Chapter 25: Close Call

Evan POV.

It took Evan a bit to let that news sink in.

Once it did, it actually didn't surprise him that much. It explained what he saw when Connor put something in his pocket when he had just met him. And the entire reason he was at the park in the first place.

Connor had told him the whole story. Basically, he was planning to do everything that was in Evan's dream- -minus Zoe being there- -and he would have never even met Evan if he had done actually done it.

Maybe it was dumb luck, maybe it was fate- -though, Evan never believed in fate. Maybe it was completely coincidental that they had both chosen the same place to end their lives, and in turn saved one another instead.

At the moment, they were just chatting in Connor's room about nothing in particular. The subject kept on changing, but Evan didn't mind. It wasn't a very heavy conversation like most of theirs usually were, and that was enough to make it better.

As they talked, Evan glanced out the window only to see Jared running by, sprinting with his phone in his hand as if he had just taken a picture of something and was running away from it.

Who was he kidding. He had obviously taken a picture of something he wasn't supposed to and was now running away from it.

Jared glanced up and his eyes widened when he saw Evan and Connor through the window. He grinned and waved at Evan and continued running until he was out of sight.

Evan was snapped back into the conversation and later dismissed it as nothing important.

About half an hour later, he felt his phone vibrate and he checked it to see that his mom was on his way home for the weekend.

"Ah, shit, I have to go."

"Oh, okay. Do you need me to drive you?"

"No, I can make it if I run. See you later." Evan slung his bag over his shoulder, gave Connor on peck on the lips, and left.

Evan jogged on his way to the main road. Right as he was about to turn the corner onto it, he nearly ran into Zoe.

"Whoops!" she said as he stumbled and regained his balance. "You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. I'm in a hurry."

"For what?"

"My mom's getting home in..." he checked his watch, "five minutes, and I need to get there before her."

"Oh."

He looked down and noticed that something had fallen out of her pocket. He bent down an picked it up. "What's this?"

"What?"

"It fell out of your pocket." It looked like a phone number hastily scribbled down onto a small, ripped piece of paper.

He handed it back to her and she looked at it, then mumbled, "Damn, that sly little..." he couldn't hear the rest of what she said until she spoke to him specifically, "You should probably get going."

"Oh shit, right! See you, Zoe!" he waved goodbye as he turned and sprinted this time.

He checked his watch as he ran. He had only wasted about half a minute conversing with Zoe, but that was half a minute too many. He should have just asked Connor for a ride. He had no trouble speeding if it was a rush and the cops weren't very commonly making rounds in these parts, since nothing ever happened.

He huffed as he ran. He had a plan. He was going to get home, run to the bathroom, get in the shower, and pretend he had been home all day for when his mom got back.

That was what would happen if he got there before her. If he got there after her, it would result in a lot of question asking, question avoiding, more question asking, more avoiding, the questions turning into demands, the demands turning into arguments, and him having to spill every secret he had ever kept from his mother in his life and that would not end well, because he would break down and probably be grounded for a month and a half and never be able to see Connor again except for in secret and he would need to be even more careful about it because his mom would be looking out for him to see if he was going anywhere when she wasn't home and she would install security cameras to watch his every move which would make it even more difficult to sneak around and she would put a child lock on his phone so he couldn't contact Connor or anyone else ever again.

He realized he had been saying all of that to himself as he ran probably the fastest that he had ever run. He was so out of breath. He wasn't even sure how he was still running without having passed out already.

When he arrived back home, he needed to pause at the door to catch his breath.

It was getting dark. His mom was going to be home in about half a minute, and he only had that amount of time to run inside, grab his towel, go into the bathroom, turn on the shower, strip down, and get in.

He was hopeless.

He took a couple more deep breaths and yanked the door open, closed and locked it, bolted inside and had the shower turned on the moment he heard his mom get home and come inside.

"Evan!" she called. "I'm home!"

"Okay!" he called back.]

Hshksksks I keep forgetting to put the word count: 940

A/N

YA'LL DAN HOWELL CAME OUT AS GAY THE OTHER DAY AND I AM STILL FREAKING OUT HSLFKJD SO HAPPY FOR HIM!