by Karla Luna
Jesse breathed out and then turned back around to face me. He looked at me deep in thought, and then slapped my arm out of nowhere. “Are you fucking crazy dude!?”
I only breathed in and out, since I was still trying to catch my breath. “I-I did it for her. I don't care if I were to die. I'd… I’d do it for her, Jesse.”
He gave me a look like I was crazy for doing all of this. And, well, I was. I almost thought I could handle Davne, and be Evelyn's hero, but I was glad I knew the guys were coming to help. If not, I would’ve definitely died back there.
“Fucking hell, dude!” Jesse yelled out. “I don’t want my best friend killing himself like this!”
I just coughed again and saw the other three guys starting to walk over, leaving Davne’s unconscious body there. I also heard police sirens close by.
I looked up at Jesse and shrugged. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Jesse stared at me, then patted my back and shook his head before helping me up. “You’re such a dumbass.”
I came back into the hospital with a busted lip, a black eye, a bloody nose, and a whole ton of other bruises. I knew I’d have to get them checked out, but for now, I had to go somewhere far more important.
Though just before walking into Evelyn’s room, I froze up to see a note on the chair I usually sat in outside. I looked around but didn’t see anyone suspicious, so I bent down and grabbed it once I saw my initials there.
Zavier,
I truly apologize for earlier. I guess I’m just used to guys playing around with me. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, or treated you the way I did. And for that I am deeply sorry. I just hope you can forgive me and we can still be friends. I’ll just push my feelings aside because… well, you’re taken. And I won’t interfere with that. I promise.
-Allie.
After re-reading it again, I folded the note and when I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned to see Allie standing there, holding something in her hands. It looked like another note, except this was a creamy-colored envelope. I frowned and looked back up at her green eyes questioningly.
“Zavier, what happened to you?” she asked worryingly.
I shook my head. “N-nothing important. I’ll get it checked later. Don’t worry about me, please.”
She gave me a warm smile and then pushed the envelope over to me.
“Well then… here, I think this will make you feel better. Don’t look at the front, just open it up and see what’s inside.”
I kept frowning at her and looked down at the envelope. Once I opened it up, rather slowly, I was shocked at what I found inside.
I honestly started thinking this was all a dream once I started reading it and finished.
“I… You… you…”
She giggled. “Well, a friend did all of this for me. So you should thank him. His father is one of the most important people there. Pulled a few strings, told him to look at your GPA, SAT and ACT scores, all of that stuff. I said he would be really impressed. And he was!”
“I… A-an interview with Harvard just… doesn’t happen like this.”
“Well, I guess it’s a miracle then.”
I looked at her in amazement and then laughed, covering my mouth and looking over the note again. I even felt the need to do that thing where I take my glasses off, clean the lenses, and put them on again. “I haven’t even graduated yet, how did y—”
“You do have enough credits to graduate early already. So that’s good enough. You’ve amazed people, Zavier.” She smiled and gave me a light punch on the arm. “Be proud.”
I continued to laugh and then went over to hug her tight to me once I couldn’t take it anymore. I even felt like spinning her around but I winced at the pain and decided to pull away, noticing a little blush on her cheeks once I looked at her again.
“I… thank you, Allie. This is really one of the most amazing things anyone has ever done for me, thank you so much.”
She continued to smile at me and then walked off, leaving me alone with a huge grin still on my face that lasted until the next day.
“Why did you bring that in here?” I asked Darrel when he randomly walked in that afternoon and placed a bucket of fried chicken next to Evelyn.
He just gave me a small smile and started heading out. “Just to celebrate her… living…”
I was going to tell him that he was acting as if she were dying already, but once I heard whimpering, I quickly turned back to face Evelyn. I had been holding her hand the whole time, like I do every day, and my heart was thumping hard against my chest when I felt her squeeze one of my fingers.
I started smiling wide when I saw her move around a little. Then, I got up, and without taking my eyes off her, I yelled, “Guys, guys, she’s waking up. She’s waking up!”
Everyone including the doctor ran right in then, one after another, and stared at Evelyn in happiness as she slowly opened her eyes and looked around, almost confusingly.
“I…” She cleared her throat. “Is that fried chicken?”
“That’s a new one,” the doctor said with a laugh as he started checking up on her a little.
Darrel laughed. “Only Evelyn. I should’ve brought a bucket of fried chicken ages ago!” he said as he ran over to her with a huge smile and open arms. “Evelyn!”
I smiled at her and felt her squeeze my hand harder.
My angel was finally awake.
49: Promise To Keep
• Zavier •
As the doctor left the room, Evelyn smiled at the guys as they went over to hug her, practically attacking her with the love and care they had for their close friend.
“Hey, guys,” she said, her voice still groggy from not speaking for weeks. Once the guys pulled away and she looked at me, she frowned and looked me over as if she had no idea who I was. “Who’s the dork?”
The room went completely silent after that and my smile slowly died down. I felt my heart break and go down to the pit of my stomach. I felt nauseous. I felt like crying all over again.
Does she really not remember who I am? It was impossible. There was no brain damage at all.
