Summary:
Jared didn't think a little harmless vandalism would lead to working in a graveyard with a surly security guard and a timid gardener.
Notes:
For my Discord friend, Flor. Thank you for inspiring this!
(See the end of the work for more notes.)
Jared didn't know why he hung out with the guys walking in front of him. It was probably because he had nothing better to do. He supposed he should feel lucky, he was often viewed as the class clown at school and so, nobody really hung out with him. He was always, 'that funny guy from my calc class' or something along those lines.
But these guys gave him a chance. They'd invite him out to parties where he'd end up high off his ass, blackout drunk, or an unhealthy mixture of both. Don't misunderstand, Jared was grateful for the company, but he was getting a little tired of the parties.
Which is why he allowed himself to be whisked off to the local graveyard after hours to do a little playful vandalism. Someone brought a Ouija board from home, someone brought a case of beer, and another one of them brought a tire iron "for self-defense" they'd claimed. Jared wondered who the hell would be prowling around a graveyard looking to attack someone. But then he remembered that they were prowling around the graveyard too so, he gave the guy some credit. The guy who was supposed to bring weed didn't show up for a half hour and wasn't responding to texts so they begrudgingly entered without him.
There were five guys in the group excluding Jared, and already he was starting to regret his life choices. They were a rowdy group and Jared was thankful that he wasn't the superstitious sort. The kind of person who believed that the dead would haunt the living if their eternal slumber was disturbed. Nope. That wasn't something Jared believed at all.
"Hey, Specks!"
Jared looked up at his ridiculous nickname as he adjusted his stylish glasses. "What?"
"Don't 'what' me, loser. Get over here and grab a beer." The kind-of leader beckoned. He really only had any influence because he was the oldest and had invited each of the guys that were there into the group. Jared didn't even know his name. He didn't know any of their names if he thought about it. But that made the lonely feeling creep up on him, so he marched over and tried to take the beer.
He almost grabbed it, but it was suddenly pulled out of his reach. His brow wrinkled at the dick move.
"Uh uh. Ya gotta earn this shit."
Jared rolled his eyes. "What do I gotta do?"
Connor didn't mind graveyards. As a matter of fact, they were peaceful in a way. Which was probably a good thing considering this was where people were supposed to find their eternal resting place.
When he'd first started working the graveyard shift, it had been a little eerie, but after a while, Connor couldn't imagine it any other way. He'd grown so accustomed to the uninterrupted rows of gravestones and the occasional bunch of flowers, that he might be genuinely spooked if he saw someone standing in front of one of the tombstones.
He'd picked up an earlier shift in addition to the one he had now, the graveyard owners didn't see a problem with it as long as he took care of himself. He'd grown fond of the old couple that owned the graveyard and had even started living with one of the other employees. The gardener, Evan.
Nice guy, a little skittish and loved to make stupid puns, had a weird obsession with television shows, but they got along alright. There was typically a brief window where they interacted outside of their home, where Connor was either getting ready to leave or just getting to work and Evan was coming in to tend the plants or heading back to their place.
With a sigh, Connor checked the side entrance of the graveyard with his flashlight. He was shocked to notice a spot of dirt that had been disturbed next to the fence. Walking closer, Connor found footprints leading from the small crater and knew that a small group of people had jumped the fence.
The only reason someone would do that, was if they were entering after hours.
Connor's eyes narrowed as he followed the multitude of footprints deeper into the graveyard.
It didn't take long for him to hear them. The obnoxious guffaws of rowdy teenage boys were something Connor had never liked. He turned off his flashlight and crept closer to the noise. Their laughter and words became more than nonsensical muttering and Connor could see a few lights.
"Ooh ooh! Change that one from Alex to Ass!"
"Guys…really Just give me the beer already. I've already painted over like… forty names."
Connor watched as a young man wearing glasses stood with a spray can with his free hand holding his waist. He was definitely the weakest one of the group, Connor decided.
