Shifters

Chapter 34

Eva sat in the coffee shop nervously biting her nails as the handsome green eyed boy across from her charmingly ordered his breakfast from the waitress. She stopped and smiled at him when he took the menu from her and handed it to the waitress. She lowered her hands and gripped her knees with them, trying hard to cover up her nervousness. So far, everything was going as it should.

Their breakfast had started on time, and they'd been making casual small talk, but this whole thing was starting to bug her. Maybe it was those eyes of his, they were remarkable, and so bright that she could not look into them.

She'd never been a shy girl. In high school she was popular, and no guy had ever made her feel timid in any way. None except for this one that is. She couldn't help but feel herself flush and her eyes fall when their gaze met, it was mechanical. Aside from that, it made her knees shake too, as if she would collapse if she were standing. She felt so weak in front of him, but in a good way, in an addicting way.

"So, Eva," Damian said. Even his voice was enchanting. Deep, but soft and soothing, with power behind it. Hearing her name come off his tongue made her want to shiver. "Did you grow up here in New Mexico?"

She chuckled uneasily. "Enough about me, let's talk about you. Where are you headed to?"

He shrugged. "We're trying to get home, but it's been difficult."

"We?"

He nodded, "Yeah, me and that little nuisance of a family friend I'm forced to travel with." He twisted the straw in his raspberry tea absently.

"Yeah, she seems like... something else."

Damian smirked and looked up at Eva. "She's unlike anything in this world."

Eva caught the softness in his voice when he spoke of her, the girl whose name she didn't even know, and it made her question how much a "friend" she actually was to him. She thought about two nights ago, when she saw him carry this girl up the stairs, and watched him tuck her into bed so gently, and so carefully. It looked like he didn't want to leave, but then he closed the door to her bedroom softly, and slowly retreated into his own room, clutching his chest as if he was running out of air. Then, last night she saw the two go on a walk around town together. They had looked like a couple, the chemistry between them like lightning. It was honestly a little heart warming.

All this had happened after she had talked to them.

"Are you sure you're just family friends?" Eva interrogated.

"Hardly friends. We've kind of been forced into one another's lives in a situation our parents made. I can't stand her."

She scoffed, this seemed all too familiar to her. "That reminds me of my neighbor. This idiot I grew up with named Blake, he used to bully me all the time. But then, I realized one day that I love him, and it turned out he loved me too. If only I'd seen that before he took off to NYU."

"NYU?" Damian asked, "So you're in college together?"

She stammered. "I--I am. I mean, before I went there myself. He's a bit older than me."

He nodded skeptically. She was falling apart, but she couldn't help it. He didn't seem like a bad person, he seemed too pretty to commit the violent crimen but then again, she knew he was being wrongly accused, she knew the people who had paid her to do this were lying.

"What college are studying at?" She asked quickly, a little too quickly.

A gorgeus smile emitted from him. "I'm not in college."

Her mouth dropped. "No?"

"I graduate high school this year, in a little over a week actually." He laughed. Right before Prom weekend, he had taken his finals. All that had been left to do were the activities, signing out, and the ceremony.