Chapter 14

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Evan was strolling with Julius near the end of his front yard after which Ramona's little garden started.

He showed Julius butterflies and the new little unknown flowers just beginning to bloom in the garden, and he even showed his very happy child those weird birds picking out worms to feed their birdy children back in their respective nests. Evan just hoped that Julius wouldn't follow those birds and begin picking out worms and putting them in his own mouth when he would eventually start to walk someday.

But no where was the person Evan so much wanted to show himself for the sake of putting an end to the painful itch of his conscience. That painful itch which was injected into him along with the much needed epiphany Oliver had slammed in his brain.

But where was she? It felt like she had purposefully been hiding indoor. Otherwise why wouldn't Evan manage to catch a single glimpse of her in a whole day!

To say Evan had been spying on his neighbor's house to see who came in and out of the house in order to have a chance to somehow talk to Ramona - would be an understatement. He had his eyes practically glued to their house.

It made him feel like a stupid pervert at times but he was out of options here. Not having Ramona's phone number in possession seemed like a pain, he couldn't even - like normal people - go over to their house and ask for some of her time to have this talk take place. Because he had this intuition of Harry and Billy waiting for him with more than baseball bats this time around, not that Evan cared about her brother and tail of her brother welcoming him with those pathetic excuses of weaponry but he did care about messing the rare still pending chance of that talk with her.

Evan sighed as he looked at Julius sadly as the boy squealed when a yellow butterfly tried to sit on his head. To Evan looked like an angel in guise of a butterfly had come down on earth to drop a kiss on Julius's head. Evan's arms vibrated as Julius shook in excitement. It was fascinating how little it takes to make a child happy. Earth would have been a lovelier place if all the grown ups were this satisfying too, without weird complications and second thoughts, having to choose between right and wrongs while in the end settling down no where of any of the both and walking riddles around in confusion.

Like a tiny flicker of sunshine from a crevice of clouds, from over Julius's bouncing head and through the fluttering of the butterflies wings... Evan watched the face he had been trying to see since a while now. She was peeking out stealthily from her window.

The blinds fell down in place the moment their eyes met, the moment she realized she had been caught.

The sides of Evan's mouth twitched in an attempt to smile and think of this incident as a ray of hope. But what if it was not? Because now it was really clear that she was hiding from him, avoiding him.

And she had every right, every reason to be.


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Ramona let the blinds fall in place removing her hand from her window. She backed away towards her bed. He had seen her watching.

And now he might be feeling annoyed at the sight of her ugly face in such a lovely day he was enjoying with his son. But how could she not, she had been listening to the sweet laughter and squeals of Julius. It was as if that little piece of sunshine was calling for her to come out of her hole and enjoy the sun outside. How was that little one to know that her life and her heart, was meant to... destined to stay drowned into an endless night where screams would always be sung instead of lullabys.

No wonder Evan wanted to keep his child away from even the shadow of her.

Ramona chuckled humorlessly as she sank back into her bed which was getting really uncomfortable now because of her sweating all night during thrashing and crying because of her nightmares.

Harry at some point had come into her room and held her for the rest of the night. Ramona didn't know how he entered her room for she remembered locking the door firmly before, she guessed it might be the other set of keys of the house. She was thankful though, for having someone to hold her and not letting the slippery cliff drag down her mind once again.

In the morning she somehow, demanded Harry to go to school and stop worrying about her. It was his last year and she didn't wanted to hold him back than she already had. Harry deserved to go to a good college, make a future for himself, have a life. He had to let her go sometime and it would be soon. Ramona felt dread settle in her stomach at the thought of a very lonely life approaching. It seemed hopeless, darker than it's now.

The cover flew off her body in a strong, hard yank.

Startled out off her thoughts Ramona jumped a little from her lying position. She groaned looking at the person standing by the foot of her bed with an extremely annoyed expression marring his face.

"Go away Sylvester!" She tried pulling the covers up again to fail miserably as Sylvester threw the covers carelessly at the other end of the room.

"You know what! I'm tired of having you moping inside your room, rolling like a log in your bed that stinks by now... and it's freaking so sunny outside! Look at your room, it's like a set up of a horror film." Sylvester had already pulled away all the blinds to let some sun in.

Still laying on the bed Ramona covered her eyes with the back of her hand and was about to curl her body into a ball turning sideways only to be gasping when she felt hands on around her feet. The next second she was dragged out of the bed in one swift motion.

Sylvester voice echoed in her eardrums. "No way I'm letting you stay in that hell of a bed one - more - second and waste your pretty little brain cells on useless depressing thoughts." He was firm and he was clear... but Ramona wasn't least bit impressed here.

"Don't act like you're my psychiatrist Syl. I'm not even under your sister's treatment or care anymore." She said bitterly, wishing to be left alone for a little while more.

Sylvester, however had his mind set up firmly as he countered back with as much firmness, "But I thought I was your friend?"

"I don't want your pity." Ramona yelled breathing heavily. Instantly she closed her eyes, trying to calm herself... trying to not to hurt those people close to her, trying not to push away those few people who understood her, knew her.

