Freshmen Dorms

Evelyn got up and shut her window carefully, ensuring the lock was on firmly. She turned and walked out of her room.

Her guard cracked apart. Her hands were shaking. Jake might not be certain but Evelyn was one hundred percent positive he'd cheated.

The hickey on his neck and the reddish lipstick mark below his left ear had been all the evidence she'd needed.

James didn't know what it was like to be cheated on. Jake did. Or at least, she thought he understood how much it hurt when you blindly trusted someone and they burned you in return. Rachel had obviously not taught him his lesson.

Evelyn knew she could never bring herself to cheat on someone or betray a trust given to her. She'd never be able to live with the guilt. Jake clearly could - he only appeared hurt that she wasn't giving him another shot. He didn't appear guilty in the least. That hurt more than she'd thought it would.

And in the state he'd left her in, she knew she could never do what he'd done to her to anyone else.

It hurt too damn much.

He knew she'd been paranoid already over James. And he'd just stung her again, if possible, even worse than James ever could. Because Evelyn had never let James in as much as she'd let Jake. And now everything they'd had was destroyed because Jake hadn't cared enough to watch for the consequences of his actions. If he'd thought about it, he'd have realized getting drunk about his friends would only lead to disaster. But all he'd cared about was having fun.

The first person she'd ever let in, in so many years, beside Luke and Ashlee, had shown her exactly why she shouldn't have.

She knew she would never be able to trust Jake, or any other guy for that matter, for a long time.

Jake had set her right back to where she'd been post-James. That paranoid, still-vulnerable, guarded statue.

Now she just had to wait till her guard fell and she broke down. She wasn't about to do that now. Thanks to James, she could catch herself. She stepped out of her room, leaving Nova there, and ensured she her a calm face on before walking into the living room. She flashed a genuine smile at the twins. She had no beef with them, after all.

And unlike Jake Salazar, they probably had more sense than to get wasted on a night out with their friends when there was a chance said friends might try to persuade them into doing things they shouldn't be.

"Hey, sorry, something came up so I just got off the phone," Evelyn lied, sitting down on a chair by the table since the twins were on the couch and Ashlee had the single-seater. "How's it going?"

Ashton threw his brother a Look.

***

Seth rubbed his head and shifted the ice pack, groaning softly. His head hurt so damn bad.

The suite was quiet. He sat up and carefully got off his bed to wobble out into the hallway, puzzled. Lucifer was seated on the couch. Where had the twins vanished? They weren't planning to go to their 'rents this weekend, he was positive.

"Jake?" Seth called, puzzled, as he untied the tie-bandanna around his forehead. He cringed and a hiss of pain escaped him when the ice pack fell to the floor. His head stung sharply. "Fuck...." He walked slowly toward Jake's room, swaying because of a weird ache in the back of his head. "Dude, you there?"

Antonio shrugged at his brother and sort of fiddled with his fingers, and cleared his throat, "Not too much you know just hanging out, everything okay on your end?"

***

Jake heard Seth's voice and got up out of his bed, he went to open it and saw the exhausted looking blond there, Jake didn't know whether or not to be mad at Seth.

Sure he drank with him, but its not like Seth forced him too. Jake could have easily turned away alcohol its not like he was a full blown alcoholic, this really was no one's fault but himself, Jake licked his dry lips and looked down at Seth, "What's up dude?"

He figured he might as well tell him but Jake wasn't exactly sure how he was feeling about all of this. He felt hurt and guilty like crazy for betraying Evelyn's trust like that and for pretty much ending everything. But at the same time, he felt numb like nothing was really effecting or sinking into him.

Evelyn wondered why the usually composed ANtonio was looking unsettled. She shrugged the bare shoulder of her asymetric shirt. "I'm good. Wasn't honestly expecting to see you guys here, though. I mean..." She trailed off, lifting a hand to fiddle somewhat awkwardly with her circular pendant.

Ashton cracked a faint grin. "The whole Jake-Seth-James mess? Nah, that's between them. Tony and I prefer to keep things simple, drama-free. There's way too much tension already withotu us being dramatic on you guys."

