I came in from the beach to find Luna sitting on the floor on a cushion by the coffee table and Evan on the couch hunched over the table with her, pointing out something in a book. I rubbed my eyes that were swollen from crying. She looked up at me smiling and then her face suddenly changed. “Odette!” she said. “What’s wrong, honey? And where’s Zoe?”
“Zoe is napping over at Bob and Lucy’s house.”
“OK…but why?”
“Its kind of a long story” I said, getting upset again. “Did you see the fight last night?”
“Fight?”
“Yeah, out on the sand. Chris and Jake got into it.”
“Why did no one tell me about this?” she said, standing up. Evan didn’t look surprised. In fact I thought I saw a smirk on his face.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you. You’ve been gone all morning” I said. “Chris stormed out after we woke up because he was still mad that Jake told him that I was obsessed with him…which isn’t true!” She came over and hugged me while I cried into her shoulder. “I tried so hard to do the right thing but I’m completely useless.”
I looked up to see Luna smiling a little and she wiped the tears away from my face with her thumbs. “You’re not useless. Is Chris OK? What do you mean he ‘got into it’ with Jake?”
“He punched him, a lot. It was really scary. I didn’t know Chris would do something like that. It was so not like him. Then this morning Chris yelled at me and said he couldn’t stand to be with me anymore. He was like a completely different person.” I cried some more. It was such a relief to get it out.
“It sounds like you pushed him over the edge” Luna said and Evan tried to stifle a laugh from over on the couch. I looked up at him scowling. “Once again, you think this stuff is funny” I said, lashing out at him. “Why don’t you go and aggravate someone else and leave us alone?”
He put his arms up as though he was the innocent victim being attacked and I looked back at Luna who was gently moving strands of my hair from my wet face. “Where is Chris now?” she said.
“Well, I went to see him over at Bob’s and he was out on the beach. Then Jake called. He said he needed Chris to come and pay for him to go to the walk-in-clinic, otherwise he was going to have him arrested for assault.”
“What a mess!” Luna exclaimed. “They are together right now?” she said, amazed.
“Yes!” I said.
“I wonder what they are talking about!” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t you wish you could be a fly on the wall with that waiting-room conversation?”
“No” I said and went and sat next to Evan on the couch with my legs and feet tucked underneath me. He looked at me grinning and I swear I almost started laughing. “How are you making me laugh when I’ve never been so depressed?!” I yelled at him.
“Its just insane what do you do to these guys!” he said, his eyes shining. It was infuriating.
“This is serious,” I said. He nodded, smiling and raised his eyebrows, but I was starting to get angry. “This is my LIFE! It’s not a big joke.”
He obviously heard the tone of my voice change and stopped laughing, and with a serious frown he looked down at his hands. “I know its not a joke, Odette. It is just hard to wrap my head around. I’ve never met anyone with so many problems.” Then he started to laugh again and I got up with disgust and walked back over to the kitchen.
Luna shot him a look of disapproval. She said to me, “Is Chris hurt?”
“Yes. And I’m sure Jake is a mess too. Chris was going crazy on him.” We stood at the sink and she was looking at me in dismay. “I hope they didn’t do any serious damage to each other.”
I shrugged. “Its probably good they are both going to the doctor” I said. Then I got that nagging feeling again that Chris might have been lying to me.
“I’m going to go and get some work done in my room.” I looked over at Evan. “Sorry to interrupt your lesson.” I scowled at him. Then I could feel him watch me as I headed off to my room. I looked back at him and he winked at me, so I took off my flip-flop and hurled it at his head.
“Good shot!” he exclaimed, knocking it away from in front of his eyes. I hurried off to my room utterly fuming.
Ungrateful Bliss 