The Girl Next Door (Chris Evans Fanfiction)

Chapter 6

"I think I changed my mind," Chris said while Erica was leaning back on the couch engulfed in hysterical laughter. "I don't think I want to let you watch all my movies."

"You had whipped cream on your nipples and a banana in your ass!" She was laughing so hard she was crying.

Chris just shrugged with a smirk, "Well ya know, when you're first in movies, everything is exciting. You don't ever think, oh man this isn't a good idea, even when the script calls for you to put fruit in your pooper."

This only made Erica lay over on the couch while laughing even harder. She had told Chris that she wanted to watch all of his movies since she had known him now for two months but had never seen any movie other than Captain America. Erica had no idea how hilarious this would be though and gave her so much material to tease him with.

"Okay, I think I'm okay now," Erica sat up and wiped her tears.

"I apologize for being in so many shitty movies," Chris snickered.

"Hey I liked What's Your Number, that one was funny. And I loved Sunshine! That one was great," She tucked some of her thick waves behind her ears. "Teen Movie though, that was crap. Cellular was completely cheesy and London... man did you ever have clothes on in that movie? Although I see that as a theme in your movies... you're at least half naked in most of them."

Chris couldn't help but smirk while resting an arm behind his head, "Well ladies seem to enjoy it."

She gave him a look before saying through a playful smile, "Well that wouldn't be the first thing people have exaggerated about you."

"Woah, ouch! I feel like this getting personal," Chris joked while slapping a hand to his chest. "Okay I'm picking the next movie. We're not watching another embarrassing one, we're watching one I actually like. It's called Gifted and this one came out last year."

"What is it about?" She asked, adjusting her tee shirt before getting comfortable on the couch.

Chris clicked play before smirking at her and saying, "I guess you'll just have to watch it and find out."

The two settled in for the movie but it wasn't long until Erica had tears streaming down her face. Chris understood her emotions because even though he was in it, it still made him teary at moment. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and Erica accepted the affection while taking the sleeve of her sweatshirt to wipe at her ears.

She was holding it together pretty well until they came across the scene when Mary was observing everyone in the hospital excited over a baby being born. Erica felt a lump in her throat form and she viciously blinked to try to keep her tears from falling. She listened as Frank told Mary this was what it was like when she was born and it was then that Erica lost it.

She quickly stood, getting away from Chris' embrace and stepping over Jacky and Dodger who were sleeping on the floor and walked out to the backyard. She had to get some air but when she finally was alone, she sat on the bench Chris had on his deck, covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

Chris was still sitting inside, completely confused as to what happened. He paused the movie and got to his feet, following Erica's steps outside. Before he even reached the door, he could hear her deep sobbing and it made him quicken his steps. He didn't really know what to say or what to do and he sure as hell had no idea what was going on so he did the only thing he could think of... he just sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her.

Erica was reluctant at first, not wanting to open up to him but she felt safe and comfortable in his arms and couldn't help but relax with him. She slowly brought her hands away from her face and held onto his torso, crying into his shirt. After a while, Erica had no more tears to cry and she slowly pulled away from him, looking up into his blue eyes making his heart break. Her skin was red, blotchy and wet from tears, dark eyes glossy, and bottom lip still trembling.

"Hey," Chris gently started, reaching up to tuck some of her messy curls behind her ear. "Now if I would have known Gifted was going to do this to you, I would have picked another movie that I made an idiot of myself in."

She couldn't help but laugh, helping her to relax. As her smile faded, she wiped off her fresh tears and sat slumped over, staring down at the grass. She didn't know what to say. She didn't really want to explain anything to him and she knew he wouldn't ask her to. That changed when Chris reached his hand over and gently rested his big one on top of hers and that one touch made her open up in a vulnerable way that she never thought she would.

"My mom commited suicide when I was five...." Erica said softly.

At that moment, Chris pieced together in his mind what happened and finished, "And your Uncle Dave raised you."

She nodded while he let out a long sigh and ran his free hand through his hair, "God Erica, I'm so sorry. I would have never turned on that movie if I would have known, I didn't mean to bring anything up."

"Don't be sorry Chris, you didn't know," She told him, still staring down at the grass. "It's just that so much of that movie is like my life... well except the me being a genius part."

Her words made him softly chuckle and she smiled before he gave her hand a soft squeeze, before questioning, "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to but what about your dad?"

Erica just shrugged, "I don't even know who my dad is. Uncle Dave knows but I never asked him... I figured if I needed to know he'd tell me."

"So what happened?" Chris couldn't help but want to know into her past so that he could know Erica on a deeper level.

She was silent for a long moment before she finally sat up and turned her head to look at him. Chris rubbed her back softly while she breathed deeply and opened up to Chris to tell him, "My mom was a wonderful person. She was so full of life and energetic but she was bipolar and struggled a lot with depression. Then she got pregnant and just like in Gifted, my grandma wanted nothing to do with her after that. Anyway, then when I was five, she just was so depressed she couldn't handle it anymore and committed suicide and I was going to go into foster care but my uncle took me."

While Erica's tears slowly fell down her cheeks, Chris swiped his thumb across her face and wiped them away before intently listening again while she told him, "My uncle gave up everything for me. He was 26 at the time and went from being in a band and engaged to working construction."

"What happened to the girl that he was engaged to?" Chris was curious.

Erica's dark eyes dropped from his for a moment before they found their way back up, "She didn't want kids, so my uncle called it off. He quit his band to have a steady job and as a 26 year old guy tried to navigate not only losing his sister but trying to figure out how to take care of me by himself. I don't know how he did it, but he did. I miss my mom like crazy and wish I had her in my life, but in my eyes, my Uncle Dave is the most wonderful man on the entire planet and I love him more than anything."

By this point, Chris had his own tears coming out of his eyes. He wrapped his thick muscular arms around her slender frame and hugged her tightly while the two cried together. Chris cried not only for Erica's loss of her mother, but for the sacrifices that her uncle made and how much love not only Dave had for Erica but she had for him. He was amazing that Erica could have had this tragedy in her life and still be the wonderful and joyful person she was and he was in awe of her.

The two just stayed there, out in the moonlight holding onto one another so happy that somehow they had ended up becoming neighbors even if both of them maybe wanted more than that.