All I See Is His Eyes, For Forever

-3-

"Eeeeevaaaaaannnn...."

I close my computer. Like hell I'm letting Jared see me talking to anyone. That'd be embarrassing...

"Eeeeevvaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan....." Jared's call comes closer to my room, and I pretend to be working on the work spread across my desk.

"You better not be masturbating, you weirdo..." He says, entering my room. If I had been... doing that... he hadn't given me much time to fix myself.

"Heyyyy, how's my least favorite acorn?" He leans on the back of my chair.

"'Least favorite?'" I face him incredulously.

"Of course. I saw one on the road that looked waaaayyy less lame than you~" Jared smirked in his usual, cattish way.

"Thanks, Jared."

I face my work again, and theres a moment of silence as he watches me write and erase a few lines.

"I saw Connor push you," He says this and steps back like he didn't care.

"Mmm."

There was a small exhale through his nose. Maybe that wasn't the response he'd expected.

"Doesn't that make you angry?"

I try to keep my face away from him, aware of a shade of red covering it, "Hmm. Not, uh, really." 'He didn't mean it,' I add internally..

"What about when Zoe went and comforted you~?" He kicked my chair lightly over and over.

My face scrunches up. My feelings for Zoe are a bit more jumbled than normal. I know her brother more than her, herself. And I really like talking to him.

Without a response, Jared keeps pushing, "How bad did you fuck it up?"

"I don't w-want to think about that right now," I turn away from him.

'She called her brother insane. I wonder what I'm missing from the picture.'

I almost write out my thoughts, but just put down the pencil and pick at my cast.

"Damn, was it that bad???" He asks, laughing.

A sigh escapes me. There's another period of silence.

"Is that her email on your arm?"

Shit, the address!

Jared grabs my arm, making me jump. I didn't notice him come closer. I try to jerk it out of his grip, but he's definitely more powerful than me.

"Conphy? Wait-" He reads.

He lets go as he notices my cast.

"I thought it was a bunch of names but it's just... one," He starts off laughing, but it ends as he realizes.

"Did he write this by force? You let him do this to you?" He questions as he grabs my cast.

"Ah, geez, Jared!" I wince, "You're saying this like he h-hurt me or s-some... something!"

"Don't know if you forgot, Evan," He threw my arm out of his hand, like it was infected, "but he did."

I let out a huff. It didn't even hurt me that much, I had landed on my good arm.

"Wait... Is that his email??" Jared gestured to what was written on my skin, growing angrier.

"Jared, don't you have, like, something b-better to do than be s- nosy?" I cover my arms and turn in my seat, facing away from him as much as I can.

"Evan, he called you a freak and pushed you over!" His voice rises.

"Then why didn't you help me?" I counter and look over my shoulder at him.

Jared's response catches in his throat. He looks to each corner of the room, trying to find his argument.

I soften, sorry for yelling.

"Jared..." I turn completely.

He sighs. He didn't get mad this time. Or, well, it didn't escalate beyond a bit of shouting.

"Let's go," He changes the subject and grabs my wrapped arm, softer this time.

I get up, ignoring my homework, "Huh? Wai- Where? Where are we going?"

He drags me out of my room. I almost think we're just gonna watch a movie or something but we continue out my front door, which he had left ajar when he barged into my room. That's kind of...

"J-Jared that was kind of really unsafe-"

"I was gonna close it. Shut up," He doesn't face me to argue, just drags me.

"Get in the car. We're gonna..." He pauses, "I just need you to get out of the house."

"I don't really want to r-right now, Jared..."

I stay at the entrance, where he had let go of me. His eyes, brown and filled with frustration, stared me down, flickering once, twice to the bold letters on my cast.

Suddenly, his demeanor broke, and a cocky, childish smile had spread across his face.

"C'mon, acorn, we'll go to a plant store or something," He takes a few steps back to me, holding out his hand, almost sweetly.

"Wh... Why..?" I eye the outstretched hand incredulously.

He rolls his eyes, "Like I said, you need to get out of your house. Talk to people other than school shooters and yourself."

I give him 'the face,' which is basically just me not buying his shit.

"And plants," He adds.

"I don't t-talk to plants, Jared," I mutter and shuffle my feet.

"Good, then let's find you some to talk to~" He tugs me along softly to the passenger's seat, and locked my house door for me.

He gets into the car beside me, and I buckle my seatbelt. Jared isn't too bad of a driver, but I'm not taking any chances. Jared looks me up and down, noticing. With an unspoken scold and an unenthused look, he gives in and buckles as well.