Dear Evalynn Hansen

NINE

It had been nearly a month since Connor had first taken Evalynn to the orchard. He had come over to her place a few more times when Evan and her mother weren't home, but more often than not, they hung out at the orchard. She had asked him once why he hadn't brought her over to his house. After explaining his family situation, she never asked about it again.

He was going on nearly a month sober as well. Right before he had found her, he had gotten rid of his entire stash. He realized he didn't need them after getting high on the feelings he got when hanging around one Evalynn Hansen instead. In hindsight, he probably should have expected the confrontation a very long time ago.

He had just gotten home from dropping Evalynn off at her house after spending all day at the orchard and everything was silent. That in and of itself should have sent up red flags in his mind and alarms blaring. As it was, he was otherwise occupied with thoughts of Evalynn when the living room light switched on, blinding him as he froze in place.

"Care to explain where you've been disappearing off to?"

His dad stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a stern expression plastered on his face. His mom sat in a chair nearby, silent as she stared at her son.

"Why do you care where the fuck I've been?"

"You're never home, Connor," his mom said. "What have you been up to?"

"None of your fucking business. I'm going to bed."

"Not until you tell us where you've been, young man," his father insisted.

Connor huffed, seeing red as he glared at his father.

"Fine! You want to know where the fuck I've been! I've been hanging out with my GIRLFRIEND! I'm sorry if I prefer to be around her instead of sticking around here and arguing with you all fucking day! Now if you'll excuse me, I want to go the fuck to bed!"

Storming off, he slammed his bedroom door and threw himself down on his bed. A moment later, he heard raised voices as his parents began fighting. He rolled his eyes as he heard his name shouted between them and turned over to face the wall. A few minutes later, his door opened a crack and Zoe's voice cut through the quiet with his parents' voices shouting in the background.

"Can I come in?"

"Why not? Turn on the light."

She did, slipping in and shutting the door behind her.

"Is it Evalynn?"

"How did you know?"

"Come on. You give her a ride to and from school regardless if you ditch or not. It's not that hard to figure it out."

"Yeah, okay then."

"You're sober."

"I got rid of everything."

"How long has it been?"

"Since school started. The first day was the last time I got high. I was planning to on the second day, but then I spent the afternoon at Evalynn's house."

Zoe's eyes widened in shock. Connor's own eyes rolled and he scooted over on his bed.

"You wanna sit?"

She slowly made her way over, tentatively sitting in the space he had created for her. He really didn't blame her. He hadn't been all that nice to her over the years. Most of the time when he wasn't shut in his own room, he was banging on her door, listing dozens of ways he would kill her while their parents stood by and did nothing to interfere with the whole spectacle.

He didn't know how long they sat together in silence, listening to the muffled voices of their parents shouting. At some point one of them turned out the light before coming back to the bed. They fell asleep next to each other like that, holding hands in the dark.