I'm a little ashamed to admit this but I avoided Evie for about a week. Not totally, but just in person. I still responded to her texts and I acted natural in our group conversation with Joe. I wasn't scared of her or anything but I was trying to sort of scope her out. Trying to find out if what Stacy had said about Evie was actually true.

I'd briefly thought about pressing Stacy further on her thoughts about the whole thing but when she told me at work that she couldn't remember anything after nine at her party, I bailed on the idea.

Everything Evelyn said seemed to be normal but did I really know what normal was? Like an awakened conspiracy theorist, I was now questioning everything I'd ever known. Finally, it all became a little too much for this detective to work out on his own so I eventually went to Joe's house for a beer and a catch up.

"Stacy said that?" he asked, almost choking on his beer.

"Yeah! Insane, right?" I encouraged.

"Finally! Someone else can see it!" he cried, surprising me. "I knew that Stacy was wiser than she looked!"

We were in Joe's "Man-Cave" room on the second floor of the house that he shared with Angie and his future child. This room was usually my favourite in his place but now I was feeling a strange sense of dread. Like a prisoner almost.

"You knew?" I gasped.

"Well I don't know," he admitted. "But anyone looking at it from the outside would see what I see and think that you two would be the perfect couple!"

"How?" I was in shock.

"Are you kidding me? Have you ever listened to the two of you? You both just have this connection. You have this whole space nerd thing going on for one thing, which nobody else cares about. Just you! Then there's the fact that she always picks you up when you ask her."

"She's just a good friend!"

"She never picks me up! We're close, right? But the two of you are like . . . intertwined or some shit."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" I asked.

"Mostly because there's that one-per-cent chance that I'm wrong. And quite frankly I'm not ready to accept that that's a possibility. But also it's not really my place to say. We're not in second year anymore, so if you like her or she likes you then whoever it is needs to say it themselves."

I couldn't believe this! How long had Joe been holding onto this thought? Why hadn't I noticed anything if almost everyone else apparently had? Was I just too close to it to see?

Feet on the ground.

"Ok so full disclosure. Do you think I'm into her too?" I asked, knowing full well that it was a pretty ridiculous question.

"If I'm being honest, then yes, I've always thought that," he admitted before quickly continuing. "But I always thought that one of you would eventually say something. Or if you didn't, then whatever, that would be it. Maybe you'd both find someone and be happy and you'd either wonder what might've been or you wouldn't give it a second thought. But like I said, it's not my place to force you together. That would be messed up."

"Huh," was all I managed to say.

"But look, if this is really freaking you out as much as you claim it is, you need to deal with it now. If you're acting like a mong for ages then eventually Evie is going to notice. So you need to sort your head out now!"

"I can't help but see the irony in you telling me that while you're up here drinking a case of beer with me while your pregnant wife is sitting watching TV downstairs," I pointed out.

"Hey, I'm going to deal with my problem . . . eventually. But mine is set in stone; you've still got to figure out what exactly it is you want. Can you see yourself with Evie?"

Though I'd been expecting this question, I still didn't have an answer prepared. So I just spoke with whatever words came into my head.

"Well . . . yeah . . . I guess. She's pretty, fun, funny, smart, a little bit crazy. I could see us having a great time together."

"Ok, there's a start. But now you need to ask yourself if you'd still think that without me or Stacy or whoever saying it first. Because as much as I'd love to third wheel you guys more than I already do, she's still my friend. And I don't want you to go there just because you can. You know?"

"I know, I know. I wouldn't do that to her. Promise."

I knew I wouldn't do that. But I didn't know what I would do. What was the next step?

Then of course, the beer in my system took over and I got the stupidest smart idea ever.

"I know what I'm gonna do."

"What?"

"I'll get Evie to pick me up from here and I'll try and like, subtly see what we both think about it all!"

"I admit I'm a little bit tipsy but I don't see how this makes sense," Joe said thoughtfully.

"Well you said it yourself! I need to sort this now! There's no point in me speaking all this pish about what I'm going to do and then shitting myself and bailing on it. So I'm going to just rip it off like they say about a band aid. No time like the present!"

"So you don't want to shit yourself another day?" Joe asked, struggling to keep up with my drunken ramblings.

"Nope! I'm going to shit myself now!" I yelled.

"Wait. What? Not in my house," Angie balked from the doorway. We hadn't even noticed her joining us.

*

Just as Joe had predicted, Evelyn came to pick me up.

