MH: Alter Ego (Evelyn)

Elizabeth knocks on my door. "Hey you, dinner's ready." 

"Alright, I'm coming." I reply, hoisting myself off of my bed, where I just recently woke from a nap. The previous day had been exhausting- my relatives had been over for the past week and just left this morning. It's been pretty fucking annoying.

I make my way down the hall and sit at the table, where my aunt has already placed the plates with our dinner- some turkey dinner leftovers from Thanksgiving. She hasn't started eating yet, and is slowly tapping at her food with her fork and smiling up at me, watching me expectantly with her big blue eyes. I'm concerned. It means she wants to talk about something.

I sit down and pick up my fork, scooping up some stuffing and chewing on it, pretending not to notice Elizabeth staring at me. She's still smiling. 

"I got another call from your teachers a few days ago, before your break started."

I glance up at her. "Uh huh?" I swallow my food. "What about it?"

She presses her lips together. "You haven't been doing your work again." 

"Yeah."

She sighs and pokes at her food. "Why?"

I shrug and continue eating. We've had this talk a thousand times since this year started- this was nothing new to me at this point. My dad had given me this talk a thousand times, too, when I was younger. I have no justification for my behaviour outside of pure laziness and sheer boredom. But laziness isn't really considered an excuse in any education system on the planet.

"Come on, Evelyn, I know you can do so much better than this...why don't you just do what you need to? I don't want to be that mom that-"

"You're not my mom." I snap, glancing at her sharply. She frowns.

"Parent. I don't...want to be that parent that has to be strict with you." Elizabeth looks embarrassed. " I know when your dad tried that it just made it worse on you, and him. And I don't want that to happen with you and me."

Oh god, she's getting sappy.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. I'll start doing it."

"Really?"

"No promises." 

She sighs and takes this answer since she knows she's not going to get any farther with me, not now. Good. She's smart.

--

After a quiet dinner I help her put away the food and wash dishes, and then sit down on the couch with her to watch some tv. She sits on another couch just to the left, with her laptop on her legs, typing away. For a while, I just play some stupid SciFi show for a while and chew on some of the bubblegum I bought from a candy store in the mall. Elizabeth stops typing and looks at me for a while. I pause the tv station and look back at her. She smiles.

God why does she do that so often?

"So...I guess this is weird to ask, but..."

"But what?"

I can just feel it, this is going to be sooooo damn awkward.

"How serious are you and Audrey?"

I am completely dumbfounded. Did she just...did she just.....what. She just...Oh my god.

"What do you mean?" I ask her back, trying my hardest not to laugh my ass off. I know exactly where this is going, and it's not a conversation that I really want to have.

"Oh, come on, you know."

"I'm afraid I don't."

She looks at me with expectant eyes. Oh, she knows I'm avoiding the topic. "You know what I mean." She inches forward on her chair. "You guys haven't dropped the L word or anything, have you?" She's hoping I'll say yes. I can see it in her face.

And of course, we have, but I'm not about to tell her that, since she'd probably piss her pants and start asking about the whole situation. I don't want to go into details about my relationship with my Aunt who is like the forever-bachelorette, never been able to keep a boyfriend for more than a week. She has commitment issues.

"Come on, we've just started dating not too long ago, of course not."

She nods, though her face looks a little disappointed, and starts typing again for a few minutes. Crisis averted.

She stops typing again though. I pause the tv again and stare at her.

"You know, if you guys do end up getting serious, you know that you can always-"

I start laughing. God, she wants to have a sex talk, even though it's explicitly clear there are no dicks involved in this situation at all. Why? Why this.

"Aunt. I am not having a lesbian sex talk with you, we're not serious like that. Yeah?"

She huffs. "Look, I know that it's not like...WELL YOU KNOW, but it's still important to-"

"Aunt!" I throw one of the couch pillows at her and she snorts, throwing it back at me with a laugh.

"Yeah, okay, I get it."