Chapter Text
“I should have skipped.” Connor softly muffled under his breath which was followed by an annoyed groan as Mr. Nelling failed to get the attention of the other students who were playing Coolmathgames on their Chromebooks. Connor brushed his choppily cut hair over his shoulders. He flicked the heels of his combat boots together and looked over at Evan who was sitting next to him. God, he looked so much more put together than Connor, it almost made Connor frustrated.
“I mean, we probably could.” Evan whispered back, giggling as he looked over at Connor. Connor dryly chuckled back before picking up his pencil which was almost rolling off the edge of his desk. Mr. Nelling finally started to write on the whiteboard.
“Chapter eight, everyone!”
Connor totally forgot they had homework for today. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Just if Connor had a low profile maybe then he wouldn’t be called on. He looked over at Evan who had his book open Infront of him. Connor was about to ask if he could partner up with Evan so he could do the work before —
“Mr. Murphy, can you summarize the chapter of functions?” He pushed up his glasses as he looked over at Connor. Connors heart stopped as a cold sweat washed over him. Everyone was staring at him, and he had nothing to say since he didn’t read the goddamn chapter.
“Of course... Hansen, can you tell us since Connor clearly can’t?”
Evans' face quickly turned red as a tomato as everyone looked at him. He glued his eyes to his desk so as not to have a full-blown panic attack Infront of everyone. Evan took a deep breath, ran his hand through his hair and looked up at Mr. Nelling.
“I also haven’t done it, Sir.” Evan voice trembled as Mr. Nellings sighed and asked another student. Connor quickly looked over at Evan. Surely Evan had done the homework, right? He was always so good at school, how could he not done the homework?
“Heh, kind of forgot it yesterday...” Evan smiled at Connor before opening his eyes. They held eye contact and Connor smiled back. What a dummy.
When the bell finally rang, everyone packed up their bags and headed off to their next class. Evan was stuck in the crowded hallway before he saw Jared! He could easily pick him out in a crowd because of his red glasses, and he always had graphic tees on. Today, he wore a t-shirt on with Pacman and a flannel layered on top of it.
Evan shuffled in the hallway before he finally reached Jared who gave him a shocked expression plastered on his face.
“How are you not dead yet?”
Jared shockingly asked in an almost non sarcastic tone, which was very different from his normal self.
“I heard you had math with Connor and... Had conversation with him!”
“Oh, chill out. He isn’t even that evil as everyone thinks he is.” Evan rolled his eyes before smiling at Jared. Jared gave Evan a disapproving look before leaning against Evans' side. His head rested upon Evans' shoulder. They both waited for the crowd to move so they could get to their next class.
“When you’ll figure this party is dim down?” Jared joked as he chuckled, referencing the students taking up the whole hallway as he pushed up his glasses. Evan rested his own head down on Jared's. Though Jared was sarcastic, mean and honestly somewhat rude, he was still Evans' childhood best friend.
“Oh, we’ll get to our next class tomorrow.” Evan joked back, laughing. Slowly, they both started laughing. Jared took his phone out of his pocket as he got a notification which buzzed in his pocket, even Evan could hear it. Evan took a sneak peek to see who it was and oh boy was he shocked.
“Oh? Who is this?” Evan chuckled as he saw who was texting him. The profile picture was a pale ginger; freckles sprinkled on his face which reminded Evan of sand and with grass green eyes. The name beside the profile picture was “Camp guy 1”
“Is there a camp guy two, three and four?” Evan chuckled as Jared wrote back to the ginger. Evan knew Jared could play a lot of guys, he knew ever since they first started school. Evan remembered once when they were playing house when they were younger, Jared would be the cool uncle with about five or six husbands.
“No, just a few more than that actually” Jared chuckled back before he turned off his phone and put it back in his jeans pocket. Jared gave Evan a little nudge on the ribs as a hint to not look at his phone when he’s texting guys. Jared was a famous gay, and what about it?
Evan looked forward to see that the crowd were starting to get more crazier and they all had their phones out and were recording something. Evan finally realized what was taking them so long... A fight was happening! Evan quickly turned his head to Jared to see if he had seen it too.
“Yeah, I see it, but I don’t think you’ll be happy to see who’s fighting...” Jared mumbled as he cleared his throat. Evan looked at one of the phones which were filming the fight and saw a very familiar long brown-haired guy. It was fucking Connor.
