๐๐. ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ / ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐.
โ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ onto our kitchen table. I canโt lie anymore. These are the things Iโve done and theyโre mostly sad. These are the places Iโve been and theyโre mostly awful. This life has woven itself into the notches of my spine and I hear it creak every time I stand.
โ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ย to his knuckles. I think I could love someone who cares enough to bruise for me. He touches his thumb to the corner of my mouth, pulls back my lip to consider my teeth.โ
worn in levi's and muddy boots. rocking chairs on a creaking boards and a shotgun by the door. skinny dipping in the creek. cheap carpet leaving indents on her knees. unchecked tempers, untamed hair. a cross hanging from the rearview of her daddy's '78 chevy. sunday mass. monday mess. concerts in the middle of the kitchen floor, lingerie hung to dry off the front porch. a barely buttoned flannel to conceal sweat kissed flesh. lipstick prints on the rim of a cold beer. hour long showers to drown out the tears. overdue bills on the table, bail money in a mason jar. backwards ballcaps. the last chance was the last chance. windows down, bare feet hanging out the passenger side. road trips to nowhere. a hungry heart and a jealous mind.
likes and motivations:ย singing, song writing, and sex. fishing, four wheeling, backyard barbecues, spending every spare moment with sadie grace, digging in the garden and digging her toes in the dirt, playing the acoustic guitar, exploring, being outdoors, arguing (especially winning), painting, being near water, line dancing and dancing on top of bars, racing down back roads, feeling her hair blow in the wind, climbing trees and napping on porch swings, chocolate covered potato chips, cooking, keeping busy, traveling, being useful and needed // keeping her family together, making her parents proud but doing it her own way and in her own time, making a difference
dislikes and fears:ย waiting up, calls from the county jail, negative bank balances, vague answers, sugar coated words and empty promises, green peas, formalwear, silence at the dinner table, going to bed alone, grocery shopping, trips to the bank, making excuses, deadlines, wearing her hair up in a ponytail, rules and restrictions, lies, mansplaining, being dismissed // wasting her time or realizing it's already been wasted, not giving sadie grace the life she deserves, being found lacking, living a lie
Ripped dresses, muddy knees, backyard wrestling matches, and jumping into the creekโIf Eileen Reilly thought she finally got her perfect little princess in her first daughter after four boys she was greatly mistaken. It's not that Evan wouldn't play dress up every Sunday for church, or let her mom neatly braid her hair and tie it all off with a bow, she just never let it stop her from running off and messing it all up again.
A wandering and curious child through and through she was always getting into somethingโusually none of it 'proper'โand that hasn't changed all these years later. For better or worse Evan is very much authentically herself and makes no apologies about that fact. She loves hard, plays hard, fights hard, works hard... or she doesn't do it at all.
There's no greater proof of that fact than perhaps her current relationship. The pair met when Evan was 21, freshly back from a stint across the south chasing her singing dreams, and she hasn't let go of him since (even if her parents wish she would). Their relationship is full of ups and downsโsome might even say its a bit unhingedโbut she's stuck it out for the last 15 years, especially now that they share a daughter of their own.
She can't deny that something about her life feels... stuck, though. Despite how long they've been together, and how much she wants it, he's never gotten down on one knee. Instead of a house full of noise and squabbling siblings, their daughter Sadie is an only child. She works multiple jobs just to make ends meet, and whatever notion she ever had of making it all the way to the CMAs has been buried six feet deep for over a decade.
For someone who's always longed for more and ran after what she wanted most without hesitation, she has no idea how to actually pull herself (or her relationship) out of this rut.
setting โ chapman's grocer, any given day, shortly before closing time
status โ closed for sonny solis / @sonnysolis
Whether it be by divine intervention or the simple fact that, most days, Evan's work schedule barely left time to breath, she hadn't had the misfortune of crossing paths with Sonny Solis yet.
Apparently, that luck had run out.
She was just a few feet into the cereal aisle, debating the price per ounce difference between Sadie's favorite and it's off brand counterpart (which didn't taste the same, as her daughter would undoubtedly complain) when, out of the corner of her eye, a figure appeared.
Not any figure, of course. It couldn't be Ms. Barclay, the elementary school's newest receptionist, or Mr. Hoak, her not-so-favorite loan officer at the bank. It had to be Sonny, finally, and right when her patience, good manners, and good mood had run out for the day.
Whatever attempt she'd been making to calculate how the few dollars difference would affect her overall grocery budget went out the window. Evan slid a glance left, none too subtly appraising the other woman, before turning.
It was only a half pivot, leaving one arm braced atop her shopping carts hand rail, but it was enough. Enough to really look at Shane's destruction and downfall for the first time in a decade. Enough to meet Sonny's gaze when it lifted from her own cart.
A near silent, unamused huff parted her lips.
"Heard you were back in town, Sonny, but I almost didn't believe it." Not with the way she'd vanished so completely, leaving Shane and Elijah behind. Not with the way she left and then stayed gone, as if neither man nor child ever played a part in her life.
"I said to myself, you know, maybe Shane's lost his mind, talkin' to ghosts and seein' things that aren't there, 'cause surely you wouldn't have the nerve to crawl back now." After so much time, so much silence. "Then again, you didn't really give a fuck how your choices affected anyone else the first go 'round. Guess I shouldn't be all that surprised."
setting โ evan's backyard, evening, last weekend of summer break
status โ closed for shane parker / @shanepcrker
A warm, balmy breeze whipped tendrils of dark hair across Evan's cheeks. The children's laughter overtook a steady hum of cicadas throughout the yard. She had no idea where he was other than not home, not at his 'husbands', clearly, and apparently not back at county lockup because they hadn't called her to go claim her idiot again, soโIn a rare moment of indulgence, she pressed the chilled rim of a beer between her lips.
