Not Today | ✔️

Chapter Ten.

"How many nights have you wished someone would stay?
Lie awake, only hoping they're okay..."

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"You're not sharing the blanket!"

"Wow, I'm really devastated I've done such a terrible thing," Tristan said playfully.

"Tristan," Evelyn groaned. "Stop!"

"Now why would I do that?"

"Curly, if you keep it up, I will do the unimaginable!" Evelyn narrowed her eyes.

"Is that so?" Tristan said, his eyes gleaming with humor.

"It is," Evelyn replied, nodding fervently.

"So tell me, then, Evelyn," he started, leaning closer to her, and lowering his voice. "What are you gonna do?"

"I... I'm going to, uh," she struggled, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to think up a threatening reply.

"Good to know you're going to 'uh'. I'm shaking from that threat," he said, but instead of shaking from fear, his body was shaking softly from laughter at her fumble. Jerk.

Evelyn crossed her arms and pouted, looking down at her laptop, where a movie was playing, instead of at Tristan.

Tristan gently bumped his shoulder against hers, nudging her. "Aww, c'mon, Evelyn. Lighten up."

"I'll show you lighten up," she grumbled.

Tristan chuckled. "What does that even mean?"

"It means that you will be significantly lighter when I drain all twelve pints of blood from your body!" she said.

Now where was that response when she needed to threaten him, she wondered, rolling her eyes at herself.

"So aggressive," he teased.

"What do you expect? You're hogging the entire blanket," she said.

"Oink, oink," he said playfully. And when she didn't respond, he nudged her again. "C'mon, that was funny."

Evelyn glared at Tristan. "That joke was so bad, it physically hurts me."

Tristan's eyes held a glint as he leaned closer to her, letting his voice drop to a low tone. "It hurts? Want me to kiss it better?"

Evelyn's eyes widened more than she thought possible as her mouth dropped open at his comment.

"I'm just joking," he said with a bright grin, leaning away from her, before taking some of the blanket and covering her legs up with it, patting them gently and going back to the movie playing on her laptop.

It had been one week since she wrote her address and number on his arm and he showed up to her house, that same night. And, in that time, it'd somehow become somewhat of a ritual for him to sleep over at her house. This ritual was made easy by the fact that both of her parents were currently on two different work trips, which synced up. The ritual also led to them spending a lot more time together and their friendship had strengthened in that time. Tristan had gotten comfortable enough to tease her back, but she'd quickly realize that his teasing was more flirty than hers was and she didn't know how she felt about that. She didn't dislike it, but that's what confused her.

Still, he hadn't exactly told her anything about his home life, but there were certain assumptions she made. She tried not to dwell on those, though, as making assumptions never ended well and she truly didn't know his situation. All she knew was what she observed.