Clicking on his flashlight, Connor yelled at them to stop what they were doing and that the police were on their way. He hadn't called them yet, but he was going to if they didn't leave now.
The group of teenagers scattered, leaving behind their beer cans and litter. One of them even dropped a tire iron. What the actual fuck?
Connor chased after them, if only to make sure that they got off the property completely. They were almost back to where the trespassers entered when he heard one of the boys yelp ahead of him. He watched as the glasses wearing one was tripped by another one of the guys.
How loyal. Connor thought mockingly.
He caught up to the one on the ground and watched as the last of them jumped over the fence. He looked down at the boy dusting off his clothes as he stood. When they locked eyes, Connor raised one of his eyebrows.
There was a little building on the outskirts of the graveyard dedicated to security. Connor entered pushing lightly on the boy's shoulder in front of him to get him moving. Once he realized that his 'buddies' had left, the kid had been pretty compliant.
He pulled out a chair and gestured for the boy to sit.
"So, why don't we start with your name?"
The glasses glinted in the light, obscuring the boy's eyes as he lifted his face. "Bill."
"Alright, Bill. Got a last name?"
"Gates."
Connor felt whatever tenuous grip on his temper relinquish its hold. He leaned over the boy, "This isn't funny. Tell me your name."
The other lifted up his hands in surrender, "Alright, you caught me. My name's Steve."
"Let me guess, your last name's Jobs?" Connor snapped.
The other's brows raised incredulously, "How did you know?"
I'm going to kill him. Connor thought for a moment before he took a deep breath.
"Alright, fine. Guess I'll just call the police and let them get a name from you."
"No, wait!"
Connor smirked to himself. "Ohh? Someone scared of getting in trouble?"
The other was silent.
"Look, kid."
The boy scoffed and muttered under his breath, "You're not that much older than me."
"Would you just listen?" Begrudging silence again, "I don't want to involve the cops any more than you do. So, I'll make you a deal." This caught the other's interest. "You give me the names of those other boys and they can be the ones to get in trouble."
There was a tense silence before the other admitted quietly, "I don't know their names."
"Are you kidding me, right now?" Connor saw the miserable expression on the other's face and sighed. "Okay. How about this? Just…come in and clean up the mess you made and clean up for a month and we can keep this whole thing under wraps."
He didn't have anything against the kid, Connor remembered being young and doing crazy shit to try and fit in. He'd given up when he realized how miserable that made him. Maybe this was the kid's wakeup call? "Do we have a deal?"
"How do you know I'm not going to just leave and not come back?"
"I don't think you'll do that." Connor gave a half smile.
The other looked at him skeptically, "Why?"
"Because I'm going to be borrowing your phone for a bit."
"What?" the other screeched.
"You heard me," Connor replied as he held out his hand, "Fork it over."
"No way! You're fucking crazy if you think I'm gonna just-"
"Do I need to call the police after all?"
The brunet, glasses wearing boy grumbled as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed it into Connor's hand. "There. Happy?"
Connor slid open the phone and got the kid to unlock it for him. He opened up his phone's information and wrote down the number. He then went to his contacts and wrote down the numbers listed under "Ma" and "Paternal Figure". He saw a few texts where the numbers referred to the kid as Lemons. What?
"Your name's Lemons?"
The brunet's face exploded with heat. "No! That's just what my mom calls me! My name's Jared."
"See? Was that so hard?" Connor asked as he dumped Jared's phone into its owner's lap.
Jared put the phone back in his pocket. "Are we done here?"
Connor hummed in thought, "Not quite. I want to get your picture and a video of you stating your guilt."
"Are you serious?"
Connor's face must have answered his question because he didn't protest anymore after that.
They talked a bit more about when Jared should show up and how long he should stay as Connor escorted him to the entrance and watched him leave.
Evan inhaled deeply as he stretched his pleasantly sore arms. The flowers were looking as beautiful as always under his tender care. The trees were full of leaves and some of them were flowering ever so prettily.