Evelyn shot Ashlee a "you better date this kid" glance, eyes widening just a little. "Oh, well, that's really good to hear. Drama-free sounds so nice," she said wistfully.

Ashton nodded and then glanced at Ashlee. "So what're you guys up to later?"

Nova waddled down the hall and paused beside Evelyn's chair, lying down at her feet with a sock in his mouth.

***

Seth blinked uncertainly at Jake. "Uhh....you okay?" he asked warily. Jake looked like shit - not physically, but Seth could read Jake's eyes well enough to see he wasn't feeling on top of the world. "What, did you bang a grenade?" Seth quipped, leaning against the doorway.

"Umm later? Well I'm going to Times Square with James and Luke, we kind of wanted to just walk around and explore a bit. I know Ev told me she has homework, but why what did you have in mind?" Ashlee asked the boys.

"Well we were thinking that if you weren't busy, if you both would like to hang out with us you know? Kind of just go out have fun, maybe eat. But if you have plans today that's cool, whenever we're free we can arrange something and just chill you know? Move past all this stupid drama." Antonio said firmly, and then smiling at the girls. Hoping that Evelyn would maybe even consider it since he had managed to break off other dates.

But with Jake being over her, he didn't have to worry about dying.

***

"I don't remember..." Jake's voice trailed off, his memory failed him again as he tried to remember so he just stopped, "But I do know that I cheated on Evelyn. I'm sure you had figured it out on Friday, even after all the drama that caused us with Luke and James and the rest of them. Evelyn and I were gonna try dating in secret since you all hated the idea of us being together, and I screwed it up. The minute I was away from her I got really fucking wasted and probably hooked up with an ugly skank." Jake's voice was cold, but it was firm as he spoke.

Jake laughed dryly, moving away from his door he glanced out his window and looked back at Seth, "Wow, it was really funny. Thinking that I could even be faithful for a day. Hell you guys would have totally won the bet for real if we had put money on this. I mean this is really no one's fault buy my own. All of you told me to stay away from her, and I didn't. I made my friendships with you, and Connor, and the twins really awkward, and almost lost people as friends as well. And I ended up screwing it up anyway. What a joke, its so hilarious. My life this last month is just so fucking laugh worthy." Jacob's eyes stung when he looked back out the window, his eyes had still been a little sensitive from the light because of his hangover.

Evelyn bit her bottom lip, staring down at Nova, who lifted his head and blinked big, brown eyes up at her. "Sure, we can hang out," she said finally, looking up at Antonio nonchalantly. The twins seemed liek fun.

***

Ashton cursed. Hang out? Damn it, Tony, specify! He cleared his throat, shooting his brother a "you're a moron" glance. "What Tony really means is...he's afraid you'll bite his head off if he calls it a date," Ashton blurted out helpfully. "Even though that's what it sort of is."

Evelyn's head shot up and her green eyes looked momentarily stunned as she looked over at Antonio.

Ashton shrugged at Ashlee meekly. "So what do you guys say? Double with us?"

***

Seth was, for once, slack-jawed. Dating in secret? Cheating? What?! "You....you were going out with Red?" he exclaimed, honestly shocked. He'd assumed Jake would have just gone over to her place to apologize or some gay shit but...

"Oh fuck...." Seth ran a hand through his hair, wincing as it touched his bruise. "Ah, hell, I...." He bit his lip, not really sure what to say for once. He was actually surprised by how guilty he suddenly felt. He knew where Jake stood when it came to cheaters. Especially after Rachel.

"Jake," he said hesitantly, "I didn't just randomly challenge you to a beer chugging contest....I, well, we all sort of thought you getting piss-drunk and hooking up with a girl would help you clear your head....but I wouldn't have done it if I thought you promised to be committed, man! Why the fuck would you commit to her anyway?!"

Antonio caught Evelyn's look and gave her a hopeful look back, and he smiled, "It would be fun. And I promise I won't break it off again." He laughed lightly.