"You ever feel like that should still be us?" Barefoot, ankles stuck with bits of wet grass, streaks of dirt on their cheeks and the kind of laugh that came loud and came easy. For a moment she quietly watched while their kids ripped through the yard, Sadie's duck waddling behind in a desperate, albeit foolish, attempt to keep up. "'Cause I swear it feels like only yesterday we were the ones chasin' down the last nights of summer before school came back around."
A corner of Evan's mouth inched higher, the smirk a little wry, a lot nostalgic. Then, still tucked between the folds of private thoughts, she laughed. Low. Tired. At somewhat of a loss. "Now, I'm pretty sure the only thing we're chasin' around wears a size thirteen boot and wouldn't know his ass from his elbow if not for the fact that one helps hold his drink and every Friday night he's knocked on the other when that drink turns into twelve."
She loved him. Really, she did. But damn if that man didn't bring out a whole new side of crazy in her that she didn't even know existed.
Her finger toyed with a bead of condensation trailing the glass bottle in her hand. Back and forth. Back and forth. She erased that little drop beneath the pad of her thumb until, finallyโ"He, uh, he been showin' up for work? I mean... you seen him this week, right?" Meaning: she hadn't. Meaning: she only knew he hadn't skipped town, crawled off, and kicked it somewhere because every morning there were muddy prints by the door and few more glasses stacked in the sink.
A weight sat thick and heavy as lead in her throat. Nothing that couldn't be washed down with another swig of cheap beer, though. "I'm only askin' 'cause the stack of bills on the table ain't gonna pay themselves, and I warned him it's his month to cover our electric." Obviously.
"โธปย son of a bitch." The curse flew from Evan's lips, spoken none too softly, as she finished listening to the sixth (yes, sixth) voicemail from Sadie's new guidance counselor. It wasn't like her to ignore her phone. It definitely wasn't like her to ignore calls from the elementary school.
Then again, her afternoons were usually spent working a slow shift at the hardware store... not clocking extra hours at the bar for the sake of the tips.
If not for a quick, three worded text from Sadie's dadโheaded to schoolโshe would've been out the door and peeling from the parking lot before anyone could stop her.
Instead, fingers pinched the bridge of her nose. To the nearest customer she sighed, "You ever feel like you're jugglin' so many ballsโ" there was a joke in there somewhereโ "you're just droppin' 'em all? Swear there could be ten of me and it still wouldn't be enough hands."
WHO: Maybe You? ( Open )
WHERE: IDK Anywhere, Have Fun With It
How does this always happen to her? She's been doing surveillance since she was a teenager, following people discreetly, getting footage, finding out their secrets. And she was good at it. Well, good might be a bit of an overstatement since she did get caught quite often, but she was good at talking herself out of uncomfortable situationsโ and she could usually charm or flirt her way out of any kind of confrontation when someone realized she'd been tailing them. Though their reactions were usually telling (the innocent don't have anything to hide, right?), the private investigator could almost always placate them. And when she couldn't? Her car was always nearby for a quick escape. But this time? Well...
This time she found herself quite literally running from someone she hadn't actually been following. They only thought she was because they'd been in the same group as her real mark. "Leave me alone!" She called out over her shoulder, the pepper spray she kept on herself during simpler, low risk jobs, clutched in her hand. "I have pepper spray and I'm not afraid to use it!" Her words, however, didn't seem to placate the other party and she found herself nearly hiding behind the next person she came to. Surely, her pursuer wouldn't harm an innocent bystander or anything, right? "I wasn't following you! You're being paranoid!"
Through God's cruel jokes Evan was born with a body more bean pole, less brick wall, but she always liked to think her attitude made up for that inconvenient deficit. StillโIt was somewhat unusual to find herself in the position of body guard on the underside of 10am. Usually, she at least made it past lunch.
There was a first time for everything, though.
Back straight, defenses on high alert, she darted a look equal parts concerned and confused at the new shadow taking shelter behind her shoulders. Then, reality sank in. She clocked a man who looked like he smelled like hot dog water barreling around the corner and headed straight for... well... them.
"โธป ain't no fuckin' way."
Evan let loose an incredulous, somewhat unhinged cackle. Stabbed a finger in his general direction, too. "Ain't no fuckin' way you're about to square up with me, Jared." Now that he was closer, she recognized him as one of the more troublesome patrons at the SpurโAnd you know what? She was way too busy to deal with his particular brand of bullshit off the clock.
She'd already taken Sadie's forgotten backpack to the elementary school but she still had to make it to the bank, and that said nothing about the inventory she had to finish at the store before her night shift started at the bar.
"Fuck all the way off or I'll call your momma, call your wife, and introduce your kneecaps to my baseball bat just for fun."
On the list of 'what poor choices can I make today?' he really didn't want to move learning how crazy she could actually be to the top. Her green eyes widened, daring him to test the already razor thin patience she had for men. Jared chose to tuck tail and leave instead.
Wise. A bit of a let down now that she'd gotten all riled up, but wise.
Evan waited long enough to see the back of him before, at last, her attention returned to Tanvi. "Alright. Spill." Her lips curved with a decidedly mischievous tilt. "What in the fresh hell did you get yourself into this time?"
