Hey Jealousy

After Monday night’s exhausting CYO volleyball match, Evangeline Garver and Stacy Siberling shuffled back to the locker room to change. Despite the trouncing they suffered at the hands of the Central Catholic girls’ squad, missed volleys and poor line discipline were the last things on their minds.

“So... what’d you do afterwards? Anything steamy?” Stacy, the leggy brunette, prodded her more demure red-headed companion. Stacy’s face was fixed with the sly, gossipy smile common to girls of their age whenever there were rumors of romance.

Evangeline had to laugh, not just at her teammate’s eagerness but at the facility with which she picked up their earlier conversation after two hours of running and diving. “Nah, nothing steamy. We just walked around the neighborhood for a while and then got a smoothie. And we talked. A lot.”

“Yeah? About what?” Stacy raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Evangeline smiled as she tossed her head back in mock exasperation. “Stuff! You know, just normal stuff that people talk about when they get to know one another.”

“Really?” Stacy sounded disappointed. “You’re not holding back on me, are you, Garver?”

“Sorry, Stace. I guess my dates must seem pretty boring to you, huh?”

“I thought for sure he would’ve gotten fresh with you, but not even so much as a butt grab,” Stacy said.

Evangeline brushed a sweaty lock of red hair from her eye and looked at her critically. “Why would you think that?”

Stacy looked off in thought. “C’mon! Sebastian Pereira? He seems like the type! All blunt and pushy... and arrogant.”

Eva began to protest, then reconsidered. “Well, maybe a little. But he was a perfect gentleman.”

“Too bad for you, right?” Stacy winked at her.

By now they’d made their way into the locker room and both had plopped their tired rear ends onto a bench while they undressed. It was only a matter of time before another of the eavesdropping girls invited herself into the conversation.

“Ooh, do I hear boy talk over here?” When Eva had finished peeling her sweat-soaked shirt away from her torso, she saw Rachel Mercado wearing her personal variation of that gossipy smile.

“Yeah! Eva was just telling me about her encounter this weekend,” said Stacy.

“Encounter? Do tell!” Rachel sat on the bench between them.

“A gentleman caller made a surprise visit to see her at work on Friday night. Very romantic stuff.”

“Oh, geez.” Eva’s freckled cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

Rachel shoved her playfully. “That is romantic! Boy, it doesn’t take you long to make friends, does it? So who was it? A guy from St. Bonaventure?”

Before Eva could open her mouth, Stacy had already answered. “Yep! Sebastian Pereira.”

“Really?” Rachel said, after a noticeable pause. She turned slowly toward Eva, still smiling, but seeming somehow less genuine than before. “Well, huh! My Sebastian,” she said, and then shoved Eva’s shoulder again. It felt decidedly less playful that time.

Evangeline returned a blank, confused look.

Rachel stood up and folded her arms over her stomach. She shook her head and laughed to herself before shouting, “The nerve of that boy!” She smiled then as she tilted her head toward Eva, adding in a lower voice, “And the nerve of you!”

Eva forced a weak smile. “I must be missing something.”

“He’s practically my fiance,” she said with a wink.

“Oh yeaaah, that’s right! I forgot how you two used to flirt with each other, like, since forever,” Stacy said. Then, as she was applying deodorant, she turned around suddenly with a look like she’d just remembered something. “Rachel, you were with him at the club the night he got thrown out, right?”

“Mm-hm,” she answered, shaking her head with embarrassment. “I still haven’t worked up the nerve to go back there.”

Eva’s eyebrows knitted with worry. “What club? What are you talking about?”

“You mean you didn’t hear about that?” Stacy asked with wonder. “Rachel! You have to tell Eva about the fight at the club!”

Rachel feigned reluctance. “Well, if she doesn’t already know, I don’t want to start bad-mouthing him. Eva’s not one for gossip.”

Stacy nudged her shoulder. “You have to! Eva has to know what kind of man she’s getting involved with.” She turned to Eva, raising her eyebrows excitedly. “He’s dangerous.”

Rachel sucked on her cheek a moment before replying. “He’s not dangerous. Although he does seem… different, lately. Something’s gotten into him.”

