Goodbye, Evan

23

Like a cliché, I wake up to the sound of an alarm clock.

It's an annoying noise, the classic beep beep beep that makes the fact that you have to wake up a million times worse. Theo groans at the sound and nuzzles his chin into my neck, wrapping his hand further around my stomach and holding me closer like a teddy bear. Which is great and all, but the alarm is still alarming.

"You gonna turn that off?" I mumble, tapping the fingers wrapped around my midsection. He laughs, lightly touching my skin with his breath.

"Fuck that. Fuck school."

"It's annoying."

"Do it yourself."

"I don't know where your phone is!"

"Then suffer, bitch."

Muttering angrily, and smiling, I yank the pillow out from underneath our heads and use it to cover my ear. Theo mumbles curses

under his breath and digs around for his phone. The blaring stops a moment later and I give him back half of it.

We're being incredibly stupid and domestic and I'm so happy, so I'm not going to push him about the school thing. Much.

"You gotta go to school, Theodore."

"Fuck that."

"Theo."

"Fuck. That."

"You have exams in a few months. You need to go to school."

"Fuck exams, they can afford to miss me for two days."

Two days. Deadline. Two more nights. Then it's over.

I give in and Theo gets to stay off school. I feel irresponsible, but he seems pretty set on it and I don't have it in my heart to argue. Plus, I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me happy.

When Georgia sees us walking downstairs and Theo's not in his uniform, she just sighs and mutters something about me being a bad influence. Theo looks a little ashamed, but it's not enough to stop him pouring us both gigantic bowls of cereal and taking his sweet time to eat his (I tip mine back into the packet when he's not looking.)

It's raining lightly, so Theo hands me a coat and I shove my feet into a pair of waterproof boots before we head outside. The wind is a refreshing smack to the face and I close my eyes to take it all in, remembering how I did so over a month ago, the day I met Theo. I feel like I've changed a lot since then, both through myself and because of him, which surprises me when I take a second to think about it. I haven't had the chance to change for years.

I glance over at him, now, and the urge to do something crazy is extremely potent. (I don't think he would stop me. I think he knows. I don't think he would stop me at all.)

"You want to walk to the bridge?" Theo asks, yelling so he can be heard over the wind. I nod, momentarily forgetting my impossible thoughts, and follow him through the field.

We slide through the sod and eventually meet up with the water, following it downstream until we come across an old stone bridge that has probably been here longer than I have. Tress line it, oaks bending over the water like they want to gaze at their own reflections, and I have an idea. I can't stop myself from smiling as I kneel and pick up two sticks, one long and thin and the other short and thick. I hand the thin one to Theo and jog up to the bridge, looking behind me so I can see his expression as he follows. He's staring his stick, one eyebrow raised.