"Oh great! Well, not really ‘great’, but you know what I mean,” his dad laughing at
himself, “okay well I gotta go. Tell your mother I said hi," requested his father.
"Will do. Bye." said Tom.
"See ya bud," his father said as he heard the phone click, ending the call. Going
through a divorce at such a young age is something no child should have to endure. If it
weren’t for Eva, he wouldn't think love existed. He was never truly able to sense the
love between his parents that he was sure had to have been there at one point. But he
distinctly remembered how just as he had assimilated himself to a life with divorced
parents, he met Eva. The feelings he felt for her were unlike anything he had ever
experienced before. If how he felt about Eva was true love, then he couldn’t imagine
what it must be like to have that and then lose it.
After hanging up with his Dad he got washed and got into bed. As his body
slowly relaxed into a hypnotic state, he saw the image of Eva turning away from him
with her smile and trot off towards her house. With that fleeting feeling of happiness, he
drifted off into slumber.
Chapter 3 - An Old Friend
Monday morning came all too quickly, and after going through the early morning
grind, he got to his third class. Normally this is where he saw Eva for the first of many
times throughout the school day. Today however, she wasn't there. That wasn't like her;
she was rarely absent.
After school he went over to her house to see if she was all right. He knocked on
the door but no one answered. Out of habit he tried the handle and found it to be
unlocked. He stepped through the threshold and called,
“Hello? Eva? Mrs. Watson?” Again, no answer. Surely they would not have left
the front door unlocked if they had left the house. So he climbed the stairs and
proceeded down the hallway to Eva’s bedroom. He pushed the door open and found
her in her room standing in front of her mirror.
"Hey, I knocked but no one answered, I hope you don’t mind. I just came by to
see why weren't you in school today?", asked Tom. She didn't respond. She just
continued to stare into the mirror.
"Eva?...Eva?...EVA!", shouted Tom. He lightly shook her. She snapped out of her
trance and slowly turned her head to look at him.
"Hi...," she said in a way Tom had never heard. The way she greeted him was
unlike anything he'd ever heard from her. It was a dull, lackluster hello, missing all the
emotion he had grown so used to receiving from her.
"Are you ok? You don't look sick...what's going on," asked Tom curiously.
"Nothing...," she replied, again in a monotone.
"Are you sure? You don’t seem…you," Tom inquired. Slowly she spoke,
"I'm fine...I want to be alone."
"Oh, uh, alright I guess I'll see you later," Tom said in almost question form. He
hadn't even left the room yet and she had quickly moved from the mirror to alongside
her bed. She sat down and stared blankly at the wall, just as she had stared into the
