." She muttered, frowning now as she thought of what to say. "But you DO sound like him... you both have that "screw someone before they screw you over" thing going on. And you didn't use too. You'll probably hate me or dislike me more or something if I say this but I honestly do miss you."

Luke's head shot up and he threw her a bewildered look, momentarily derailing off his spiel. His eyes narrowed. "Funny way of showing it." But then he remembered what Evelyn had said before she left.

Was he really headed down the same way James had been? James had hit a dead end so hard, he'd fallen apart. His caustic attitude had been a major factor, Luke figured.

He bit the inside of his cheek and added, "I want to fix things. I'm not trying to come off sounding like a jerk - that's just how I feel inside minus the filtering. And I'm not trying to screw you over. You already went ahead and did that to yourself."

***

Evelyn was exiting the lobby as she checked her Facebook. Ashlee had finally responded to Evelyn's excited Wall post.

Only, not quite the way Evelyn had expected.

Evelyn Mathesson OMG, you won't believe this! You will die when I tell you.
September 16 at 6:37pm · Comment · Like · See Wall-to-Wall

Ashlee Marie Brooks you got engaged xD?

What. The. Hell? Evelyn's mind blanked as she tried to get the joke. She didn't get it.

And then she flicked back to her newsfeed. And froze in horror. Nova jerked on his leash, whimpering, and she loosened her grip.

Jake Daniel Salazar is engaged to Evelyn Mathesson.
<3 16 hours ago · Comment · Like

"Oh my God," Evelyn whispered. That was the only thing she could think. Her mind was paused in a ridiculously hungover state.

"He's finally lost it," she informed Nova with forced calm. She had this crazy urge to run upstairs, kick in Jake's door and smash his face into the window repeatedly until the glass cracked or his head did. Whichever came first. The latter was preferable.

She fisted her hands, momentarily forgetting about James, and inhaled several times quickly. While Nova nosed her foot worriedly, clearly assuming she was about to keel over.

This was not funny. At all.

Did James see it? she wondered. He wouldn't believe it. Then again, he seemed to have decided she was out of it.

"Oh my God," she repeated softly, staring down at her screen. On a whim, she typed in James' first name in the search box and then clicked down on his name when it appeared in the pull-down menu.

James Darko [Add as Friend]

What. The. Hell? She was repeating thoughts lately. She was so in shock.

But honestly, she didn't expect anything else. If she was honest, she'd been wondering how much more she'd have to push him for him to completely shove her out of his life, both in the physical world and the Internet.

She ignored the sinking feeling inside and focused back on that bastard Spaniard. This was payback, she was positive. She should have expected he wouldn't take her harassing him at work without a comeback.

Evelyn gritted her teeth. Jake would be at work, she figured. But she wasn't sure so she called Seth.

Seth informed her, with a mysteriously choking voice (he was hiding laughter, she could tell, and she remembered Seth was excellent at hacking accounts. He'd probably helped Jake. Assholes.) that Jake was home. Specifically, he was lazing around on the couch.

"I'll step out," Seth offered, laughingly. Evelyn decided that would be a good idea. She didn't want witnesses.

She turned and headed back upstairs, tucking Nova in her jacket.

Alexis felt herself shrinking and she eyed her bracelet, gritting her teeth with frustration from everything at the moment. "..Point taken.." She said quietly.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's helpful. I'm not going to try until I feel like it's even worth it."

"... It'd help a lot more if you would.." Alexis muttered, frowning even more as she stared down at her feet.

Luke studied her and then snorted. "Quit playing victim. It's not very you. And you kind of suck at it."

"I wasn't, smartass, I was trying to keep calm." Alexis finally snapped, narrowing her eyes to glare over at him.

"Calm?" Luke snorted again, he couldn't help it. "You and Evelyn, the day you two actually manage to reign in your tempers and bad attitudes would be the day Ash acknowledges she can't sing."

"Just because we're not as calm as Ashlee, or some blond dunce, doesn't mean you have to use it against us. At least we, usually, stand up for ourselves. But we're not entirely cold to our friends unless WE think we have a legit reason... and you know, Luke, the only thing with judging Evelyn about the video and all, what was I suppose to think? Not to throw her under the bus- but she came up with the whole idea of doing something daring or different and I tried it and I obviously didn't like it by the end of the night." Alexis paused to take a breath.

"She came home drunk or high, and she IS changing too, you and I aren't the only ones, okay? If you stopped looking from being torn between the two "best friends" you'll actually see how much wrong she's doing and how much she actually IS paying for it. And sometimes with other people you've GOT to put them at rock bottom before they'll actually realize it. But this thing between me and Evelyn IS BETWEEN US. It shouldn't effect US and by my previous mistake, I've learn that, okay? So let. it. go." Alexis finally ranted out, eyes blazing and teary a little, which happened when she was angry and didn't actually feel like bursting out.

"I'm not TRYING to fuck myself over, actually, but everyone makes mistakes, everyone does something stupid and it leads up to the end when they are, who the hell they are. I, right now, know that I'm not a good person, or friend, or anything else. But, I. WANT. to. work. at. it." She hissed, staring him down. "And you being cold and shoving it in my face all the time isn't HELPING because all I end up wanting to do is punch you till your jaw is lopsided like Josh Hutcherson's jaw." She paused to take another angry breath.

"Because for some reason- now that I've actually talked to him- you make me think of what James might have been like when he was a kid, or young teenager again. If someone does ONE wrong thing that you don't like, then fuck them. Not everyone goes by what you want, okay? And I've learned that too, I'm TRYING if you would give me the fucking chance to GET there." Alexis got up and poked his chest hard as if it'd do anything.

"And now I sound like a victim but it's the truth and then again maybe it isn't because I'll admit I needed to get this off my fucking chest and just yell at someone and you are the only person here! Hell, I'd probably yell at Rose, or Nova, or or.. Connor if he was here!"She said, jabbing his chest again with her sharp nails.

Luke blurted out the first words that came to his tongue. "Are you serious right now?"

***

Evelyn headed down the hallway, nonchalantly patting Nova's head, and knocked on Jake's suite door.

"Yes I'm serious! Why- what now?" Alexis frowned, crossing her arms.

Luke refrained from telling her he'd absorbed and simultaneously forgotten half of what she'd said. "I mean, it isn't James' fault, like you and Ev seem to conclude. And uhh...." He tried to remember. "I would try, but you clearly don't seem to mind things being as they are."

"Wh- After JUST saying I MISS you and that I'm tired of this and want to try and move on too, you get THAT out of all of it?!" Alexis blurted out, livid.