Page 72 of Fate Fiction

I turned and saw Evan sprinting down the dirt road towards me. He was having a total romantic lead moment.

Mosquitos began biting at my ankles. I wiped away the tears with the heel of my palm. It did absolutely nothing given that I was drenched in sweat.

“Are you always that fast?” Evan asked when he caught up to me, surprisingly out of breath.

I was catching my breath still too, I hadn’t ever run this far, this quickly. “I need a minute. I can’t do this right now.” Every word was punctuated with an inhale. I clutched my side as a cramp began to form. My running skills were horrible.

“Can’t do what?”

The tears started again. “I can’t be the person you want me to be.”

“Who said I wanted you to be anyone? All I asked for was Dani. The real one.”

My head dropped to my chest. “Exactly. I can’t be that. I’m sorry,” I said to the ground. “Please, please just leave me alone right now.”

“Fine, fine,” he took a large step back. I studied his quivering Cupid’s bow for a moment while we both shakily inhaled. “I’ll run back to camp and leave you alone, then, I’m sorry for chasing after you.”

He jogged off towards camp in silence. I crouched onto the dirt road and let the tears that had pooled on the surface pour onto my cheeks.

fourteen

. . .

Sue, against my wishes, didn’t delay dinner.

She and Evan were talking by the kitchen door when I walked back into camp. I was a little twitchy and my eyes were damp and I was solely focused on him. I had formulated a plan on my slow return jog. I would come clean about the fanfiction and allow him to create any space between us he deemed necessary. I anticipated I’d have to more or less disappear for the next few days, but I was a pro at that.

We walked into the kitchen together, Sue none the wiser to the strange tension hovering over Evan and I. It was ridiculous that these few days carried so much weight. I’d had my fair share of awkward situationships, I mean that was most of my college experience. Things burned hot and fast and fizzled out awkwardly. I’d see the guy in classes or at a party and we’d act like the other never existed.

This was different.

Evan sat pensively across from me. He’d put on his actor facade like a sugary glaze as he talked to Randy and Sue, occasionally stealing glances at me.

It was alarming how easy it was for him. I could compartmentalize my feelings but I’ve always felt like a hare trying to hide in a burrow of rabbits. Something was off about me. Aside from a dullness in his eyes, he seemed perfectly fine on the surface.

Anxiety built up in my chest as I planned out what I’d say to him. “Hey, so I’ve published multiple paragraphs about the veins in your arms, do you still want to kiss me?”

I bobbed my knee up and down under the table as I ate my food in tiny bites.

“Where’d you drive off to this afternoon?” Randy asked, unusually chatty.

I, on the other hand, was not chatty whatsoever. “The crash site.”

“You saw the smoke then,” Sue cut in. “The hermit must know camp is sparse this week and wanted to show off.”

Evan and I locked eyes, both forgetting for a split second that we were in a weird place with one another at present. He cocked his head to the side, raising his brows amusingly.

“Don’t get any closer,” Randy said, voice stern. “There’s been more activity over there lately. I’ve been in contact with the forest rangers, season’s been dry, and I’m not letting some maniac start a forest fire.”

“He’s not a maniac, he’s a ghost, hun,” Sue said with complete confidence. Right, of course a literal ghost was hanging out in the woods.

“He’s nothing,” I interjected. “It was probably fog or something.”

Evan lifted a suspicious brow at me. “You seemed a little more freaked out by it earlier.”

Sue clapped her hands together. “Do we have a believer on our hands?”

Evan seemed grateful that this was something to fill the silence, and encouraged the conversation. I watched their banter like I was peering through a window. I took another mental photo, knowing that tonight would have to be the last time things would resemble normalcy with Evan.