"My heart's against your chest
Your lips pressed to my neck
I'm falling for your eyes..."

✧✧✧

"Are we technically breaking in right now?!"

"What?" Tristan replied with a laugh. "No, Evelyn. I have a key."

"But your aunt isn't home."

"Do me a favor, Evelyn."

"What?"

"Never start a career in law. You'd suck at it," he said with a grin.

Evelyn just narrowed her eyes.

"Relax, Evelyn," he said with a soft smile. "We're just here to develop my photos, you said you wanted to see some, right?"

"Wait, develop?" Evelyn asked, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. "That's still a thing?"

Tristan shook his head at her, but laughed, nonetheless, grabbing her hand and pulling her up the stairs, behind him.

It wasn't long before they reached a specific door, and as they entered, it was pitch dark, but Tristan turned on a specific light which caused the room to be bathed in an entirely red glow, but it still wasn't bright in the room, just light enough so everything was visible.

"I've always wondered why the room needs to be red when you develop photos. It looks kind of creepy, if you ask me," Evelyn said, scrunching her nose slightly.

"If you expose the undeveloped film to light, you'll ruin your photos. The light has to be red," Tristan explained.

Evelyn considered that. "Still looks creepy. Just creepy for a reason."

Tristan chuckled softly. "And me? Do I really look creepy to you Evelyn?"

Evelyn scanned his features, from his fluffy hair to his high cheekbones and sharp jawline, letting her gaze travel down, over his neck, straight to his broad shoulders and the way his t-shirt was pulled over his chest, and tight around his arm muscles. Evelyn didn't actually mind the way the red lighting and darkened room made him look. Creepy was about the last adjective her mind thought up.

Tristan stepped closer to her, brushing her hair away from her ear, slightly, before he leaned down, brushing his lips just barely against her earlobe.

"I'll take that as a no," he whispered and then he moved his mouth, pressing a kiss against her cheek, before he moved away entirely, leaving her heart pounding.

"Could you shut the door, please?" Tristan asked as he walked up to a table with all kinds of chemicals and objects on it. Evelyn did as he asked, watching as he picked up a camera from the table, opening something on it.

Evelyn walked over to the other piece of furniture in the room, a desk, which had no contents on top of it. It was sturdy and pushed against the wall, so she decided to pull herself up, sitting on the desk with her legs hanging as she watched the way Tristan worked with the film, completely focused on his task.

"Do you only use a film camera?" Evelyn asked.

"No, not at all. I'll honestly use anything I can take photos with, but I use digital cameras the most," he explained, continuing to do whatever it was he was doing. It was nice seeing him in his element.

Evelyn noticed a strand of Tristan's fall over his forehead, obstructing his vision, slightly. She could tell it was annoying him, so she hopped off the desk and walked toward him, lifting her hand to gently put the out-of-place strand back. As she did so, Tristan's eyes met hers, looking darker in the dim lighting, glancing down at her lips for a moment, but it was long enough that she noticed.

"Thank you," he said, his voice slightly rough, as if his throat was dry.

Evelyn cleared her throat and stepped away from him slightly, sending him a smile. "Of course."

She walked back to the desk, hoisting herself up once more, tapping her fingers against the edge of the desk in sets of threes.

"So your aunt let you turn this into a..." she trailed, realizing she didn't know the proper name for it.

"A darkroom?" he laughed. "Yes."

"It even has a creepy name," Evelyn said, scrunching her nose. "Your aunt seems awesome, though."

Evelyn meant the words she said. Sure, she'd only met his aunt one time, but in their encounter, she was funny and kind. Plus, she let Tristan turn an entire room in her house into a darkroom, encouraging his gift, his passion, instead of making him feel bad for it.

"She is. She's the best," Tristan said, and Evelyn could tell there was a heavy amount of adoration in his voice.

"Are those chemicals toxic?" Evelyn asked after a moment, looking at the three solutions in front of Tristan.

"Not really, especially since I have gloves on. Plus, I'm developing black and white photos, not colored ones," he said with a shrug.

Tristan took the gloves he was wearing off and walked over to Evelyn. He leaned down slightly, his arm gently brushing against Evelyn's thigh as he opened a drawer in the desk, pulling out a stack of photos, which he handed to Evelyn.

"What are these?" Evelyn asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she looked down at the photos.

Tristan moved so he was standing between her legs, gently placing his palms against the top of her thighs. "They're some of the photos from the wedding. The ones I already developed. You asked if you would get to see them, so... here you go."