He threw a glance over his shoulder to check on Jared. Connor had explained the situation this morning when they'd seen each other. He didn't appreciate Evan's hilarious pun that Jared was a "treespasser", but Evan had long since accepted the fact that Connor had the sense of humor of a saltine cracker.
Jared seemed to be scrubbing angrily at the gravestones with a bucket full of dirty water. Evan smiled to himself before he returned to his gardening. He trimmed a few more branches before moving on to another tree.
He lost himself in the work. Observing which branches needed to go, and judge just how much needed to be cut off without damaging the tree or making the cut look too obvious.
He busied himself and didn't notice it getting later and later until Jared came up behind him.
"I'm done for the day."
Evan jumped, before noticing the setting sun and realizing how late it was. "Right, you're free to go, I guess?" Before he awkwardly returned to his work.
Jared started to leave but an idea occurred to him. A wonderfully, terrible idea.
Evan listened for the retreating footsteps of the other before he began to hum a few tunes as he continued to work. He was just snipping the last errant twig from the bush he was working on when something sprung out from the plant. Evan screeched in terror as the thing roared at him and he fell back on his rear with his arms raised to protect his face before he realized the only sound to greet him was laughter.
Peeking open his eyes he found Jared bent over, cackling in glee.
Evan was furious. His heart was still pumping and his body was trembling all over from the sudden rush of adrenaline, and it brought back traumatic memories of his younger years when he struggled with uncontrolled anxiety.
He stood up and dusted himself off. He didn't spare Jared a glance as he stormed away. He tried to breathe deeply and forget about the incident so he wouldn't make himself any more upset, but the little shit followed after him.
"…And your face was priceless! I don't think I have ever seen someone's eyes get that big before." There was a pause as Jared remembered Evan's horrified face before he erupted in another bout of laughter at the image.
Evan continued to ignore him.
"Aww, come on! It was only a joke! No need to get so offended."
Evan continued to ignore him. He refused to rise to the bait.
Jared continued to pick at his frayed nerves before Evan locked himself in the bathroom. He waited for what seemed a short eternity before he dared to peek outside. Jared was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"What the fuck were you doing in the restroom?"
Evan jumped at the sound of Connor's voice and his eyes flicked to the clock hanging nearby to see that it was indeed time for Connor to clock in.
"Nothing. Just…needed to take a break."
"In the bathroom?"
Evan blushed as he averted his eyes and didn't answer.
"Alright, Evan. What happened?"
Evan didn't necessarily want Jared to get in trouble, but he knew that he wasn't assertive enough to make him stop. He admitted to himself that confiding in Connor would help.
"He…he scared me."
He didn't elaborate on all the terrible memories that were brought to the surface again, but with Connor he didn't need to, he knew. And while Connor was a little rough around the edges, he held a special fondness for the quiet gardener and had turned into a human guard dog.
Connor's face settled into an angry scowl, and Evan wondered if he should have just accepted Connor's teasing and dealt with the problem himself.
The next few days were quiet. Well, Jared wouldn't leave Evan alone with his incessant talking, but it was rather uneventful. Evan had even grown used to Jared's constant rambling whenever he wasn't scrubbing the tombstones or picking up garbage. Stray tissues and random trash that blew through the fence from the road.
Evan knew it was the calm before the storm. He didn't know when Jared would feel Connor's wrath, but he knew that it would likely strike when Jared least expected it.
He wasn't disappointed.
The fifth day after Jared had scared Evan, Connor arrived early. He signaled for Evan to not draw attention to him, and the gardener complied.
Evan ducked into the security kiosk and received the plan from Connor. It wasn't too malicious, and would probably only mildly spook Jared, so Evan agreed to the prank.
Jared was starting to get worried. He hadn't seen Evan for over an hour, and he hadn't said that he was going to leave. The sun was setting and he couldn't find either of the young men he was used to reporting to.
He checked the security kiosk, just to be sure. He tried to turn on the light as he entered, but it didn't work. There was still some sunlight, so Jared chanced venturing further inside just to make sure that it was empty.
