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one.
Chris loves parties, loves the attention he gets from girls, loves the way people flock to him. But right now, he’s hidden in a little alcove underneath the stairs, a tall, leggy brunette in his arms. He thinks she had introduced herself as Ingrid, but she had also kissed him right after, so he’s pretty certain he can be forgiven for not being sure.
She’s liquid in his arms, all lips and soft mewls, and his hand has just slipped underneath her top when his phone rings. He lets out a groan, pulling away to answer the call. She tries to keep him pressed against her, but the moment’s broken and he doesn’t care for her. It’s all too easy to push her away, not even acknowledging her as he walks off to answer the phone. His absence is dismissal enough.
He goes up the stairs to where it’s quieter, picking up the call along the way. He’s expecting it to be Iben, calling him to ask where he is, but instead he hears a different girl’s voice, her words coming out in a rush. It makes Chris smile.
“Hey, hey, hey. Slow down, sweetheart.” His tone is fond, and he has a hand cupped over his mouth and the phone, partly so that he can be heard over the music in the background, and partly so that no one around overhears him; this is a softness to him that he bares only to a few. “What is it, Ida?”
“Mama got held back at work, so I was wondering if you would be home in time to take me trick or treating...” Ida trails off, sounding unsure of herself, before hastily adding, “If you want to stay at the party then that’s okay too!”
Chris finally finds an unlocked door, and he slips in. To his surprise, Eva is there, sitting on the bed and–– is she crying? She looks up at him, startled, when he enters, but his baby sister is still on the phone so he doesn’t say anything to her, turning towards the door to afford them both some privacy.
“You know I’d choose you over a party any time,” he reassures softly, “I’ll be home in a bit, okay?”
“Okay!” He can almost hear the grin in Ida’s voice, and knowing Eva is right there is the only reason he supresses his own smile, ducking his head slightly just in case she sees the tenderness in his expression anyway. “I love you, Chris.”
“Love you too,” he murmurs before hanging up, finally turning his attention to Eva.
It’s awkward, to say the least. She had obviously come up here to be alone, and he had just walked in on her crying. His gilded tongue fails him now, and it’s a rare occasion where he has no idea what to say. “You’re sitting here,” is what he settles for, and he feels like a bit of an idiot.
She chokes out a laugh. “I’m sitting here,” she confirms. She’s not quite looking at him, gaze locked on the phone she cradles in both hands on her lap.
Chris realises then that this is an opportunity. Eva’s been rather unimpressed by his advances thus far, and even when she indulges his company, she’s cold, distant. Now, she doesn’t seem to mind his presence, is mellow and open in a way that Chris knows how to manipulate. He crosses the distance between them, sits down close enough to Eva that their thighs brush.
“Someone’s obviously trying to reach you,” he comments at the way her phone buzzes incessantly in her hand. She murmurs in agreement, but doesn’t pick up the call. Curious, he glances over at the phone and sees the name ‘Jonas’ on her screen. “Who’s Jonas?”
“My boyfriend,” she replies, and Chris feels disappointment tug at him. He’s not the faithful sort, but he can’t say the same for most people, and even though Eva’s the one who approached him first, suddenly her usual standoffishness with him makes sense. But then she’s shaking her head lightly, taking back her earlier words. “Or, eh...”
Chris can’t help the grin that stretches across his lips. Trouble in paradise –– he can work with that. “You don’t know if he’s your boyfriend, or...?” he teases lightly. She looks over at him briefly, and he thinks he can see maybe the slightest curve of her lips at that, but then she turns away and it’s gone.
“He is my boyfriend,” she clarifies, “It’s just that... we’re having a fight.”
It’s exactly what Chris had thought, and his confidence at the prospect of successfully hooking up with Eva grows. But then he looks at her, sees the way she stares blankly at a spot on the wall across them, sees the way her lashes still sparkle with the tears that she hadn’t managed to wipe away, and Chris feels his smile fall.
“Hey, you...” he breathes quietly, his arm coming up around her shoulders. It’s exactly what he needs to do to gain her trust, which is why he does it, but he’s still surprised at how tender he manages to be with her. His fingers don’t splay over her shoulder the way they might if it were any other girl, and he’s careful to respect her boundaries.
She looks at him for a moment, then turns away again, but Chris isn’t willing to lose her attention. He tilts his head as well, trying to get her to look at him once more and succeeds. “Fuck him,” he tells her. She nods slightly, and Chris smiles. Checkmate.
“If he makes such a nice girl cry, fuck him,” he emphasises.
Eva doesn’t say anything to that, but Chris sees the way she watches him, sees her contemplating her next action. He doesn’t pressure her, staying very still even though their faces are so close that all he has to do is lean in to capture her lips. Instead, he waits for her, refusing to take his eyes off her even as she begins to move closer. It’s only when her lips press against his that he closes his eyes, his hand moving to grip her shoulder firmly.
She leans into the kiss eagerly, her hand coming up to his face, his shoulder, his arm. His own hands move across her shoulders easily, and she yields when he deepens the kiss. If he’s being honest, he’s thought about kissing Eva ever since he first laid eyes on her at the club. Chris doesn’t do pining, which is why he’s been content to kiss other girls between then and now, but he’d be lying if he said there wasn’t a small part of him that whispered finally when their lips touched.
