Chapter 6-2: Good Girls Go Bad, Part 1

                With the kiss weighing heavily on her conscience, Evangeline spent the remainder of the semester trying to figure out how to tell Neal and hope that he would forgive her. She didn’t want to tell him over the phone, long distance. No, this was a conversation they needed to have in person. She spent so much time worrying about going back home that her grades dropped and, by finals, she realized she had finished with a C average in her classes. To be honest, she didn’t remember most of what she had learned and, if she didn’t know better, would think she’d never even gone to classes. This communications degree was not what she thought it would be.

                When the truck finally crossed the county line into St. Claire, Evangeline felt like she was going to puke. She looked at the clock on the dashboard, realizing that it was almost midnight. Emerson dropped her off outside of her apartment before heading up to their parents’ house. She quietly let herself in and realized that Neal must have fallen asleep waiting for her, as he lay passed out on the couch. “First thing in the morning” she silently promised herself.

                Only, upon waking, she discovered that Neal had promised that they would head over to her parents’ house for breakfast and they were already running late since Neal had let her sleep in a little.

                Camille could sense tension in the air but she couldn’t figure out who it was coming from. Both her children, and her adopted child, seemed to be treading water, struggling to stay afloat but she couldn’t put a finger on why as they all laughed and joked. Perhaps she should just leave well enough alone.

                Since their term break coincided with the last days of autumn, Donovan and Camille begged all the children to visit the festival with them, for old times’ sake. They needed an updated picture for the hall upstairs and it would be fun to spend time together out.

                Emerson and Neal quickly took up positions at the horseshoe court while Camille and Renata watched. Evangeline decided it was as good a time as any to seek out her father’s advice.

                “Daddy, can I talk to you about something?”

                “Of course. If this is about your grades, I already saw them. They posted them online a few days ago.”

                “Oh, erm…”

                “Honey, you don’t have to be a journalist like me. Do something that makes you happy.” He smiled at her in encouragement. “Now that that’s out of the way, I just want to tell you how great Neal has been while you’ve been gone. Your mother and I aren’t so frail that we can’t take care of ourselves but he stops over and checks on us. Made sure to come by and rake leaves. Even brought us dinner one night and stayed to keep us company.”

                “He never mentioned any of that.”

                “Doesn’t like to toot his own horn. Did you know your mom and his father once, well, dated? Maybe this is how it was meant to be all along.” He beamed at her and she felt her heart break into a million little pieces. “You picked a good one kid.”

                She smiled back, knowing that the smile wouldn’t reach her eyes but hoping that her father was too busy watching the game in front of him to notice. If she told Neal, she’d break not only her husband’s heart but her father’s, and probably her mother’s, as well. It was just a kiss. I don’t need to tell him, right?

                The month long break between terms seemed to drag. Evangeline was so worried she was going to give herself away or, worse yet, Emerson or Renata would let the cat out of the bag. So, instead, she kept herself and Neal as busy as possible, to “make the most” of the time they had. She felt like an actress in a play living someone else’s life but, maybe, with time, things would die down.

                None too soon, the time came to head back to school for another term. Fed up with roommates, the three had decided to rent a house together this term and see how that went instead of living in the dorms. A three bedroom, three bath was surprisingly cheap to rent out for the term.

                “Em, seriously! Can you tone it down, just a bit? I’m trying to study!” The incessant noise he had to make while playing that video game was driving her insane.

                In truth, she wasn’t trying to study at all. She was browsing profiles on sim-harmony.com. No one needed to know that that.

                “Seriously, what the hell?” In a rush, a stranger had bowled her over, not paying attention to where he was going. Looking embarrassed, he reached his hand out to help her up apologizing as he pulled her up.

                “Can’t you see me here? It’s not like I’m a ghost for Watcher’s sake!”

                “Hey, I said I was sorry.” He glanced around. “Do you really think broadcasting in the middle of a thunder storm is a good idea?” She smiled in spite of herself.

                “No, probably not. I’ve gotta switch my major. I’m Evangeline, by the way.”

                “Kieran.”

                Rocky meeting aside, Kieran and Evangeline quickly became friends. He was usually content to just sit and listen to her and she never felt like she had to edit her words. He didn’t talk too much about himself but she tried to offer the same courtesy to him that he did to her; friends, no pushing, no judging.

                Without waiting any longer, Evangeline made an appointment with her advisor and discussed her future options. Knowing she didn’t want to be a communications major was a step in the right direction but if she wasn’t going to be a journalist, she wasn’t sure what she was going to be. After an hour of looking through options and making lists, the advisor signed her up for a Fine Arts degree instead.

                In class, Evangeline found herself much more engaged in the coursework. She couldn’t say the same thing about her brother but he seemed to be doing fine. How he managed to sleep through the classes and still pass was a mystery to her though.

                “Jeffrey…” Evangeline spotted him outside the comic book store.

                “Back for seconds?” He winked at her, one corner of his mouth upturned in a smirk.

                She raised her voice, not interested in his humor. “Have you been calling me a whore?”

                “I think the word I used was easy.”

                CRACK. She slapped him across the face without stopping to think through her actions. “Don’t come near me, again. Ever.”

                “Oh….hi Renata,” Holly waved uncomfortably over Emerson’s shoulder. Renata had clearly interrupted a date.

                “Oh, um, hi Holly. Em, sorry, didn’t know you had company. I’ll just be upstairs.” She ran up the stairs without waiting for a response.

                Emerson led Holly out to the porch. “I forgot to let my roommates know you were coming over.”