Ashlee threw a look Evelyn's way, she thought it was cute that they came over to ask, and they were both saying how they wanted to hang out with them. They both did seem like fun and they weren't insane party goers like the other boys, Ashlee smiled her eyes lit up, "Yeah that sounds like it would be fun."

***

Jacob remained silent for a moment just gazing out the window, the gray clouds were chasing the white ones away, he bit his lip and turned to face Seth leaning against his closed window.

"Because, nothing mattered. When I was with Evelyn, when you guys didn't see us fight or bicker. We would get along, and she is the first girl I let in without really knowing. I let my guard down around her at first when all of this was fake and we couldn't stand each other. When I was with her on Friday we just lay there on her bed and it was just... so right. I didn't want to sleep with other girls, I didn't care about going out to drink, I liked being there with her, and you know what. I don't want you feeling guilty. It doesn't matter if that was your plan all along. I guess it was better it happened now instead of somewhere down the line." Jake paused, taking in a deep breath inside everything just sort of felt hollow and just cold, so cold.

"When we weren't fighting and we would just sit there, talking to each other. Or she would hold my hand, I saw a part of myself, an old part of myself that I thought was long gone after Rachel came in and screwed me up. I hate, this version of me. I hate that I lose my temper quicker, and that I drink just to mask all of these stupid problems and emotions." Jake scratched at his arm, and continued, "But they never go away. They're always right there waiting for me when I sober up, usually about ten times worse then they were before because I did something stupid when I was drunk."

"I know you don't get it Seth, I know you don't get why I would want to be with just one girl, or why anyone puts themselves through hell in a relationship only to end up breaking up. I don't expect you to get it. Its just..." Jake sighed running his hands through his hair like he often did.

"Whatever. Don't worry about it alright? Its over with." Jake said calmly.

Seth opened his mouth, and yet again, was rendered speechless. If he were honest, he'd known something like this would end up happening. Whenever Jake was around Evelyn, he seemed to fire up (often in anger, but at least he was lively so that was all that mattered). Seth groaned mentally.

He sucked at consolation speeches. "Man," he paused and threw his hands up in the air before blurting out, "this is just fucked up. You know it was either you messing up or her cheating on you, right? It wasn't going to last even if you had been a saint. I don't trust her." That was the reason he hadn't wanted Jake getting too attached to her - Seth honestly didn't trust the fickle redhead.

***

If Evelyn had even paused to think about Antonio's request, she would have said no. So before she could rethink this, she answered, "Sure."

And then she wondered what she was playing at. Her mind was already at straining point with Jake's betrayal fresh inside her. She couldn't handle another plunge into the dating world this quickly.

But keeping herself busy would mean not thinking about him. Hell, she was suddenly considering going with Ashlee to hang with James and Luke. James' sneering attitude would only distract her from the gaping wound in her chest and that was all she wanted. Jake didn't deserve her crying over him.

But then she was an idiot for trusting him so blindly. Sure, he'd caught her after her fallout witih James, but then he'd turned right around and dropped her. Evelyn had only managed to keep from hitting rock bottom because she'd already suspected something from the Facebook feed the previous evening. Jake just had to confirm it for her. Her heart had already been aching all night.

Jake's friends didn't need to post false messages on his wall. They had no reason to assume anyone else would need to be informed of his manwhore ways. They had genuinely been congratulating him. A wave of sickness passed over Evelyn and she closed her eyes for a moment, afraid they would tear up. They didn't.

Evelyn snapped out of her daze and glanced at Antonio, flashing him a strained smile. "You better not, Tony."

"So if you guys are busy today, then, um, what works?" Ashton asked Ashlee.

"I'm off classes on Thursdays. And I can shift my work schedule to free myself up." Evelyn wanted to keep the weekend free for the horrible Love Potion stupidity.

"Thursday works for me, I'm out of my classes by two." Ashlee agreed, trying to sound collected but she was excited her and Evelyn were going out together with the boys. This was what they needed.

Antonio smiled, "I'm down for Thursday evening, I'm back by five and we can go out around six, seven?" Antonio suggested, although he felt so much better now knowing that Evelyn had accepted.

