Flowers before Eve (on hold)

Narcissus - In the eyes of the beholder

Mistakes, she was bound to repeat them. Patterns woven into the very fabric of her being. Patterns nursed forth at a tender age only to get reinforced time and time again as she encountered a world she found herself ill equipped to face. Eve, had she been a tad more introspective she might have added a fancy label to herself, found a way to explain the set of behaviors that came as natural to her as swimming came second nature to a fish. As it was, she wasn't. More introspective, that is.

Victim. Eve, without her own knowledge, clutched onto her fair share of coping mechanisms. Incidentally the same set of coping mechanisms that Eve hid behind a victim might hide behind as well, though she would never ever label herself as such. It wasn't one extreme event from her childhood, nor a constant sense of neglect that had turned her into the hyper vigilant young woman that she currently was. No, Eve learned to become a pleaser of people, a distasteful skill she wrapped around herself like a security blanket, due to a string of events which combined with a few other factors harnessed her essence to choose the road that promised less turmoil for her, less resistance. People were less prone to hurt her if she didn't give them a reason to do so, if she didn't step on any toes, if she became painfully avoidant, if she became unseen, if she became someone else entirely. And so she did. Like a shadow fleeing before the attention of the sun, Eve fled from the attention of other people. Deathly afraid to step into any sort of limelight until she had made sure that no imminent danger would strike at her. What kind of danger Eve feared she wouldn't be able to put into actual words if asked. It wasn't as if she put any thought into why she acted like she did, she just did what did. It was her, it was who she was. It was who circumstance had forced her to become. She didn't choose this, it was thrust upon her. Time and time again they fucking thrust it upon her. It was like a searing hot blade poking at her skin, at her old festering wounds crusted over with scabs, it hurt in the worst kind of way. So Eve did what she did best, she adapted, learnt new mechanisms to avoid that burning blade. Never to be the first to enter a room, nor the last. Never one to speak up, nor one to loudly object to anything. Eve hid her opinions away like she hid herself, at the back of the room where few eyes rarely bothered to look. She was comfortable that way, it made her feel safe in a world that felt anything but safe. The alternative was too uncomfortable to endure, so she didn't endure it. She hid away instead.

Eve was so used to not being seen by anyone that suddenly being seen by him, by Aaron, by truly being seen by him, it made her react in rather predictable patterns of defense of the self that the high esteemed Dr Aaron James Metzger had no trouble dismantling. Eve was utterly defenseless against him. And it wasn't due to a lack of trying. No, every spiteful word, every wall she put up to keep him at bay he simply tore down. He tore it down like it was nothing. That plaque mounted in Aaron's office which proclaimed him to be a licensed clinical psychologist wasn't just for show, he knew just what to do and what to say and when to do nothing at all when it came to Eve. He knew it all. A fact she hated just as much as she took comfort in it, in him.

And so it was on the cusp of a bright sunny day in the end of April when a distraught Eve Drewitt, having barely escaped running into an old acquaintance she'd rather avoid altogether than face, bumped into a composed gentleman instead. A gentleman that saved her from falling face first into a rather large puddle of water on the left corner where 5th Avenue met Main Street. That rather large body of water that Eve nearly face planted in was the remnants of yesterday's brusque rainstorm combined with poor maintenance of a road that had been neglected due to what was considered to be cost efficient management by the current city council.

"I'm so... I'm so sorry."

Eve's impossibly wide eyes with the barest hint of unshed tears met the crystal blue eyes of the stranger that had caught her in a secure grip. That is, met them for half a second before quickly flitting away again. The strangers eyes narrowed a smidgen as they ate up the sight of the shaken woman he held in his arms. She'd spoken with a voice so soft you'd have to strain your ears quite a bit in order to pick up the mumbled words she'd uttered.