Evelyn Earth Part 24

“I’ll go get the blankets” Toya said breaking the spell. I turned to look at Sebastian and he shrugged. One of his friends called after Toya with a thank you.

“The boys will be sleeping here in the clearing tonight. Marla will keep vigil over Fins and the rest of you can come and go as you please I guess” Old Mal sighed. He looked worn out and older than usual, "as for me I’m off to bed.” He lifted a hand in a half-hearted good bye and made his way out of the fire light. Marla also stood up and nodded in our general direction before disappearing inside the container.

“Evelyn love, you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting my sorry lot of lads yet, except for Izzy of course” Sebastian winked in Izwan’s direction.

“No not yet” I tried to force a smile, but it didn’t fool anyone. One by one Sebastian introduced them. The first was a blonde man who looked about my age and whose name was Trevor. He greeted me with a cliché g’day and I had no doubt that he must love to surf in his free time. The second man was older probably early thirties and very distinguished. His name was Gerard and he had a distinct French accent, and like all French men I had met in the past he had a twinkle in his eye that only meant one thing; sex. Izwan was next and he clarified for me that he was not in fact just ‘some Asian’ but a Malaysian exchange student from KL. The last man looked the worse for wear and barely grunted in response to Sebastian introducing him simply as Sloan.

 I had a feeling that just like Sebastian’s alias Snow, Sloan was a fake name. It suited him quiet well though, he looked like a rogue spy from a bad sitcom, all stubble and crooked teeth.

“And this gents, is the feisty Evelyn, or Evs as I like to call her.” It was my turn to be winked at this time and Owen did not look happy about it.

“Feisty?” he turned to Sebastian, “how’s that?”

                “She’s just got a general feistiness about her, don’t you agree?” he replied, all humour gone from his voice. In a space of a day I had gone from dealing with Owen’s clinginess to his outright jealousy. Everyone sitting around the fire could see it plain as day. Owen had lost his standing in the group as the only male close enough to my age to date, with five different men suddenly coming into the picture.

                “No need to debate my demeanour. All I am right now is tired and sleepy” I said to lighten a quickly deteriorating situation. The last thing I wanted to do was crawl back into Owen’s container and deal with his questions. I wanted to be the one asking questions, questions directed at Sebastian. The sheer knowledge that someone like me, who probably knew more about what we were than I did, was sitting right next to me was killing me because I couldn’t talk to him.

                “Should we go?” I asked Owen. I was expecting to see relief or satisfaction on his face, I had chosen him after all, but instead a macho cockiness took over his whole body. He stood up squared his shoulders, pushing out his chest and motioned for me to follow him with a flick of his head. Just for that reason I could have changed my mind and settled in for the night by the fire with Sebastian, but he was already walking away. I stood up slowly with all eyes on me and followed behind him like some common dog.

                “What the fuck was that all about?” I whispered angrily at his back, but he didn’t turn around. He pulled a torch out of his pocket and flicked the switch, illuminating the path ahead of us.

                “Hey I’m talking to you!” I jogged to catch up to him.

                “Oh now you’re talking to me?” he said with his eyes still looking straight ahead. It was meant as a sting to my emotions but all it did was irritate me.

                “Yes Owen, yes I am.”

                “Hmm.”

                “Are you seriously acting like this? What the fuck is hmm supposed to mean?” This time I didn’t even try and keep my voice down, let everyone hear I couldn’t care less.

                “Let’s talk about this when we get back home.” Even the fact that he called our dismal container a home irritated me. I contemplated just melting into the night and going to sleep somewhere else, anywhere else, but the allure of my mattress was just too much. Instead of having to walk next to a sulking man child I over took him and began to run. I didn’t need his torch to find my way, I was completely at home in the darkness, it was all around me, inside me, it was me.

                I got to the base of the blue container only moments before Owen, surprise, surprise he had chased after me—probably afraid that I was running off on him. 

 “Why did you run?” he asked out of breath.

“No reason” I huffed as I jumped and pulled myself up the side of the container. Climbing over the roof of our red home I didn’t even bother using the crate-ladder. I landed with a soft thud and was pleasantly surprised that I hadn’t hurt myself. It was a reckless move, but I felt bold, I felt like testing my boundaries. Sebastian had shown me a whole range of possibilities, if we could do one thing why not another?

As I got into the container I flicked the fairy lights on. The first time I had seen them I hadn’t even questioned how they worked, there wasn’t any electricity after all. I followed the lead until I came across their source of power—a car battery. If Owen was one thing he was a handy man. I didn’t wait for him to come inside before I started stripping off. I smelt like sea and salt and felt like a grubby child and I couldn’t wait to get semi-clean. I rummaged around for the baby wipes, they had become a rare commodity lately and I had been saving them for a special occasion.  I didn’t care about that anymore though, so I pulled out one after another wiping myself down as best I could.

“Do you need any help?”

“No” I mumbled, flicking another dirty wipe into the corner. When I was finished I grabbed one of my singlet dresses and pulled it on, only then did I turn around to meet Owen’s gaze.

“So please tell me what that whole macho act was out there?” He looked back at me with that sheepish grin that I had fallen for so many times before. This time though it didn’t go as far and my gaze stayed steely.

“I never thought that I would have to deal with that sort of thing again” he said stupidly.

“What sort of thing?”

“You know, some guy cracking onto my girlfriend.” That floored me for a moment. Since when had I formally become Owen’s girlfriend?

“I don’t remember you ever asking me to be your girlfriend?”

“What?” I could tell that he was taken aback too, “after everything…I thought it was just…”

“Implied?” I finished the sentence for him.

“Oh wow” he exhaled loudly, “all this time I thought we had something between us” he motioned with his hands, “but it was all just because I was the only guy around wasn’t it?”

“You make me sound like some whore” I took a step backwards.

“So you’re not denying it. If I had been any other guy, same age, decent looking, than you would be in this exact same position with him?”

“I didn’t say that! Why are you twisting everything around, that’s not what I meant at all!”

“Then what did you mean Evie? Huh? Please ENLIGHTEN ME!” he yelled. I was so completely lost and outraged by that point that I didn’t know what to do. Time seemed to slow down and all I could see was the anger in Owen’s face, morphing it into something I didn’t recognise. The pain in my head intensified and I clutched at my temples. All sound had been flushed from my vision and it was as if I were watching a silent movie. Owens arms moved up and down in angry strokes, his cheeks puffed up with air and he must have screamed so forcefully because his spit flew across the space that divided us and landed square on my face.

“STOPPPPPPP” I roared before passing out with exhaustion.