***

"Nothing fucked up about it, I did something stupid so I'm paying for it. That's life." Jake muttered quietly, he didn't know what else could be about this situation. It was doomed from the start him and Evelyn.

Evelyn simply nodded, trying to muster up some excitement. About two weeks ago, she'd honestly have been ecstatic. Now she just felt like she was pushing herself into trouble.

Ashton glanced down as Nova got up and walked over to him, sniffing his feet. "'Sup, boy?" he asked, reaching down and carefully ruffling the pup's head. Nova perked up one ear and yipped in reply before moving past him and tensing slightly when he reached Antonio.

"Dude, it's official, animals hate you," Ashton stated flatly, amused. He glanced at the girls, a half-grin curling on his lips. "Tony here got attacked face-first by Luce this morning. Which is, even by Tony's standards, fucked up." Evelyn frowned disapprovingly and he wondered what he'd said. "Because Lucifer normally needs some provoking, even if it's just you putting a toe too close to his personal space. He was just weirdly riled up and gave Tones that beautiful scar across his cheek."

Evelyn winced in sympathy. "Oh, God, I know about those! That cat tortured me and Alexis so many times sneaking in here till Seth learned to lock his damn window!" She remembered her first week here and shuddered as she leaned forward in her seat to get a better look at Antonio's cheek. She winced. "Damn, that looks painful. Did you put antiseptic or something on it? Who knows where Luce's paws have been."

"I think he just washed it," Ashton commented, nudging his brother as Nova glowered low in his throat.

***

Seth pursed his lips and rested his hands on his head, fingers clasped together as he thought. "We'll find you a new girl, if that's what you want," he suggested meekly, feeling bad all over again. But he honestly still didn't see why Jake would assume Evelyn would commit to him. "Dude, no offense, that girl was fickle. How can you be sure SHE wasn't going to cheat on you with, say, her gazillion exes?"

Antonio stifled a grunt and caught his brothers expression and looked up at Evelyn, "Um no, I didn't but do you think I need any? I'm pretty bad at that whole First Aid stuff."

***

Jake shrugged, "I don't know Seth, she could have. But I trusted her, and she trusted me. We both did wrong there. You don't need to find me another girl or any for that fact. Because now I really don't wanna be around any of them, even just to hook up." Jake said seriously, and decided that maybe he should go clean himself up and quit looking like he had been dragged through barbed wire.

"I'm gonna shower dude." Jake mumbled, grabbing a pair of his pajamas and a towel, before crossing the hall to go to the bathroom.

Seth quit feeling like crap when he remembered it was Sunday and he had nothing to do. "Yo, let's do something today!" he called after Jake. "Take your mind off shit."

***

Evelyn frowned and remembered dabbing alcohol on her and Alexis' cuts in the bathroom. They had both done it so often that it was now a damn ritual.

"We have rubbing alcohol in the medicine cabinet. You want me to get some for you?" she asked, getting to her feet.

"Would it be easier to just have him go there so he isn't dropping alcohol all over the place?" Ashton asked logically. Evelyn shrugged and gestured at Antonio to follow her, stepping into the hall and heading for the bathroom. Nova cocked his head, gave Antonio an "I dare you" sort of growl and padded after her.

"Yikes, is it just me or does Nova seem to hate Tony extra today?" Ashton remarked before Antonio could follow the redhead. "Lucifer too. Must be something in the air. Anti-Tiggerism."

Antonio got up following Evelyn and stepping around Nova, he really didn't understand why every animal on the planet was hating on him!? Unless Nova was picking up on some weird territorial Jake vibe, dogs were weird like that, "Man the pets just seem to hate me today, first Luce now Nova. Not that he was really to fond of me to begin with anyway." Antonio snorted following Evelyn to their bathroom.

Ashlee giggled, "Anti-Tiggerism?" That sounds almost violent, yet entertaining at the same time. Nova is probably being protective like a brother, but a lot smaller and more fur."

***

Jake stopped in the doorway of the bathroom and faced Seth, "I'm not really feeling like anything, I was supposed to visit my folks but that didn't happen. So I don't know what did you have in mind?" Jake asked Seth anyway.

