Anna had never quite figured out when it was the right time to talk to someone about something difficult. In the past, she typically waited till the other person sought her out and gave her a passive-aggressive once over or screamed at her. Then it would turn into a fight where the fists were cutting words and hateful reminders of past wrongdoings. Then she, and the person she thought she could trust, would walk away with bloodied hearts with a burning bridge between them.
However, with Evan, that was impossible. They went to the same school, they lived in the same house, and they were on the same fo-super hero squad together… god dammit, they ate only one spot away from each other at the dinner table every night. No matter what she would try to do, there would be no avoiding the guy. This she knew for a fact from how hard she saw Evan trying to avoid her. No matter how much he tried to dodge eye contact and evade her presence, they always wound up in the same room - breathing the same air, every… damn… day. This meant one thing, Anna would actually have to get herself to talk to the guy, because she was sure he wasn't going to do it, and frankly she was getting tired of treading on eggshells every waking moment of her life.
When, if ever, was the right time to talk to someone though? Waiting for the bus in the morning? Between periods at school? Have a good awkward talk about much of a jerk off he was being while washing dishes together after dinner? Every time felt like a bad time. At the very least they needed to be alone together and as far away from prying ears as possible. So catching him vacuuming in the hallway of the upper story of the mansion seemed as good of a time as any.
He was wearing his big doofy green over-the-ear headphones and the long black power cable for the vacuum was wrapped around his left arm while his right hand shoved the detachable nozzle into a corner. The sound of the compressed suction against the floor and wall was near deafening and only got louder as Evan ran the extension along the bottom molding of the wall towards one of the doors. He clearly hadn't noticed her standing there yet with the back of his sweat-patched tee facing her. From the sound of the horrible noise she had been hearing a good half of that afternoon, she figured he must have been at it for nearly two hours vacuuming the mansion from floor to ceiling. It was a chore she was definitely not looking forward to her turn on.
Anna gave another cursory glance around, and - unsurprisingly - didn't find a soul in sight. No doubt anyone with surviving ears would have either plugged them up or vacated the building altogether at this point. As his back got closer to her, she reflectively cleared her throat. When he didn't hear her, she thought better of it and lightly tapped him on the shoulder.
Evan shot up and two massive bony thorns stuck out of his shoulders. He spun on the spot and faced her, a fist curled near his chest. When he recognized her, he audibly sighed, punched the power button on the vacuum with a curled knuckle, and pulled the headphones off from around his head, and dropped them around his neck. "What do you want?" Anna could feel the bite in his words. They made her shoulders tense and her blood run cold.
Evan looked at his shoulders and tugged at the bony shards till they were free of his skin. "Great. Thanks for poking holes in one of my few remaining shirts, by the way."
Anna could feel her upper teeth gliding along her bottom lip. As her sharper canines butted against her delicate chapped skin, she soon felt her fear give way to a strange animalistic urge to rip into the person in front of her with them just to see him bleed. Instead, she brought her lips together, sucked on them for a second, and took a breath. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."
"Well, you did." She wasn't if she was being overly sensitive, but for a moment she thought he was mocking her Mississippi accent with those last few words. "So, what do you want?"
Anna straightened her back and ran her palms along the length of her jeans. "Look, ah," She shut her eyes, hearing her accent coming out in spades. Clearing her throat, she started again. "Look, I wanted… to uh… talk to you if you have a sec."
"Well, I didn't -" He detached the extension he had been using off the vacuum nozzle, and reattached the hose to the main unit. "But I guess I do now."
Anna tilted her head one way, then the other, and sucked in another breath. "I wanted to apologize. I never should have barged in on you guys playing your game like I did. I was just… well curious. You guys would just disappear without anyone ever knowing where you were and - well, I guess I felt kinda left out."
"Yeah, you shouldn't have barged in. Seriously, dude, what were you thinking? Would you just walk into someone else's house if it was unlocked? And, yeah, you probably would feel left out, you weren't invited."
Anna felt the muscles in her stomach tighten and heat behind her eyes. "Yeah, I know, Evan! I'm never invited to anything when it comes to you because you've hated me from day one! When will you get it through your thick fucking head I'm not trying to get in your boyfriend's pants?"
Evan's face shifted between pale to ever-increasing shades of scarlet around the cheeks. He opened his mouth, breathed out, then pressed his lips hard enough together they lost their color.
"I don't want to get between you and Kurt! I don't want anything to do with him like that!" Anna stretched out her hands to either side. "I just like hanging out with him because he is the only fucking one in this house who talks to me!"
Evan turned around, dusted his hands on his shorts, shook his head, and took a few steps toward the hallway window in front of him. Hands planted on his hips, he looked out into the overcast outside, then turned back to face her. Arm folded close to his chest, he pointed a stiff finger in her direction. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about Anna! You can't come in here and -" Suddenly, on the hand, he had pointed towards her, the watch on his wrist started glowing red.
At the same time, Anna felt her own watch vibrating erratically on her wrist. She raised it to her face and saw an image of a solid pulsing red 'X' on the screen. "What the hell?"
With some hesitation, Evan responded. "We have a mission."