I was just about to turn around and leave, go far away from here, until she slowly reached for my hand and smiled at me.
“Hi, teddy bear,” she whispered.
I grinned and couldn’t take it anymore as I went over to kiss her soft, sweet lips. She squeezed me close to her as I pulled away and looked into her beautiful, glowing eyes that held need and happiness. She kept her hold on me and bit her lip to probably stop herself from crying. Then, she hugged me tightly and I almost forgot that we weren’t alone in there.
“You just freakin’ almost gave him a heart attack, Eve. Not nice,” Ian commented with a laugh. “Well, when are you ever nice?” he joked.
“She’s learned quite a lot from me,” Drake said, making me pull away to look at all the guys. Then I turned back to Evelyn, cupping her soft cheek, not letting go of her other hand.
“Hi, angel.”
She grinned and then looked me over again and seemed to have a look of worry and anger on her face. As if she just noticed all the bruises I had. “Wait. Who… who did that to you, teddy bear?”
I just kept on smiling and shook my head like it was nothing. My angel was awake and there was nothing that could possibly change my mood.
“Who did that to you?” she demanded, but all I could do was continue smiling at her and rub her cheekbone with the pad of my thumb.
“You just woke up after almost two months in a coma and you’re worrying about me?”
She looked surprised at the coma part but then shook her head like she was sure she misunderstood. “I put you before myself, of course I care more about you.”
I looked down and couldn’t help but start tearing up. The tears were already starting to come, and this time I couldn’t stop them from rolling down my pale cheeks. Evelyn sighed and opened her arms wide so that I could hug her again.
I hugged her tight to
me, like she was my only remedy and I needed her in order to live, which was actually really true.
My voice cracked as I spoke in her ear. “I-I thought I’d lost you… I never want to lose you, angel.”
She chuckled and we pulled away to look into each other’s eyes. “Nothing can stop me, teddy bear,” she said, as she took my glasses off and wiped my tears away. “Not even death.” She kissed my nose and put my glasses back over my eyes. “Now, what do you mean a two-month coma? What the hell happened, I ate way too much chicken? Too much is never enough, you know.”
I chuckled when she smirked, and rested my elbows on the bed, grabbing both of her hands to kiss them.
“Um… well, Davne was after me and apparently, when he was about to shoot me, Ethan came over and pushed him. So the bullet ended up hitting you since you were running behind me.”
She gaped and looked down as if in deep thought. “I remember Ethan doing that…” She then clenched her jaw. “Davne, the prick, where the hell is he? He hurt you, didn’t he? I fucking…” She started getting up but I stopped her by gently keeping her shoulders down.
“All taken care of. That guy’s hitting jail for a very long time.” Once she heard Drake speak, she turned to him. She already knew he was here since she woke up, but she still seemed surprised to see him standing right there with a sincere smile on his face.
“Drake, when did you get here exactly?”
“You finally noticed me. God, I was…” He then put his hand to his heart as if it were actually breaking from so much hurt. “I was feeling like you completely forgot about the leader of your g—”
“Ahem akjshdsjhf.” We all gave Ian a weird look when he started fake coughing and fake clearing his throat. But we turned to the door once we saw that Memo guy coming in and staring at us all.
I rolled my eyes and turned back around to face Evelyn, shrugging at her.
“Who’s the fucker?” Evelyn asked, making me cover her mouth. But she just took my hand away. “Seriously, who… oh.”
Memo looked at her and smiled. “So she’s awake.” He started walking closer and everyone moved away, but I stayed where I was and glared at him.
From day one, I’ve felt like he’s been trying to get close to my girl. But that wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
“All right, I do remember you. Why are you here?” Evelyn asked as she cocked her head to the side and looked him over as if he easily disgusted her.
“Just security for your room in case Davne sneaked in.”
She chuckled and then stopped almost immediately. “Yeah, well, you guys caught him. And I’m grateful for that, really, I am. But uh, yeah, please leave now. Thank you.”
Memo clenched his jaw and turned to Drake and the guys once they started chuckling. They immediately stopped once they saw his glare. Drake pretended to admire the outside world, Darrel pretended to admire the cream-colored walls, and Ian just started whistling and looking around.
Memo turned back to us. “I’ve been trying to get the guy for a while. He’s already hurt enough people, including some I know. So when I found out you guys were involved with him, I just wanted to help find him. Might’ve seemed like I was being a douche, but I’m honestly a nice guy.” He smiled and patted Evelyn’s bed. “It’s good that you’re awake, I won’t be a bother any longer. Just wanted to help save a life.” He held his hands up and started walking right out of the room, but then stopped and looked at Drake. “It is quite awesome what you did.”
Drake faked a chuckle. “I don’t know what you’re…”
Memo rolled his eyes and laughed. “No need to lie. I think you’d be good as an undercover cop. You should think about it sometime. Nice job.”
And just like that, he was gone, leaving Drake to think for a while.
There was an awkward silence afterward, so Darrel decided to break it by jumping over to us. “Did my chicken really wake you up, E-Jo?”
