Young Writers Society

Four people. Including her. So, three other people.

That wasn't a lot. Evaline couldn't help but feel a bit honored that she somehow managed to make the list.

But this only led to more questions.

"Three other people," she mused out loud in a faraway voice. Was James only counting those who were alive? She assumed so. That would make the most sense, but she'd rather he answer this for her.

"Your mom, sister, and... dad?"

An irrational sense of danger crept up James's back as Evaline started listing guesses. He tried to shake off the feeling that he'd walked right into a trap - but he knew that wasn't what Evaline was trying to do. She wasn't asking so she could use this information against him. Right? Of course not. He shouldn't have even considered that an option. It was an offense to her.

But that didn't change the fact that there was a quiet, slumbering sense of terror seeping into his mind.

"I... I didn't count them," he said, knowing his next words were teetering on the edge of the truth and a lie.

Evaline looked up at James with a raised brow. She detected hints of nervousness from him, but she didn't know why. She felt like she had asked more personal questions before, and that was before their current trust level now.

She knew she should have taken this as a sign to stop, but she was getting suspicious of his answer, and she couldn't flame out the curiosity.

"But you said three," she said back as a stupidly obvious defense.

"I know," James said carefully, swallowing back only a fraction of his growing apprehension.

"They know my name. Technically. But they don't know that I'm wanted."

He paused.

"They shouldn't."

Evaline sympathized for James. The three people were someone from his past life, from before he became wanted. Maybe friends, and, although he didn't answer it, two out of the three were likely his mom and sister.

She wondered who the third person could be. But she knew it wasn't in her place to ask.

He said he had been running for a year as a wanted man. That meant...

"I'm the first person who got to know the real you while you're wanted?" she asked.

James had absolutely no idea what conclusions Evaline had just drawn in her mind, but frankly, he found himself too relieved to have dodged a bullet to care. He would gladly take the conversation in this direction instead.

He cleared his throat.

"I suppose so," he said, still processing what she had said.

It was kind of depressing to hear that she was practically his first friend.

"I'm sure you'll meet other people someday," she said. "Someone who doesn't know you as Tiberius and has the same concept of money as me."

She paused, shooting him a small smile.

"That is, none."

Frankly, he was still recovering from where the conversation almost headed that James felt like he was still catching up, replaying Evaline's last words in his head over and over until he actually understood them.

When he saw her smile, he smiled back, just a little.

He knew he would never meet someone else like her. Though at times, it was easy to forget, he was trying to treasure every moment with her. Even the mundane, and the awkward, and the uncomfortable.

He knew he didn't always do that well, but he was trying. He knew life was too fleeting to take a gift like Evaline's friendship - as oddly and strangely as it came about - for granted.

"I may yet in the future meet someone who doesn't care to let my past or the reward on my head influence their opinions of me," he said slowly. "But I..."

There were things he wanted to say, but he feared that Evaline wouldn't want to hear them. So he changed his course mid-thought.

"Well, I don't think I'll ever meet someone who cares as little about money as you."

Evaline turned towards James, and for a few seconds, her face melted into a warm smile that reached her eyes.

"You probably won't," she finally said, facing forward after lingering her gaze on him for too long. "But I'll care enough about it so we can begin our small library collection."

James found his smile growing along with hers, but he looked away in hopes that sadness wouldn't leak through his eyes.

"Of course," he said. "Just enough money to start a library, but not so much you get carried away with it."

Evaline let out a quick laugh. "Carried away with the money or carried away with the books?"

"Both," James said with a waning smile as he cast his gaze over the desert landscape.

Evaline smiled, but it slowly faded with the conversation. It was occurring to her that maybe she was asking too many questions. Maybe it felt like she was questioning him too much. Maybe she should share something herself, even though he wasn't asking her to.

About a minute passed. Evaline sighed.

"I used to go to the library in my town a lot," she said slowly, breaking the silence. "You know, before I left home. As a teenager, and even as a kid. There aren't a lot of writers these days, so the stories spanned centuries. Fiction is timeless, so it didn't matter, and I used to check out too many books at once. Sometimes I'd even sneak in at night to grab some more."

She paused as a reminiscent smile tugged her lips, but it faded as quickly as it appeared.

"I heard the library in my town burned down while I was away. I'm not sure why..."

She trailed off, brows furrowed in thought at the path ahead of her, deciding at the last second to bite back her last words.

James was surprised when Evaline started to fill the silence, but he listened intently.

He glanced over at her, noting how her gaze was focused ahead of them.

"That is a great loss," he said quietly. "How long ago was that? That you heard it burned down?"

"It's hard to say, since I only have one source on this. But I think, when I asked..."

Her memories were fairly scattered that day, and Evaline had to pause to think to remember the truth.

"About two years after I left," she finally said.