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walked out of the school at a slow pace, not really in a hurry to get home.

These days everything seemed so dull and silent. He didn't know what it was, but maybe he did. Maybe it was his father's return.

Maybe it was simply the weather.

Coming to a stop before the steps leading up to the school, he navigated the petite girl waiting by his car, clearly waiting to get her ride home. She sat on the hood of his car with the plaid skirt falling over her thighs. She seemed to be biting a nail as she turned the page to whatever book she was so engrossed in.

Nearing her from behind, Maddox wondered if he scared her, would she jump and fall off the car?

Taking his chances, he lightly tapped her on the shoulder signaling his presence. She had other thoughts however and instead of falling off, she held the book tighter and turned around whacking him to the next dimension.

Hopefully she had a good excuse for doing that.

He tumbled backwards as the force of the thick book took its toll. Managing to control his movements after a few seconds, he caressed the side of his temple, where the corner of the book pushed right against.

"Fuck," he snapped as he felt the blood trickle down and make a path along his chiseled cheekbones.

He heard a squeak as Evelyn bounced off the car hobbling over to him with worry coating her features, "I'm so sorry!"

He rolled his eyes at her insincere apology as she tried to hide a laugh. Glaring up at her shock-stricken face, she nearly snorted as a laugh bubbled up inside her.

Why the fuck was she laughing?

As he held the side of his head, he groaned as the throbbing pain spread to the back of his head.

His expression and stance was intimidating, but Evelyn couldn't stop laughing at the situation.

"Why do you always hit people as your first instinct?"

As tears started looking at the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard, she shrugged as a genuine smile laid content on her lips.

"Aggressive bitch," he hissed as he plopped down on the hood of his car trying to wipe off the almost dried blood.

Gasping dramatically, she grabbed the book and whacked his bicep.

"Language!" she laughed leaning so her back rest against the wind shield of the car.

Shaking his head, he tried to stop the smile from blooming on his face. If it were anyone else, he'd definitely be annoyed. But this was Evelyn and her reaction was certainly progress from the very first time they had this kind of encounter.

Laughing slightly at the memory, he gazed up at the sky. As she heard his chuckle, she turned towards him with an eyebrow raised and a small smirk on her face.

"What?"

He laughed a little more shaking his head, "Nothing," he mumbled with a smile, "just thinking about the first time this happened and how you barely even feel sorry now compared to then."

Her eyes glazed over as if reminiscing with the memory of throwing a boxing glove at him and giving him a bloody nose. The smile reaching her eyes was enough to know that the memory was something she'd always remember.

Rolling her lower lip under her teeth, she nudged him a little, "Well we are friends now."

"And you're a lot more open with your personality now," he grumbled playfully, "I mean what is with the aggression?"

"Like you said before," she shrugged, "instinct."

Wiggling his eyebrows, he leaned closer to her catching a whiff of her scent and god did she smell heavenly.

"I wonder if you're that aggressive in bed," he mumbled huskily with a smirk on his face.

At the sudden proximity and his daring expression, Evelyn gulped as her eyes went wide. An eyebrow raised, he tiled his head to the side waiting for her to form a comprehensible response.

"I- I'll smack you with this book again," she stated as she fumbled around to grab the book beside her.

Her red cheeks explained just how flushed she was.

Leaning back, the smirk never left his lips and he nodded as an acknowledgement to her sentence, "Kinky."

As she blushed even more, he leaned back chuckling softly holding the book she hit him with, in his hand.

"Hey!"

She outstretched her hands leaning over his body trying to get the book which was now far out of her reach. It dangled in his hand which was high in the air mocking her short height. As she attempted to grab the book from his hands, she maneuvered her legs so to kneel up to try snatching it from her hands. Along with this, her skirt managed to ride up giving Maddox a more detailed view of her thighs from the back.

"I like the view," he stated with a smug grin on his face.

Immediately, she tumbled down to cover herself up and in the process, managed to fall off the car. It all happened so fast he barely realized that it had, but soon enough he was hunched over laughing.

"Karma's a bitch," he said with a conceited grin as he looked down at her sprawled out form on the ground.

Scrunching her nose, she got up dusting herself off and sticking out her tongue in response. Rolling his eyes at her adorably childish antics, he leaned back again before letting his eyes glide over the title of the book she was reading.

"The Shining," he said with a perplexed look on his face. Glancing up at her, he gave her a look telling her to explain.

Shrugging, she quickly snatched the book out of his hands, "Well Joey read it and it was his all-time favorite book and I mean Joey doesn't really read so if he loves this book so much then it must be good right?"

Shaking his head, he immediately knew she was referring to a classic 90's tv show.

"Yeah and since Rachel loved Little Women, I decided to give it a try," he mocked.

Sticking her tongue out at him again, she spoke again, "Say what you will, but this book is a classic and I'll admit that it's amazing."

Listening to her ramble on and on about the book was something he was completely fine with. Her voice was chirpy and excited but also calming to listen to. Her hand movements were very eccentric whenever she talked about something she was passionate about. It was something he had noticed when he accidentally said the names Katherine and Caroline in the same sentence when referring to his two newly born cousins.

Evelyn had stopped her homework and asked him to repeat his statement. When she realized she had heard him correctly, she squealed excitedly before launching into one of her favorite shows.

The Wolf Diaries or something.

He knew he had the name wrong, but he remembered her mentioning something about some hybrid creature and his incessant need to kill a doppelgänger.

But when she talked about something she loved, she did this thing where she moved her hands to further explain her excitement for the topic.

It was cute in all honesty.

"— and that's why Chandler's my favorite friend. I mean the sarcasm and wit and desperation for love, it's all so hilarious. His self-deprecating sense of humor is just the best."

