"My Evie..." {A.P.}

°twelve

꧁Eve꧂

"What?" I asked, looking from Ajax to Xavier.

"Sick son of a bitch has photos everywhere." -Xavier

"What?" I asked, my eyes widening as I looked at Xavier. "But he's my family?" I questioned, looking at Ajax. "How sure are you? I don't... I don't know him."

"We think he's your cousin," Ajax explained. "The photo of when you two were kids... He looks just like your aunt when he was that age."

"But aunt Penny doesn't have a son, does she?" I asked, more to myself than to them, and they knew it. "Aunt Penny was married before, but as far as I can remember, she's divorced with no kids. None that I know of. Why would she lie to me?"

"Maybe she-"

"I need to make a phone call," I said, standing up, scrolling through my phone.

I took a few steps away from them and found myself in Wednesday's side of the room. I lift the phone to my ear and started pacing up and down. With every ring, my thumb started counting the other four fingers. Up and down, up and down. Then I heard her speaking.

"Sweetie. This is a surprise!"

I gulped softly. "Do I have a cousin?"

The line fell silent. "Everlyn? What are you on about?"

"Ryle Brooks," I said, and I heard a light gasp on the other end. "Is he your son?"

"Everlyn. Where did you hear that name?"

"He's two years older than me, Aunt Penny. He has black hair and green eyes. He's a telepath."

I heard her breathing. She knew I was telling the truth. She knew Ryle. She knew who I was talking about.

"He's at Nevermore, Aunt Penny."

My eyes met Ajax's as Aunt Penny kept quiet. She didn't say word. Neither did I, or anyone else in the room. Xavier and Ajax just looked at me, while Enid sat on the floor, scrolling through her phone.

"His dad won the divorce," Aunt Penny finally said. "Ryle was in his father's custody. His father died two years ago. Drank himself to death. All because Ryle had your father's ability, and he wasn't a wolf like his own."

I found myself sitting down against the nearest wall, and Ajax moved to his feet, walking to me.

"I thought Ryle was still in LA."

Ajax sat down beside me, and immediately my hand slipped into his, and my grip tightened.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, my grip tightening in Ajax's. "Why is he a secret, Aunt Penny? Why did I have to find out this way about Ryle? That there's another telepath in the family? That he knows what happened to dad-"

"Wait he knows what?" Aunt Penny asked in shock, and I heard someone walk closer in the background, then she whispered to them: "Ryle knows what happened to Mark."

"What? Oscar must have told him."

"Daddy was an accident." My own voice was trembling. Tears filled my eyes. "I swear daddy was an accident, Aunt Penny. Please don't hate me."

"No," I heard Ajax whisper.

"We know, sweetie. We know."

"Ryle's blaming me."

"Ryle's wrong."

"Did I kill daddy?"

"No, Everlyn. Daddy was an accident. You did nothing wrong."

I lowered my phone slowly; hearing Aunt Penny's voice still linger. My hand didn't weaken from Ajax's. I couldn't let him go. I couldn't bare it. Then I ended the phone call.

"What happened with your dad?" Xavier asked, earning an immediate glare from Ajax.

"Daddy's brain seized out when I was one. I didn't know that I was causing him to have a massive headache. Turns out my powers were out of control."

"What happened?" Enid asked in curiosity.

"He got a brain bleed and died in his sleep..."

~

I felt like Enid looked at me differently after I told her what happened. As if she saw me as slight of a monster. That's what I didn't want to happen.

I hadn't seen the boys after miss Thornhill chased them out. It's been two days.

Yet, still, even after what happened at the dance, school continued.

I took Ajax's advice and asked Miss Thornhill permission to sit in the greenhouse after school. She was more than welcome to agree. She then offered that I water and replant some non-killing plants as my extra activity. I was more than welcome.

So, after Monday, I started going there every afternoon, until nearly dark. That's most likely why I haven't seen Ajax yet.

The kiss we had the night of the dance replayed in my head a million times. I wanted to go look for him just to kiss him again, but part of me was too scared he saw me differently after I told him what happened to my dad. So I avoided him, and Xavier, and Enid.