Evangeline found both Rachel’s dissimulation and Stacy’s titillation vaguely disconcerting. “I don’t think I should be the only one here who doesn’t know about this,” she insisted. “What happened?”

Rachel sighed. “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you. Last month, Sebastian and I went to Close Encounters, the night club.” The look on Rachel’s face as she finished that sentence belied her pretended reticence; Evangeline narrowed her eyes ever so slightly as the other girl went on. “He got into a fight with two guys and ended up getting thrown out by the bouncers and banned for life. The whole thing happened so suddenly, and it was completely out of the blue! He actually hit one of them in the face with one of those heavy glass pitchers! The guy’s face was such a bloody mess that…” Rachel cringed as she trailed off.

Eva almost gasped. “Why would he do something like that? They must have provoked him!” But even as she said that, she remembered the gash on his head and the swollen eye socket. ‘I really was hit with a brick!’ she recalled him saying. And she wondered why he never mentioned this to her — was it because he was there with Rachel?

“He said that they did, that they came over to the table and insulted him. I wasn’t there to see it, but still, to respond like that over words… it certainly surprised me! And poor Vanessa DiPalmo cried all night!” At this, Rachel’s voice descended into a conspiratorial whisper. “Vanessa isn’t the nicest girl in the world, but to have your boyfriend banned from Encounters? That’s devastating!”

‘Genghis Cunt’s boyfriend,’ Evangeline thought as she jumped up, still only half-dressed. “Oh no! He said something like that would happen. This is all my fault,” she moaned.

Rachel and Stacy shared a confused glance. “What’s the story, Eva?”

“My first day here, Vanessa and Angie and Laura cornered me in the library and started insulting me. Sebastian was there and he told them off. That’s how we first met. He said that it wouldn’t end there, that Vanessa would do something to get him in trouble. He specifically said that he thought Vanessa would try to get her boyfriend to beat him up!”

Rachel couldn’t keep her mouth from falling open in surprise. Stacy, on the other hand, nearly vibrated with excitement. “Evangeline Garver, you are far too quiet! I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about any of this until now! I thought we were friends!” she huffed.

“It’s not the most pleasant episode to relive, Stace.”

“A hero swooping in to rescue you, getting in fights with other men over you? What’s unpleasant about that?”

Rachel shoved Stacy. She shoved people a lot, Evangeline observed. “Unlike you, Eva is a well-mannered young lady. She doesn’t find things like that exciting.” There was a note of mockery in Rachel’s voice, but Eva couldn’t tell which girl it was meant for.

“Did he get in trouble? Do you think they’ll go after him again?” Eva asked.

“Nothing besides getting banned, as far as I know. My aunt works there. They don’t like to report that kind of stuff unless it’s really serious; they don’t want the club to have a reputation. But as for Vanessa’s boyfriend?” Rachel shrugged, held out her hands. “I guess not. It’s been more than a month, now.”

“How could he not do something after being humiliated like that!” Stacy interjected.

“You know boys, Stacy. They’re probably best buddies by now.”

“I doubt it,” said Eva. “Sebastian was really worried about being able to buy his parents’ old car. He said he thought Vanessa would find some way to get him in trouble, and he was afraid they would go back on the deal. I wonder if that’s what happened?”

“His car?” Rachel gave a thoughtful hum and then stared across the locker room in silence for a few seconds. She spoke up then, somewhat absently, “I wouldn’t worry about that. I just saw him driving around in it.”

“Really? He didn’t say anything about it at school today. He did seem unusually excited, though. I wonder if—”

Rachel suddenly turned to look at Evangeline, interrupting her. “But, Eva, I’m surprised Sebastian never mentioned the fight to you.”

That made two of them. Her thoughts returned to his mysterious bruises and his poor attempt at concealing them with make-up. She strove to come up with explanations and excuses. “He probably didn’t want to worry me, or give me the wrong idea.”

Rachel cocked her head, tossing her shiny blonde hair over her shoulder. There was a hint of a smile on her lips. “I can certainly understand why he’d think that story would give you the wrong idea.”

“So he’s not usually like that? Is that what you mean?” asked Eva, who despite her years as a teenage girl was still not always savvy to their guile and innuendo.

