- 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐄

# 𝟎𝟐 -

— evelyn

           I WATCHED AS THE DOOR opened with a slight creek, a girl of about 18 opening the door slightly to see who it was before opening it all the way. "Oh, you guys must be our new neighbors."

Her hand went up to the back of her head, holding it there. Curious, but I didn't want to intrude if it was an embarrassing story where she fell or something

I heard my mother speak, but I really wasn't listening to what she was saying. Instead, I was focusing on the house. It reeked of alcohol - to the point where I couldn't tell if someone had just been drinking a lot or if someone had cleaned the entire house with a shit ton of bleach. 

Finally, another woman stepped into the frame, a fake smile plastered on her face as she looked down at me. "Ah! You must be Evelyn?" She asked, tilting her head down at me.

"Uh, yeah, that's me." I replied, tearing my gaze from the inside of the house - it was probably really rude to be peering into someone's house like that.  

"I assume you're here to meet Toby - he's in the backyard." And that was my cue to be shooed off so the adults could talk while I awkwardly sit on the grass with the neighbor boy. 

I just nodded and took my leave, walking around the side of the house - directly facing the woods. A shiver ran down my spine before I turned the corner to face the backyard, keeping my gaze away from the tall trees.

The neighbor boy, Toby, had his back turned to me, twitching slightly - he seemed to be doing something to his arm. I stepped over to him, tilting my head and peering over him to see what he was doing. 

I gasped and stepped back - multiple shards of glass from what looked like a beer bottle stuck in his arm, he just picked them out nonchalantly, as if he couldn't feel a thing. He did turn around when he heard me gasp, tilting his head at me - hand twitching.

"O-oh... hel-llo.." He spoke softly, as if he was unsure if those were the right words to be using. I admit, I was pretty rude when I spoke back to him - I didn't even introduce myself - just stumbled over my words and pointed to his arm.

"Oh... I-I'm fi-fine - it do-doesn't hurt-" He mumbled quickly, gesturing to his arm. His pale face was kind of flushed - like he had never talked to anyone, including a girl, before. 

"It doesn't? Dude, you're literally pulling glass out of your arm - how does that not hurt?" I asked, moving so I was actually standing in front of him and he didn't have to crane his neck to see me. 

"Oh... umm.. I-I have Con-congenital insensitiv-v-it-ity to pain an-and anhydrosis." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. With the hand that was pulling the glass out of his arm. 

"Woah um - okay. Do you need some help with that?" I asked, gesturing to his arm awkwardly. I mean, I wasn't going to let him bleed out or anything - even if he had con- whatever its called. It wouldn't hurt which means that cleaning it would be done faster without all the wincing.

"W-We'd have to go in-into my house... I-I have a fir-irst aid kit in my r-room." He mumbled, standing up and leading me inside. 

Again, the smell of alcohol hit me like a bus. I could hear my parents and Toby's mom laughing in the next room over, I was tempted to just get away from this weird boy and awkwardly sit with my parents - but I didn't want to be rude so I had to suck it up.

"I-I never cau-caught your name." He finally spoke up as he opened the door to his small room, going over to a shelf and grabbing a red bag with the first aid logo on it.

"Oh, right, I'm Evelyn." I introduced, giving him a soft smile as he sat on the floor once again, opening the first aid kit. I looked around awkwardly. "Umm, Toby, don't you think we should do this in the bathroom?" I asked, he looked up at me before looking back at the floor - blushing at the fact that he had just embarrassed himself and stood back up. 

He lead me into the bathroom where I turned the water on in the sink, pulling out the rest of the glass for him and resisting the urge to gag. After that was all said and done, I gently put his arm under the water so the blood washed away before bandaging him up.

I refused to look up at him while doing this, I could feel his eyes on me the whole time. His gaze never tearing away from me. 

"Th-Thanks..." He finally mumbled, pulling his arm away. When I looked up at him, his eyes were still on me - eye contact was made and I instantly blushed and looked away. I could see stars in his eyes - as if no one had ever helped him before. "S-So I guess we ha-have to walk t-to school tog-gether?" 

"I guess so." I replied, walking out of the bathroom with him and coming face to face with my father. I looked up at him sheepishly, smiling as if it didn't look like we just did something completely different to what we were actually doing. 

"Why were you two in the bathroom together?" He asked, looking down at me, I just looked over at Toby awkwardly.

"She was he-helping me, s-sir. I acc-cidentally hurt myself o-outside and she w-was helping me clean up." Toby stepped in, not cowering at the fact my father was practically towering over him like I thought he would. He seemed more then happy to stand up to an authority figure. 

"Oh, alright well. Evelyn, your mother and I are heading home, you're more then welcome to stay here if you want."

"No!" I jumped at the opportunity, admittedly a little too fast as I realized after how rude I seemed. It wasn't that Toby was weird - I mean he was, but that's not why I wanted to leave. The whole house just gave me the creeps, the odd smell of alcohol, the way some of the windows just seemed to open up to the forest. "I mean - I need to get home and finish unpacking -" I tried to fix my wording, giving Toby an apologetic look.

He just watched me as my dad and I walked downstairs. I tried to keep my eyes ahead, even when I could feel Toby's gaze burning into my back. 

When we finally got downstairs and over to my mom, I said goodbye to Toby's mom and sister who I never caught the name of and headed home. 

I walked faster then my parents and quickly got up to my room, sitting on my window seat and just gazing out of it, looking towards the creepy woods before I looked back over at the house across from us.

I almost fell out of my seat as Toby stood in the window, looking at me before realizing I saw him and blushing, closing the blinds quickly. 

"Jesus Christ." I mumbled, shaking my head and closing the blinds, going to my bed and laying on it - staring up at the ceiling. Walking to school with him would be even more awkward now.