Evelyn began looking through the photos. She absolutely loved how they were all in black and white, it gave the photos a beautiful, classic sort of feel that she couldn't really describe. The first few pictures were couples he photographed. It reminded Evelyn of a question she'd meant to ask.

"I have a question, but it's going to seem kind of random," Evelyn admitted.

Tristan furrowed his eyebrows. "Shoot."

Evelyn opened her mouth, but felt embarrassed asking the question, so she closed it again, considering not asking at all.

"Spit it out," he said lightheartedly with a soft chuckle when she didn't say anything.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend before?" she blurted.

Because of how close Tristan was standing to her, she noticed the way he tensed at her question.

"What?"

"You know, girlfriends. How many times has Cupid's bow hit you? How many Juliets to your Romeo, Janes, or even Helgas, to your Mr. Rochester, strawberries to your whipped cream?"

"Strawberries to my whipped cream?" he asked, pressing his lips together to keep from laughing.

Evelyn looked down, embarrassed. "I just asked because I've never really seen you with a girl in school and I just wondered. It wouldn't really matter either way."

"I've had no other strawberries to my whipped cream. Just you," Tristan said with a laugh, but it sounded strained.

Evelyn hummed, assuming the reason for his weird behavior was embarrassment? Maybe for not having had a girlfriend before? She didn't know.

"And you? What about you? How many ounces of whipped cream to your strawberries?" he asked, nudging her slightly.

"Me? I'm a player. Didn't you know?" she joked.

"Oh, is that so?" he asked with a smirk.

"Absolutely. I mean, there was Steven in second grade, Giovanni in sixth grade, and Kevin in eighth. That list is practically never-ending."

"Mm, how will I ever live up to Steven in second grade?" he said, getting slightly closer to her.

"I don't know. He was pretty great," Evelyn said.

"He was, was he?" he said, trailing his palms from their place on her thighs upward, passing her hips and landing on the curve of her waist.

"Oh yeah, he even proposed with a ring pop," she said, sliding her hands up his chest, until she linked them around his neck.

"I don't have any ring pops," he said, licking his lips, still casted in a red glow. "So I guess I'll have to make it up in a different way."

Evelyn cocked her head to the side slightly, a playful smile on her lips. "That's awfully confident. You sure you could?"

"Mm, topping a ring pop is pretty hard," he said, moving her hair away from her shoulder, so her neck and collarbones were exposed. "But I could try."

And with that, Tristan attached his lips to her neck. His kisses were gentle, but it was enough to get her heart racing. He ran his lips against her neck gently for a second, before he let his lips move away from her neck. He cupped her jaw, pulling her forward, so her lips met his in a kiss.

Evelyn let her hands move so they were tangled in his hair. There wasn't anything gentle about the way his lips massaged hers, the same way there wasn't anything gentle about the way blood was flowing through her veins and the rate at which her heart beat.

He pulled away, just for a second, chest heaving.

"You drive me crazy," he mumbled against her lips, letting out a low groan when the only semblance of a reply he received was her tugging on his brown locks, pulling his lips back to hers.

It wasn't long before Evelyn was the one pulling away, needing air, but not ready to disentangle from him, instead letting her lips travel down, first planting kisses on his jaw, and then along the expanse of his neck, mimicking what he'd done to her, gently sucking at his skin.

"Jesus," Tristan said, letting out a shaky breath before he let his hands drop to her legs, wrapping them around his waist so they were closer, and urging Evelyn's lips away from his neck and back to his lips.

Evelyn squeezed her legs around his waist when he gently bit down on her lip and she felt his arms go up to her cardigan, beginning to pull down the fabric.

That was when she froze.

Tristan noticed her freeze, immediately, and pulled away from her.

"I'm so sorry," he began, realizing he'd made her uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," he said again, but his voice was in a whisper and even in the darkened room, only lit by a red glow, she could see the furrow in his eyebrows, the way he was frowning.

"It's okay," she mumbled, slightly out of breath.

"It's not. I should've," he sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Tris," Evelyn said. "Seriously, it's okay."

"Are you ever going to tell me why?" he asked and she knew he was referring to why she wore the cardigans, what exactly was it that made her so afraid to show her skin, to bare her arms and chest below her collarbones.

"One day, Tris. I will."

"But not today?" he offered with a small smile.

"Not Today."