But then she pulls back from him so quickly that the loss of contact takes Chris by surprise. He wants to reach out for her, draw her in again, even if only to hold her close. He can see tears in her eyes again, and even though Chris is no stranger to making girls cry, he doesn’t want to make her cry. He’s just about to pull her back towards him when the door opens, and his first instinct is to put more distance between them. He’s thankful for that when he realises it’s Iben who just came in, and he awkwardly stands up to explain the situation.
He sees the way her face falls even further when he introduces Iben as his girlfriend, even if only a fraction. He doubts Iben noticed it, but he’s strangely attuned to the minute changes in Eva’s expression. He knows he has to go now, has to get away, because he feels the shame and disapproval in Eva’s gaze, and normally Chris doesn’t care what other people think of him but somehow Eva’s judgement gets to him.
He kisses Iben before he leaves – more out of habit than any actual affection towards her – and can’t help but compare the feeling to kissing Eva. He kind of wants to kiss her again. He knows that it won’t happen though –– what happened back there had been an impulsive, spur of the moment kiss. Now that Eva knows that he has a girlfriend, he highly doubts she’ll be keen on kissing him again. Chris tries to convince himself that it doesn’t matter, because he never hooks up with anyone more than once anyway.
As he chaperones Ida as she goes around trick-or-treating, Chris wonders if Eva has patched things up with Jonas.
two.
It turns out that Eva does fix things with Jonas, because Chris starts to see them kissing around school again –– more so than usual even. Vaguely, he wonders if she’s making up for her transgression with him with kisses. He isn’t really bothered by the thought of them getting back together because he’d guessed as much when she’d called to warn him never to speak of what happened.
It was cute, the way Eva worried. He knows she probably doesn’t trust him because of his reputation, but he has just as much to lose if rumours of their hook up surfaced. So when he overhears some other students talking about it, his first thought is to tell Eva that he hadn’t been the one who tattled.
But then he has to deal with the fallout with Iben too, and the urge to explain himself to Eva disappears. After all, he doesn’t owe her anything, and she doesn’t mean anything to him –– so what if she thinks he broke her trust? He highly doubts she trusted him all that much to begin with anyway.
He sees her around school, sometimes with her friends, sometimes with that blond first year boy, sometimes by herself. She’s never been a loud person, never had presence that fills the room the way her friend Noora does, but she seems quieter than usual, and Chris wonders if it’s bad form to kiss the girl you cheated on your girlfriend with. He reasons that any boy would want to kiss Eva, and tries to pretend that seeing her like this doesn’t remind him of the time he stumbled on her crying by herself on Halloween.
It’s easy enough to put kissing Eva out of his mind. Iben broke up with him, so he’s free to kiss all the girls he wants, which is exactly what he does. All he has to do is show up to a party, and now that he’s single, girls are more than willing to approach him even without the usual discreet flirting on his end.
It’s easy enough to put kissing Eva out of his mind, until Eva starts showing up at parties again. Before, she’d always been rather reserved even at parties, usually sticking to her friends, but all of a sudden he’s watching as she makes out with five different guys in a row.
He supposes this means she and Jonas have broken up, although he’s still seen them around school together, so he guesses it had been an amicable split. Good for you, he thinks as she moves on to someone else – a girl, he notes with some surprise, and wonders if Eva likes girls too even when she’s not drunk. Watching her gets him thinking about kissing her again though, which is a momentously bad idea.
He never hooks up more than once with the same person, after what had happened with Iben. He had kissed Iben because she was the prettiest girl in her year, and had let her keep kissing him after the first time because any boy would have to be crazy to refuse kisses from a pretty girl. But he’d found out that not everyone is as keen on casual hook ups as he is, and apparently kissing someone more than once gives people the wrong idea that he wants to settle down.
It doesn’t stop him from thinking about it though. It’s hard not to, when this new Eva is loud, all giggles and hugs as she moves across the room, kissing anyone who will let her. She keeps away from him though – he’s not quite sure if it’s a conscious decision on her part – and he’s strangely unbothered about it. He’s not here for other people’s sloppy seconds, and even if he doesn’t actually feel anything other than teenage lust for Eva, it gives him some measure of satisfaction that she had kissed him while sober, that she kissed him because she had wanted to.
When William starts dating Noora, it’s inevitable that their paths cross again. William invites their whole group of friends to pretty much every party he throws, and it’s never really mattered because his parties are usually huge, and the chances of running into each other are pretty slim. But then William goes and invites them to party on the bus, and the first thing that comes to mind when they arrive is holy shit she’s beautiful.
Chris has never really thought of girls as beautiful before. Girls are pretty, girls are hot. Beautiful is a description reserved for girls you’re in love with, and he isn’t in love with Eva. Still, once the thought pops into his head, he can’t take it back. Every time he catches a glimpse of her, he can’t help but think she’s beautiful.
Their gazes meet from across the bus, and any other boy might have blushed and looked away at being caught staring, but not Chris. He raises an eyebrow at her, smirking as he raises his can of beer at her in a little toast. She takes a swig of her own beer, not breaking eye contact, and then she’s walking towards him. It doesn’t take her much time to cross the length of the bus, and for the first time since they kissed, she’s close enough for him to touch.
