Black Chuck by Regan McDonell

Author:Regan McDonell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459816329
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2018-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

The Olympia was packed. A wall of noise hit them as soon as they opened the door. Evie didn’t know if it was Ré’s reputation or just good timing, but when he glanced at a booth full of younger kids, they all quickly paid and left, giving them the last good seats in the room. Sunny and Alex took one side, Ré the other. Evie took the seat next to him.

No one said anything.

Evie cleared her throat. “So what about this party?” she asked.

Alex grinned. “Next Friday, after exams. I’m gettin’ a keg. And, yeah, invite whoever. I want it to be epic.”

Evie didn’t know who else she was supposed to ask. Everyone she might have invited was already sitting right here.

“Cool,” she said quietly. She glanced at Réal, who was staring down into the menu like he’d never seen it before. “If June comes back, can someone order me fries?” She got up from the table and didn’t wait for anyone to say yes.

Evie went down the hallway that led past the kitchen. The bathrooms were there, the ladies’ room mercifully empty. She pushed open a stall door and locked it behind her, leaning back against the scratched paint.

She couldn’t help it. The tears just came, like she’d been hauling ten tons on her back all day and only just noticed it now. It wasn’t just Ré. Fuck him. If he didn’t want to see her, talk to her, look at her in the light of day—fine.

It was everything else.

She looked to her shoes, at the almost obvious way her body now pushed against her clothes. She put her hand on her belly, trying to feel something other than flesh, but her mind just filled with horror movies. Aliens. Creatures. Parasites.

Evie heard the bathroom door swing open behind her. She took a shaky breath and wiped her face on her sleeve, then flushed the toilet needlessly with the toe of her shoe and opened the stall door.

Sunny stood by the sinks, arms crossed. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked, one eye squinted as though Evie were hard to see.

Evie bent to slap cold water on her face.

Sunny’s hand was suddenly on her shoulder, pulling her upright with more force than necessary. “I asked you a question,” she said, and panic punched through Evie’s chest.

“I’m fine,” she said, shrugging Sunny’s hand away. “I’m just tired.” At least that wasn’t a lie. She was tired all the time now, it seemed.

Sunny stared at her in obvious disbelief. Then she cocked her hip and said what she had probably really wanted to say last night, at the band shell.

“You know, Ev, while you and Shaun were off in la-la land this year, the real world was kinda happening back here without you.” Her hand flew up in Evie’s face like a frightened bird. “You can’t just walk right in like you’ve been here the whole time and act like you’re one of us now. You don’t have a clue what’s really going on around here, so maybe just back off a little, huh?”

“What?” Evie almost laughed.

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