These Broken Parts

New Year's Eve

The end of December came quickly. Christmas break was agonizing, since Connor was forced to go on his annual family ski trip. But he and Evan had plans to spend New Year's Eve together, since Heidi would have to pull yet another double. Her shift started later than usual, so Evan had told Connor to come over around 8pm. Evan had slowly been stockpiling snacks, telling Heidi he was having Jared over for the night to play video games, watch movies, and countdown to midnight.

"Shit, I'm running late" Heidi grumbled, running around frantically. Evan glanced nervously at the clock – it was already 7:45. He'd tried texting Connor to warn him, but he hadn't heard back yet.

Ten more minutes went by. Finally, Heidi was ready to go. Evan kept texting Connor, but there was no reply. "Shit," he mumbled, jumping when Heidi's voice startled him from his panic.

"Money's on the table if you boys want to order real food instead of just having snacks, and I'll try to stay in touch. Be safe and have fun! Tell Jared I said hi!"

Evan waved her off as she ran out the front door. When she went to get in her car, she noticed someone standing, frozen, at the end of the driveway.

"Can I help you?"

Connor gulped, scratching at his wrists in panic. "I... Oh... Sorry, wrong house. Must have... spaced out.. Sorry..." He quickly hurried down the driveway and walked a few houses down.

Heidi frowned after him, but a glance at her watch had her cursing under her breath, getting in her car, and quickly driving away.

Connor waited ten minutes before running quickly to Evan's door and knocking. The door opened immediately, and Evan ushered him in, closing and locking it behind him.

"What the hell, dude?" Connor asked, eyes wide in question.

"She was running late – I texted you!"

Connor checked his phone. "Shit, it was on silent so my parents wouldn't hear it and discover I had a second phone. I failed that English test, so they took my other one away to 'punish' me."

"How do you fail an English test with how much you love reading?" Evan questioned.

Connor shrugged. "I dunno, it just... School bores me. The teachers all think I'm some loser stoner anyway, so why bother?"

"And you don't ever want to, you know, change their minds about you, maybe?"

Connor laughed cynically. "Oh, Evan, you're so optimistic and innocent."

"I'm really not," Evan rolled his eyes. "But okay."

Connor helped Evan get all the snacks and drinks set up on the coffee table. They sat beside each other, putting the TV on and mindlessly flipping channels. As the night wore on, Evan found himself leaning into Connor more and more, until he'd turned Connor into his own personal pillow. He didn't even protest when Connor grabbed his hand and held on, using the other hand to flip channels.

After an hour of eating nothing but junk food, Connor called in a pizza order for them. When the food arrived and Connor got up to go get it, Evan felt his absence more greatly than he thought he would, even though he was only gone for a few minutes. He was shivering a little from the lack of Connor's body heat, too. Connor must have noticed, because when he came back and set the pizza box down before them, he took off his hoodie and handed it to Evan, who snuggled into it gratefully. It smelled like weed and whatever body spray Connor used to try to hide the smell of weed.

Connor settled back on the couch and went back to flipping channels until he found a zombie movie. He went to set the remote down, but Evan grabbed his wrist to stop him. Connor jerked away, startled. He didn't like anyone touching his wrists, even though his bracelets covered them. He especially didn't want Evan touching them and accidentally discovering his secret.