Back In Time

Chapter 1

When Evan's eyes opened, the last place he expected to be was his bedroom. He looked around, and noticed that his computer was resting on his bed. After clicking for a bit, he noticed the date and audibly gasped.

It was the first day of senior year.

Holy shit.

Did this mean... did this mean that he really did go back in time?

"Connor?" Evan's voice was almost a whisper. On the first day of school last year, Heidi walked into his room pretty close to now, so he didn't want to disturb her with some random dude's name. "Connor!"

"What?!" Connor yelled, materializing so Evan could see his transparent self again. "I was sleeping!"

"You still need to sleep in the afterlife?" Evan asked, feeling a little bad that he woke him up, but oh well.

"Uh, yea?" Connor replied, feeling like that answer would be obvious. "When you die, they call it an eternal sleep for a reason?"

Evan chuckled a little. "If you still need to sleep, what's the point?"

Connor shrugged before looking over at the bedroom door as someone knocked on it. Evan, already expecting Heidi to come in, closed his laptop and prepared his ramble about leaving a twenty-dollar bill on the counter.

When Larry of all people opened the door though, Connor couldn't help but break into laughter. "Larry? What the fuck is he doing here?"

Evan tried hard to keep a straight face, as Larry didn't look too happy. When Larry started talking, Connor only laughed more. "So, you just decided not to eat last night?"

Evan was so fucking confused.

Why was Larry in... why was he in Heidi's place?

"I-"

"Look, Evan, I know I'm usually at work or... just, not here, but you're a senior in high school," Larry sighed, placing the twenty-dollar bill on Evan's nightstand. "You have to be able to order dinner for yourself when I'm gone. You can do it all on the phone now; I know you don't like the phone."

Evan couldn't help but back away a little. Larry... he intimidated Evan. Intimidated was a good word. Yes, Larry didn't do anything critical to him or anything, but the fact that he was a lawyer and the fact that Larry could've easily gotten him arrested for fraud still scared him. "B-but that isn't- that isn't true, because- because..."

What did he say before?

"Because... you still need to talk to the- uh... the cashier! When they get to the... the door-"

Larry frowned, walking a bit closer to him because Evan backed away. "You seem... a lot more freaked out than usual, are you okay?"

That was different. Fuck, what do you do if something's different?

Connor, help.

"What? Why are you asking me?" Connor asked, glancing over at him. "And great, looks like I'm telepathic now."

Yea, it's great, isn't it! And I'm asking you because Larry's supposed to be YOUR dad.

"Looks like he's yours now," Connor shrugged. "Uh, just talk normally?"

You're not phased by this at all?

"Oh, it's weird. I just don't give a fuck about Larry," Connor replied.

Oh.

"I- yea! I've... I've never been, uh- better," Evan said, glancing over at him while picking at his cast.

Wait, I have a cast again?

Connor chuckled a little. "Guess so. Am I going to sign it?"

Hopefully-

He didn't want anymore switches. Larry was already weird enough. Evan probably couldn't comprehend more than one of these changes at once.

Connor rolled his eyes a little. "I'm honored."

"Well... that's good, right?" Larry asked, trying to fill up an awkward silence. What he didn't know was that Evan was talking to Connor during that.

Evan took a deep breath as he looked over at Larry for a good bit, trying to sink in the fact that in this new timeline, he was Evan's dad.

Did that mean that Cynthia left when Evan was seven?

Who knows.

The fact that Larry was now apparently his dad didn't settle well at all, though.

"I- I... yea, I guess so," Evan replied, glancing down at his cast, trying to picture Connor's name written on it. Just for some type of normalcy.

"I know, I miss my sloppy all-capital hand writing as well," Connor said, sitting down on the edge of Evan's bed.

I never thought I'd actually want it on there until now.

"Never knew it mattered," Connor shrugged, laying down on the bed with his hands under his head.

Well yeah, every time I looked at it I got the reminder that you died.

"You didn't even know me!"

So? You were still dead!

"I guess," Connor replied, looking away from Evan and out the window instead.

"Hey, why not you take this," Larry said, snapping Evan back to reality as he pulled out a sharpie from his back pocket. "And you can go around and ask some kids to sign your cast. That would be the perfect icebreaker, wouldn't it?"

Evan glanced at the sharpie and hesitantly took it before nodding. "Y-yeah, okay. Sure..."

"I'm proud of you, Evan." Larry smiled. "You're going to meet some friends today, I promise."

That was fucking creepy.

"He never smiles," Connor mumbled, looking over at Larry.

Yeah...

"I- I hope so?" Evan replied, honestly not too in touch with his past self to know the best answer to that.

It's been awhile since Evan's been... well, Evan.

"Me too," Larry said, walking over to the door. "I'll see you after school, okay? I'm going to pick you up for a therapy appointment."

Old-Evan complained. This Evan just couldn't care less. "O-okay."

"Bye, Ev."

"B-bye..."