Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
WHEN EVANGELINE BURSTS THROUGH the door to the Formans' basement for the millionth time that summer, she finds Steven hunched over with a rectangular card clutched in his hands. The TV is shut off and he's the only one down there, unusual for the time of day.
Hyde startles into sitting, his back stiff as a board as Evangeline approaches him and shoves the card under a magazine on the table. His eyes follow her tanned legs as she strolls towards him. With one fluid movement she swings her leg over his lap to straddle him and draws his lips to hers in a slow, steady embrace. "No one's here right now, you wanna—" Evangeline waggles her eyebrows and nods her head in the direction of the back room with a sly wink.
Hyde buries his face in her hair and shakes it slowly. "Not now, Eve," he says, wrapping his arms around her waist and nestling his head in the crook of her neck.
Her arms drop from his hair and she pushes back against his shoulders. "Steven, what's going on? Y'okay?"
"I'm fine—it's nothing," he assures her, tightening his grip and brushing his lips against her cheek. Then he eases her off his lap and walks across the room to the TV, ruffling his unkempt hair as he switches it on.
Evangeline watches him from the corner of her eye, her legs curled underneath her hip where Steven set her down. "Are you sure? You seem—off."
Hyde plops back down on the sofa and throws his arm over the back, tugging at a strand of her golden hair and giving her an unconvincing smile. "Evie, I'm fine, okay?"
"It's just, you know, you never say no." Evangeline laughs quietly and shrugs, running her thumb smoothly over this cheekbone. "If there's something going on, I'm here for you, you know?"
Hyde takes a deep breath and closes his eyes; they narrowly open and he turns his head towards the deep freezer. "Listen, I don't need you to be there for me. I said there's nothing going on, so there's nothing going on, okay? Can you listen for once? Just leave it alone."
Evangeline retracts her arm, as if burned by his caustic words, and shrinks back into the other side of the couch. "I—sorry," she says quietly, pulling her knees up to her chest and laying her head on top of them. She feels tears pricking at her eyes from his sudden tone and takes a deep breath to keep them from falling.
Hyde blows out a breath and runs his hand over his face, immediately regretful and ashamed at having just bit her head off for a problem that she had no hand in causing. He glances over to her to see her attempt to subtly wipe her eyes and his heart sinks into his stomach. "Fuck, baby, I didn't mean—" he reaches his fingers toward her but leans away from his touch. "Eve, I'm—I'm sorry."
