Chapter Text
“Evangeline, you got a package!” Marisol said brightly as she carried a massive cardboard box into the souvenir shop.
“Thanks, Mari.” Evangeline hummed. It’d been a season since her father had passed, and the shop was still receiving shipments— meaning it was Evangeline’s job to sort them all out.
Her stepsister, Marisol, who sometimes doubled as a best friend, was more than happy to help her out with unpacking and organising. The boxes usually contained dolphin magnets, shell bracelets, and any other beach-themed knick-knack you’d expect from a small coastal town. She suspected that Marisol would sometimes sneak a few of these trinkets into her pocket while Evangeline wasn’t looking, but she didn’t really mind. Nobody stopped by the souvenir shop anymore, not unless it was summertime, and the things Marisol took probably wouldn’t have sold anyways. At least they were going to someone who’d use them, right?
Evangeline also suspected that Marisol’s good will wasn’t the only reason she spent so much time helping Evangeline out in the shop. Agnes’s sweet facade had disappeared the moment her father died, and her outbursts towards Marisol specifically became more and more frequent. The shop was like an escape to her.
And as cheery as Marisol seemed this morning, Evangeline could tell something was wrong again. The corners of her mouth seemed to be drooping a little, and so was her posture.
“What’s wrong?” Evangeline prodded.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” But the dullness of Marisol’s voice said otherwise.
“Nothing gets past me, Mari. C’mon, what’s wrong?” Evangeline crossed her arms expectantly. Marisol avoided her gaze.
“I got into an argument with mom just before coming down here.” she replied meekly. Evangeline sighed, and took in Marisol again.
“Have you had any breakfast yet?” Evangeline’s voice softened.
“No.”
“Why don’t we pop down to the diner for breakfast then? I’m sure that’ll take your mind off of things. Shipments can wait.” Evangeline clapped her hands together excitedly. Marisol smiled in appreciation, and slowly set the box down.
“Yeah, that sounds nice. Let’s go.” she decided. Evangeline led Marisol out of the souvenir shop and onto the sandy sidewalk. The sun burnt into their skin, but neither of them really cared. They were too busy laughing to notice.
They arrived at the diner and sat themselves down quickly. Marisol’s mood seemed to be improving by the minute.
“You wouldn’t mind if I started officially working in the souvenir shop during the summer, right?” Marisol asked while looking over the menu. Although Marisol helped out a lot, she never actually worked at the shop or interacted with the rare customers they got.
“Of course I wouldn’t!” Evangeline gasped. “It’d be so much fun for us to work together! I mean, I love my dad’s shop, but it gets lonely sometimes.”
“Well, it doesn’t have to be anymore. At this point, I’d do anything to keep away from mom. I don’t think she wants me in the house much over the summer break either, so.” Marisol admitted. Evangeline nodded sympathetically.
“You’re always welcome at the shop, you know that.” Evangeline stated and Marisol laughed lightly.
“Oh, I know—” A loud crash interrupted Marisol mid-sentence. Evangeline and Marisol (accompanied by the entire diner) turned to the sound.
A boy with messy blonde hair in a uniform cursed at the ground. A small pile of shattered plates were spilled across the diner’s floor, and there was a cut on the boy’s hands. Evangeline peered in a bit closer. She knew this boy. He went to her school, though they didn’t really talk much. She didn’t know much about him, other than that he was friends with Castor, the boyfriend of her closest friend, LaLa. She didn’t know he worked at this diner. She tried to remember his name. Was it Jack or Jax?
The boy started mumbling something under his breath, and when Evangeline looked back at the cuts on his hands, she decided that she couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. Evangeline’s hand dipped into her pocket to grab her handkerchief, and when she got it, she hurriedly got out of her seat and started towards the boy. She approached him with a smile and handed him her handkerchief.
“Are you alright?” she asked, bending down to collect the glasses and plates that somehow hadn’t broken when he dropped them. The boy didn’t respond for a long moment, and just when it seemed like he was about to, a much older man rushed out of the staff room, his face bright red.
“You ridiculous boy…” the older man muttered before turning to Evangeline. “Apologies, Miss.”
The boy stiffened as the man’s sharp gaze snapped to him and he took the plates from Evangeline. He murmured a soft ‘thanks’ before the older man apologised again and basically dragged the boy back by his ears.
When Evangeline stepped over the shards of glass and returned to her seat, Marisol was looking at her like she’d grown a third head.
“What’s wrong?” Evangeline hummed as she sat down.
“Why’d you do that?” Marisol blinked.
“He needed help.” Evangeline replied simply.
“I guess. But he could’ve handled that on his own. You didn’t need to inconvenience yourself like that.” Evangeline shrugged as Marisol spoke.
“It wasn’t inconvenient at all, don’t worry.” Evangeline smiled and Marisol just shook her head, and called for a waitress.