“Couldn’t stay away?” he teases, finishing his beer and tossing the empty can onto the small pile of accumulating trash.
Eva’s smile is coy as she shrugs. “You’re the one who’s been staring at me at every party,” she returns.
He crosses his arms, laughing softly because it’s a more dignified response that outright denying something that they both know to be true. She reaches for him, uncrosses his arms and then slides closer until they’re chest to chest. She looks up at him from underneath her lashes, and Chris almost fucks up and kisses her.
“I liked the attention,” she admits quietly. Her voice is so soft that Chris has to lean in to hear her, freezing when their noses bump.
Before he can pull away, Eva leans up and closes the gap between them. He knows he should tell her to stop, but his body betrays him, arms coming up to pull her closer instead of pushing her away. He feels Eva grin into the kiss and it only makes him kiss her harder. He feels some of the beer she’s holding drip down the back of his neck where her arms have come to wrap around, and Eva pulls him down so that her lips can find his neck, catching the trickles of beer with her tongue.
“Eva...” he says warningly when she starts to press open mouthed kisses against his neck, because they’re in a goddamn bus and there’s nowhere for them to go where they can get the privacy that they’ll need if this continues. He feels Eva smile, soft and slow, against his neck, and he hisses as she bites the underside of his jaw lightly.
He groans, but then his phone rings and the moment is ruined. He really doesn’t want to stop Eva right now, but he’s been waiting for Isak to call the whole day, and this is probably him and settling things with the yakuza is more important than hooking up with Eva, no matter what his hormones are trying to tell him at the moment.
Chris pulls his phone out of his pocket, answering the call, thinking that Eva will just stop once she realises his attention is elsewhere, but she keeps going, making it hard for Chris to pay attention to what Isak is saying. Isak has to repeat himself a few times before Chris gets it, and then he really has to go because the yakuza are coming.
“Eva,” he says more firmly this time, pushing her away. His touch is gentler than he thought he was capable of, and although Eva has a pout on her face when she looks up at him, the expression falls when she sees how serious he looks. “I have to go, but you need to stay here.”
She blinks at him, confusion colouring her features. “Why? What’s going on?”
He knows he doesn’t have to answer, knows that he can just walk away – he’s done it before, with other girls – but he just sighs. “The yakuza are coming. Isak wanted to get back at them for what they did to Jonas, and I wanted payback after the last fight, so we arranged this one. They’re coming now.”
She still looks confused, but time’s running out and he still has to tell William what’s going on, so he starts to move off. Except, he can feel her following after him, so he stops and turns to her, grasping her by the shoulders. “Eva, you can’t come. You have to stay on the bus.”
To be honest, he’s not quite sure why he’s being so insistent that she stay here. She’s allowed to follow the rest of them to the fight if she wants to, she can make her own decisions and it’s not like he’s responsible for her safety anyway. But he remembers how brutal the yakuza guys are, how they’d gone after him just because they couldn’t get to William, and there’s a little voice in his head that’s telling him that if they see Eva there they might go after her next to get to him.
He doesn’t wait for her reply before he’s rushing off to find William again, and then they’re off to fight the yakuza. When the fight is over and everyone’s gone their own way to lick their wounds, Chris remembers the kiss. He’s willing to admit that he likes Eva as a person, but he’s seen how attached she’d been to Jonas when they were dating, and he worries that she’ll think that everything that’s happened between them means something.
Normally, Chris doesn’t care if he hurts a girl’s feelings, but Eva’s kind of cool, and their best friends are dating, so it’d be awkward if he breaks her heart and they keep having to see each other. He groans –– this is exactly why he never kisses anyone more than once, or befriends any of the people he hooks up with. Feelings are messy and Chris hates dealing with them.
But then at the next party, he stumbles into Eva making out with some first year boy in the bathroom, and he laughs even as he whistles. The boy looks vaguely mortified, but Eva only grins and tells him to go someplace else and wait his turn.
He decides he likes her even more – as a person – now.
three.
Usually, Chris is content to let girls make the first move –– after some flirting on his part, of course, but he hardly ever initiates hook ups or pushes girls into hooking up with him. Partially because he’d had a girlfriend for quite a while, and letting girls kiss him instead of the other way around gives him some plausible deniability, but mostly because he likes the way they play right into his hands.
Which is why when Eva walks in through the door – somehow he always knows when Eva is near, can feel her presence like a physical thing even from across the room – he stays where he is, a girl firmly nestled in each arm, even as his eyes follow her. He watches as Eva weaves through the crowd to find Noora. They’re chatting, and Chris finally tears his gaze away from Eva, dropping open-mouthed kisses to each of the girls wrapped around him.
When he looks up again, Noora is gone and some boy – who isn’t nearly popular enough for Chris to know his name – is in her place. Eva hasn’t been here long enough to get a drink yet, but he knows of her pre-game habits, so he’s not surprised at the way she laughs at whatever the boy is saying and leans into him. The lack of surprise doesn’t translate to lack of displeasure though, and despite having spent months watching Eva kiss half the people in attendance at every party she goes to, this time Chris feels an ugly sort of possessiveness wash over him.
“What’s wrong?” One of the girls asks when Chris stiffens suddenly. He doesn’t bother to reply though, simply shrugging both girls off and making his way towards Eva. It wouldn’t be the first time he broke tradition for Eva anyway.