Nodding his head, he let her personality consume him as he admired how happy she seemed in that moment.

"Maddox!"

He shook his head as she flicked him on the forehead.

"Are you even listening?" she exhausted in playful annoyance.

Blinking a few times to snap out of his trance, he nodded his head, "Uh yeah of course."

Giving him a look, she crossed her arms accusingly, "So what did I say?"

Shrugging, he scratched the back of his head, "That you're beautiful?"

Rolling her eyes, she scoffed, "Don't get flirtatious to go off topic you douchebag."

"But it got you blushing didn't it," he stated smugly giving her a pointed look.

She threw her hands up in the air exasperatingly, "That is beside the point," she said poking his chest.

"Rough play," he teased.

Instead of replying back with a snarky remark, she let herself get lost in his humor as a laugh left her body.

"God you're infuriating," she groaned as she looked up at the sky with a small smile on her face.

"You like it though," he said playfully.

Turning to look at him, she smiled with light shining in her eyes. She didn't say anything and instead left it at that. How could she argue with something so true?

Having not discussed what had happened last time they saw each other, Maddox didn't know whether or not it was appropriate to bring it up at this point. Maybe they were meant to just forget it ever happened.

As they quietly sat on the hood of his car, clearly relaxed, he realized they were still in the school parking lot and it had been over an hour since school ended.

Getting up, he hopped off the hood causing Evelyn to open her eyes at the noise. Furrowing her eyebrows, she seemed confused.

"Come on," he said, "there are better places to relax than at school."

"But I was so comfy," she whined.

"We'll grab some pizza and relax somewhere else. I have the perfect spot."

Staring at him for a few seconds, she sighed giving in, "Ok but I'm only going along because I trust you."

Nodding his head, he dramatically opened the passenger door and gestures for her to get in. Giving him a weird look, he huffed, "Get in you loser."

"Ah that's more like it," she chirped before getting in.

Shaking his head at her playfulness today, he felt himself give into the pleasure that was known as fun.

So what if his life seemed like hell reincarnated most of the time?

With her around, heaven seemed too good to be true.

With a pizza stuffed down her mouth, he chuckled at the sauce in the corner of her mouth.

"What?" she questioned unintelligibly.

He gestured to the corner of his mouth, "You got a little uh—"

Blushing softly, she wiped at it with a napkin, "I'm extremely hungry," she tried to justify.

He would've put his hands up in surrender if his hands weren't on the wheel, "Hey I didn't say anything."

She gave him an accusing stare, "You're judging me. I can feel the vibes."

"The vibes?"

She nodded her head vigorously, "They're strong."

"Uh huh sure they are," he playfully stated clicking his tongue.

Ignoring his sentence, she watched the trees pass by as they eventually took a turn off the paved road. Wherever he was driving was clearly not a place known seeing as the barely visible dirt road was all that lead them to their destination.

"Where are we going?" she curiously asked.

He shrugged as he took another turn before halting the car and turning it around so the car was now facing the way they just came from. Turning off the ignition, he got out of the driver's seat before opening the trunk of the car. She hesitantly opened her side of the car and stepping out. Looking around at the view in front of her, it blew her breath away.

"Wow," she breathed.

There were no words to describe exactly where he'd brought her, but she was thankful he did. It was as if suddenly she felt like she'd never actually seen the world.

And she was just beginning to.

"Yeah I know," he responded coming up beside her holding a picnic blanket and a bunch of board games.

Looking down to see Monopoly in his hands, she gave him a questioning look.

He shrugged, "I've always wanted to play it up here because if we get frustrated we can just toss it down the cliff, but I never had anyone to actually play it with so well yeah."

Laughing slightly at his reasoning, she paused as she caught the part where he'd never actually played it with anyone up here.

Deciding to let it go, she followed him as he laid the blanket and games down. She sat down across from him with the two boxes of pizza and gallons of sprite and coke.

"God how on earth did you find this place?" Evelyn murmured staring out into the vast space. She wondered if she walked to the edge of the cliff, would she willingly let herself fall down into the lake below.

"My dad left me to walk home one day when he got really mad at me about something."

She frowned at his words, "How old were you?"

Maddox shrugged dismissing her statement, "Eleven or twelve."

She hummed in response wondering why he never mentioned his family. His problems.

"Maddox?"

He was opening the game of Monopoly and distributing their fake money and avatars as he glanced up at her to let her know to continue on.She watched as he distracted himself with things that he took an awful long time setting up. She knew it was his way of trying to not think about whatever it is that popped up in his head.

"Why don't you ever talk about your dad?"

He stilled at her question before looking up at her with an emotionless expression, "He's not worth mentioning."

He paid no heed to her question as he answered as vaguely as possible. She scrunched her nose wishing he'd talk more about himself. He knew she didn't know much about his personal life. He never really told her.

She knew he had a best friend, Reese, who was pursuing an acting career in New York. She knew he was due to come back to Madison Heights in two weeks or so. She knew he loved boxing and put everything into it. She knew his favorite meal at the diner were the cinnamon buns. She knew that whenever he got frustrated, he'd stay tense for a few seconds or minutes. She knew when he was happy. Although he never really smiled all that often, he'd started to really open up around her. It may not seem like he was letting her in, but he was– it was his way of allowing her to see who he was.

But she didn't know the reasons that caused his unhappiness.

She stayed quiet hoping he'd answer her question eventually. Watching him sigh and look out over the cliff, her eyes followed his movements as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Turning to look at her, Maddox knew there was no going back in what he was about to say. And he wasn't sure if he should utter it out loud. Hell, he hated even thinking about it.

How did he tell someone that the reason he hates his dad isn't because he abandoned him and his mom.

It's because his dad did things to his mom that no one should've ever gone through.

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