for forever; tree bros

7. "we match!"

mood song:
strawberries and cigarettes - troye sivan

~~~

evan's first class was gym, something he despised. despite his broad shoulders and vaguely muscular chest, evan was the least fit person he knew. every lesson he'd try to blend into the crowd of people in tracksuits, cringing every time a ball came near him. and, after last week, when the soccer ball had hit him directly in the back of the head, he was even more unwilling to go to class.

and - he cursed under his breath. he'd forgotten his gym clothes. he didn't fancy doing an hour of sports in his normal clothes and being sweaty and uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

however, he headed towards the changing rooms, biting his lip, ready to grin and bear the hour of hell.

about a meter away from the changing room door, a hand grabbed his shoulder. evan spun around to be met with a pair of bright blue eyes. moving back a step, he saw the eyes were surrounded by messy brown hair, which then led on to a black hoodie and skinny black jeans. connor removed his hand from evan's shoulder and shoved it into his pocket.

"hey," the taller boy said casually.

evan frowned. "how come you're in school?"

connor snorted. "nice to see you too."

"no, no, i didn't mean -" evan stopped. "oh. right. joking. got it."

connor laughed shortly as he started to move away from the crowd of people surrounding them. evan glanced around him, only to see that he was being given weird looks. of course, connor murphy, the almost-dead kid, talking to evan hansen, the loner... it was probably the biggest scandal the school had had in at least a week.

he looked back at the door behind him. he didn't bunk. that was not something he got into a habit of doing, despite how much he hated the class. his mother didn't need more phone calls from the school about evan - she had one every time he was sent to the nurse's office with a panic attack. he tried to keep his head down at school as much as he could, to minimise the amount of stress he caused heidi.

so, evan really didn't want to bunk gym. every fibre of his being was telling him not to. but connor turned back around and gestured for him to hurry up, and suddenly logic flew out the window.

they didn't speak as evan followed connor down the hall and out into the school yard. they walked past the football field, past the art block, all the way round to the bicycle sheds which were never used - no student could be bothered to haul their bike all the way up here when they could just chain it to the front gate. therefore, it was the perfect place for people to sneak off and have a smoke.

evan snorted as connor casually sat on the concrete, leaning on the cool wall of the shed. "the bike shed? you're a fucking cliché," he quipped, mimicking what connor had said to him only the day before, in the orchard.

immediately, he cursed himself. stupid joke. connor probably didn't even remember saying it, and now evan just sounded rude.

to his surprise, connor laughed. "alright, smartass, using my own words against me." he looked up at evan and gestured to the space beside him, which evan hurriedly sat down in, crossing his legs nervously.

a moment passed where evan tried to think of what to ask connor first, but then the older boy was pulling something out of his pocket - a pre-rolled joint and an orange lighter. evan flinched, but tried not to look too startled as he watched connor raise the blunt to his lips and light it clumsily with his left hand. his left hand? evan frowned and looked at connor's right arm.