He doesn’t even acknowledge the boy, sliding between the pair with an easy smile directed towards Eva. “Hey, babe,” he greets, “Figured you’d arrived when the room got a little brighter.”
“Good observation skills,” the boy comments from behind him, forcing Chris to finally acknowledge his presence. “I thought you were too busy kissing those girls to notice anything else.”
Chris grins, because he knows exactly what the boy is trying to do, and he knows that it’s not going to work. “Something’s got to keep me occupied before my main girl arrives to the party,” Chris returns smoothly.
Eva snorts lightly, steals the can of beer that was in his hand and downs what was left of it in one go. She places the empty can down on the closest flat surface she can find before turning to Chris with a grin. “Lukas, you’re cute,” she says as her gaze flickers over to the boy, but then her attention is on Chris once more, eyes burning with desire that Chris thinks is probably mirrored in his. “But I’ve got other things to do.”
Neither of them spare the boy another glance, and they barely make it out of the crowded living room and into the relatively empty hallway before they’re attached at the lips, hands grasping hungrily at whatever they can reach. Eva’s back hits the wall with a soft thump, but it doesn’t slow either of them down.
“Were you jealous?” Eva teases as Chris’ lips move on from her mouth to her jaw. He lets out a soft growl in response, teeth nipping lightly at the underside of her jaw.
“You’re mine now.” It’s whispered against the smooth skin of Eva’s neck, and Chris feels the vibration of laughter against his lips. It isn’t the reaction he’s expecting – he’s used to hearing moans, not laughter – and he pulls away.
Eva rolls her eyes at the offence she picks up on in his posture, in the way he’s suddenly holding her at a distance, and then she reaches for him, looping her arms around his neck to draw him close once more. Chris doesn’t think he can be blamed for going along willingly, his hands gripping her hips as she pulls him into a kiss once more. It’s not as frenzied as their usual kisses, but it’s sensual in it’s own way. Eva takes her time, pulling Chris’ lower lip between her teeth, sucking lightly.
Chris is an expert in kissing, if he says so himself, so he adjusts to this new pace easily enough, and it doesn’t take long before they’re moving in sync once more, and he’s almost forgotten about Eva’s dismissal of his claim on her when she pushes him away suddenly. He feels his temper flare, but Eva is looking up at him with a smirk on her kiss-swollen lips and Chris’ mind goes blank.
It’s hard to believe that this Eva – whose hips still sit firmly underneath his fingers, whose hand lingers on his chest, who looks so sure of herself – is the same girl who had holed herself in a room during a party, crying over a boy. Chris is a teenage boy, and he knows that no boys are worth crying over.
He raises an eyebrow at her when too long passes without either of them speaking. Her hand slides down his chest slowly, and his grip on her tightens. Eva is all soft curves, and he’s probably leaving finger-shaped bruises on her at this moment, but she doesn’t tell him he’s hurting her.
“I’m yours?” she questions, but not in the starry-eyed way that so many girls before her had uttered. She sounds unimpressed.
“Yeah, mine. Like my girl, y’know?” Chris says, shrugging lightly.
Eva hums softly, as if thinking it over. “I’m your girl?” Her doe-eyes are back, and Chris grins. He hasn’t lost his touch after all.
He nods, expecting her to start kissing him again, but Eva continues to defy all his expectations, laughing once more. The smirk is back and it takes Chris a moment to process that he, the player, just got played. “The way Iben was your girl?” Eva drawls, her tone too sweet, dissonant from her expression. To be honest, it kind of turns Chris on.
“I’ll pass,” she continues with a little shake of her head. He barely has time to respond to the rejection before Eva’s flush against him again, their lips connecting with the tell-tale ease of experience. “You should stick with what you’re good at, babe.” Her words are partially lost in his mouth, but he’s too preoccupied with other things to care anyway.
“I’m good at this,” Chris returns, pushing up against her until she’s firmly wedged between him and the wall. He presses a little harder, and she moans into his mouth –– a sound that goes directly down south.
Eva murmurs an agreement, even though the soft moans from her lips are agreement enough to Chris. “Exactly. So don’t try to be my boyfriend,” she tells him firmly, “Don’t ruin this.”
Something heavy sits in Chris’ chest at that, but then Eva is pulling him in the direction of a bedroom and it’s all too easy to lose himself in the soft haze of lust. Eva’s words may come back to haunt him later – when it’s 3 in the morning and he’s alone with no one else around to see the boy beneath all the bravado – but when Eva lifts her shirt and Chris sees his touch on the faintly blossoming bruises on Eva’s hips, he thinks he’s happy enough like this.
four.
Eva’s ruined him, Chris thinks bitterly from where he’s nursing his sixth beer in the corner of the room. He should be enjoying himself, but instead he’s standing away from the crowd and on his phone, texting Eva. Vaguely, he wonders if this is what William had felt back when he’d been trying to court Noora. Except Chris isn’t trying to court Eva, just convince her to come to the party to make out with him.
Unfortunately for Chris, Eva isn’t like the other girls who’d drop everything for a chance to hook up with him. And sweet talking her doesn’t work either, because she never buys a word of what he says. It’s an odd friendship, but it works. It’s part of the reason why he likes Eva, but sometimes her apparent immunity to his boyish charms is frustrating. Like now, when she’s prioritising studying for an exam over partying – and hooking up – with him.
