Déjà Vu

Chapter 9

Then ~ Evelyn

Another month of summer came and went, and it was probably one of the best that Evelyn had ever had. She couldn't even try to count the number of times she laid down in her bed at night and thought, 'this is the best day I've ever had.' She was always proven wrong when her next day was even better.

She made sure to spend some time with Kate — who was someone she was quickly learning would be very hard to leave at the end of the summer — and tried to spend as much time with her parents as she could, but in all honesty, her days were mostly filled with Fred. They were filled with laughter and sex and trying to fit too many stories from their lives before they met each other into a too short amount of time. They stayed up much too late at night, either laying side by side on her bed or sneaking out to lay underneath the stars with their hands wound tight together or talking over the phone if they couldn't see each other, just saying whatever came to mind.

It was absolutely perfect. She tried not to think about the expiration date that was rapidly approaching.

They'd taken to spending most of their time underneath what they'd grown to call 'their tree', a weeping tree that grew to the side of the prettiest little pond; it was the kind of tree that had light green stems that gracefully arched downward, hanging over them every time they sat in the shade beneath it. The trunk was big enough for both of them to lean against, but they typically sat with Fred's back against the wood with Evelyn resting in between his legs, leaning her back against his chest.

That's how they were sitting now, a comfortable silence surrounding them as they looked over the sunny day in front of them. Evelyn could feel Fred breathing against her back, his breaths seemingly in time with the breeze that blew around them. She could definitely fall asleep like this if she wanted to, but she didn't want to waste any more of the limited time with Fred that she had left. She could sleep when she was at school, surrounded by other, more boring, people that weren't Fred Weasley.

"Do you think we'd date if we went to the same school?" she asked when the question popped into her head, leaning her head back so that she was looking at him upside-down.

He didn't look down at her immediately, instead staring off at the water, looking like he was pondering it. "No," he said honestly after a moment.

She laughed, starting to frown a bit through her smile. "What? Why?"

He shrugged and looked down at him, his lips quirking up into a smile as he reached a hand down and ran it through her hair. "I wouldn't want you to meet me at school."

Her frown deepened and she felt herself stiffen up a little bit. "How come?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. I guess I'm different there."

She sat up and turned around to straddle his thighs so that she could be facing him. "Am I getting a special edition Fred or something?" she joked.

He laughed. "Sort of."

She was still smiling, but she was beginning to frown again. "Why? I mean, how are you different?"

He shrugged again, obviously not wanting to talk about it. "I mean, I'm not like, different. Not really. I just- sometimes I care too much about what people think. Sometimes when it comes to certain people I say things that I don't mean just so they'll like me; I wouldn't want you to have met me when I was like that." He looked past her head to the pond, growing quieter.  "I need to stop caring what people think of me."

"So stop," she said simply. Because it was that simple, wasn't it?

"Great advice," he said sarcastically, laughing at her a bit. She gave him a deadpan look, not impressed. He sighed. "It's like- I'll be watching myself in my head and telling myself to shut up, but I say stupid things anyway so that everyone keeps laughing. It just like, keeps coming out. I don't know how to explain it," he sighed, giving up.