Never Knew

chapter 1 - Home sweet home

EVELYN'S POV

We're all born with this innocence, a fresh start. But how true can that be really? What would I know about innocence when mine was chipped away from me such a long time ago? 

"Evelyn, what're you thinking about?" my best friend Sophie whispered as she climbed into the seat next to me.

 We were sitting on the waterfront in front of my parent's new house. It was gorgeous; as the sun sank, it painted the sky in shades of pale pink and orange. My new backyard was the ocean. I was astounded by the white seaside house that would become my new home's effortless elegance upon first sight. The home was two stories, with stunning glass double doors leading from the living room to the pool and a dock beyond that to a short set of stairs that went down to the sandy shore. 

Sophie said she'd come along because we weren't moving towns, we were just moving to the beach. I looked at her as she waited for my response while looking at the calmness of the water beyond us.

"Do you think people are going to continue talking about me as well as my parents now that we moved?" I enquired.

"People will always have something to say, Eve, it doesn't matter if you were to move to Alaska," Sophie answered in a very matter-of-fact tone.

I chuckled at that because she was right. I got up and told her to come help me unpack the few things I had left in my new room, which I immediately fell in love with, it had three windows side by side with a view of the water. My parents were happy, they thought this would solve the issues I had caused in our old home, the lying, the drugs, the incident no one would ever forget about, not my brother, not my parents, not Sophie, or any of our other friends that were at the family party that night.

It was 9:30 pm, Gianna and Sadie had come over after Sophie called them and told them she was keeping me company by sleeping over, so they should too. All our parents had gone to school together so we, in turn, grew up close as well, it was never a problem when one of us wanted to stay over at each other's house, not even after what happened.

Sleepovers, family parties, and girlhood, we were all 18 except Sophie, she was one year older than all of us, she and I were the closest even though all of us were inseparable. Gianna and Sadie had been squealing and gushing over the house and the view for a straight thirty minutes, can't say I blame them. The problem is we had some wine and now Gianna really wanted to go to the bonfire that was taking place literally to the right of my backyard.

"I don't know those people, Gianna!!" I cried, pleading with my eyes so we could just stay in, drink more wine, and continue to eat sushi.

"Even better of a reason to go out! It's literally the first night of summer and you want to just rot in here with us?!" she pleaded back.

"Excuse me, me personally I'm having a lovely night," Sadie said raising her eyebrows at Gianna and taking a sip of her wine.

Gianna rolled her eyes and Sophie laughed looking through my closet. What we didn't notice was my mom standing by the cracked door.

"Mom?" I frowned. She peeked her head in smiling.

"You should go introduce yourself, you haven't been out in.." My mother's words became sluggish and I understood why: she was reluctant to discuss the subject that no one would ever forget but also would never dare to bring up again. Her eyes became sad, and I got up and went to hug her.

 "I'll go this once so Gianna doesn't have to complain the rest of the night about me holding her hostage," I gave in hoping that would be enough to erase the thought I knew popped up in her mind.