                “She looked like more than a roommate.”

                “Who, Renata? No, she’s just my sister’s best friend. That’s all.” He quickly changed the subject. “I’m glad you came. I’ve had a good time.”

                “Me too.” She stood, brushing her pants a little.

                Emerson leaned in to kiss her but she threw her hands up, stopping him before their lips met.

                “I’m not ready for this. Especially when you live with another girl, even if she’s “just” your sister’s best friend. I gotta go.”

                Once again, at midterms, the fraternity decided to throw another party, celebrating the halfway mark of the semester. Evangeline decided that she’d go, especially after all the hard work she’d been doing. When she’d changed majors, she’d ended up taking two extra classes (and would need to from here on out if she wanted to graduate with Renata and Emerson) that semester so she’d ended up leaving little time for socialization. With Jeffrey on her “no-speaking” list, she was sure she’d have no issues.

                “Evangeline, right,” a fraternity brother greeted her at the door with a cup of beer. “Come on in, the party is just getting started!”

                The party turned out to be more wild than she had expected. Apparently, two of the brothers were graduating at the end of the term and their high midterm grades ensured that, at this point, it would be nearly impossible to fail out now. The kegger had turned into an early graduation party of sorts and there was plenty of debauchery to go around.

                Quite a few solo cups later, Evangeline meandered outside to warm up beside the bonfire. Unexpectedly, the fraternity brother who had met her in the hall (she thought his name was Miles) pulled her in for a kiss.

                When she woke up a few hours later, she was almost naked in Miles’s bed, who was asleep next to her.

                She slid to the edge of the bed, attempting not to make too much movement, trying not to wake him. She’d really fucked up this time. Hurriedly she stood, grabbing her clothes and making her way to the closest bathroom.

                “Renata, please, come get me.”

                “At the frat house. Please come get me.” She repeated her plea, trying not to slur her words.

                When Renata arrived, clad in her pajamas, she took in her friend’s disheveled appearance and nauseous face. “What the hell happened?”

                It occurred to Evangeline that Renata had no idea. “Just, just too much beer. I must’ve passed out. Can we just go home?”

                “Fucking hell Evangeline. You shouldn’t drink without a friend here. You could have more than just passed out.” She gave her friend a sidelong look, suspecting that more had indeed happened but not wanting to know.

                Later that week, as she was leaving class, Miles walked in. He started heading towards her, she was sure, to ask what had happened to her the previous weekend and why she had disappeared. The look she gave him though stopped him and he passed with a small muttered “hi”.

                “And I slept with him. I mean, I was drunk but I wasn’t drugged. I wasn’t taken advantage of. I remember it.” She sat, confessing her sins to Kieran, hoping for some advice.

                “I mean, what the hell was I thinking? I’m married for fuck’s sake! Married!”

                “You remind me of a girl I know,” he said wistfully.

                “A big whore too?”

                “No. Confused. Selfish maybe. Not a whore though.”

                Evangeline picked up on the longing in his voice. “You care about her.”

                “I’m in love with her.”

                “Does she know?”

                “Yeah.” He sighed.

                “She knows how you feel and sleeps around in front of you? She doesn’t…” Kieran looks pointedly at her and she stops, realizing that what she is doing is actually worse.

                She changes gears, asking the question she really wants to know the answer to. “If you know she does it, how do you still love her?”

                “I’ve always loved her. I always will. She’s…well, she just needs time to make her own mistakes and figure herself out. It doesn’t come easily to everyone.”

                “What if the person she wants to be isn’t the person you want her to be?”

                “You need to figure out who you are and what you want. For yourself. Not for Neal or your dad or anyone else. Just you.” It didn’t take a genius to know that she was talking about herself, not his love. 

                “However, I want her to be happy and I hope that means she’ll realize I’m the one. If not, even though it won’t be easy, I’ll find a way to live with it.”

                The prospect of trying to figure out who she was and try not to hurt people, or get hurt, in the process seemed impossible. There was no way to do any of it without hurting someone.

Chapter 6.1                                                                                                                                            Chapter 6.2, Part 2

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I promised myself that I wouldn't take up so much of this generation's time with Uni chapters. I swear though, Evangeline (and the rest of them) have a mind of their own. It's become rather difficult, for some reason, to be trying to control mostly Evangeline but the other 2 as well at Uni so I turned Free Will on high for the first time in this generation. And it's killing me. I might have to murder someone, because they refuse, and I mean refuse, to follow the story I had planned for them. Hence, this chapter being in 2 parts. As one chapter, it would have been probably, at least, double the length of a normal chapter.

Kieran is from the lovely Buckley who was kind and generous enough to work with me on this. His mystery woman is, of course, Delilah because you can't have one without the other. If you'd like to read all about their relationship and find out Kieran's plight in the love department, take a look at Chronicles of the McKinley Clan. It's worth the read, I promise!

This is the upstairs hallway in the Avendale home. It's cute. The downstairs is starting to get photos too: Evangeline's wedding picture, the graduation picture of the three of them, and a self-portrait of Evangeline and Emerson.

I'll be updating the RLC rolled parameters section shortly. If you haven't figured it out yet, Evangeline's Miscellaneous Fun challenge is "Fighter". She's quite crabby and likes to be bitchy to people. If I leave her be, she constantly "complains about good people" to Emerson, who happens to have the "Good" trait. Also, both Camille and Donovan have achieved their LTWs.

I think I should have part 2 up tomorrow. If not later today. All the pictures are done and organized. Just need to get most of the story onto (virtual) paper.