Work Text:
Of course, Chloe knew they were conning her. Or at least, she knew that there was no way Evan was the one putting flowers and poems in her locker. Not by himself, at least. Of course she knew.
Actually, in hindsight, she can’t believe she didn’t see it.
***
Chloe Woods is a smart girl. She knows that, her teachers know that, Evan obviously knows that, or he wouldn’t like her.
Her father doesn’t seem to know that, though. He doesn’t seem to know that she notices when he makes shady calls, when he meets secretly with his lawyers and checks his phones regularly for bugs and always wears the same shifty-eyed look.
Then again, he didn’t think she noticed when he would sneak out of the house and sneak back in at three in the morning, suit rumpled and a lipstick stain on his face.
***
When things settle down (as much as they can settle down when her father is in prison and her stepmother is god-knows-where), Chloe locks herself in her new room at her aunt’s and takes a look at her life.
On the one hand, most of what she is used to is gone--New York and Manhattan Prep and her old friends and, yes, Evan. Even if Evan only lasted for a month. He was still sweet, and good, more good than she had ever really known before.
On the other hand, perhaps it’s not all bad. Her aunt is her favorite, that aunt in Chicago who her father hated but her mother took her to see (even though that aunt--Lucy--was her father’s sister). Aunt Lucy is quiet and shrewd and has a sharp sense of dry humor with those she’s close to, or those she’s angry with. Chloe is lucky enough to be part of the former.
Maybe, Chloe thinks as she looks out at a different skyline than she is used to, maybe it isn’t all bad.
***
Five years later, Chloe moves to New York, and one year after that, she gets accepted into the the Police Academy.