Society | A Evan Lennon Story

2 - I'm Here

I walk out on the field and Coach Jacobs walks over to me and grins wildly. "Evan Lennon. Glad to see you." He says to me and I smile.

"You too, coach."

"You're here to try out I hope."

"You know it."

"Good." He then turns and says, "Go stand in line and I'll be there in a minute." I nod and walk past him and jog over to the line of potential Rugby players. I hear Barrett and Celeste cheer for me from the bleachers. I look over and wave at them then I stand in line.

"Hey, Evan." I turn and meet eyes with Bella. "Good luck tonight." She says and she rubs my arm as she walks by. I ignore her because I don't want her to get the wrong impression. I was done with her and I want her to understand that and the only way to actually get that through her head is to ignore her entirely. Bella Gillis is the kind of person that thinks she's better than everyone else. She's a spoiled, entitled mean girl. I honestly don't know why I ever dated her.

"Alright, boys, we're going to start with some exercises to see how good your strength is then endurance because strength is key in Rugby. Go across the field where we'll start our first exercise."

I close the door as I walk into the house. "Evan? Is that you, honey?" I hear my mum say from the kitchen.

"Yeah." I say and she appears from around the corner, looks past me then looks back at me.

"No Kate?" She asks.

"No. She's staying at a friends tonight." I walk past her to the stairs as she asks,

"Are you okay? You seem upset."

I turn and sigh. "I'm fine, mum. Just thinking about something that happened today."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's probably nothing. I'm gonna get some homework done before dinner."

"Okay."

I walk upstairs and into my bedroom. I drop my bag and shut the door. I sit heavily at my desk and lean back as I sigh, relieved to be home. I sit like this for a moment longer before I sit up straight and I open my textbook and pick up my pencil. I tap the pencil against the book as I briefly read. My phone goes off. I huff silently as I drop my pencil and reach into my pocket and I bring my phone in front of me.

did great today! 4:56pm.

I smile and text back.

Thanks, Cel. 4:56pm.

I go to put my phone down, but stop when I notice a text message from Barrett from 4 minutes ago. I open it.

I need you. 4:52pm.

I tense up and quickly stand from my seat. I grab my jumper from off the back of the chair and I slam my bedroom door open. I rush down the stairs and hurry to the front door. Mum says something, but I don't hear her because all I can think about is Barrett. I'm running to Barrett's house and I get there within 15 minutes when it usually takes 30. When I get there, I see Barrett sitting on the stairs, his knees to his chest as he just stares down. I hear distant arguing coming from inside the house. I pant as I walk over to him and I sit down. It's quiet until I ask, "Are you okay?" I don't realize this was a dumb question to ask until after I say it, but before I can take it back, he says,

"I'm sorry for texting you, but-"

"Don't be. I'm glad you did."

"I just didn't want to be alone right now."

I nod and place a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, man." He looks at me. "I'm here."

He inhales deeply and looks down, probably not wanting to look at me as he asks, "Can I maybe have a hug?" I smile and nod and pull him into a hug. He hugs me back tightly, gripping onto my jumper and he just sorta starts to breakdown. I gulp hard as I'm overwhelmed with distraught, an emotion I don't feel often. I don't say anything, I just hold him.

I walk into school the next morning. I walk in the door of my form, where I'm met with Celeste and Barrett in the back of the room. "Hey, guys." I say. They look at me.

"Hey, Evan."

"Hey."

I smile at each of them and sit down at my desk. We talk for a while until Celeste gets distracted by her phone, which I take as an opportunity to talk to Barrett. I look up at Barrett from Celeste. He was leaned back against my desk, his back to me. I look him up and down before I say, "Hey." He turns. "You okay?" He looks down. "After last night?" I ask.

He looks up at me and smiles. "Yeah. Fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

I nod slowly. "Okay." I'm not so sure I believe him, but I don't want to push him and make him upset or more upset than he potentially already may be. "Wanna come round mine after school? I got some new games."

He smiles and nods. "Okay."

I walk into my bedroom with Barrett following behind me. Usually, I would invite Celeste too but I wanted to make Barrett feel comfortable to be himself around me, not that he didn't before, it's just when it was all three of us, it seemed as if Barrett was always pretending to be okay because he knew Celeste didn't exactly have the greatest parents neither. He didn't want to make things always about him. I sit down on my bed and look over at Barrett as he removes his jumper. My eyes trail down to his arms, which were covered with scars, his most recent being the two straight lines down his wrists. "Do you want me to put it back on? It's just a little warm..."

I look up at him, a sort of blank look on my face as I shake my head. "No. No, it's fine. I'm sorry.." I look back down. "For.." I look at him again and smile reassuringly. "It's fine. Let's play some games." He nods and sits down next to me. I smile at him as I hold the controller out to him. He smiles back at me as he takes it.

"Can you just let me win one time?!" Barrett says as he laughs.

"No way." I say and he reaches out and tries to grab my controller in an attempt to mess me up, but I pull away as I laugh and cross the finish line coming in first place. "Yes!"

"No!"

I laugh and look over at him. He stares at me with an annoyed expression on his face. "Want to go again?" I ask.

He shakes his head and places the controller down. "No way." I grin and place down my controller next to his. I lean back. It grows silent until Barrett asks, "Why did you want to hang out with me tonight?"

I look at him. "Because you're my friend."

He laughs softly and looks at me. "No, I mean, why didn't you invite Celeste with us?"

I stare at him for a moment, not knowing what the right thing to say is, but eventually say, "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

He smiles seemingly nervously and looks down. "I told you I was fine."

"No, I know, but you have the tendency to.. lie about that sort of thing and when Cel's with us, you pretend that everything's fine. I guess, I just had to see it for myself. I'm sorry."

"It's fine." He says. "At least you seem to notice."

I furrow my eyebrows as I stare at him, but he continues to just stare down. "What do you mean by that?" I ask.

He finally looks up at me and he shrugs. "My mum ignores me and my dad hasn't called since the divorce and Celeste sort of gets caught up with herself to notice small things like that. I should have known you would."

"I just want you to be okay."

"I am."

"Are you?"

"..I don't know."

I push myself off the wall and scoot closer towards him and I take his shoulder. He looks into my eyes and I stare back into his as I say, "I want you to know that you can always come to me when you feel like you're not."

He nods. "I know." He says. "Thank you."

I nod. "You're welcome."