"Drinking on a school night again?" she asked me with a smirk. "What's brought this on?

"Uuuuhhh," naturally I'd freeze right about now. It was ironic that I'd also told Joe that Evie and I always had something to talk about, whereas with Stacy that wasn't the case. But now of course, silence was golden.

"Are you ok? What's up with you?"

"Nothing . . . I just . . . needed to talk to Joe about something. Thanks for the lift," this was easily the stupidest idea I'd ever had and I found myself wishing I'd sober up as quickly as possible.

"Any time. Seriously, what's up? You're scaring me." my attempts at hiding were clearly failing. Evelyn knew me too well for that. "Is this the same thing from Stacy's party? I knew there was something up with you! Did Joe help? Maybe I can help too?"

I knew Evie was just trying to be the best friend that she'd always been but she was actually stressing me out even more. Was she just being a friend? Fucking hell this was hard.

"Chill out Evie," I sighed, sounding more aggressive than I'd really wanted it to. I apologised instantly.

"Dude are you sure you're ok? Seriously, you can talk to me." she spoke now with a much softer tone, clearly worried about me. I hated making her worry but I couldn't tell her now, could I? I'd obviously been drinking and anything that I happened to say would probably just get chalked up to drunken ramblings.

"I'm fine, honestly."

"Is it because of something that happened at the party? Did Stacy hurt you?"

"No, no, nothing like that," I answered with a rueful smile. Maybe she hurt my intelligence by pointing out to me that I'd never even noticed the mutual feelings that Evie and I may have for each other. Or maybe I had noticed and just chose not to acknowledge it.

"Look, I know I always complain that you talk about her all the time and it turns out I do actually quite like her," Evie laughed with me at this startling revelation before reverting back to her concern. "But she seriously doesn't know what she's missing with you. You're a real catch and I just . . . wish you'd be more confident about yourself. And I really hope that you don't remember this embarrassing moment but your drunken haze allows the sentiment to stay all the same. God, now I sound like the drunk one."

"Thank you. Evie." I smiled warmly, squeezing her arm that was tightly gripping the steering wheel, only for a brief second before I decided it was a bad idea. Maybe for both of us.

Evie really was special.

Like, black hole special.

Here me out. I've been pretty bad with describing people as space related things but this one is legit. To me at least.

A black hole is a region of space where the gravity is so intense that once something goes into it, it can't fight its way out. Kinda like jumping into a swimming pool with bricks tied to your feet.

Say you are travelling by a black hole. There is this term known as the event horizon. This is the point where once you cross it, you can't get back out. This is where your feet tied to bricks hit the water. Not even light can get out past the event horizon, which is why it's like a different kind of black compared to the rest of space. Total darkness. It really is the point of no return.

And there's a black hole at the centre of every galaxy, including ours. Scary, right?

The only difference between Evie and a black hole is that in reality, you can't actually see where the event horizon is. But in this case I knew exactly where the point of no return was. It was now.

If I spoke to Evie about any potential feelings, no matter what the outcome or the truth, or whatever, we'd never be the same as we were before. No matter how hard we tried not to let it, it would change things. Especially if I was as intoxicated as this

If I was going to travel through this great universal mystery, I really needed to think of a better idea than doing it drunk in a red fiesta.

We arrived back at my flat and Evie killed the engine.

"Last chance, crazy man," she warned, teasingly.

I looked at Evelyn, marvelling at her like the star she really is.

"Thanks Evie. You're a really good friend to me."

"Are you high as well as drunk? You're talking like an old dying man! I won't push anymore but just remember that I'm always here if you need to vent about something. About anything."

"I know. Thank you," I said for what felt like the millionth time on that fifteen minute car journey. "Goodnight," I whispered as I exited the vehicle and stumbled to my front door.

It wasn't a great night weather wise but Evie still had her car window wide open, so I was able to hear her say "Goodnight, Michael" back to me.

It sounded good.

Feet on the ground.

___________________________________________________________________________________

First of all, I hope this chapter makes sense. I personally like it so much but I'm now super paranoid that it sucks. Curse of a writer I guess.

Anyway, I wanted this chapter to be my metaphorical best. A fun fact is that there originally wasn't any space stuff in this story until I was watching a documentary about black holes on TV and I came up with the "point of no return" metaphor. And then there came loads of other metaphors in my head comparing "space issues" to social ones. We're definitely going to get into them soon!

Once more, I appreciate every single read that I get on this story so thank you so much for giving me your time!