He’s never had to plead with anyone, much less a girl, for things to go his way, but he knows Eva well enough to know that his seduction would be better suited for other girls, so he resorts to spamming her phone with texts. It might seem a little desperate, but it’s testament to how far they’ve come that he trusts that she won’t try to ruin his reputation. Besides, he’s hoping that he might eventually annoy her into agreeing to show up just to make him leave her alone.
His phone buzzes finally, after almost fifteen minutes of radio silence from Eva’s end, and he groans when he reads the text.
The great Christoffer Schistad can’t get anyone else to hook up with him? You’re losing your touch, babe.
He decides that he hates Eva. Partially because that text stings his pride, and partially because she’s a manipulative bitch who knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s trying to goad him into leaving her alone by challenging him to find other people to make out with, and even though he knows that, he can’t help the urge to play right into her hands just to salvage some of his pride as a player.
He doesn’t bother to reply, pocketing his phone and deciding that if Eva is adamant on doing boring things like study, then he’ll just have to have fun without her. He finishes his beer before pushing his way into the throng of people dancing, and it barely takes him any time before there’s a girl eagerly grinding against him.
Chris doesn’t really have a preference for girls – hell, he doesn’t have any preferences at all really, considering he’s kissed his fair share of boys as well – but somehow this girl’s slim body feels wrong pressed up against him. He chalks it up to having gotten too used to Eva’s curves, and this girl is pretty enough, so he keeps dancing with her.
Something still doesn’t feel quite right when the girl turns in his arms to face him, moments before leaning into press their mouths together. He returns the kiss, but the chemistry is all wrong and leaves him wanting. He compensates by kissing her harder, hoping that she’ll pick up on his pace like Eva does and give back just as hard, but she seems all too willing to let him take the lead, and even though there had once been a time when Chris had preferred soft, pliant mouths, it just doesn’t seem to do it for him anymore.
He pulls away from her the first chance he gets, shooting her a wink before disappearing into the crowd of bodies once more. He works his way through the dance floor, kissing every single person who approaches him. He must have kissed at least ten different people before he reaches the other end of the room, and he still feels distinctly unsatisfied.
Chris sighs and decides that there’s only one thing he can do now. He takes out his phone, dialling William’s number. He’s not even bothered when it’s a girl’s voice that answers the call though; Chris recognises Noora’s voice easily enough.
“What’s Eva’s address?” he asks, cutting to the chase immediately.
“Why do you ask?” Noora returns, and Chris easily picks up on the teasing lilt of her voice.
He rolls his eyes, even though Noora can’t see, grabbing his coat and leaving the almost stifling heat of the party. The cool night air is a welcome change, and he starts walking without putting on his coat. “This party is full of awful kissers and I have needs,” he replies.
“Uh huh, sure.” She doesn’t sound convinced at all, but even though she’s his best friend’s girl and she seems cool enough, Chris doesn’t really care what she thinks as long as she tells him Eva’s address, which she does, and then adding, “Look for the basement window around the back of the house, it leads straight to her bedroom and she usually leaves it unlocked when she’s home.”
It takes him twenty minutes to find the correct street, and then another five to find the correct house. He goes around to the back, spotting the window Noora had mentioned immediately. It glows softly, and when Chris peeks in, he sees Eva at her desk, with her back to him as she pores over her notes. The sound of him unlatching her window catches her attention though, and she looks both surprised and amused to see him climbing into her room.
“Unbelievable,” she’s grinning at him now, still sitting in her chair but at least she’s looking at him, “You really couldn’t find anyone else to hook up with?”
“I kissed like twelve people in a row,” he tells her, unceremoniously throwing himself onto her bed.
She raises an eyebrow at that, as if doubting him. He feels slightly offended at that, considering Eva is probably one of the few people he’s never lied to –– sure, he hid the fact that he’d had a girlfriend back when she first kissed him, but he hadn’t actually lied about anything. But she doesn’t actually question the validity of his statement, instead simply asking, “What are you doing here then?”
“They’re not you.” The answer is simple enough, and Eva snickers because she assumes that he’s just trying to be smooth, but Chris realises with a small amount of confusion that he had been sincere. He covers it up quickly enough though. “So why don’t you get your ass over here and kiss me?”
Eva swivels to face her desk again, her attention going back to her notes. “Can’t,” she replies without looking at him, “Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to, but I really need to finish this chapter tonight or I’m fucked.”
Chris pushes himself off the bed, standing behind Eva to get a look at what she’s studying. “History?” he asks, getting a soft hum in response. “Lucky for you, that’s my best subject. I’ll help you revise.”
Without waiting for her agreement, he snatches her notes off her desk and settles on her bed once more. Eva lets out an indignant yelp, but doesn’t try to grab the papers back from him, knowing that he wouldn’t let her have them back so easily. Sighing, she finally gets off her chair and moves to the bed, sitting cross-legged and gesturing for Chris to get on with it.
He helps her study for a good hour, maybe even more, quizzing each other back and forth until Eva’s confident that she understands the chapter. “I think I got it,” she takes her notes back from Chris, reaching off the bed to place them back on her desk, “Do you think you could help me with Spanish too?”
