April 12, 2010 (33)
9:15 a.m.
Mimi’s Diner

I stood, staring blankly ahead as I wiped down one of the recently vacated tables in the diner. I just couldn’t stop thinking about all that had happened yesterday. I’d found out that Valerie was pregnant with Michael’s child. Cole had confessed to cheating on his exam and being blackmailed by Chelsea because of that. Plus, now both him and Shaun knew that Michael was back. It was all just way too much for me to handle.
“Hello, Evalynne,” Michael’s eerily familiar voice said from behind me. I turned around only to find him standing mere inches away from me.
“Hi,” I uttered back flatly, focusing back on the table I was scrubbing.
“So yesterday night didn’t go so well, did it?” he replied. I swallowed hard, not answering his question. “You know, if you would have just listened to me and kept your mouth shut like I told you, then that never would have happened. But no, you decided to go and tell Addison about me. And now we’re in a very difficult situation.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked him, confused.
“Well now Addison, Cole and Shaun all know about me. One of them is bound to reveal my identity sooner or later.” he remarked as if it was obvious.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I assured him. I turned back around to look at him. After all, I didn’t want him to go all psycho on me for not looking at me when I was speaking to him like yesterday. “I already told them not to call the police about this. Besides, it’s not my fault that Cole and Shaun figured it out. You’re the one who arranged that meeting with Shaun at the college.”
“Yes, but that was only supposed to be with Shaun.” he told me, gritting his teeth together irritably. “You weren’t supposed to show up with Cole like that.”
“That’s not my fault either,” I retorted defensively. “Cole’s the one who wanted to go meet you anyways. I tried to convince him not to, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Well apparently, you didn’t try hard enough,” he said with a scowl.
I just rolled my eyes, sick of trying to convince him that I wasn’t the one to blame here. It obviously wasn’t working. So instead, I moved onto my next question. “Why did you even want to meet Shaun like that anyways?”
“Because,” he began, a wicked grin spreading across his lips, “I wanted to get a better knowledge of the layout of the school. Shaun was going to be my own personal tour guide, but things didn’t exactly go as planned.”
“Why did you want a better knowledge of school’s layout though?” I asked him. It seemed like every little thing he did was all part of some master plan that only he knew about. And every time he answered one of my questions, it just left me with a bunch of new ones.
“You have a lot of questions, Evalynne,” he stated, looking at me with amusement flickering in his pale green eyes.
“Well I wouldn’t have so many questions if I could just get some straight answers,” I remarked.
He was silent for a moment, just staring at me. When he looked at me like that it gave me a sense of vulnerability. It felt like he could see inside me, like he could read my every thought. And I hated that he could make me feel that way. I hated that he had that much power over me.
“Breaking news!” When I heard this, I looked up at the diner’s TV. One of the waiters turned up the volume and the whole restaurant seemed to be watching this suddenly urgent news report. “As we all know, Will McKnight has been seeking psychiatric treatment from The Westchester Division Mental Health Center in Westchester, New York for only a few days now. After undergoing only three sessions with Dr. Craig Sullivan, he has already seemed to crack. Just this morning, one of the nurses at the hospital found him lying unconscious in his bed. She claims that there was blood everywhere and that there were two large gashes in both of his wrists. He had broken the lamp in his room and used one of the shards of glass from the light bulb to slit his wrists in a suicide attempt. Luckily, he was discovered in time to be rescued. He is currently under suicide watch. His psychiatrist, Dr. Sullivan, stated that ‘Will is not only a danger to other anymore, but also to himself.’ He is going to continue working with McKnight to restore his mental health. But as for now, McKnight has been deemed unstable.”
The news report ended and when it did, I noticed that I was crying. I sucked in a deep breath as I wiped away a tear with the back of my hand. I couldn’t believe that Will had actually tried to kill himself. I knew how awful he must have felt when he’d done it. How scared, how alone, how hopeless he must have felt. I’d been in his place before. Only for me, it had just been a moment of desperation. After it was over, I recovered from it quickly. But for Will, it was his whole life.
I felt so bad for him. All I wanted to do at that point was help him. I wanted to wrap him up in my arms and tell him that everything was going to be ok. I wanted to let him know that I forgave him, to let him know that even though he felt like he had no one left, he still had me. He needed to know that at least one person still cared about him. He needed to know that Michael’s plan hadn’t worked entirely. I didn’t hate Will.
Sure, I had been upset and disappointed with him after his abusive side started to show. And I wasn’t excusing him for what he had done to me either. What he did was still very wrong, and I would never be able to look at him without being reminded of it. But he was in such a lonely place at that moment, that I couldn’t help but sympathize for him. Because I didn’t just have those awful memories stored away in the back of my mind. I also had the great ones.
Like when I’d first found out about my dad and Nina. I wanted to be left alone after that, but he didn’t let me. He drove me to the hospital and helped me stand up to Nina. I had felt so alone, but then he made it all better. The same thing had happened after my dad told me that he was officially choosing Nina over Mom and I. That had been such a painful moment for me, but Will was there to take that pain away. He had always been there for me whenever I was feeling alone. Now it was my turn to be there for him and I couldn’t. That was what hurt the most, knowing that there was nothing I could do to help him.
“Wow,” Michael muttered, actually sounding pleased about this horrific news. “It looks as if he’s finally cracked. It takes a true psychopath to do something as twisted as a suicide attempt.”
Before I had a chance to respond to this rude remark, Valerie came walking up to us with a shocked look on her face. “Did you guys just see that news report?” she cried.
“I think everyone in the diner saw it,” Michael retorted, sounding annoyed with her for asking such a stupid question.
“I just can’t believe he would try to kill himself,” she said, mostly to herself. She had this distant on her face, like she was deep in thought. I could tell by how upset she sounded that she still had feelings for Will…and so could Michael. I could tell by the way he glared at her with a venomous look in his eyes.
“It’s just too bad it didn’t work,” Michael snapped bitterly.
Valerie bit her lip, not saying anything in return. But hearing him speak about Will like that, especially after all he’d put him through, just made me so angry. I couldn’t just stand there without saying anything.
“Shut up!” I exploded. “I am so sick of hearing you talking crap about Will! Just shut the hell up!”
The entire diner seemed to go silent after this. That was when I realized just how loud I’d been shouting at him. An embarrassed blush warmed my cheeks as I glanced around at all the onlookers.
“Evalynne,” our manager said, coming up behind me. “I know you’re under a lot of stress right now, so why don’t you just take the rest of the day off?”
I looked at her and then back at Michael, who was suppressing a grin. I could see the sparks of amusement twinkling in his eyes though. He was actually getting pleasure out of all of this. It made me want to smack him.
“Fine,” I murmured back to her, feeling humiliated. She probably thought I was some over-emotional basketcase now.
With all of my dignity lost, I turned on my heel and began walking towards the door of the restaurant. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Evalynne,” Michael called after me. And that moment, I truly wished that Michael was dead.

Author's Note: Check me out on Youtube if you wanna! I made videos based off of this series & posted them under the username LexiWrites (: