Being a surrogate father-figure to Eva may have been a vice to Alfie, but the teen wouldn't have objected. Eva didn't have a father - not one that mattered, anyway. Her father had abandoned the family after she was born, and the only father figure she'd ever had was Sam. Who was a very good stand-in, but he was her brother, and she didn't look at him like father as much as her brother. Which made made perfect sense. Alfie had become a male role model for the young girl - she considered him one of her confidantes. Another person on whom she could rely, and that was particularly healing for someone who had once had panic attacks whenever a group of men neared her. She had moved considerably beyond that stage. Not that there weren't still moments.
"That's only because I'm the responsible one," Eva quipped, grinning a little timidly - she never knew if her jokes would be well-received. Or, well, she never had faith that they would be.
The teen shrugged, and then sighed in response to his question. Nothing had particularly changed outwardly in her life. Things that were on her mind now had been on her mind for a while. But, as was common for the young woman, introspection was the first step in processing a problem. The only difference between last week and this week was that she had done enough processing inside her own head to start talking. "I've been thinking," she began after a pause and ending her stretching routine so she could look Alfie in the eyes. "I don't think I'm going to go to college right now." Another pause. One in which she could gauge his reception to the news. This was important to her. And while the decision would be hers in the end, input from those she trusted would play a part in it.