Evan softly pushed Jared off his side and vastly walked, pushing other people away to get to Connor. People were also shoving Evan, but he prevailed as he finally got to the front. Connor was beaten bloody, with blood running down his nose, knuckles and knees. The guy who was fighting Connor was Trevor, a tall angry black haired younger 11th grader.
Evan wanted to jump in and help Connor, but Evan could not fight to save his life so how could he save Connor? He just stood there, palms sweaty and trembling, that was before Alana, the most perfect girl in school, finally got a teacher to come and break Connor and Trevor apart.
When Connor finally stood up, Evan came running over to help aid him. Connors face was still filled with rage, but he held his side and winced once in a while. Evan looked around to see where the goddamn teacher even was.
“You!” The teacher finally called out for Evan. “Go take him to the school nurse!”
Evan held Connor as they slowly walked over to the school nurse which was almost two floors up. It had taken awhile before they finally got to the place where the school nurse usually was. Evan let Connor sit down on one of the beds as Evan looked around for plasters, bandages or literally anything to help Connor. Evan sprinted around the room and when he finally came back, he had a lot of stuff stuffed in his grasp.
“Okay, so- so, I have sterile wipes, antiseptic, gauze swabs, and- and —”
“Chill out, dude, “ Connor softly whispered as he looked up at Evan, still grasping his side. It looked like it almost hurt to just talk. “It’s not like I'm dying.” Connor dryly laughed as Evan showed a crooked smile. Evan sighed before he walked over and got some paper and ran water on it. He walked back and dabbed it on Connors bloody nose.
There was almost no sound as Evan cleaned Connors bloody wounds. He used the sterile wipes to clean the blood, cleaned the blood around the wounds with the antiseptic, trying not to get the antiseptic in the wounds, he patted down the wounds with the gauze swabs and put sterile dressing on them.
There was now only one wound Evan hadn’t seen yet. It was the big one which was right under the sides of Connors ribcage. Evan looked down at it before clearing his throat and looking up at Connors waiting eyes.
“You can do the rest, right?” Evan sniggered. Connors face relaxed as he laughed softly with Evan. “Yeah, I mean... We aren’t a couple of fags, right?” Connor joked as they laughed. Evans breath got stuck in his throat as Connor just spat out that slur. Evan slowly stopped laughing and looked at Connor.
“What?” Connor asked as they both locked eyes with each other.
“Nothing, I just think I need to get to class.” Evan spoke before he cleared his throat. He looked away from Connors dark, almost black eyes and checked the clock. They were very late for their classes, almost a whole hour late. Connor looked at the clock as well and sighed.
“Hey, you should get my Email.” Connor smiled. “So, you know, we can keep in contact with each other.” Connor added before putting a strand of hair behind his ear. He grabbed a crumbled-up piece of paper from his messenger bag and folded it up to write down on it. He got a pen out and wrote down his email.
“Thanks.” Evan smiled as he got the piece of paper. He looked around before looking back at Connor. He pursed his lips as he needed an excuse to leave because he really didn’t want to be late for his next class.
“Well, bye.” Evan nodded his head before turning around and headed off. He closed the door behind him. Connor had a feeling he definitely made it weird somehow. Connor sighed before taking off his AC/DC t-shirt and the dark long sleeve shirt under it to fully see the wound on his side.
It was just a big bruise, nothing more. Connor sighed in relief before getting his shirts back in his arms and putting them on. He tossed his messenger bag on and walked out the room, his dirty boots making prints as he left.
“He said what?!” Jared asked Evan as they walked down the halls to go home. Jared was almost furious as he strutted down the passing lockers and a few 11th graders who were loitering by the walls. He pushed up his glasses before looking Evan right in the eye.
“I know right?” Evan sighed, he looked down at the dark blue tiles. He finally thought he made a new friend, he thought Connor wasn’t as bad as everyone thought he was, but nope. Of course! Slurs were a bit normal to just throw out, but Evan thought Connor wouldn’t say them since Connor was always bullied by being called gay.
“You shouldn’t have helped him; he deserved that beating.” Jared muttered the words through his gritted teeth.
They had now gotten through the front doors of the school. They walked down the parking lot as the sun grazed their skin. When it was this hot, Evan would get super red since he was pretty pale whilst Jared got even darker by the second. Evan always thought Jared looked good with the sun hitting his face and highlighting his forest green eyes.
