Chapter #1: Mysterious Boys Part 1

Eva meets two young men on a bus, and can't seem to get rid of them afterwards.

Eva was young, only about 15 years old or so. She was tall, with light skin and fire red hair with black strips running down the length and orange eyes. She was also very pretty. She wore black lipstick on her thin smile that showed none of her pearly white teeth. She also wore only black. Eva, despite her beauty, was not a very popular girl. She was one of the few gothic people at her school, and was considered to be very weird. Which she did not consider herself as. She had her close friends she hung out and met regularly with, the other goths of the school, and did not choose to talk to anyone else willingly.

If that was the way she could have lived her life, just talking to her closest friends and teachers, she would gladly have let it be so. But life had a tendency to send a few annoying surprises her way. Like tonight.

Eva looked down at her black book bag. She was glad she was not popular. Popularity was too harsh on its subjects, in her opinion. It was a race to be “in” before you were cast out for not having the right music, or the right clothes or the coolest stuff or how much of your parent’s money you could spend. In other words, the truly popular ones, in her view, were just plain lucky and vain. And nothing more.

Eva continued to stare at her bag as the city bus she was riding on lurched to a stop, letting off an old lady, then continued on its unpleasantly bumpy ride. She lifted her head again to look around herself.

There were a few other passengers on the bus with her, a few boys and another old man. The boys sat at opposite ends of the bus. One wore white, the other was clad in all black like herself. He appeared to be sleeping. They both appeared to be the same age, or around it, as her.

The bus rode on for some miles, and then came to a stop to let off the old man. Now she was alone with the boys, and the one in white was eying her in a strange way. Eva shifted uncomfortably in her seat, trying to keep from looking at him. She failed.

Her eyes quickly glanced his way. It was quick, but he saw it. Eva knew by the grin curving his lips. He stood up and walked over to Eva and sat down with an exaggerated sigh.

Oh God, Eva thought as she closed her eyes and rolled them. When she opened them again, she saw that the boy in white was smiling at her and the boy in black was watching them, no hint of sleep at all in his eyes.

“Pretty night tonight,” the boy in white said.

Eva considered moving to another seat. There were plenty of them. The boy in black, after hearing the other boy’s comment, was trying to contain a snicker. He did quite a good job.

“The moon is beautiful, like you,” the boy in white tried again at another pass.

The gothic boy this time chuckled loudly. A flash of annoyance passed on the boy in white’s face. He seemed to think he had all the right moves, yet none of them had any effect on Eva.

“My name is Bruce,” the boy in white said.

Eva let out her own sigh. It was time to move now. She stood up and walked over to the goth boy. He looked up at her as she sat down. Bruce gave them a sour look.

“Hello,” he said rather shyly now that she was there.

“Hi,” Eva greeted back.

“Without a cloud covering the noir, the stars seem to wink,” the boy commented, taking a glance out the window.

Eva smiled. Poetic conversation on a grimy city bus? Impressive. Just what one would expect from any outcast-tween/teen romance novel.

“The moon is full,” the boy continued. “There should be a chorus of howls any moment now.”

Eva looked at him curiously. He gave her a perfect smile, no teeth, the lips turned up just far enough to make her want to ask him what he meant. Not the crooked kind that every guy seemed to be trying to pull off. This boy was really beginning to sound interesting. Had the shy greeting only been an act?

“What’s your name?” Eva asked him, watching his mouth eagerly.

“Aleck,” the goth boy said, and she got a glimpse of a fang. It was a perfect of white.

“I’m Eva,” she said without waiting for a question.

“Eva what?” Aleck asked.

“Hmm?”

“What is your last name?” Aleck restated.

“I don’t have one,” Eva replied.

Aleck sat up and faced her. “Why not?” Aleck asked, but he did not sound very surprised.

“I guess it’s because my parents�"” Eva was cut off.

“Didn’t have one?” Bruce called from the other side of the bus. “That seems pretty unusual in this day and age.”

“So do you,” Aleck called back. Bruce sat back, silent.

“Anyway,” Eva continued, “my parents didn’t think that their last name fit the first name that they had picked out for me.”

“Really?” Aleck asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes,” Eva said, nodding. “You see, ‘Eva’ is just my nickname. My real name is-“

But she did not get to finish. At that moment the bus gave a massive jerk and came to a stop.

“Last stop of the night!” the driver called.

Bruce stood up and was the first off, sweeping by eve without so much as a glance her way. Eva stood up and picked up her bag, Aleck right by her side. Together they got off. Eva slung her bag over her shoulder and started walking down the sidewalk, towards her home. She then looked back. Aleck was already walking the opposite way down the sidewalk that she was heading, and Bruce was nowhere to be seen.

Eva turned around and put a hand to her mouth, about to call out the boy’s name. But he quickly turned to corner and kept walking. Eva’s hand dropped back to her side and she gave a little huff in disappointment. She probably would not see either of them again, which in the case of Bruce might a good thing.

She turned around again and started walking back towards her home. The street lamps had already turned on, for the sun had set long before she had left the high school that she went to. She walked down a few desolate neighborhoods, her head down, her gaze resting on the cement under her. She soon was walking up the stair of the pouch of her back door. She took out a key from the pocket of her skirt and unlocked the door, stepped inside, then locked it back up as she closed the door.

She was in the kitchen, and in front of her was the darkened stairway that led up to her bedroom. She walked upstairs up to her room, hoping she would not find her�"

Her mother flicked on the hallway light, revealing that both of Eva’s parents were waiting for her. Eva continued walking up the stairs, but they blocked it at the top, keeping her from passing any further.

“Evalisa,” her mother began, “do you know what time it is?”

“10:34 p.m,” Eva answered, checking her cell.

“How do you explain being up this late?” her father asked with a stern look.

“There is a big school project,” Eva said, “so I decided I would stay at the library doing work until it closed.”

“How big is this assignment?” her mother asked, looking a little upset. “I don’t want my daughter out there walking alone, with all those creeps running around!”

“It’s okay mom,” Eva said. She tried passing by her parents and they let her through.

She headed straight for her bedroom and closed the door. She dropped her bag onto the floor and sat in a chair by her desk, turning the radio on and listening to the commercials that were on. After some time they disappeared and music replaced it. Eva sat back in her chair, closed her eyes and listened.

She could also hear her parents talking in their bedroom. She could pick out a few key words that they said and guessed the meaning of the conversation. They were talking about driving her home from school and some other things. Eva stood up and walked over to her bed and settled down in it, not even bothering to change out of her clothes that she was wearing, closing her eyes and letting sleep peacefully take over her life for the next few hours. As she fell into the calmness, she smiled. She could guess what she would be dreaming about tonight.

The mystery boy Aleck...

 

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Author's Note

Part 1 of 3.