breathe; tree bros

four

connor woke up the next day with a new burst of enthusiasm.

subtle differences in connor's mannerisms made it glaringly obvious to zoe that something was different.

for example, he was up and getting ready before she barged in to his room unannounced, whining, "connor, get up, we're- oh. you're up."

"yeah, thanks." he smiled sarcastically.

"oh, well, okay." she said sceptically, closing his door as slow as possible as to keep eye contact on him for as long as she could.

he also ate breakfast. connor never ate breakfast, claimed it was "the meal of the devil." that and he thought it was to early to eat.

but what really gave it away, is that when he left the house he uttered two simple words that left zoe in shock.

"bye mom."

"hey! why are you being so nice? what's wrong with you? are you sick?"

connor laughed slightly at his younger sister, a small smile playing on his lips as he put in his headphones.

he thought to himself as he walked, not even registering the music from his phone. why was he being so nice? it wasn't exactly nice nice, but for connor? he might as well have been mother theresa.

he wasn't happy because of evan. that's what he told himself anyway.

he was just some kid, right?
a pretty cute one, connor had to admit. pretty cute may even had been an understatement.

connor decided that it was the underlying need for a friend slowly wearing away.
he didn't need people in his life.

people are rude and mean and they judge you. so don't trust them, and don't let them in.

he just couldn't help but smile when he walked in the homeroom to see evan's back facing him, he was in some sort of heated conversation with jared, and seemed to be getting extremely excited about something.

"-but it's good, right? i- i mean for me? i just, have never been able to actually order pizza before. but i did!"

"jesus evan, it's not that impressive. stop needing my approval, i'm not your dad."

he saw evan tense slightly.

"oh shit, i'm sorry evan, i didn't mean to upset you."

"oh. uh- it's ok-"
this is where connor needed to intervene. he couldn't believe evan was just going to forgive kleinman- just like that!

"hey evan," he took the seat right next to the blonde haired boy, who abruptly turned to face connor immediately.

evan's look of discomfort was replaced with a small smile, which he returned.
"hey connor."

"wow, am i missing something?"
the smile dropped from evan's face as jared massacred the moment, "evan... he... has a... friend?" he gasped with mock surprise.

"fuck off, kleinman."
jared threw his hands up in surrender before pulling out his phone.

evan looked uneasy, probably not knowing who to talk to or what to talk about.
for some reason, connor couldn't fill the void of silence either. it seemed his day was just full of them.
he felt like he would say something wrong, and then it became apparent that evan probably felt the same most of the time.

evan muttered something like, "i need to go to the bathroom," before waddling out the door with his head down, not making eye contact with anyone.

"so, you and hansen huh? what did you do, brainwash him? did you get him stoned? is he high?" jared leaned towards connor, before sliding in to the seat evan had previously been sitting in, "did you kill his mom and now he has to hang out with you or you'll kill him too?" he smiled devilishly, waiting for a response from connor.

"yeah, it's the last one."

evan returned with a sheet of paper in his hand, and jared returned to his original seat. although the paper was intriguing, it was against connor's better judgement to ask. he could see typed writing on the other side, but couldn't make out what it said.

evan was bright red as he shoved the paper in to his bag, at the very bottom underneath all his stuff.

connor just gave him a small smile, perhaps just reassuring evan he wasn't going to ask. evan seemed to relax at that.

still bright red, he opened his mouth to say something, but the bell went startling evan slightly.

he shook his head and looked down at the table, leaving connor in an irritating state of intrigue.