"Oh besides I think it just might be me and you anyway, The twins went to ask Evelyn and Ashlee out. I don't know if its today or not,but if you wondered why Tony was screaming earlier was because I used Lucifer as a weapon." Jake confessed nonchalantly.

Seth's eyes widened and he stared at Jake. "You did what - why?! Duuuude, they woke me up for that!" he exclaimed, outraged. And then he dimpled devilishly, and held out his fist to Jake in a fist punch. "Nice move! You bastard."

***

"Territory, doesn't want another male moving in on it," Ashton surmised, amused. He leaned back in his seat, eyes on Ashlee. "Speaking of, um, James and Luke would be okay with this, right?"

***

Nova had let Evelyn walk ahead into the bathroom and turned around in the doorway, baring his small teeth at Antonio - until Evelyn scooped the pup into her arms and flashed the Italian an apologetic smile.

"I'm gonna go put him in my room. The alcohol and gauze are in the cabinet." She pointed with one of Nova's paws and he whined unhappily. Evelyn lowered her head and kissed the top of his furry head before walking past Antonio and placing Nova down on the floor of her room. She handed him a squeaky toy and walked out, grabbing her keycard and closing her door so it autolocked.

She poked her head into the bathroom. "You all right in there?"

Jake cracked a smile and returned the fist punch to Seth, although he did feel kind of bad. It didn't matter Antonio had committed serious robbery, right after him and Evelyn broke up too, not cool. "Had to do what I had to do."

***

"Yeah, it wasn't you guys they had beef with. It was Seth and Jake. You guys are cool, more like neutral I suppose. Don't even worry about it." Ashlee reassured Ashton, the twins really did have nothing to worry about. Although even as much as James wanted to hate Evelyn, he would probably act a little like Nova was right now around Antonio.

***

Antonio had watched Nova attempt to threaten him with his tiny teeth, although Nova had bitten him before and actually broke skin so Antonio figured he'd try not to further piss off the animal kingdom, he tried to clean himself up but opened up the alcohol and Evelyn had sort of startled him when she poked her head back in to check on him and the bottle slipped spilling some onto the floor.

"My bad!" Antonio pulled a face grabbing a small towel to soak it up, the bathroom smelling like rubbing alcohol.

"But Tigger still went," Seth concluded grimly. He pursed his lips, frowning. Antonio didn't know what Jake had told him. "You think she'll say yes?"

***

Ashton grinned. "Grazie a dio for that." He glanced at the hallway and then back at Ashlee. "So where would you guys like to go? Tones and I can play hosts for you guys. Show you the City."

***

"It's cool," Evelyn said, amused. She walked over and knelt down, grabbing the towel from Antonio - and her head collided with a loud thud with his. "Ow!" She fell back and hastily ducked away, massaging her forehead. Smooth, Ev.

"Sorry!" She grimaced up at him, dabbing the alcohol up carefully without dropping any on her shorts or legs.

"Ow!" Antonio yelped, dropping back for a moment and rubbing his now aching head. First Lucifer, then Nova and now this!? Was Jake transferring his shitty luck to him!

"Sorry!" He apologized clumsily again.

***

Ashlee smiled, the Italian accent was very cute. Boy her and Evelyn sure did get lucky with these two!

"Yeah it sounds like it would be a lot of fun, I feel like since I moved here I haven't seen that much and--" Ashlee was interrupted when she heard some noise from the bathroom and raised a dark eyebrow at Ashton.

"Uh oh. Sounds like Tigger's spring came loose." Ashlee giggled.

***

Jacob shrugged, she made it obvious that she wanted nothing to do with him and he wasn't sure if she would be the type to dive right back in after something like this, "I don't know dude. Maybe, maybe not." Jake hated Evelyn for this sometimes because like himself she was hard to read especially with her damn stoic face.

Her beautiful stoic face.

Ashton wanted to make strangle motions but then figured he wouldn't freak Ashlee out by acting like a psycho. God damn it, he better not fuck this up for me!