"Evan?" Jared called. "Connor?"
Nothing.
With a sigh, Jared turned around to leave, when he heard it. A pained groan. It sounded distorted though. Jared's eyes flicked over the room one more time and didn't see anyone.
"Hello?"
"H̨͎̯̙̳e̥͇̹̭ͅl̫̼͓̗l͙̭o?̶̤̼̺̜̳"
"Guys, this shit isn't funny!"
Silence.
Jared stormed out of the kiosk. "I just wanted to let you know I am done for the day." He threw over his shoulder.
"Ỵ̞̠͔̦͓̱o̷̬̠͈̮̘͔̳u̞͔͖'̜̮̦͕r̘̤̤͠ḙ͈̝̝͖ ̸͉̤͉̟̹͍͖n̤̰o̰͕t ̡̪̗d͈̲͎͎͘o͈̦͎n̩̥̤͈̠ͅe͝.̟"
"Fffffuck that shit." Jared declared as he hurried out of the door.
He almost made it before the door slammed shut on its own. Panicked, Jared banged on the door a few times before thinking to try the handle. When it turned successfully, he wasted no time in getting the hell out of there.
The entire time, the eerie voice was laughing, and it sounded like there was more than one laughing with it.
Jared knew in the back of his mind that Evan and Connor were responsible. Who else could it have been?
Because there's no way a fucking graveyard is haunted. Right, Jared? His traitorous mind sarcastically supplied.
He ran in a blind panic before two figures leapt out of the bushes to his right. He screamed and slipped on the dirt before he found himself looking up at the sky.
Stunned, Jared lie on the ground catching his breath. He heard Evan and Connor laughing at his expense, and his terror transformed into righteous fury.
He stood up and dusted himself off proudly.
Evan, bless him, had the decency to ask if Jared was okay after that fall.
"You guys think you're so funny. Well, joke's on you! Your little voice in the kiosk trick didn't work. I was just startled by two maniacs jumping out of the bush." Jared lied.
Evan and Connor both froze.
"What do you mean 'voice in the kiosk'?"
Jared paused before looking at the two young men in front of him. They looked spooked.
"I went to go check the security kiosk thingy to see if you guys were there, and you two managed to make this scary voice from somewhere in the room."
"Jared…we have been waiting here for you to leave for a while now. We thought you were just in a hurry to leave."
Jared felt all the blood leave his face at Evan's announcement. His face was grim and Connor seemed anxious.
Jared didn't want to believe it, but Evan wouldn't lie, right?
"Maybe you just imagined it?" Connor offered.
Jared nodded absent-mindedly, but there was no way that his encounter was imagined. He could hear the voice so clearly. The memory of the distorted voices laughing gave him a chill.
After some more reassurances between the three of them, Jared went home.
After he'd left, Evan and Connor gave each other a high five.
"I knew he would believe it if you told him." Connor announced cheerfully.
"Stop. You're going to make me feel bad." Evan joked sarcastically.
The two of them returned to the security kiosk and recovered the radio they'd hidden in the room. The two of them laughing and mocking Jared's terror the entire time.
Jared wouldn't be pulling any pranks anytime soon, they decided.
After their prank, that Jared never learned the truth of, things settled down once more.
Evan and Jared developed a routine that allowed them to bond. Evan even opened up more and would tell Jared about his past. Jared had felt like a major ass for scaring Evan like he had, and apologized for it throughout the rest of that day.
Connor would arrive and Jared would still be there, talking with Evan some days. Connor would send Jared on his way before it got too dark.
It was becoming more evident with each passing day, that Jared was carving out a little place in their lives.
Jared was nearing the end of his month-long clean up when he witnessed his first funeral.
The family was devastated. Everyone was solemn and their faces were red from crying at the service. The clouds seemed to conspire against them because it started to rain. Only a slight drizzle, and there wasn't any thunder, almost like the sky was crying with them.
