the leaving song.

[evelyn keely garland]

There were so very many thoughts running through the mind of Evelyn Garland that it was impossible to predict exactly how the ticking time bomb would react. She had been having a relatively fun filled evening, having her fun with Kaler and waiting to figure out how she would ruin her sister’s life with it. Then of course there was her dance with James Hale that was perfect. Of everything in her life, that was what she wanted. She had wanted him, and when her lips had caught his she had no idea that her night would spiral downward so massively. Evie had followed him out of the party, and that had resulted in a huge fight. The two of them never fought at all, she had always been the one he never yelled at. Now he was yelling at her and blaming everything on her. But yes she may have orchestrated it all, but that was besides the point. He blamed her for his ex-girlfriend’s stupidity, but it was because of him and his temper that she was slamming the Mustang’s door and sprinting into Stella’s house.She took her key and unlocked the door and found her way to the suitcase that she had brought all of her stuff in, and pulled it to the couch. Evelyn was pissed and hurt and just sad. The only person she had ever cared about had said that he never wanted to see her again. Tears slid down her cheeks, and that was whenever she started to throw her belongings into the suit case. She was beginning to wonder why in the hell she had even bothered to come back to this town whenever the door creaked open and her dark brown eyes snapped up to the intruder. Turns out it was none other than her sister Stella, and Evie had no idea why Stella would be home so soon. It wasn’t like she had had her heart crushed and turned on its head. Evie went back to throwing her clothes into the suitcase, and tried to speak to Stella with a calm smooth voice. “Hey. Why are you home so early?”

[stella fiona garland]

A lot had happened in the last twelve hours or so. So much so, that sweet Stella Garland could barely keep up with it. She hadn't been directly involved in the drama herself but, she had watched it all unfold from the sidelines, awestruck from it. It was obvious, from the very first moment that Evie stepped into Arietta, that she was planning on causing some damage, but never in Stella's wildest dreams did she ever imagine it going this far. And she had only been home 'officially' for one day! Already couples were breaking up and people were cowering in fear and, if she were being completely honest, Stella hated that. She was a very non-confrontational kind of person, so watching all of her friends fighting and at the hands of her maniacal older sister nearly broke her heart. It didn't help that she was the person who was harboring the wicked witch on her couch, either. Stella loved Evie, she really did. But, she couldn't just allow her sister to waltz back into town and ruin everyone's lives. The deal was that Evie was coming back to torment Vidette, and while Stella didn't exactly condone that either, one person seemed a whole lot more manageable than an entire town. And yet, she should have known that Evie wouldn't stop at Vidette. No. She had to have absolutely everyone bowing down to her, making sure she had the entire town eating out of the palm of her hand or there would be Hell to pay. So far, she was doing a pretty good job of reminding people of that. Stella's small feet stamped up the front stairs of her home, opening the door and preparing to dish out some heat of her own when she caught sight of her sisters' face. She was crying. Evelyn Garland did not cry. "Ev..." Stella sighed, closing the door behind her and moving forward to stand behind the couch, watching as her sister threw her belongings haphazardly into her small suitcase. "Originally I was coming home to scold you," she teased, a soft, sympathetic smile tugging at her rose colored lips. "You're leaving already? I don't think Arietta feels satisfied with your vengeance." Pulling jokes out of her back pocket probably wasn't the best way to go about handling the situation, but she knew Evie wasn't the kind of girl who needed pep talks. She loathed that sort of thing; so how else was she supposed to calm her sister down?

[evelyn keely garland]