"Your friend's kinda scary," he confessed to Ashlee. "No offense, she's one of those unapproachable girls a guy is kind of afraid to touch." Evelyn was a classic Vivian Leigh type, almost coldly stoic, and her distant air really didn't help make her any more amiable looking. Ashton kind of thought he'd lucked out in this situation - he got the friendlier girl.

***

Evelyn flashed Antonio a smile and stood up, rinsing off the towel in the sink. "It was my fault, Tony. Here," she draped the towel on the edge of the sink and turned to him, stepping over and taking the bottle of rubbing alcohol from him. She grabbed a cotton swab and placed it over the open neck of the bottle, flipped the bottle upside down and then straightened it and placed it on the counter, holding the wet swab in her hand.

She gestured at Antonio to come closer and lean down. "I don't wanna stand up on my toes and accidentally smash this into your eye...I'm kind of sharing the bad luck run right now too."

***

Seth snapped his fingers in front of Jake's zoned out expression. Jake's eyes had momentarily softened. "You all right?" Seth asked - yet again, feeling somewhat worried now.

"She kind of is at first, but I swear once you know her she's actually nice. Ev just isn't so great at meeting people. But I'm sure your brother knows that otherwise he wouldn't be dying in the bathroom with her." Ashlee smiled at Ashton, wondering what exactly was going on in the bathroom although things sounded like they had calmed down, so she wasn't too worried.

***

Antonio laughed lowering himself to Evelyn's level, so she could do her work better. "Is this better?" He asked casting his brown eyes up into her green ones.

***


Jake shook his head, snapping out of his mini trance he had put himself into. "Hmm what? Yeah I'm fine. Just kind of got distracted." He said, tapping his fingers on the wooden frame in the doorway.

Ashton cringed. Dying in the bathroom sounded like something his twin would do. God damn it, Tony. Ashton scratched his ear, shifting on his seat. "Yeah, well, Tones is havin' a bad day. He usually isn't so bad at meeting girls."

***

Evelyn felt her face color slightly. She hastily nodded and reached out with the swab, pressing the alcohol onto Antonio's scar none too gently. Lighter hand, Ev! You don't wanna bruise the guy! She cringed.

Bit late for that.

***

Seth frowned and then shrugged it off. "Dude, let's do something then. I don't wanna sit around watching TV. Oooh, play zombie mode with me! Just in case we have an apocalypse!" He bounded toward the living room and shoved the cat off the couch. Lucifer flew through the air and landed on the floor, hissing angrily. Seth ignored him, grabbing a controller.

Jacob laughed at Seth's enthusasim following him to the living room, "Dude I will I just need to shower give me like a couple of minutes."

Jacob turned back around, going back to the bathroom. He let the water run for a moment so it got hot and hopped in the shower scrubbing and cleaning himself. He sped it up though so he didn't keep Seth waiting.

After a few minutes Jake hopped out slipping into his sweats and blue t-shirt. He put on his socks and walked out of the bathroom tossing his towel into his hamper he went to join Seth, "Okay here I am,nice and clean for you princess. Now let's kill some zombie bitches." Jake grinned grabbing the other controller.

***

Antonio winced a little as the alcohol stung his scar. He opened one eye at Evelyn and snickered, "I think this is why I don't sanitize my cuts."

***

"Hey if its any consolation, I think its kind of cute when a guy gets all flustered. Not that confidence is a bad thing, but guys today seem to be getting too cocky and that is where it gets annoying." Ashlee stated, pulling the rubber band out of her braided hair. She ran her fingers through the braid since it was starting to bother her.

Seth started the game and he adn Jake joined two other online hunters in defending a fort from zombies. Five minutes into their game, both their partners had died. As his player rebuilt a window to cose it off from zombies, Seth glanced at Jake, grinning. "What's the first thing you'd do if we heard of a zombie infection spreading, say, in Midtown?"

***

Evelyn gnawed her lower lip to stifle a grin and eased up on the stabbing-alcohol movement. "Geez, you're such a girl, Tigger," she said mockingly. "You put that poor tiger to shame."