—
Evangeline and Marisol spent the rest of the day reorganising and talking in the souvenir shop. Neither of them brought up the incident with the blonde boy again, and instead focused on making sure the shop would be presentable for all the potential tourists that would be visiting this summer.
The souvenir shop faced a massive decline when Evangeline’s mother died a couple of years back, because both Evangeline and her father were too busy mourning to run the shop. As a result, it was closed down for a few months so the family could have time to grieve. Even when the shop reopened again, things were never quite the same. Liana had a twinkling charm to her that attracted both customers and positive energy, and when she left the shop, so did everything that made it special.
Evangeline and her father tried to replicate that spark, but it just didn’t work. That was when the amount of local buyers steadily began to thin, which brought the shop to its current state. The thing that stopped Maximilian’s souvenirs from going out of business was the overwhelming amount of tourists that came in during their summer holidays, looking for a ‘quirky’ or ‘wacky’ trinket to bring back home instead of taking the shells they find on the beach— which was a good thing, not just for the business, but for the environment. And Evangeline was more than happy to start sharing the responsibilities of the shop with Marisol.
As the sun set over the horizon, Marisol decided that it was about time for her to pack up and go home. Evangeline sent her off, and said she’d close up on her own. A few minutes later, the bell right above the door rang. Evangeline assumed Marisol had forgotten something and came back, but when she looked up from the counter, she was met with a very different face.
The boy from the diner. It was him— with his gold hair and blue eyes. But what was he doing here? He had a few plasters draped across his hands, and he looked almost bored as he leaned against the doorway.
“It’s you! From the diner!” Evangeline straightened, staring at the boy who just walked in.
“I’m not here to stay.” the boy said abruptly. “I’m just here to return your handkerchief. I didn’t end up using it, and I don’t have any reason to keep a pink piece of cloth.” The boy then reached into his pocket and pulled out the coral handkerchief. He held it a good length away from his face, like he was allergic to it. She tried not to feel offended.
“But how did you know I’d be here?” Evangeline frowned.
“It’s a small town, I just had to ask around. And besides, I think I’d spot your hair from a mile away, Evangeline.” The boy shrugged, gesturing to her waves of rose gold.
“How do you know my name?” Evangeline nearly shrieked, and the boy laughed.
“Like I said, small town. It wasn’t that hard to find out. Plus, we go to school together. I’ve seen you around.” the boy drawled. Evangeline had definitely seen him around the halls and in classes, she knew a few basic things about him from LaLa, like who he was friends with and what he was like. But for the life of her, she couldn’t remember his name.
“Well, now I feel bad because I don’t remember your name.” Evangeline huffed lightly.
“Jacks.” He then tossed the handkerchief on the counter. “See you around.”
He left the souvenir shop without saying another word, and for a few seconds, Evangeline was stunned. This was definitely not the same person she thought she was helping out back at the diner. Back there, he seemed calmer, even a little timid. But whatever that was, it was definitely not timid. Not in the slightest.
Evangeline saw LaLa as one of her best friends— and one of her only friends, as a matter of fact. But despite this, Evangeline didn’t interact much with LaLa’s other friends. She had talked to LaLa’s boyfriend (Castor) a few times, and she heard quite a bit about her brother, Lyric, but she knew the least about Jacks. LaLa was also one of Evangeline’s more recent friends. Back when they’d first started talking, LaLa invited her out with ‘other friends’ loads of times, but because of her father’s very recent passing, Evangeline had declined all the offers. Maybe if she’d accepted any of them, she would’ve had the chance to get to know those boys a little better.
—
Evangeline hadn’t thought much about her interaction with Jacks during the following week. She and Marisol were kept quite busy with wandering customers as summer really set in and tourists began arriving.
During a particularly slow hour, Evangeline decided to leave the shop in Marisol’s sole hands while she slipped out to visit LaLa. Most teens Evangeline’s age had begun to pick up jobs to keep themselves busy during the holiday, and LaLa was no exception. LaLa’s mother owned a high-end boutique which sold a large range of swimwear and other ocean-themed clothing. LaLa had always made clothes for the boutique, but this summer was the first time she’d actually worked in the shop on her own, and Evangeline was dying to stop by.
The boutique was white with blue accents strategically placed around the shop, and it basically screamed prestige. Evangeline pushed open the door to the boutique, and grinned wide when met face to face with her friend.
LaLa was behind the counter, and she wore a short white skirt and a flowy dark blue top. She wore the loveliest gold hoop earrings and she looked fabulous.
“Evangeline!” LaLa cried happily as she rushed from behind the counter to greet her friend. “You look great!”
Evangeline giggled and hugged LaLa. “Thanks. It feels like an age since we last saw each other."