The initial dramatics that were supposed to happen were with her big sister Vidette and her little boy toy. When that had fallen through, well Evie had to have something to occupy her time. Though the affects of what had happened with Jem is the reason she was throwing everything into a suitcase. It was not like she had a lot of stuff, but she was having a rough day. Emotions were something that the middle sister did not express and when she thought she was alone was whenever she thought that she could let the tears flow without worry. She really could care less about what everyone in this town thought about her, but whenever people think you died or don’t exist then there was hell to pay. So yes the brunette was on a bit of a rampage, and she was perfectly content with taking down the people that meant anything to her sister. Jem had been a casualty that she had not expected or wanted, especially if he was going to tell her that he never wanted to see her again. It was something she had never expected to come from his mouth. Evie knew that she had always had a soft spot in his heart for whatever reason, but now she was the one to blame for his unhappiness. The brunette would be damned to stay in a place where he didn’t want her. When she heard the door open and saw Stella standing there, it was hard for Evie to even be there. She wanted to sprint past her and just leave yet she was glued to the spot she was in waiting to hear what her sister had to say. Being scolded would have been deserved, not that she would have listened anyway, but her question about leaving made her nod her head. “Do you really think I would have listened if you were to scold me? And what does it look like Stella? I know when I’m not wanted.” The only person she had wanted to be with when she came home was Jem, well and Stella. But Jem wanted nothing to do with her, and she had no reason to stay. Stella was doing fine without her and it wasn’t like she would be missed since half the town didn’t even know she existed. “Especially whenever I’m told that he never wants to see me again, so yeah I’m leaving. I have no reason to stay.” She wiped at her cheeks making the tears stop and subside.

[stella fiona garland]

She had been mad. Furious, even. To the point where she would have gladly kicked her own sister out of her home and off of her couch. But, seeing the tears cascading down Evie's cheeks had all of that anger seeping out of her quicker than she could have possibly imagine. Stella had had every intention of slamming the door behind her and shouting "How dare you? You weren't satisfied enough with hurting Vidette but you had to go after Jem too?" and so on and so forth. If she had gotten started on that rant, who knew when she would be able to stop. Evie was one of Stella's favorite people in the world, but she had a bit of a tendency to take things too far. This being one of those things. Though she couldn't help but melt at the sign of weakness in her sisters' eyes, all signs of anger and frustration gone from her own as she continued to watch her sister, wanting more than anything to comfort her. "No, I know you wouldn't have listened. But you would have needed to hear it. You still do." Though she wasn't about to lay it all out on her like that. Not now, anyway. Stella bit her lip as she stood there, hopeless. To be honest, she had no idea what Evie must have been feeling at that moment. She had never felt so strongly about someone the way her sister felt about Jem, and therefore could not relate to being heartbroken. So, any advice she could attempt to give would mean little to nothing in Evie's opinion. "Look, I'm saying this as your sister and not Arietta's resident peace keeper but...maybe you should just lay low for a while? Stop trying to ruin everyone's lives and just focus on spending some time with your favorite sister in the world who hasn't seen you in months. And then, after a week or two, give him a call. Apologize. Try to make amends before you go about turning this town upside down." There was a very slim chance that Evie would listen, especially when Vidette was still happy as a clam, but it was worth a shot anyway.

[evelyn keely garland]

Everything that Stella was saying was true. Evelyn knew that she deserved to be scolded for her actions, but it wasn’t like she intentionally set out to hurt James Hale. He had been a casualty that she could have lived without; his pretty little girlfriend though had to go. That was not her fault that she did not trust him, because if it had been anyone else whatever happened between Evie and Jem that night would not have affect his relationship to the caliber that Shayne had let it. So it wasn’t like Evie was totally to blame for his girlfriend’s insecurities; she knew that, yet she also knew that she would be catching the blame until hell froze over. Her tear streaked eyes didn’t move from Stella as she spoke, even as she threw her things into the suitcase. “I am sure I do need to hear the rant you prepared on the way over. So go ahead and dish it Stell. It’s not like it could make my day any worse.” It was the truth. The brunette hardly thought that it could make anything any worse, than having her heart ripped from her chest and stomped all over. Evie looked at Stella with a shocked little expression, because it was not like her to try and pep talk her. She was broken into a million non-existent Evie pieces; Stella’s words though struck her funny. “Do you not understand that he doesn’t want to see me ever again? I told him that he had the option of sending me out of town or letting me stay, and he chose to send me away. You know you are my favorite person in the whole world, but why would I stay?” Evelyn was completely heart broken over this whole scenario, but there she was standing beside the couch with her bag almost completely packed wanting to stay. She didn’t want to leave Stella, and she really didn’t want to leave Jem either. “Stell, I never wanted to hurt him.” That was when she just collapsed onto the couch and put her head in her hands. This was a side of Evelyn Garland that had not made an appearance in a very long time.