“No way,” Chris replies, looping an arm around Eva’s waist and pulling her securely back on the bed before she grabs any other study material. She laughs, going along without much fuss, her arms coming up to rest on his shoulders.
She smiles at him, just this side of shy. Chris is about to comment on her sudden demureness when she leans in to kiss him open mouthed and okay, this is the Eva he’s familiar with. He moves back to lean against her headboard, pulling her with him. She settles onto his lap, straddling him easily without breaking their kiss.
“Thanks for helping me study,” she whispers against his lips. Strangely, the reminder of their study session isn’t an immediately mood killer.
“If this is the way you express gratitude then I should help you with your work more often,” he returns smoothly, grinning when he draws a laugh from her.
He takes advantage of her open mouth, slipping his tongue in, which elicits a gasp from her. She recovers quickly enough though, grounding her hips down and making Chris groan at the contact. He had meant what he’d said –– if this is what he gets for helping Eva study, then he really wouldn’t mind officially becoming her study buddy.
five.
It gets to a point where Chris doesn’t even bother hooking up with other girls before Eva arrives at a party. He wonders if Eva knows, or if her recent habit of showing up extra late to parties is just a coincidence and not some new method she thought up to torture him. There are other things to do at a part besides hooking up, of course, so Chris ends up getting rid of his usual pre-game drinking and just starts drinking at the party itself.
As per normal lately, Chris finds himself in the kitchen of Mathias’ apartment, helping himself to the assortment of chilled beer. By the time Eva gets there, he’s pleasantly buzzed and all too ready for some physical intimacy.
“This is the third time I’ve found you in the kitchen,” Eva says as soon as she enters the kitchen. She’s not yelling, or giggling, so Chris surmises that she’s still sober and slides her his half finished bottle.
“Parties aren’t as fun as they used to be,” he grumbles, but then smoothens his expression into a smirk, “What can I say? Maybe I’ve matured.”
Eva laughed at that. “I find that hard to believe, considering you were watching the Powerpuff Girls when I dropped by the other day,” she teases.
She hops up onto the counter, and Chris settles between her legs, hands resting lightly on her thighs. “Ida was the one watching it,” he defends himself, but it’s half-hearted. He finds he doesn’t mind so much when Eva teases him.
“Ida was asleep,” she reminds him, and he merely shrugs with a grin, leaning in to kiss her softly.
Chris hadn’t had enough beer to be drunk – a lifestyle of partying tends to build up one’s alcohol tolerance to rather impressive levels – merely tipsy at best, the world around him having slowed down to an almost sleepy pace. But kissing Eva is electrifying, and Chris suddenly feels his surroundings acutely, every brush of her fingertips against the exposed skin of his neck making his nerve endings sing.
He leans eagerly into her, but she resists. He probably grumbles his displeasure against her lips, but lets her lead the pace anyway. She takes her time, kissing him slowly. She’s an attentive kisser, sucking lightly on his lip even as her hands start to sneak under his shirt. They’re so caught up in each other that they hardly notice when the other party guests come into the kitchen to grab more drinks, until they hear a scandalised cry.
It’s Mathias, levelling Chris with such an exasperated look that Chris almost wants to laugh, but he’s mostly annoyed that their make out session had been interrupted. “You guys can fuck in my parents’ room for all that I care, but not on the kitchen counter. That’s disgusting,” Mathias pulls a face, but neither Chris nor Eva seem particularly ashamed of themselves.
“My place?” Chris suggests.
Eva traces her thumb over her swollen bottom lip in thought, and it takes a substantial amount of self-control for Chris to not just resume kissing her. Mathias glaring at them from a meter away probably helps some.
“What about your mum and Ida?” Eva asks, and he’s not quite sure why, but hearing Eva mention his family so casually just seems natural, seems right in a way he can’t explain.
“Mum’s working the overnight shift and Ida’s at a sleepover,” he reassures, “We’ll have the place all to ourselves.”
“Why didn’t you say so before? I would’ve just gone over and we could have skipped this party entirely.” Eva rolls her eyes at him – she does that a lot, he’s realised, but there’s always something fond about the gesture.
Chris shrugs, grinning teasingly. “I thought you might want to make out with some of the people here,” he reasons, only half-joking. “Who am I to deny you that?”
“You guys are the weirdest couple I’ve ever met, I swear.” To be quite honest, Chris had forgotten that Mathias was even there at all, but now that he’s once again aware that they’re not alone, he’s in a hurry to get back to his place.
She must feel the same way, because she pushes him back slightly so she can hop off the counter, and then her hand finds his and she’s dragging him out of the apartment. He lives pretty close to Mathias, but the walk takes longer than usual because they keep stopping to make out in the middle of the empty streets.
They do make it back to his house eventually though, already attached by the lips as soon as they enter the threshold. They bump into a few dressers and walls on the way to Chris’ room, but manage not to break the kiss, despite the occasional cry of pain or chuckle. By the time they fall into his bed, his shirt is off, along with her dress, discarded somewhere on his bedroom floor.
He pauses to run his hands up Eva’s sides lightly. Her skin is soft to the touch, and his fingers linger where her waist dips. He’s gotten used to thinking of Eva as beautiful, but somehow the novelty of it hasn’t quite worn off yet, and his breath catches every time she looks like this.
