Just Another Lie, Right? [Kleinsen]

•16•

I've kinda been trying to stay out of Evan's way.

After what happened yesterday, and this morning, and last night.

At this point there's no doubt in my mind that Evan likes me. Like that.

But I didn't. Not like that. Family friends.

Heck, I don't even like Evan enough to call him a friend!

And even though there was no way Evan didn't like me like that, I still wanted confirmation. Because even though he made it extremely obvious, I'm still Jared Kleinman, and I'm still an absolute moron.

Once the last school bell rang, I walked up to my lockers to put my stuff away. My plan was to meet Evan outside of school, and try to get the truth out of him. Like in all of those crime stopping shows. I'd sit him down, ask "Where's the body?" and then pressure him into telling me the truth and only the truth.

Turned out Evan had different plans, though.

When I approached my locker, I saw that Evan was already beside my locker, waiting. For me.

He didn't notice me until I was in the process of opening my locker. I was trying my best to ignore him as I punched in the combination.

"Oh uh, hey... Jared." He said nervously, backing up a little to give us some space. "So-"

"Confess." I butted in, still focused on my locker and not Evan.

"W-what?" He stuttered.

"Confess." I repeated, then turning to face him. "Come on. Don't act like you don't know. You kissed me yesterday and you're trying to pretend it never happened. And maybe it didn't! But I know you didn't do it just because your bisexuality was screaming 'ooh hot boi you must kiss hot boi'! Because we both know that's not entirely true! You like me, Evan. Like, like like me. And I need you to confess to it."

I took a breath, trying to regain the air I'd lost by rushing through that monologue.

What was that? That was definitely not what I had planned. But I said it. I said it and I said a lot more than what needed to be said. But I guess I said what my heart thought I should say. That's cliche though.

Evan stared at me for a second, dumbfounded. What did he not understand? I literally explained it all.

His eyes glossed over a little bit and I felt my heart drop. I'm gonna make him cry.

Please don't cry, Evan. If you cry, I'm gonna cry, and I'm such an ugly crier.

My heart started pounding. I don't know wether it was because of Evan almost-maybe crying, or because I had absolutely no idea how he was going to respond.

We stood there for a moment, still rocks in a river of rushing kids. Evan looking at me, his mouth ajar and his eyes wide. Me looking at him, with probably a similar facial expression.

"Jared, I-" He started, averting his eyes and focusing on anything that wasn't my face. He swallowed and shifted his focus back to me. "I- I don't like you-" he started.

I was ready to bolt out, "Oh yeah? Then how can you explain-"

"I love you, Jared!" He shouted angrily. Was it anger? It was definitely loud.

The only people who seemed to hear, though, were Dustin and a group of his friends, who were staring. He gave me a wink before they walked off. Hey, I used to date him.

I turned my focus back on Evan, who still wasn't crying, which is good. He took a step forward and I tried to step back, but then remembered there was a locker behind me.

"I love you, Jared." He said again, much quieter this time. "I have for a long time now. Since Sophomore year. We barely hung out, though. We- we barely hung out..." He. paused for a moment, before continuing, his tone resumed it's maybe-angry tone. "Don't ask me why! Because I don't know! You're just really cute and funny and smart and you're not awkward like me! But I didn't ever think you'd feel the same way because... well... you're Jared Kleinman!"

"I didn't even know if you were single!" Evan continued. "We never hung out, so how was I supposed to talk to you?! How was I supposed to say anything?! So yeah, I love you Jared! Have a nice dAy." His voice cracked on the word day.

He nodded to me, and ran off.

I saw tears rolling down his face.

---

Is it bad that I'm crying about my own fanfiction?

Published: 7/9/19
Word Count: 764