Evelyn smiled at him. “Well, I was already waking up. But then I smelled the chicken so I guess you could say it did but man— I am starving. Haven’t eaten in almost two fucking months, after all.” That’s when she turned and tried to reach for the chicken. I smiled and passed it over to her. “Oh, yummy.”
Darrel then tried to grab a piece, but Evelyn slapped his hand away, her eyebrows knitted together.
“My chicken,” she said, making him grab on to his hand and pout. “Oh, I’m kidding. Come on, guys, grab one and we will celebrate!”
Drake chuckled and went over to grab a piece as well, along with the rest of us. “You’re actually sharing your food. I never would’ve thought. What happened to you while I was gone?”
Evelyn only shrugged and we all put our chicken wings up after she did. Then, we started cheering and laughing, starting to eat the chicken together.
I had a mouthful when my mother decided to walk right in.
“Oh,” she looked at all of us and gave a friendly smile. “Hello, everyone. Evelyn, so good that you’re finally awake.”
“Stormy!” Evelyn yelled out as she showed her the box of chicken. “C’mere! We’re celebrating. So grab a piece!”
She shook her head and waved her hand. “No. Thank you, darling.”
“Oh come on. Don’t be shy, Stormy.”
She just smiled again and looked at each and every single one of us. Then, she sighed. “I, um… I need to talk to you. And Zavier, I need to talk to you as well.”
I only turned back to face Evelyn, not wanting to talk to my mother now, or ever. She practically wants to break us up when I thought she was cool with this. I still couldn’t believe what she told me the other day. And that name? It still wasn’t recognizable to me.
“Sweetie, please?”
“Then talk,” I snapped as I turned to look at her and spread my arms out. “I’m listening. We all are.”
She sighed and looked at all the guys with a small, apologetic smile. “Can you three please wait outside for a few?”
The guys looked at each other and then started walking out, knowing that whatever she was here for was important. Mom was right behind them, and closed the door when they were all out of the room.
She turned to walk over to us again, when the door burst open.
Jesse was starting to walk in like he owned the damn place, but luckily the guys pulled him right back out. “Evelyn, my homegir—hey, hey, whoa, where are you guys taking me? Evelyn, hey! Glad to have ya back! Please don’t kill me, guys. I’m sorry.”
My mother sighed deeply when the door closed again, and walked to the other side of the bed to look at us. I was looking down, playing with Evelyn’s hand, because right now, I don’t think I could look into my mother’s eyes. Not after everything she had said about the one girl I love. I thought that with her helping people, even teenagers like us, that she would understand this type of situation. But I guess I was wrong. She didn't understand at all. Who was she really trying to help this whole time?
“Look, sweetie…”
“What do you want?” I demanded, making Evelyn look back and forth between us.
“Okay… what’s going on?”
“Just a few issues.”
I looked up and glared at my mother after she said that in a rather calm voice. “Yeah, like you telling me she’s bad for me. Or telling me that she’ll be leaving soon.”
“Whoa, what? Zavier, what are you talking about?” Evelyn asked as she turned to me, but I just kept glaring at my mother.
“Evelyn, you’ll be leaving right after you’re out of the hospital,” my mother replied to her.
Evelyn immediately turned right back to her. “What? Stormy…”
“Just let me explain first…”
“Mom, you’ve explained enough to me already!” I told her. “I’ll just explain that to Evelyn, all right?”
She slumped her stiff shoulders. “Do you remember what I called you?” I shook my head while looking down, gritting my teeth together in anger
. “Javier Roberto Romero. Remember that?”
“Who the hell is that?” Evelyn asked. “Some Spanish singer?”
“Zavier, it’s your old name,” my mom said, making me slowly look back up at her. “Your father… we named you Javier, and his last name was Romero. We grew apart and he wanted a divorce, so he ended up leaving just like that and…” she paused to put her hand to her forehead, taking a deep breath. “Well, I just couldn’t keep that name anymore. I hated it because it was only a reminder. So I just changed the one letter of your first name to make it sound so much more different, kept your middle name, and your last name was changed to mine.”
I gave her an incredulous look. “What? Why didn’t you ever tell me this?”
“You didn’t even want to know about your father once you found out he just up and left us like that. But…” she took another deep breath and licked her dry lips. “He was a bad person, Zavier, okay? And he was trying to change me sometimes. I was just worried.” She looked back and forth between us. “You know… I honestly, deep inside, know you two could work out. But I was afraid that you would change way too much, even if you’re just growing up. Or… that one of you would end up leaving the other heartbroken, like me.”
“Well, you're right, I don't want to hear about my so-called father and what he did. But what about Bradley then? You said you agreed to make Evelyn leave.”
“Yes, well… he found out what’s been going on. He called the whole thing off and since Evelyn won’t be turning 18 until May, then she has to leave and go back to Virginia.” She pressed her lips together and Evelyn gaped and started breathing heavily while shaking her head in panic.
“No… no, no! Stormy, please!” she pleaded as her eyes began to water very quickly.
“I did try to stop him. Then he reminded me of my ex-husband, and I was just… I shouldn’t have said those things, Zavier. That man is crazy. But I wouldn’t have been able to stop him either way and for that I am so sorry. I know I’m not your most favorite person at the moment and I understand that.”