Page 73 of Fate Fiction

The last time before I revealed who I was to him.

The sun was setting by the time Evan and I left the kitchen. I’d tried to find a solo escape at multiple points, but something had bolted me to the table. I wasn’t a participant in much of the conversation, rather an observer. The sky was pink in that absurd cotton candy way. Everything was cast in a rose-colored glow.

Evan walked ahead of me in the direction of his cabin.

“Evan, wait,” I called to him. He turned on a heel and looked at me, sadness settling in his features. “I’m sorry. I have a lot on my mind right now and you deserve to know where my head is at. I want to be honest with you⁠—”

“Dani!” Sue shouted from her office. “Can you come in here? I need your help!”

I placed my head in my hands, the moment gone. Pressure built behind my eyes, the beginnings of a stress headache blooming.

“You should go help her out,” Evan nodded towards the house. “We’ll catch up. We have time.”

That time was running out. We were nothing but an hourglass slowly dribbling out sand. I saw only a few grains left.

I nodded and worried at my lower lip. “I’ll come by your cabin later?”

“Sure,” he walked off, his hands stuffed into his pockets. He disappeared into the creeping shadows behind the trees and soon it was like he was never even here.

Sue was sitting in her office chair with her arms crossed when I entered. Her office was a mess of the handwritten guest forms she’d mail out to everyone staying at camp, utility bills, and tax forms from the last three decades. Her computer wasn’t from this decade, but it was the most technology she’d familiarize herself with. This woman didn’t believe in storing things in filing cabinets, let alone the cloud. The muffled TV was playing from the bedroom. Their house ran on solar, so they had the luxury of electricity.

I remember nights curled up with her on the bed when I got scared by a loon call or a howling coyote. We’d watch old Looney Tunes cartoons that they had on VHS. I’m pretty sure she bought them just for me.

“What’s up?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could manage. My voice was strained and weird.

“What happened with you and Hollyweird?”

How was she always able to tell?

I leaned against the doorframe, running my finger along the knots in the wood as I steadied myself and avoided eye contact. “Sue, I really don’t want to get into this with you.”

Or with anyone, ever. I was having a tough enough time unpacking it all for myself to understand.

“So it’s ‘complicated’,” she said with air quotes. Her biannual foray onto Facebook apparently connected her with some of the lingo people were using in this century.

I huffed out a laugh. “It’s only been three days.”

“Three very good days from the looks of it.”

“But three days nonetheless. I’ll…handle it.”

“Love isn’t something that’s supposed to be handled, kiddo.” I began to speak but she ignored my interrupting. “I know what you’ll say, this isn’t love, it’s too early, you’re a crazy old woman. I know, and you’re right. I’m also saying maybe let loose a little. You’ve always been very careful. I remember after you fell off the dock that first time, you’d stop running on it. You saw the consequence and were so afraid of falling again. Maybe it’s not just the dock that you’re scared of falling off of,” she shooed me off with a nonchalant shrug. “That’s all, a little sprinkle of wisdom from a crazy old woman,”

I wasn’t going to fight her or try to explain all of the reasons why Evan and I were cursed from the start. That my fears were well founded because his celebrity status alone was sparking my anxiety. That he and I had a history, one that he didn’t consent to. “So what did you call me in here for?”

“Aunt advice, obviously. You’ve been so busy with Hollyweird you haven’t even come by to make pupusas with me.” She faux pouted at me. “I would’ve told you all this sooner had you come over.” She gave me a wink, the deep creases by her eyes crinkling.

I sighed. “I’ll come by tomorrow, we’ll do pupusas for lunch.” My heart ached at the years of memories I had with Sue pressing the dough with our hands and sitting at her table enjoying the fruits of our labor after.

“And no Hollyweird! I’ll make Randy take him out on a boat tour around the lake or something. I need time with my Lovebug.”

“I promise,” and I meant it. The space would be good. Sue shooed me away again and I stepped back outside. It was solidly twilight now, in another hour or so the stars would begin to poke through the dark blue abyss above me.

I didn’t want to talk to Evan.

I stood in front of his cabin, willing him to come outside with my mind.

“Dani,” he said from behind me. A towel was slung around his waist, the V shape of his lower abdominal muscles drawing my eyes straight to the trail of hair leading towards⁠—