Chapter 5
Everly
Present Day
It’s been a week. I’ve been living in one of Allie’s spare rooms on Blue Lake and working at Fit for seven days now.
And soon I’ll start helping at Brew. Online school is even easier than public school.
I haven’t turned in any assignments yet, but I’m getting them done effortlessly and catching up quickly.
I’ll have to work out how I’ll get myself to and from school when I need to check in and turn in work. A problem for another day.
Via has only called me once since I’ve been gone.
If I’m being honest, that call felt obligatory.
I don’t call her because I never know who else is around.
I mean, she could just not answer my call if she weren’t alone, but I don’t even want my name popping up on her screen in mixed company.
We agreed not to tell anyone (except her boyfriend, Ryan) where I am—just that our mom decided it was best if I left.
As far as anyone in OV is concerned, I’m a ghost. Ideally, they’ll all forget I even exist. Not likely.
But if there’s one thing I know about small towns, it’s that a new scandal will give said town something else to talk about if you just give it time.
I realize I’ve traded one small town for another, but I plan to fly under the radar as long as I’m here.
Lilly, I’ve decided, is my favorite part of Blue Lake so far.
She and her boyfriend, Noah, the other Fit employee, are seniors at Blue Lake High, where I’ll report once a week to drop off my assignments and finish my senior year.
Lilly is a magnet. She pulled me in immediately and radiates this authentic simplicity unlike anyone I’ve ever met.
No agenda, no hidden aggression, or mean girl antics, she is equal parts bubbly sarcasm and laid-back chill.
She doesn’t waste her words and is a gifted and animated storyteller, which she attributes to her Native American roots—healers and medicine men, she calls them.
Her stories appeal to my bookworm nature, and I hang on every word.
Especially (selfishly) the tidbits she drops about Julian.
Cougars aside, I’m insatiably curious about him.
The ripped muscles, chiseled physique, sculpted face, and endless pools of deep blue eyes captivate me.
The man could be a model. But his patience with his older clients and quiet reserve captivate me more and frankly don’t track with the cougar bait he’s rumored to be.
I tether between whether he rates as a favorite or someone to avoid at all costs.
According to recent tea from Lilly, he may be a bit of both.
She gives me a comically vivid rundown on everyone we encounter throughout the workdays, including Julian—the little she knows.
Like that he showed up in Blue Lake three years or so ago and began shadowing Allie, learning to be a personal trainer.
Lilly had only worked for Allie the last two years, so it was before her time.
I appreciate her commitment to offering me a roadmap to my new life.
It makes me adore her more—that she seems to genuinely care if I fit in here, for which I am endlessly grateful.
Julian did not. But I’m still intrigued—maybe more in his seeming disinterest. I low-key hate that typical drama-girl response.
Oh, he’s not interested in me, okay now I’m interested.
I’m smarter than that, and if my recent past has taught me anything, it’s to avoid drama.
Over the last week, he’s kept his distance, but I would still catch him watching me in the mirrors that litter the walls.
Maybe because I’m watching him too. I don’t know much or anything about him except that he takes excellent care of his body, works hard at whatever he does, doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor, attracts older women like a moth to flame and apparently hates old-school rock.
Yesterday, I came into Fit and of course he beat me there, even though I was a half hour early for my shift.
Some weird unspoken competition between us, at least for me.
I dropped my stuff on the shelf in the back room and flicked the switch for the studio music.
Axl Rose was singing “I need you.” “Patience” is just one of those songs I can’t not love.
Old-school rock reminds me of my parents and being young, before life got sad and complicated.
It’s hard and loud with deliciously long guitar riffs, and it soothes me.
This Guns N’ Roses song reminds me of my dad.
Feeling nostalgic, I turned it up. Not exactly a workout song, but a vibe that makes me sing along and whistle if you know it like I do.
As I came around the corner from the office area behind the counter, Julian slammed his weight down with a crash and stormed to the receiver and flipped the switch off, turned and proceeded to storm back to his weights.
“What the hell, Julie? Good morning to you too.”
He stopped mid storm and, with his back to me, his shoulders rose with the deep breath he took. He turned and focused his eyes somewhere just above my head. “Look, can we not do the sappy old-school rock? It’s not really workout music anyway. Cool?” He lowered his eyes to mine and waited.
I gave him half-hearted whatever hands as I nodded, shrugged and said, “Sure.”
He gave me one nod and turned to go, more calmly, but like it took effort.
Moody much? I wondered for a second if the guy took steroids but dismissed it just as quickly.
He takes impeccable care of his body, maniacally reads ingredients labels and is quick to tell Allie if some drink, protein bar or snack she stocks isn’t up to his standards.
It doesn’t happen often because Allie is just as particular as he is.
I’m learning a lot about whole body health from them and I’m here for it.
I want to roll my eyes sometimes at their overly obsessive ways, but I find it all too fascinating to mock.
Since coming here, my nervous system is the calmest it’s ever been, and considering the train wreck that is my life, that’s saying something.
Overthinking the puzzle of this man doesn’t stress me out like it should.
It makes my heart race, but in the best way.
I find I’m less interested in my latest book boyfriend because it seems I have a real one to obsess over.
A guy. Not a boyfriend. Something tells me Julian doesn’t do the boyfriend thing.
And I am not ready to admit that I care why.
I could never imagine myself with any real guy before.
Real guys never measured up to the fictional ones.
Again, Via might be right (although I’ll never admit it to her) and my obsession with fictional characters might’ve ruined me for real life experiences.
Until now. And with everything I’ve been accused of back home, you’d think I’d be steering clear of all guys.
But I can’t help it with Julian. He makes me feel things.
Want things. Damn the books. I’m creating my own forbidden love interest. He’s too old for me.
He’s seen more life than twenty-one years (according to Lilly) should allow. You could tell. It’s in the eyes.
Poetry aside, they really are windows to the soul, and his scream tortured.
And if any of the rumors are true, Allie found him on the street and took him in a few years ago.
And while I feel like the oldest eighteen-year-old I know—coming here by myself and starting a new life goes a long way in making me feel like an adult—inside, I’m still the virginal, awkward high school senior who’s never even kissed a guy.
Which makes the rumors in Oak Valley even more ridiculous, although utterly life ruining, at least for me.
Everyone else involved seems to be doing just fine with me as enemy number one and the cause of the whole mess.
If they only knew how far from a home-wrecker I really am, they’d feel stupid and maybe even guilty.
I still haven’t filled in all the blind spots in my memory of that night.
My sister got more details after visiting the hospital the next day, but the version of events she was told didn’t add up.
Kendall found me and Chase in their bed together and threw me out of their house.
And after that, she apparently took a bunch of pills and tried to kill herself—the richest, most popular girl in town, who seemed to have everything going for her.
It didn’t make sense. I don’t remember the drive back home.
But I woke up in my own bed with the clothes I wore the night before, clearly untouched sexually speaking.
I’ve had snippets of Chase’s hands on me, like it was a dream.
I did recall Via and Ryan leaving early while Chase and Kendall, their best friends and my surrogate older siblings, assured them they’d look out for me and told them to “let the birthday girl have some fun for once.” But is that what I remember or what they filled in for me?
Did I come on to Chase in a drunken state?