Rachel shrugged slowly. “At least not when he was my boyfriend!”

Stacy chuckled, but Eva sat there silently, sucking on her lip.

“Oh, I’m just teasing you, Evangeline.” Once again there was something in Rachel’s voice that was not exactly convincing. “He and I weren’t going out or anything, at least not officially... but he did promise to marry me if we were both still single when we were 30.”

“Oh, one of those arrangements,” said Evangeline. “Well, if I had known that...”

“Well that seals your fate, Rachel! Your boat’s sailed without you.” Stacy quipped.

“You’ve made me a spinster for life!” Rachel sighed as she shoved Eva again. “I’ll get you for this, Eva!”

All three of the girls laughed — at least one of them with sincerity.

~*~

Sebastian and Evangeline had scheduled their second date for the next evening, and Sebastian did indeed drive up in his car. It was a four-door Swift Motors Catalina and its all-electric flywheel motor was whisper-quiet as it glided up to the curb. Its graphite-colored skin was buffed to a mirror shine; Evangeline could see her reflection in the door panels as she stepped out of her house.

Sebastian leaned against the hood in his blue jeans, his arms crossed over his chest, stretching the fit of his cashmere jacket and rumpling the sharkskin necktie that hung loosely from his unbuttoned collar. He was riding higher than he had been in weeks. His reunion with Eva, his recent victories in the field, and now finally owning the car he’d been saving and cajoling his parents for left him swamped with confidence. He had two goals tonight: the first was to reveal his secret identity to Evangeline, and the second was to kiss her. From where he stood, it was as good as done.

His cocky smirk evaporated as Eva walked up to him and calmly asked if he was ready.

“You don’t look surprised.”

She shrugged disinterestedly. “You told me you were getting a car weeks ago.”

He pursed his lips sourly. “I spent the last two days trying to keep it a secret so I could surprise you.”

“Oh, one of the girls saw you zipping around in it and ruined it for you,” Evangeline tucked a wavelet of scarlet hair behind her ear, shrugged. “It’s nice.”

He bent sideways and held open the door for her. “You know, I always thought self-control was overrated.”

“No, it’s great!” she replied, forcing a bit more cheer into her voice. She seated herself, smoothing out the folds of her long white dress before looking up at him again. “I never would have been able to wear these heels if we had to walk the whole way.”

Sebastian raised his eyebrows and forced a smile. “But of course.”

~*~

There was no mistaking a certain flightiness and agitation in Evangeline’s manner as they sat for dinner, especially considering the easy way she made conversation on their first date. Tonight, she was less playful and more distracted, like the purpose of conversation was to dance around her true topic of interest.

Sebastian tore off a strip of charred lamb and a blackened pepper with his teeth and chewed solemnly. He laid the kebab down on his plate as if he was deeply considering her remark about the similarity of the dining room wallpaper to a doctor’s office she had visited once when she was five years old.

“Are you OK?” he asked once he finished chewing. “You don’t seem like yourself tonight.”

“What? Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered defensively. “Sorry if I’m boring you.”

“Actually, it seems like you’re the one who’s bored. Or mad. Like there’s something else you’d rather talk about, but you want me to bring it up.”

Eva looked down at her food bashfully. “You are a mind reader,” she said with a tiny, fragile laugh.

“I just know that nobody could be that interested in wallpaper.”

“I heard a rumor that you were in a fight with Vanessa DiPalmo’s boyfriend at a club. Is that true?”

He leaned forward slowly. “At Close Encounters. Yeah, that’s true.”

“You broke a glass pitcher over his face?”

Sebastian set his jaw. “It didn’t break.”

“So you did hit him with it!”

“Yes, but only after he and his buddy threatened me and poured my drink in my lap. I’m not a lunatic, Eva. I don’t just go around attacking people. I told you she would probably put him up to something, and she did.”

Evangeline leaned back in her chair, covering her mouth with her hand in a gesture of shame. “I’m sorry. I mean, I’m sorry that you had to go through that for me.”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t because of you. It’s because Vanessa is an evil bitch and her boyfriend is a thug.”

