for forever; tree bros

3. "this can't happen again."

art creds to gayradwhitedad on tumblr!

~~~

evan waited all evening for a text from connor. he was like a girl in teen romance movies - anxiously looking at his lock screen every two minutes, checking he hadn't accidentally put his phone on silent, staring at the blank screen for a full five minutes. it was pathetic, really.

evan had come through his front door at about six thirty, welcoming the warmth of his small house. his mother, heidi, had greeted him with a warm smile and demanded to know every detail of today.

evan had told her what he'd come to think of as the "truth" a few days after visiting the hospital, how he and connor had been best friends, how he'd broken his arm with him, how he'd been spending time with connor's family. initially, she wasn't happy that he'd lied to her, and seemed almost jealous when he spoke fondly of the murphys, but perhaps she'd heard something change in evan's voice whenever he mentioned connor, and had eventually hugged him and said how glad she was that he had a friend.

"today was good, mom," he said over a cup of tea, sat on the sofa with heidi looking at him intently. "we got ice cream, walked around the orchard, just like we used to. i think he feels better. i hope he feels better."

now, it was ten o'clock, and evan was perched on his bed, looking at his phone and sighing. the screen stayed stubbornly empty, and evan defeatedly flopped back onto his bed, staring up at the white ceiling, and let his thoughts drift over his day. his date - or, whatever you'd call it - with connor was nothing short of perfection. they didn't once touch on the subject of evan's lie. connor had accepted it into his life fully, and now was making the effort to be friends with evan, and he couldn't be more grateful. obviously too scared to say this to connor's face, evan wished he'd text so he could type out a thank you.

plus, evan remembered with a smile, he'd spent the day being able to stare at connor, framed in the sunlight, his cheekbones and bright blue eyes accentuated even more than usual. again, evan was far too anxious to tell connor this, even over text. he still had no idea if connor classed this as a date. nothing romantic had happened, they hadn't touched or spoken about anything other than themselves and - evan cringed. he'd told connor he had a crush on a girl. what a joke. he'd panicked, not wanting connor to find out who the person he really liked was.

he sighed. he really had to stop speaking in a panic.

all of a sudden, the familiar tune of troye sivan's wild filled the room. evan looked around in bemusement for a second before remembering he'd changed his ringtone to the song the day before. his eyes widened and he grabbed the phone off his bed and pressed answer without even looking at the screen to see the number who had called. the cool metal pressed against his ear, a million thoughts raced through his mind. connor was calling him? why, instead of a simple text? not that evan was complaining - he wanted nothing more than to hear his voice.

what he was not expecting, was the high pitched female voice speaking down his ear.

"evan? listen, are you still with connor? he never came home - his phone's going straight to voicemail - mum's about to have a fucking panic attack."

the thoughts in evan's head suddenly tripled. while he was still trying to process that it was zoe on the other line, the sudden rush of emotion took the breath away from him when he realised what she'd said.

connor was missing.

"evan? are you even there? this is serious, are you with connor or not?"

sitting back down on this bed as if in slow motion, he realised he had to say something. "n-no," he finally got out, wanting nothing more than to slam the phone down.