"Hey, Ms. Hansen!"

Heidi looked up from where she was folding laundry and smiled widely at Zoe. "Hi, Zoe. How are you?"

"Good, thanks." Zoe replied. "Is Evan here?"

Heidi nodded. "He's outside in the tree house. Go on out."

Zoe furrowed her brow slightly. "Evan has a tree house?"

"Have you happened to notice how much he loves trees? Of course he has a treehouse." Heidi laughed.

Zoe laughed too. She had a point.

"It's just outside in the back garden." Heidi continued. "Go check it out."

Zoe opened the sliding door in the kitchen and stepped into the garden. Surprisingly, despite all the times Zoe had been in Evan's house, she had never actually been in his garden.

She saw the tree house right away, tucked away at the very back of the garden. Standing at the bottom of the tree, she looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun, but unable to see Evan. She got a hold of the rope ladder leading to the top and deftly climbed it.

Reaching the top, she knocked on a piece of the wood and poked her head inside.

"Mom, I asked you not to- oh." Evan looked up from the book he was reading mid-sentence, a look of mild surprise on his face. "Zoe. Hi."

She smiled at him. "Hey. Can I come in?" He moved some stuff out of the way and placed a small pillow beside him. "Come in."

Zoe crawled in and sat on the pillow, folding her legs underneath her. She took in her surroundings from her position on the floor. "I hope you don't mind me stopping by? I was beyond bored at home, and Mom's going through a vegetarian phase."

Evan shook his head. "Of course not." She bumped shoulders with him.

"This is a pretty cool tree house." she commented, looking around again.

"Yeah," Evan nodded, fingers fiddling with the hem of his t-shirt. "My dad made it for me when I was five."

Zoe laced Evan's fingers with her own and glanced at the book in his lap. In an attempt to change the subject (she knew Evan didn't really like talking about his dad), she tried to read the title upside down. "What'cha reading?"

He turned the book so she could see it. "It's just a book on trees. It's really cool actually, it's got all these super interesting facts about pretty much every tree there is, like, for example, did you know-" he stopped short. "Sorry, I'm rambling. My, uh, my mom got it for me when I was ten. I've probably read it a thousand times since then."

Zoe gave a small smile. She thought Evan was cute when he talked about his trees. He always got so excited, and his anxiety seemed to just melt away. Evan blushed slightly and ducked his head shyly.

"What were you gonna tell me about trees?" She asked. "Before you stopped?"

Evan looked at her for a moment, as if to try and gauge if she was actually interested or just mocking. Accepting that she was genuine, he flicked through the well-worn pages of the book, stopping at one on Eucalyptus trees.

"Did you know that there are Eucalyptus trees in Hawaii with rainbow coloured bark?"

Zoe laughed and brought the picture closer to her face. "That's so cool!" It's like a gay pride tree!"

Evan joined in her laughter. He had a feeling she'd like that one.

"And," he said, taking the book from her and flicking through in again. "The Manchineel tree- it's native to Florida, see, that's it there- is considered the most poisonous tree in the world. It can cause blisters, blind you and even kill you."

"Not as cool as the gay trees in Hawaii." Zoe commented.

Evan laughed and nodded. "I agree. But, is there anything cooler than gay trees?"

Zoe raised a hand. "Uh, me. Duh."

Evan leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Of course, Zoe. You're the coolest person in the world."

She smirked and rested her head on his shoulder. "Don't you forget it."

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, before she sat up a bit.

"Now, you gonna tell me more weird tree facts?"