A brief minute of silence and when she opened her eyes Sylvester had his one eyebrow raised at her. And she knew, he wasn't going to back off. The moron cared for her way too much.

So just after a matter of half an hour later, Ramona was coming out of the front door of her house with Sylvester towing after her. He had barked at her continuously until she had cleaned herself, got dressed properly, had her breakfast and was out of the house for her grocery shopping. He insisted that they had nothing to eat.

Ramona could only grumble, all her protests were ignored. Sylvester was a pestering fellow, learnt all his tricks from his professional sister who was a master on manipulating people's mind being a shrink and all that.

But how she adored them might never get expressed fully by her.

She adored them for how they never lost hope in her when she had at one moment, when there were many people like Evan around her judging way too quickly.

And she also adored that impossible to ignore musical laughter of a sweet child still being held protectively in his brooding father's arms right next to her garden. He had slightly moved from his earlier spot, she noticed, to stand under that tree... for some shade from the afternoon sun, for Julius.

There he was, Evan, still there standing staring at... no - not her... at Sylvester. He looked quite unsatisfying. Now why was that, she wondered. She also wondered the reason of his still standing there, facing her house, looking at this direction so firmly like he was still not done with her. Hadn't he made it clear enough? His disgust and judgement of her was she well aware of.

It pained suddenly, to look at him anymore. So she removed her eyes and proceeded after Sylvester now.

Her downcast eyes were keen to put at bay the feelings of humiliation that Evan had reminded her in vivid details. Their passionate night might also be one of his cruel ways for that purpose only now that she thought about it.


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Lips pressed into a thin line Evan entered his house to find Oliver with a frown muttering curses on his phone... until the curses began sounding like begging and the weird guy named Oliver looked like he was about to burst into tears of frustration and desperation.

The person Oliver was talking to seemed not quite available on the other side as they were not picking up his calls or responding to any of his texts, Evan learned from his faint mutters to no one in particular.

"What happened to your girlfriend?" Evan asked with slight curiosity, he didn't show it though.

Oliver's reply was frantic and too quick. "She's not my girlfriend."

Evan smirked. "So there's definitely a SHE, now you admit. A girl has after all, driven you to do all the reckless things these days." 

Tenderly, Evan put Julius on the sofa and in a comfortable position. Julius had begun to sit now well without any support behind his back, the sight always made Evan ecstatic. The kid was growing up.

"A man visiting a soon to be relative of a friend... is not a reckless thing." Oliver defended himself.

"It wasn't long ago that you didn't even want to be in the same room with me." Evan pointed out with a snort.

"That was months ago... and you beat me up and you behaved all gorilla for no reason." Oliver countered through gritted teeth as some very colorful memories flashed before his eyes. "You seriously need anger management classes," he added further.

Evan didn't comment far on that fact,  this was not the first time he had heard of how he was so uncontrollable at times in the clutch of his maddening rage. Shameful was that, he was aware of this and yet had something to do about it. "And what about attempting to quit your job?"

"It's not like I was attempting suicide, man!" Oliver flipped suddenly.

Seeing Evan raising a brow Oliver thought to reverse the direction of this attack. "But you, Evan, you look like having your period. The that-time of month. Couldn't talk to Ramona huh?"

Not letting a flicker of emotion pass through his facade, Evan stood up silently and walked towards the kitchen as Oliver stared ahead at Julius who was chewing the cushion cover hungrily.

It didn't take long for Oliver to hear the faint noise of a steel bowl thrown against the wall in the far side of the kitchen, the sound was a little muffled but it could still be heard.

"That's what I'm talking about." Oliver muttered while turning to look in desperateness at his phone, kept on the tea table now. "Elli !! I'll so throw you inside a garbage dump when I find you." He whispered to his phone.

Julius made now slurping noises. 

Oliver patted Julius's bottom after heaving a sigh. This little boy didn't know how problematic it's going to be with the creepy girl populations out there once grown up. Slobbering all over the cushions was way much better than the challenges life would surely bring.


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After releasing his frustration over some lifeless objects in his kitchen, alone and away from Julius... Evan had forced all the knots out of his brain that were somehow causing discomfort to his heart too. 

It was mysterious and ironic how the brain and heart always seem to be in constant battles yet stay connected and inseparable at the same time. A lot like the kind of sweet and sour relationship between siblings.

And then Evan found out that they were out of diapers. Leaving Julius to Oliver's care after forbidding the guy from getting out of house and in return receiving a lengthy lecture, Evan set out for the diaper hunt.

Evan pulled his car up at the parking lot of the departmental store.

All the thoughts and frustration he had forced out of his brain not so long ago in his kitchen... came crashing down on him along with a very familiar body that crashed against his chest out of no where at the entrance of the store. Half out of instinct and half purposefully he held her with his hands around her body.

Not only her weird hair made him recognize her before she even lifted her face but also that exquisite smell of hers. He got acquainted and addicted to that smell badly to remember it that way. And he hated to admit it but it was true that her unique smell... which was only hers... made his knees want to buckle and humiliate him. He would have cursed himself for the girlyness of it all if he wasn't far more determined to grab this chance fate had given her.