He’s gentle with her, because he can, because they’re alone and they can take all the time in the world. Chris is not ashamed of his promiscuity, because his experience with other people means that he knows how to please his partners. Some might have the idea that he’s selfish in bed, but it’s the opposite. Although he’ll admit that his penchant for pleasing his partners isn’t borne out of selflessness, but because unravelling people until they can’t say anything but his name does wonders for his ego.
His experience serves him well with Eva, although it helps that she’s not shy to be vocal about what she likes and wants from him. When they’re sated, they're both relaxed and loose-limbed. Chris gets up to get rid of the dirty condom, and when he returns, he finds Eva asleep where he’d left her, sprawled across three quarters of his bed. If it had been anyone else, he’d have woken them and sent them home – to be fair, he’s never brought any of his hook ups home, not even Iben when they’d been dating – but Eva’s his friend, so he figures it’s okay if she stays.
What’s not okay, is how she’s currently hogging most of the bed. He walks over to the side with more space, nudging Eva over and then sliding in. She stretches out again almost immediately though, her face seeking out the new source of warmth –– now that the physical activities are over, the room’s gotten a little chilly, especially with the sheen of sweat covering both their bodies.
He’s never cuddled after sex before, but he indulges her. He’s a bit of a wild child – outside of home, anyway – so he’s always thought that he’d done everything, but he’s discovering a lot of new firsts with Eva. She’s the last thought on his mind before he falls asleep.
When he wakes up, Eva is still securely nestled in his arms. A quick glance at the clock lets him know that it’s too early to get up, and they’ve got quite some time before his mum will be back, so Chris lays awake, watching Eva sleep. For some reason, he’s always assumed that pretty girls would look pretty even in sleep, but Eva sleeps with her mouth slightly open, a little bit of dried drool crusting the corner of her mouth. It’s not as off-putting as he’d thought it’d be; in fact, it’s actually kind of adorable.
He finds that he’s oddly content to just lay in bed with her. There are few people Chris doesn’t mind spending time with outside of parties, and somehow in the past year – especially the last few months – Eva has managed to burrow herself firmly into his life. It’s at this point that she stirs, and she seems surprised when she realises that she’s still at his place.
“Sorry,” is the first thing out of her mouth as she sits up, reaching for her panties that had been flung somewhere by his bedside and starting to pull them on. He understands the reaction – neither of them have spent the night at the other’s before, and this seems to cross an unspoken boundary – but he feels a little hurt that she thinks he’d be mad at her.
He doesn’t tell her that though. “You want breakfast?” he asks instead, and she pauses, staring at him while standing in only her panties. She looks confused, but also pleasantly surprised, and Chris watches as a grin slowly stretches across her lips.
“Yeah,” she answers, almost shy. Normally, Chris wouldn’t hesitate to tease her, but somehow in the early morning light, this moment feels too tender for their usual banter.
Chris nods, gets up as well, grabbing the first pair of sweatpants he finds and pulling them on. Once he’s decently covered, he makes his way towards his bedroom door, pausing only once to give Eva a chaste kiss – the first innocent one they’ve shared – before leaving.
When Eva joins him a little while later, dressed only in one of his old t-shirts, Chris realises that he’s in too deep.
(plus one.)
Chris knows he’s charming, knows how to own a place; he could be standing in a stranger’s bedroom and he’d look like he belonged there. So this feeling of being out of place does not sit well with him. Even more ridiculous is the fact that he’s standing right outside the very school he’d been a student at just a few short months ago.
Maybe it’s because he doesn’t feel like the person he used to be back before he graduated. He stands in the school courtyard, under the shade of a tree, and remembers all the things he’s ever done, all the trouble he’s ever gotten into –– it all feels like a lifetime ago. Some things haven’t changed, of course. He’s still got the same boyish good looks, still enjoys alcohol and parties, still attracts the attention of girls wherever he goes.
There are a few girls sitting at the benches, watching him. He doesn’t pay them any mind; he’s not here for them after all. It’s another fifteen minutes before he catches sight of the all too familiar head of strawberry blonde hair. She’s with her friends, laughing about something, and doesn’t notice him until Sana points him out to her.
Once she’s spotted him, he starts to make his way over. He wonders if he’s merely imagining the eyes that follow his short walk across the courtyard. He leans down to give her a quick kiss – he’s grown comfortable with kisses that don’t lead to anything more with Eva now – murmuring a soft greeting against her lips, which she returns.
“Hi,” he says to the rest of the group as he pulls away. They’re all grinning at him – except Sana, who glares instead, but he thinks there’s faint amusement in her expression somehow – saying hello back before dragging each other away, giggling the whole time.
“Not that I’m complaining,” Eva says, starting to walk and tugging on his hand to walk with her, “but what are you doing here?”
He grasps her hand back, keeping her from pulling it away. Not that she tries to, but Chris figures it’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s not the first time they’ve held hands, but it is the first time they’ve held hands in broad daylight with no alcohol involved. Chris wonders if he should consider this a milestone in their odd relationship.
“I was wondering if you’d like to catch a movie with me,” he tells her.
Eva hums softly, pretending to think, even though Chris is sure she’ll say yes. His self-assuredness is evidently another thing about him that hasn’t changed. “Do I get to pick the movie?” she asks eventually.