“Also-... He gave me his email address so we could talk at home.” Evan hesitated to say as he looked at Jared's face. He didn’t really look mad anymore, just super annoyed since he rolled his eyes and took out his phone, probably to text one of the guys who were inlove with him and begging for his attention.
Evans face turned even more red as he saw someone walking down to the part of the parking lot where him and Jared were speaking by. It was Connor who was walking towards a pretty shitty conditioned car. His hair flowed through the wind as he walked.
“Speaking of which...” Evan mumbled before he nudged Jared, trying to get his attention off his phone and to the big problem they both were just talking about. Jared looked up for a second then down again at his phone before it hit him who had walked by them. Jared quickly shoved his phone down his front pocket and looked intensely at Connor like a hawk.
Connor walked down to his car and unlocked it; he was about to go in before he saw a familiar awkward teen with a broken hand standing with his little minion. It was Evan of course! Connor smiled and waved at him, expecting them to wave back, but only Evan waved back at him.
“Want me to drive you guys?” Connor shouted from the other side of the parking lot. Jared looked at Evan who was smiling. Jared was almost fuming.
“Sure!” Evan shouted back as he walked over, expecting Jared to follow and so he did.
“You aren’t serious, right? He basically called you a slur!”
“Please, Jared. Maybe he didn’t mean it like that” Evan replied as they both whispered to each other until they reached Connor’s car. Connor got in, the two other ones got in too after in the back. To say that it was a mess was an understatement. There was Redbull cans everywhere, it reeked of cigarettes, weed and probably a thousand other kinds of drugs.
“So, where should I drive?” Connor asked, clearing his throat. God, he was trying too hard to seem cool and laid back. He knew exactly that his act was not holding up since he was stumbling over his words and avoiding eye contact. He should have cleaned his car, holy fuck.
“Well, Jared is coming over at mine so just drive to Arandale Road.” Evan smiled as he and Jared fastened their seatbelts. Jared slouched in his seat and crossed his arms as he looked over at Connor who was starting to drive. Evan looked out the window, looking at the passing trees and streets. Evan didn’t live far away from school, maybe a few miles from, so it wouldn’t take so long to drive there. A crooked smirk appeared on Jared's face before he sat up straight and leaned over the offside seat, so he was closer to Connor.
“Hey Connor, why did Trevor and you start fighting?” Jared asked with a light smile. Evan cleared his throat and looked over at Jared, giving him a confused look which turned into an almost scared one when Jared grinned back at Evan.
“Well, he said some shit with seeing you flirting with a guy and how... Fagish it was. I didn’t want him to just let him say such a thing to my friend's friend so I-... you know.” Connor shrugged his shoulders as his eyes were focused on the road. Jared smile faded as he realized Connor fought on behalf of him.
“Oh, thanks.” Jared choked out before leaning back down in his seat, feeling almost embarrassed since he wanted to make a fool of Connor. It still didn’t excuse the fact that he still joked about being gay in a negative manner. Evan pursed his lips and looked out the window again. How come he fought Trevor for calling Jared a slur, but he said it himself? Maybe Connor was just joking or something.
“Well, here you are.” Connor smiled as he slowly stopped the car, stopping by a park with the sign behind it that read “Arandale Road” Connor looked in the back and saw Evan and Jared getting out the car. “Bye guys.” Connor waved.
“Bye Connor!” Evan smiled as he waved back, he let his hand down and nudged Jared to make him wave back. “Yeah- bye!” Jared waved back lazily before putting his hand down again. Connor started driving again and faded into the horizon.
“Come on, I heard that a new show is on! Uh- Stranger things or whatever it’s called.” Evan rested his head against Jared's. “Sure, sure. Whatever!” Jared giggled as he nudged Evan off himself.
They both walked down the street and to Evans two story house. Evan used the key under the mat, and they got in. Evans’ mom wasn’t home, which was normal since she was a hard-working doctor. They both got dressed in Evans clothes and they sat down on the couch, starting bad Netflix movies until they got bored and started playing UNO.
“Not fair, you’re cheating!” Evan laughed as he lost at UNO for almost the 10th time.
“No, I'm not! You’re just bad” Jared laughed with him.