One Thousand Emails (Treebros) {#Wattys2018}

17

Evan wasn't sure how long it was going to last.

It had only been two weeks since Connor left for rehabilitation, and Evan already missed him a lot. He wondered how he was doing, if he was happy, or if he missed him too.

Heidi was working on breakfast with Evan, showing him the basics of cooking. Evan knew how to make box made products, but nothing from scratch. She thought it'd be an important skill for the future. Evan didn't complain, he was more than happy to spend some time with her.

While Evan mixed some ingredients together, there was a knock on the door. Heidi went to answer it, while Evan kept stirring, humming a song softly.

"Jared! It's been a while. Evan's making pancakes, you can go sit on the couch," Heidi directed their visitor, Jared, to the the sofa, and then handed him the remote. She returned to Evan, and helped him pour the batter onto the pan, and showed him how to properly flip them.

After a little while, the table was set with three plates and pancakes resting on top of them. Heidi called Jared into the kitchen while Evan set out some silverware and syrup.

Jared grabbed the syrup and poured it onto his pancakes. "This looks amazing!" He looked at Heidi. "You've taught him well."

Heidi chuckled as she set out some orange juice, quickly telling Evan to take a seat, before saying afterwards, "He's a natural at this. I still have a lot to teach him, but I don't think it'll be hard at all, not at the rate he'd been learning at."

Evan blushed as he took a seat. He didn't like boasting about his talents, he just wanted a 'good job' with a pat on the back. Still, at least they appreciated his efforts, right? That was what mattered, he supposed.

"Mmh, Evan, your cooking is godly! Why haven't you started doing this before?" Jared hummed, taking another bite out of the pancake.

Evan giggled and shrugged, "I'm n-not that good of a chef."

"I hate to disagree with you, sweetie, but I think it's perfect," Heidi complimented him. "Better than what I can do, anyway."

"What? No! Your food is great too! I bet it's genetics and you're descent from a famous chef or something!" Jared was obviously exaggerating, but the Hansen's provided free food, and it wasn't shitty. Shitty would be very inaccurate anyways.

"I wish," Heidi rolled her eyes. "I suppose you'll tell me to open a bakery." She chuckled.

"You should! You'd make a ton of money off of it!" Jared enthused.

"It'd also be very time consuming," Heidi added on. "Plus there's many other expensives you're forgetting about."

Evan giggled, grabbing his plate and going to wash it. Despite feeling the need to come out to Jared, Evan was fairly happy. He still had bad days, but he was working with Dr. Sherman to figure out what new medication he would take. It wouldn't be a quick solution though, he knew this because it was the same with finding the right anxiety medication for himself. It'd be annoying, but he'd have to be patient, he supposed.

Jared set his plate in the sink. "Wanna head upstairs? I'm looking owning you on some dumb Xbox games."

"Um, sure, but I n-need to talk to you about something first," Evan said , his fingers going to tug at his polo's hem.

"Okay, we can talk upstairs," Jared shrugged, leading him upstairs.

Evan followed him up and shut the door behind him after he entered his room. He took a seat on the bed and exhaled.

"Sooo.. What'd you wanna talk about," Jared asked, shifting awkwardly on the bed.

"Um.. Y-you remember when I broke my arm, r-right?" Evan swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Yeah, what about it?" Jared didn't know why that was significant, their relationship had changed a lot after that took place.

Evan took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "I d-didn't f-fall.."

Jared's expression fell flat. "What?"

"I.. I-I let g-go," Evan said slowly, shutting his eyes.

"Holy shit.." Jared muttered.

"I'm sorry," Evan quickly said.

"No, don't be. I'm the one- I'm the guy who made a fucking acorn joke about it! Does your mom know?" Jared rubbed his head.

Evan nodded, "I told her t-two weeks ago."

"Good, good.." Jared exhaled. "And you're getting help?"

"I think I'd be w-worried if I wasn't," he laughed.

Jared grinned, "Great. Anyways, you up for some Call of Duty?"

Evan smiled, "Definitely."

Things weren't perfect, and they'd probably never be, but that was okay. He would be okay.

A/N: One chapter left, then the epilogue!