***

Ashton cracked a smirk. "Well, I can't say humble is our biggest theme, but I get what you mean. I always kind of assumed girls liked assertive guys," he admitted. "My exes for one, used to tell me I was too laid back."

Jake pondered that thought in his head while he blew up the head off a virtual zombie, "Hmm Midtown? Let's see I'd probably... find a gun, and look all bad ass and stuff. Try and kill zombies." Jake shot a few more and went on, "Probably have to save your bitch ass cause you'd be too busy somehow pissing off zombies more than they already are for being undead freaks." Jake smirked.

***

"Hey! I'm being honest at least!" Antonio laughed and then went on to say, "You know I don't get why Tigger became a nickname for me? I mean people would call me Tiger cause of that cereal stuff. But I remember watching Winnie The Pooh, Tigger was kind of bouncing off the walls and doing flips and shit. If anyone is Tigger its Jake." Antonio stated.

***

"My ex spent a good majority of our relationship telling me to shut up or to use my "indoor voice." Ashlee made quotation marks with her fingers. Thinking briefly of how Luke was always trying to shush her, "I can't help being a free spirited, loud individual." Ashlee smiled broadly.

"What?!" Seth exclaimed, offended. He wasn't that annoying! He reached over and punched Jake in the shoulder hard. "How the fuck would I annoy a zombie? If anything, I'd be looking all Resident Evil bad-ass while you tripped over garbage cans and doubled back right when the rescue ladder was coming, to go save the love of your life since you're always the hero."

***

Ashton frowned at this. "He sounds like a nice guy," he commented. Ashlee wasn't THAT loud. "And by free-spirited, how far does that stretch?" he asked her, amused. "Are we talking Lady Gaga here?"

***

Evelyn's blush faded the instant Antonio mentioned Jake's name. She felt her muscles tense up and that familiar cold hollowness kicked into life in her stomach. She lowered the alcohol swab, not having realized she was still holding it to Antonio's face, and tried to keep her composure, even though her throat had suddenly closed up painfully. "Um..." Her voice wobbled and she swore mentally. Can it, Evelyn. NOT the time! "Right, J - " She couldn't bring herself to say his name without feeling her throat clog so she simply swallowed hard and stepped back hastily. "Um, we should get back. Else Ashlee will have talked your brother's ear off and ears don't come cheap these days."

Smile, Ev! She forced a smile, trying to keep her stinging eyes from displaying any rebellious tears.

Ashlee shook her head in disagreement, "Luke is really nice, trust me when he told me to shut up it was usually because I would sing in his ear real loud." Ashlee hadn't meant to make Luke sound like a jerk, he was the opposite of that.


Ashlee went on to answer the rest of Ashton's question."Well let's see I'd probably be as bold not wear pants in public, but as far as a meat dress. I prefer mine on a plate with some steak sauce." Ashlee chuckeled, leaning back on the couch and braiding her hair again.

***

Jake couldn't disagree with that part of always wanting to be the hero. Jake reached over and smacked Seth upside the head, his controller in one hand. "Oh come on! You'd be too busy crying that some zombie ruined your hair! And it would be your ass I have to save!"

***

Antonio stood up straight. He looked at Evelyn and wondered if he had said something to upset her.

Although she was smiling at him, so maybe he was over thinking?

"Yeah sure let's go. Thank you for helping out." Antonio thanked her as they walked out of the bathroom.

"That was just bizarre, huh?" Ashton said, sitting up. "I mean, damn, she even had shoes to go with it! I wasn't sure if it was a hoax at first!"

***

Seth threw himself sideways, toppling onto Jake as they continued play. A zombie came at both their players and Seth used his elbow to pin Jake's left arm down. "Bitch, you'd probably get us stuck down a dead end alley if we followed you anywhere. That, or that dumb mutt of yours would get bitten and morph into a half-dead chihuahua and slobber on us and kill us. Speaking of, aren't you supposed to have the dog today?"

***

"De nada," Evelyn replied, pushing back the onslaught of pain and giving him a more genuine smile. She took her seat back on the dining table chair.