As much as the gang loved Jared, there was one thing that they dreaded every year. The first week of April Jared always declared prank week, as apparently one day wasn't enough for him.
"Day one of prank week." Connor mumbled to Alana, Zoe, and Evan as they walked into the school. "Be prepared." They were all overly cautious, as they knew Jared would have a string of tests for them.
"Has someone told him that it isn't funny or cool?" Zoe sighed, glancing through the halls. Normally Jared would be waiting for them, eager to loudly talk about some video game or something he did the previous night.
"Yes, but I don't think he cares." Alana arrived at her locker and stared at it for a second, almost too afraid to open it. "There's going to be something in my locker."
"You can almost bet on it." Connor crossed his arms and waited for Alana to open it. After a moment, he sighed and pushed Evan forward. "You open it."
"Why me?" Evan demanded, coiling back.
"'Cause I said so."
Evan nervously reached his hand up, "What's your locker combination?" He asked.
"12-01-35." Alana instructed as the entire group stepped back. Sure enough, as soon as Evan unlocked and opened the locker, Jared launched himself from the locker and onto Evan. Evan shrieked, somehow catching Jared. Everyone in the hallway stopped and looked at the two for a second.
"Jared!" Evan squeaked, turning bright red as he dropped Jared onto the floor.
"Bet you weren't expecting that!" Jared grinned, standing up and brushing his pants off.
"Yeah, whatever." Connor rolled his eyes. "C'mon, dick-lord, let's get to class."
"I swear, Kleinman, if there's anything in my locker besides my books, I'll murder you." Zoe warned. Jared held up his hands innocently.
"Do you really think I'm dumb enough to do all my pranks at once? Give me a break, I'm just getting started." Jared told her.
"Can I be excluded from the pranks?" Evan asked softly.
"Only if you want to be excluded from the friend group." Jared retorted. Evan sighed and took Zoe's arm, resting his head on her shoulder.
"Jesus, calm down, you're so riled up about this you forgot to give your boyfriend a kiss this morning." Connor grumbled, wrapping his arm around Jared's shoulders. Jared mumbled an apology and leaned up on his tip-toes, giving Connor a small kiss on the lips.
"Well, as long as nothing is going for fall on me or at me when I open my locker, I'm going." Zoe sighed, walking away with Evan on her heel. Alana began to organize her locker, as Jared had managed to mess it up when he had crawled inside.
"I'll see you after class, okay?" Connor said, cupping Jared's cheek and giving the boy another kiss.
"You can bet on it." Jared winked as he flaunted away.
Once lunch time rolled around, Connor sat on the bench near the garbage can, waiting for Jared, as usual. Jared beamed as he walked over, holding a bag of McDonald's. Jared always got his boyfriend lunch, as he was the only one of the two of them with a car.
"20 McNuggets, just as you ordered." Jared hummed, handing Connor the box of nuggets. Jared pulled out his Big Mac and began to snarf it down.
"Let me just say, I'm glad you decided not to fuck this up." Connor ruffled Jared's hair and opened the box.
It was filled with vegetables.
"The fuck is this?" Connor demanded. Instead of answering, Jared continued to try and eat his burger as fast as he could. He knew that if Connor didn't get to eat chicken nuggets, he definitely wouldn't be letting Jared eat his burger.
"No way, give me that, I get half of your burger." Connor tried to tug the Big Mac from Jared's hands. Jared let out a loud whine and pulled his burger back.
Fighting over a burger wasn't exactly a good idea, as it quickly fell apart and pieces of it landed across the floor.
"Look what you did!" Jared pouted, wiping ketchup from his face.
"What I did! You're the one who didn't get my nuggets." Connor frowned, leaning back and turning his face away from Jared. "I hate you."
"No, you don't." Jared curled up to Connor, rubbing his head on the boy's shoulder, trying to get Connor to pay attention to him. Connor sighed and gave in, throwing an arm around Jared.
"No, I don't, but you're still an asshole." Connor grumbled.
So it was, prank after prank, everything imaginable. Jared managed to stain Zoe's skin blue, have Alana freak out as he convinced her that the test was today, not tomorrow, make Evan cry when Jared dressed as the girl from The Ring and jumped out at him, and even managed to make Connor take off his shirt while they were making out in the bathroom and ran off with the shirt. Connor had a humiliated walk through the halls.
The group had had enough of Jared's pranks and decided to confront him about it.
So, they all met up at Evan's house to tell Jared off and get him to stop.
"Hey, Ev, where's the chips?" Jared asked, digging through the cabinet.
"We don't have any, you ate them all the last time you were here." Evan sighed, everyone was sitting on the couch in the living room, waiting for Jared to come back.
"Jared, stop poking around and get out here!" Connor called. Jared appeared in the door, leaning on the door way. He looked at his friends and instantly knew something was up.
"What's up, guys?" He asked, keeping his distance.
"Jared, your pranks have gone too far." Zoe said lightly, leaning forward in her seat. She was still a light blue color from Jared's earlier prank. "They're no longer funny, they're just mean."
"C'mon, it's fun, you guys don't even try to prank each other." Jared said defensively.
"Because we don't want to, we told you this." Alana sighed. "You're the only one that enjoys it."
"No, I-" Jared was cut off by Connor.
"Jared, I had to walk around school with no shirt. People laughed at me." Connor said as he stood up, crossing his arms.
"Connor, I didn't mean to hurt you." Jared moved forward, trying to hug boyfriend, but Connor pushed him away.
"No, Jared, you have no regard for other people and their feelings." Connor snapped at him. "You're only concerned about yourself and what you want, we've told you year after year that we don't want to fucking do that."
"I'm sorry-" Tears began to form in Jared's eyes as he reached at Connor, desperate for some kind of physical touch so he could know that everything was okay.
"No, being sorry is not enough." Connor said coldly. "We're through, Jared."
Jared froze, staring at Connor for a second before letting out a sob. Tears streamed down his face as he cried loudly, looking down at the floor, humiliated.
"I'm sorry, Connor." Jared tried to wipe the tears from his face and clean up, he was painfully aware that everyone's eyes were on him. He felt burning shame on his cheeks as everyone was silent for a moment.
"We got you." Connor whispered before pulling Jared into a hug.