Ramona lifted her face up slowly, she knew it was him long before she had seen him. His hold, the way he breathed, the structure of his chest and very hard stomach flush against her, his cologne... everything screamed his name... and the list would go longer.

She felt worried. Only a night with someone shouldn't cause such kind of feelings of familiarity. So wrong, whatever it was.

So she tried pushing Evan away from herself but it was like pushing a brick wall.

"Stop." Evan said softly.

But she didn't, did she? So he again said, "Stop!"

Ramona sighed in defeat, she felt awkward, she felt cornered and she felt hurt by the way he was pulling her towards him and pushing away the next second like it was a game to him.

Evan took a step back from her but kept his grip on her arms, gentle and intending to keep her from running away.

"Why?" Her voice a little above a whisper. "Why're you doing this, Evan?" She asked again as Evan stood in confused silence.

He leaned his face down a little so that their eyes met, more closely. "What Ramona?"

She felt like banging his head down to nothingness but was too drained of emotions to do so. "You... you look at me with so much disgust, you speak your hatred for me and then you hold me..." Ramona looked at his hands still holding her arms, she looked at them with a frown. "... you hold me like you don't want me to get out of your sight!"

His hold loosened at her words. Truly, his actions were confusing the crap out of his own brain too.

"I just want to apologize..."

He was cut off by her defeated, broken voice again filled with sarcasm this time. "Again, huh? Had there, tried that enough, hadn't you?"

Inhaling a deep breath Evan gave a firm look at her. He continued ignoring her taunt, "I shouldn't have behaved like that to you that morning." He paused for a second when her body felt stiff suddenly. "I shouldn't have judged you like that." He added taking in her expression which didn't quite give out much.

His distraction worked as an advantage to Ramona as she all of a sudden jerked out of his hold, backing away she put some distance between them... some much needed distance.

"Wait !" The urgency in his voice as he called out to her made Ramona pause from turning away from him to leave.

Evan looked at the side of her face, she wasn't looking at him anymore. "Who hurt you, Ramona?"

Who hurt her? Lucas did... Evan did, one gave those scars and the other smeared salt upon their raw pain. She clutched her one hand with the other, a physical attempt to put a stop to her upcoming mental break down in front of him. She wouldn't let herself reduce to that sort of humiliation again.

Slowly the suspicion that was put inside Evan's mind by Oliver was strengthening it's ground. He observed the way Ramona paled right in front of his eyes. He watched the misery in her eyes and knew that someone had caused this.

The pain and suffering were already there, God knew since how long.

And the terrible stab inside his heart made him want nothing more than to comfort her, hide her from whoever or whatever that caused all this.

He was about to reach for her but his raised hand stayed suspended midway as she flinched away from it.

"What's going on here?" Both of them turned their heads, surprised at Sylvester's sudden interruption.

Ramona however looked relieved. And that made Evan scowl as the earlier irritation came back when he saw them leaving the house - together.

Evan narrowed his eyes at Sylvester. "Two adults are talking between themselves, that's what's happening. Now, it would be appreciated if you give us some alone time to do so."

Evan didn't quite understand the instant dislike he felt for this guy from the beginning, he looked pretty decent... and honest. He couldn't pinpoint a proper reason to blame. And it was disturbing.

This dislike though, only seemed to increase when Sylvester took a threatening step towards him. "Listen, man, I don't like your attitude since the moment I've seen you last night. So it would be appreciated too if you stay away from Ramona."

Ramona gripped Sylvester's elbow and dragged him back a little with worry. "Stop Syl."

Now he was "Syl" to her. It added fire to Evan's irritation with a maddening force.

"Let's go home." Sylevster told Ramona, his eyes never leaving Evan's hard ones.

"Syl, give me a moment please." Ramona said when Sylvester was about to wrap a hand around her shoulder and take her away to their car. He hesitantly looked at Ramona for a while and then left, unwillingness written all over his face.

When he was out of their earshot Ramona began speaking with her back facing Evan as she turned around, not wanting to see his face... not wanting to let him see her face as she spoke. "We're two grown people to realize our mistakes and move past them. Our night together was a mistake... and that doesn't give you the right to pry into my personal life."

Her voice wavered in spite of the firmness of her words. It didn't go unnoticed by Evan.

But the thing that unsettled him was that... she said what he also believed was true about their night being a mistake but it still felt like a burning slap to him, when it clearly shouldn't.


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I wanted to write more to make this chapter longer and then update tomorrow. But where I ended this, seemed like the perfect place to wrap up this chapter. While writing, you know sometimes, a place comes which feels like a boundary that shouldn't be crossed or the whole thing will be ruined. Well, it's a situation like this. 

Do you feel like something between Evan and Ramona developed in this chapter? Or is it the exact opposite? 

Do you guys like Sylvester? If not then why? Do you feel like he would be a problem in the future? 

I know, Oliver's bonding scene with Julius in this chapter turned out very short. You know why's that? I discovered, those short and sweet moments should happen often and not just in only one chapter.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net