“Still, I wish you didn’t have to go through all that. I knew you wouldn’t have done something like that unless you had to.” She was trying to reassure herself as much as him.

“Thanks. So we’re OK, now?”

“I guess,” she wavered.

Sebastian frowned. “Something else is bothering you, too.”

“OK,” she said, taking a deep breath to steel herself. “You haven’t mentioned anything about your previous girlfriends.”

Sebastian smirked, took a sip of water from his glass. “Does that indicate that you consider yourself my current girlfriend?”

“Well, this is a date, so… we are dating… I’m not saying we’re going steady or anything.”

Sebastian held up his hands. “OK, OK. I think it’s obvious that I like you, Eva.”

“I like you, too!” she exclaimed, leaning across the table. It was the first time that night she’d demonstrated her familiar warmth and enthusiasm, and it made Sebastian feel much better to see it.

“Is this something girls usually worry about?”

Evangeline looked away from his eyes. She seemed baffled and embarrassed, as if in recognition that her reason for concern was irrational, yet she was unwilling to surrender it. “It can be. Under certain circumstances.”

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He was beginning to think himself the victim of some locker room calumny. He had no idea how accurate his guess was.

“We haven’t talked about your previous boyfriends, either,” he said, unintentionally mimicking some of her earlier defensiveness.

Eva leaned her head sympathetically to one side. “What would you like to know?”

Sebastian shook his head. “Before that, I’d like to know what made you so worried about my dating history.”

“You used to date Rachel Mercado.”

“We went out a few times, yes. Why? What did she say?”

“You were with her at the club that night.”

“Yes, but not as a couple. Gil Benjamin was with us, too. We were just hanging out.”

Eva pursed her lips a moment and they curved up ever so slightly at the edges, but she continued the interrogation. “When did you break up?”

Sebastian crossed his arms. “I’m not sure we were really ever together. Our dates were intermittent and pretty casual. We flirted a lot, sure, but—”

“She told me you made a deal to marry her by the time she’s 30,” Eva said petulantly.

Sebastian leaned back in his seat and grinned. “I’m confident the deal will fall through.”

Evangeline sighed. “I know it’s stupid. It’s not the marriage thing, it’s just—”

“It’s just that you can’t bear the thought of another woman getting her hands on me.”

Eva easily ignored his self-congratulatory remark, a testament to how familiar she’d already become with his behavior. “She just seemed very possessive of you. ‘My Sebastian,’ those were her words.”

“Really now?” Sebastian leaned forward with interest, his grin growing ever wider. He was enjoying himself immensely.

“Are you still interested in her?” Eva asked, an unwanted note of vulnerability sneaking into her voice.

Sebastian was savvy enough to know the optimal answer to that question, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to Eva. “Not as interested as I am in you.”

She scowled. “How do you feel about flirting with other people when you’re in a relationship?”

Sebastian was momentarily taken aback. “Who was I flirting with?”

She repeated his words back to him. “Not as interested as I am in you. So, you think it’s OK to keep flirting with other girls, see what turns up. Test the waters. Is that it?”

He rolled his eyes in disgust. “Oh, brother! I wasn’t flirting with her, and you and I weren’t together at the time anyway.”

“I’m not asking about her or that time,” Evangeline said sharply. “I’m asking you if that’s how—”

“Did you not just say that we’re not going steady?”

“So that is how you feel!”

He smirked. “So, you’re telling me you want to go steady. Well, OK…”

Evangeline glared at him. He thought it was adorable the way her nose scrunched up, but he also thought it wise not to say so. For just an instant, Sebastian thought the air shimmered around her, the way blacktop does on a July afternoon.

“So, how ‘casual’ were you two, exactly?” she asked accusingly, curling her fingers into virtual quotation marks to emphasize her suspicions.

Unfortunately, Sebastian hadn’t yet figured out what she was suspicious about. “You know… casual,” he said, stupidly.

Evangeline whispered her clarification. “Did you have sex with her?”

He narrowed his eyes, clearly insulted by the suggestion. “Does that sound casual to you, Eva?”

“So you didn’t?”

“No! Not with Rachel and not with anyone else! Did she tell you otherwise?”