“I know you won’t take no for an answer so, sure, I guess,” he shrugs.
Eva hits his arm lightly for that, but she hasn’t tried to let go of his hand and stalk off angrily so Chris knows she’s not actually offended. In fact, she’s stuffed their joint hands in the pocket of Chris’ coat, which he finds kind of adorable.
He asks her about her day, and she’s more than happy to go on a rant about how her Spanish teacher hates her and is always picking on her. She’s so carried away by recounting the injustice that they’re almost at his doorstep before she even realises that they aren’t at the movie theatre.
“Wait, didn’t you say we were going to watch a movie?” she turns to him, confused. The faint little furrow that appears between her eyebrows tempts him to lean in to give her a kiss in that very spot, but he’s momentarily stunned by the sudden urge and by the time he gets over it, Eva is no longer frowning.
He smiles mysteriously at her, not replying and merely walking a little faster. They’re still holding hands as he unlocks the front door, and once they’re inside, he turns to Eva so that he can see her reaction. It’s completely dark inside the house, and it takes both their eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness. Eva is the first thing he sees, and he watches her gaze around the living room with awe.
The curtains are drawn, keeping the light out of the house, and the sofa is overflowing with cushions and pillows. Chris’ dark navy comforter is neatly folded and placed on the sofa as well, and the coffee table displays a whole bunch of DVDs.
“If you don’t like any of the DVDs then I can hook my laptop up to the television as well,” he tells her, taking her coat from her and hanging both their coats up before nudging her towards the sofa. “Told you I’d let you pick the movie. Want popcorn?”
Eva’s not looking at the movie selection though, simply staring at him. “What?” he asks, laughing slightly.
“A little late for a first date, isn’t it?” She’s teasing him, but he hears the uncertainty in her tone anyway, as if she’s prepared for him to laugh at her for thinking of this as a date.
That’s exactly what part of him wants to do, but the slightly hopeful way Eva is looking at him makes it hard for him to do that to her. “Better late than never though,” he says instead.
Eva doesn’t say anything to that, merely nods. Chris used to do this to other people, used to go along with their whims and build up their hopes before crushing them. He wonders if this is karma for all the hearts he’s ever broken.
He tries not to think about it, disappearing into the kitchen to make some popcorn. By the time he returns to the living room with a bowl full of the snack, Eva has chosen her movie. He’d expected her to pick a sappy romance film – and was fully prepared to sit through it with minimal complaints – but his Deadpool DVD is the one that she’s placed atop the DVD player. A girl after his heart, indeed.
She settles onto the sofa, spreading his comforter over her lap before he passes the bowl of popcorn to her so he can pop the DVD into the player. She’s already munching on the popcorn when he returns to the sofa, although she pauses to hold the comforter open for him. He slides under, sitting next to her but leaving a small bit of space between them. He thinks it’s almost funny, because he considers himself good with the ladies, but now he just feels awkward.
He wants to put his arm around her and pull her close, but he’s not used to casual intimacy. He doesn’t want Eva to think that he brought her over so that they could have sex –– not that he’d complain if there’s sex involved at some point, but it isn’t his intention. She shoots him an odd look as the home menu appears.
He sets the appropriate subtitles before turning to her, raising an eyebrow in question. The light from the television screen only falls over half her face, but he sees her roll her eyes at him anyway. She doesn’t answer his unspoken question, but she does lift his arm – the one closer to her – and drapes it over her own shoulder.
Chris can’t believe he honestly once thought of Eva as mousy and shy. She may be quiet and unassuming, but when she knows what she wants, she isn’t shy in the least about being forward about it. His fingers curl over her shoulders lightly as she buries herself into his side, the popcorn balanced between them.
Eva giggles throughout most of the gratuitously graphic opening scene, which just makes Chris like her more. She doesn’t flinch at the violence, calmly munching on popcorn as people get shot on screen. “You’re crazy,” Chris murmurs.
“You love it,” she retorts. Chris doesn’t deny it.
Eva’s hand goes still at the introduction of the love interest, and eventually Chris takes the bowl and places it on the coffee table. The montage of the characters having sex makes Eva giggle again, and she nudges Chris’ side as he settles back on the sofa against her, draping his arm over her shoulders once more.
“Want to sneak into someone's Russ bus and fuck me to celebrate your graduation?” Eva asks, and although her tone is innocent, she’s sporting a wicked grin on her face.
“Don’t give me ideas,” Chris warns, gently pushing her face so that she’s looking at the screen once more, “Now stop teasing me and watch the movie.”
Eva turns back to him once he takes his hand off her cheek, still grinning, although the curve of her lips is decidedly softer now, fonder. She leans in, pressing her nose to his jaw. “I’m your girl,” she whispers.
Chris pulls back slightly to look at her in surprise, and sees her watching him, her expression open and earnest, nothing to indicate that she’s lying. He feels himself smiling before he even thinks to smile –– it’s one of those smiles that only the few people he loves are ever privy to. He debates what he can possibly say in response to that before realising that he doesn’t actually need to say anything because she’s not expecting a response.
He leans his head against hers lightly, tightening his arm around Eva’s shoulder and pulling her closer to drop a soft kiss against the top of her head. They settle down to watch the movie once more, curled around each other.