“It’s only been two weeks.” LaLa snorted playfully and whacked Evangeline’s back.
“How’s the shop?” Evangeline asked while she examined the different articles more closely. They were all of the highest quality— to be expected if they were made by LaLa herself. LaLa crossed her arms.
“It’s going well so far. We’ve had a bunch of customers come in. I think they all liked me.” she announced proudly.
“How could they not?” Evangeline said teasingly. Her eyes fell to a particular piece of pink fabric laying on the counter. She gasped. “You finished it!”
Just before school went out, LaLa had shown Evangeline her work in progress— a light backless pink dress with hibiscuses printed all over it. She had promised Evangeline that the dress would be hers once she was done with it, but Evangeline insisted otherwise. But there the dress was, in its full glory. Evangeline was beyond amazed.
“I actually finished this up a while ago, I was just waiting for the perfect time to gift it to you.” LaLa quickly sprinted to hold the dress up. It really was dazzling. “Take it!”
“LaLa, I can’t possibly—”
“Nonsense,” LaLa interrupted. “I made this dress for you, I can’t wear it because it isn’t my size. So there’s no point in me keeping it!”
Evangeline felt her cheeks go red as she picked the dress up. “Is this really for me?”
“I’ve said that about a thousand times now, Eva.” LaLa began laughing. Evangeline leaned in to hug LaLa for a second time while thanking her. The sound of the boutique’s door opening echoed as the two pulled away. LaLa’s happy expression instantly twisted into one of mild irritation.
“Oh. It’s you two.” LaLa said in the flattest tone imaginable. Evangeline turned around, and she swore she felt her heart stop in her chest.
Two boys had walked in, one who looked a lot like LaLa— he had dark skin and dark eyes. She recognised him as Lyric, LaLa’s brother. The second boy was the boy who had thrown her handkerchief in her face and walked out of her shop. Jacks.
If Jacks was surprised to see Evangeline there, he didn’t show it. He didn’t lose his composure at all. He regarded her with tight brows, but didn’t look her way after that. Lyric winked at Evangeline and smiled bright.
“Hi LaLa,” Lyric said, voice loud and cheery. He turned to Evangeline. “It’s Eva, right? That’s what LaLa calls you.”
“Evangeline is my full name.” Evangeline corrected politely. “But Eva is fine too!”
“Cool, cool.” Lyric lazily scrolled through the boutique and he turned to LaLa. “I came here to see how badly you were messing up mom's shop, but I have to say, you’re doing a pretty good job.”
“And him? Why’s he here?” LaLa gestured to Jacks and backed away from him like he had a disease.
“He’s lonely.” Lyric gave Jacks a mocking look, like he was some lost puppy. Jacks scoffed.
“It’s the other way around. He insisted I come here with him because ‘it’d be embarrassing to go alone’. His words, not mine.” Jacks sneered.
“That’s not a good enough reason.” LaLa decided and pointed to the door. “All of you, out. Evangeline can stay. She’s still looking at her dress.”
Jacks raised an eyebrow. “Dress?”
Evangeline nodded enthusiastically and held up the dress. LaLa looked proud and both Jacks and Lyric seemed impressed.
“Are you sure LaLa made this?” Lyric leaned in closer to Evangeline. “Dunno, this seems too good to be LaLa.”
LaLa rolled her eyes. “God forbid you give me an actual compliment.”
“Why would I ever do that?” Lyric dramatically let his hand fall to his forehead.
Evangeline laughed and checked the time on her phone. Marisol had been left alone in the shop for quite a while now; what if there were customers and she needed help?
“I think I’m gonna go now. I have to get back to the shop.” Evangeline sighed.
“Already?” LaLa groaned. “Just promise to call me later, okay?”
“I will, don’t you worry.” Evangeline laughed as she cautiously put the dress in her tote bag, careful in not damaging it.
Evangeline hugged LaLa goodbye, and waved to Lyric and Jacks before leaving the boutique. Just as she turned to go down the corner though, the boutique’s door burst open again. LaLa’s head popped out and she skipped outside.
“Wait, Evangeline! One last thing!” LaLa called out, rushing Evangeline’s way.
“What is it?”
“Okay, so—” LaLa stopped to catch her breath and Evangeline couldn’t help but giggle. “So basically, I’m going to the beach with Castor, Lyric, and Jacks tomorrow and I was wondering whether you wanted to come with me.”
Evangeline tipped her head to one side. “Why?”
LaLa snorted. “Please. Spending the entire day with three shirtless guys who haven’t matured since the second grade? Sounds like a dream.” she said sarcastically. Evangeline burst out laughing.
“They can’t be that bad.” she said gently.
“Oh, but they are.” LaLa sighed theatrically. “Do you think you can make it? I don’t think I can survive alone.”
Evangeline smiled. “Tommorow, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll see if I can make it!”