Fan Fiction ❯ Eve's Garden ❯ Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Eve did something the next day that she hadn't done in ages. She slept in.

She woke after noon, disgusted with herself for having slept so long, took a shower and got dressed in a cotton candy pink sundress with little white flowers on the straps. Eve French-braided her hair, applied a thin layer of lip gloss to her lips and a coat of mascara to her lashes, and gave her self an approving once over. She had no real plans for the day but her stomach thought breakfast would be a good start.

She checked the messages on her answering machine while waiting for her toast to pop up in the toaster. Her mom had called just to say hello and there was a message from her best friend, George, asking her to go to the movies later that day.

Eve and George Clay had met in junior high and had been the best of friends ever since. George was a quiet, introverted person who hated large crowds, didn't like talking on the phone, and didn't like talking about himself or sharing his feelings. Eve always thought it was ironic that his best friend was a girl. When they had met, Eve had seen something in him, even then. It was a sadness, a loneliness in his eyes, which spoke to her. She remembered spending hours on the phone with him, with him saying very little, and her just gushing on about anything and everything. She had decided that she would get through the wall George had put up around himself. Her persistence paid off. Slowly he began to open up, telling her his hopes, his dreams, his secrets. She was the only person in the world who had seen him cry, the only person he wasn't ashamed to let see his fragile side. It was a closeness she never took for granted.

Eve had had a few close girlfriends when she was younger, but her girlfriends had always betrayed her one way or another and the friendships had never lasted long, leaving her feeling a bit alone and unlovable. But George had always been there for her, and she knew he always would be. He called her sis and he was a big brother she'd never had.

The pair hung out together with a group of friends, whom they were still surprising close to after all of these years. Eve gave George romantic advice when he had trouble with a girlfriend. George gave Eve advice when she had trouble figuring out what path to follow in her life. Eve and George could talk about anything and he was the one person in the world she'd never been angry with. George could read her emotions like a book and she could hide nothing from him. He was the person she shared the most of herself with- from the greatest to the most tragic, he was the first person she called.

Their sophomore year, Eve had taken George to the Sadie Hawkins dance, and in an uncommon show of sentimentality, George had asked her to their Senior Prom two years later. George had asked Eve to the Prom five months before the event. When Eve protested that by the time of the dance he may have a girlfriend he would rather take than her, George responded that they had gone to their first school dance together and any girl he was dating would have to understand that he wanted them to go to their last school dance together. They had danced only one dance, because George was unbelievably self conscious, and spent the rest of the evening talking. Nonetheless, Eve had been completely touched.

All truth be told, she had had a serious crush on him through out most of high school. He had a dry, cynical sense of humor, silky, chestnut colored hair, and he was the only straight guy she knew who also had fantastic fashion sense. He also had the most amazing eyes, amber colored, with flecks of gold. George loved his dogs, a beagle and a basset hound, and when Eve watched the way his face lit up and his expression changed when he played with them, she felt she could see the real depth of his compassion and tenderness. Once, Eve had told George of her feelings for him, but he had told her that he had never had anyone he could talk to like her and he didn't want to risk ruining their friendship if things went sour. He said he loved her, but not in "that way." It wasn't an answer Eve was really satisfied with. She was convinced that George had only said that to spare her and that it was his way of saying he wasn't really attracted to her without hurting her feelings. Basically, that it was a cop out. But Eve dealt with it. For a while it had been awkward to have brought that into their relationship, but over time they both forgot about it and went on as nothing had been said. By the time that Eve had begun dating Dale, the cocky two-timer that she had dreamed of marrying, the whole issue was completely in the past.

As Eve was finishing her toast and jelly, the phone rang.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Evie, what happened last night?" It was Diane.

"Oh, hi. What do you mean?"

"Did you say something to Michael before you left? I've never seen him so upset."

"I don't know what you mean. I saw him as I was leaving. Pete walked me to my car and tried to kiss me, but it wasn't anything more. Why? What happened?"

"After you left, Michael polished off half a bottle of whiskey. He was uber upset. I thought maybe you said something."

"No, sorry. Maybe it was something else on his mind."

Diane sighed, "Maybe. Sorry for bothering you. You stop by later?"

"Hey, no problem. Yeah, I'll stop by. I'm going out with George to movie, then I'll come over. Sound ok?"

They said their goodbyes and hung up.

Eve finished dressing, called George on his cell phone to decided when and where they would meet for the movie and headed out to buy some groceries. By the time Eve finished her shopping, did a load of laundry and straightened up her apartment, it was time to meet George so she opened a can of food for the cat, checked her makeup and headed out.