Evangeline exhaled in great relief, the beginnings of a smile turning the corners of her pale pink lips. “No, she never said that.”

“Oh, so you just assumed it,” Sebastian said sharply. “I’m not a man-whore, and Rachel’s not a tramp, either.”

“I didn’t say you were! I’m… not sure why I started to go down that road. I’m sorry, Sebastian.”

“So, do you think that sort of thing is ‘casual?’ ” he asked, complete with finger quotation marks of his own.

“Of course not. I’ve never done that either.”

“Good!” he said.

“And I don’t intend to until my wedding night,” she added.

Sebastian’s teeth involuntarily ground together. “Good,” he repeated, albeit with less conviction. “I, uh, always presumed as much, of course. I find chastity very alluring.” He did not deem it appropriate to reveal that part of what made it alluring was the fantasy that, in his presence and his presence alone, she would eagerly cast it out the window.

She sighed, looking at him dreamily. “Of course you would. You’re such a gentleman.” Evangeline returned to her kebab then. It was the first time she had shown real appetite all night.

After a few minutes of silence, Sebastian could no longer restrain himself. “So, how many boyfriends have you had, and how poorly do they measure up against me?”

Evangeline nearly choked on her food. After finally swallowing and washing it down with a gulp of water, she shook her head. “No, let’s not.”

“We certainly will. You asked about mine. That’s a double standard, and I only tolerate double standards that I benefit from.”

Eva laid her napkin down on the table and smoothed it out. “No. I’m not going to bad-mouth the very small number of boys I dated.” Then she added, with a coy smile, “It’s not their fault they don’t measure up against you.”

Sebastian propped his head on his hand and gazed at her adoringly. ‘Perfect,’ he thought. The red hair; those round, pink-cream cheeks; that dainty nose dappled with tiny freckles! The way her dress squeezed her breasts together, and those pink lips he longed to kiss, all of it was wonderful. But he found her virtue and her clever retorts sexier still, not to mention how freely she stroked his ego. It barely seemed possible that such a girl could exist, let alone that he’d find her. Born in Kansas? Impossible. She emerged fully formed from his dreams. The only way he knew that she was not some psychic projection of his imagination was that she hadn’t torn off her clothes and thrown herself on top of him.

“You’re too generous,” he said, trying to bury the lewd thought.

“Not at all. They were all really nice and sweet boys. Except one.”

Sebastian leaned back and took a sip of water from his glass. “That’s to be expected, I suppose. Deep down, every girl has a thing for jerks.”

Evangeline shifted a little, rolling her eyes up thoughtfully. “Maybe. You’re the first jerk I’ve intentionally dated.” She laughed. “I’m kidding!”

“I love you” is what he would have said if he hadn’t preemptively clamped his teeth down on his tongue. He just smiled.

The last half of their date went much better than its inauspicious beginning. After dinner, they drove around the city for some time before heading back home. Along the way, Evangeline even offered a few unsolicited compliments on the car, and they hatched plans to go on longer trips out to the countryside once school finally ended for the summer. Things were moving so smoothly that Sebastian finally abandoned the idea of revealing his alter ego or how he’d discovered that she, too, was a talent, lest the shock put a chill on her mood. After all, objective number two was still in sight.

Two blocks from her house, he impulsively turned down a side street and switched the car on automatic. As the vehicle set about trying to parallel park, Sebastian unbuckled his harness and stretched his arm around the back of Eva’s seat.

“You turned too early,” she began to say, then stopped as their eyes met. Eva started to blush, and her eyes darted back to the dashboard.

“So,” he began, and he reached out and brushed her hair with the back of his hand. She shivered, but heat swelled from her, chasing the night chill from his fingertips.

“I’ll bet you’ve been wondering: ‘How good of a kisser is Sebastian?’ ”

Evangeline threw her head back, snorting with nervous laughter. “I…” she started, then let out a deep, flustered sigh. “I guess I can’t argue with that.”

Their heads moved together slowly, eyes closed, and their lips met.

Get notified when new adventures are posted! Join our mailing list on Substack for free to make sure you never miss a story. Paid subscribers get exclusive extras, artwork, and more.