Malvie

Malvie - Part 2, Chapter 12

"Were you out with Ben again?" Evie asked one night once Mal entered their room.

"Yeah," Mal replied as she shut the door. "I've been having a really fun time with him the past two weeks."

"How's your memory?"

"Fair. I've remembered a couple of things. Mostly dumb school stuff," Mal stated with slight disappointment in her voice. She sat down on her bed, fiddling with a piece of paper.

"Whatcha got?" Evie asked, walking over to Mal.

"Just a little note from Ben. He's the sweetest." Evie didn't enjoy Mal's consistent remarks about her new boyfriend. But she began getting used to them, accepting that this might become normal. Of course, her jealousy remained steadfast. Jealousy of Ben and how he got to treat Mal. It was as if their relationship had never really happened and she was just yearning for Mal to look at her differently like she had months ago. She was back to square one. This time, however, there was no Uma to try and kill them which meant no opportunity for Evie to tell Mal how she really felt.

"Do you love him?" Evie questioned.

"I'm not sure," Mal replied, staring at the paper in her hands. "He says he loves me. But I don't know how I feel. He says I used to love him. But he also said I used to love strawberries," Mal chuckled.

"You don't?"

"No, I tried one... it was really sour. Ben said it was because my mouth was still enjoying the brownies I ate."

"Well, which do you prefer?" Evie sat down next to Mal as their conversation continued.

"Brownies. But Ben wants me to like strawberries like I used to."

"Maybe your brain is telling you to keep liking brownies."

"I thought I was done with brownies."

"But which do you want?" Mal became very quiet, thinking to herself for a minute.

"Are you sure we're still talking about food?" Mal asked slightly softer. It had easily become obvious to Evie that they weren't. She cleared her throat, hoping to change the subject.

"What do you think of this new outfit I'm designing," Evie asked, pulling out her sketchbook.

"Wow, that looks amazing, E! But why is it purple? Blue is your color." Mal complimented. Mal flipped through a few other pages, each one containing a different idea for a purple dress.

"Evie, what is this? Why so much purple?" Mal asked, admiring one of the ideas. Evie stared at the bed, not wanting to look at Mal or the book. She took a deep breath, trying not to break down again. She had nearly ten times in the past two weeks, Carlos being the only person she could go to for them at that point.

"I um... was revisiting some ideas," she said, half lying.

"You can't move past purple?"

"Not yet at least..."

"Is this what you want?" Mal asked.

"Are we still talking about the dresses?" There was a brief silence.

"Uh, look, maybe we should just go to bed. It's like..."

"Ten thirty—"

"Ten thirty, yeah. We should just—"

"Go to bed—"

"Yeah go to bed." The girls stood up simultaneously, Evie already pulling off her shirt. Mal glanced at Evie, then again to look at the beauty that stood before her.