A large portion of the family left reluctantly to get out of the rain, and it took several long moments to coax the remaining members to take shelter as well.
Jared and Evan watched from a distance, somber in the face of the family's loss.
After they'd left, Jared clenched his fists and set to scrubbing the tombstones with more vigor than Evan had ever seen from him. His bottom lip bitten to prevent any sounds from escaping.
Evan smiled fondly, before he set to work on the flower beds.
Jared started noticing that Evan and Connor were talking a lot more at work than they had before. He also noticed that they never seemed to want to let him hear what they were talking about.
He assumed it was safe to guess they were talking about him.
But what they could be talking about? Jared had no clue.
He couldn't be bothered to care too much. He was too busy feeling miserable that he would no longer be able to come back here after the week ended. It wasn't fair! Jared had finally started finding some semblance of balance and Evan had grown to be the closest friend he'd ever had. And they weren't even really friends!
Jared sighed as he looked up at the clouds. White and fluffy. He snorted to himself. Not at all like Connor. Even Evan had some bite to him, he'd discovered. But he chalked it up to living with Connor.
It was his last day there, and Jared was not prepared to leave and never return. Connor and Evan approached him, and Jared felt a sense of defeated acceptance overcome him.
He gave them a weak smile, and felt a bout of anxiety when they gave him nervous grins in return.
"What's wrong guys?"
Connor cleared his throat and elbowed Evan pointedly. "You tell him. He's your friend."
Evan huffed before grumbling. "But you brought him here in the first place." Before addressing Jared. "So, today is your last day for having to come in and clean up…"
Jared nodded dejectedly.
"So, Connor and I were wondering if you would like to actually work here instead of just being a volunteer?"
Jared froze. He looked between the two young men incredulously. Trying to see if they were pulling some cruel prank on him.
"Are you serious?"
"Jared…would you be willing to work with us?"
"Yes! Hell yes!" Jared agreed excitedly. Evan smiled and Connor's mouth was twitching as he tried to fight a smile of his own.
Jared continued to cheer happily for another few minutes before he rushed home to tell his parents the good news.
Evan and Connor remained standing there as they watched Jared run off.
"He really wasn't a bad kid." Connor admitted.
"Yeah." Evan agreed. "All he needed was a chance."
Connor hummed before they split ways and Connor went to work while Evan went home. Connor had made a few calls to the owners and Evan had put in a good word for Jared and the owners had agreed to him working there.
All they needed now was Jared's parents' permission and they could finish the paperwork without any more trouble.
Jared would be allowed to be with Evan and Connor for a while longer.
Epilogue:
It had been years since that incident with Jared and the vandalism. He had since graduated and was invited to live with Evan and Connor. The owners had also hired on more employees so that the three of them didn't have to go in every single day. It had taken about three years for that to happen.
Evan didn't like it. He was overly critical of anything the other gardeners did and it wasn't until a few months later that he had accepted the newcomer.
Now that they could spend time together, Connor and Jared grew to find an appreciation for the other. They still bickered worse than siblings, but it was never serious.
Evan had got them into watching cooking shows. Mostly because they didn't really care what they watched and Evan did.
If the television was not playing something Evan was interested in, the show was changed soon after.
"How can you forget the most crucial ingredient?" Evan berated. He was very opinionated about cooking shows. Especially when the people he was complaining about couldn't hear him.
Despite their best efforts. Connor and Jared also got into Evan's cooking shows.
"Guys… I think we could do a better job than them at this point." Jared complained.
Connor laughed. "Right. Because the judges will love your boiled brownies."
"Connor!" Jared yelped, scandalized. "That was one time!"
Evan shot them a glare to be quiet and the other two resorted to playfully shoving each other while they sat on the couch.
Neither of them dared to call Evan out on the fact that this was his fifth time watching this episode.
Notes:
I hope you liked it. I feel like it is a little rushed. But I wanted this to stay a oneshot and I didn't want it to be too long.