Timeless

Chapter 2: Buck

Evan, you're getting out of hand.

Evan, why can't you just be more responsible?

Evan, why do you insist on making our lives so difficult?

Evan Buckley had gotten used to hearing things like this. It'd been this way for his entire life. His parents just didn't understand that they were the reason for his behavior. They never paid him any attention as a child. Back then he was shooed away for even being in his parents' space. The only way he could get their attention was by either getting in trouble or getting hurt.

Luckily there was always Maddie. She was there for them in every way that they weren't. She was the one who raised him, but the problem was that she shouldn't have had to. Back then he never understood why his parents acted the way they did. Later in life, he learned the real reason and all it did was make what little relationship he had with them even worse.

They had moved from Hershey, Pennsylvania to El Paso, Texas when Evan was sixteen. His dad got a job offer and without hesitation, packed up their lives and moved away. It was a hard change for Evan, someone who didn't deal with change very well, but he adapted. He made new friends, found new hobbies, and started planning his life from there.

His goal in life was simple. Get out as soon as possible. Leave it all behind and never look back. The problem with that was that he wanted Maddie to go with him. He had no other form of comfort in his life other than her. For a while, her biggest obstacle was her fiancé Doug. Doug had never liked Evan. He would do anything he could to keep Maddie away from him. All that because Evan knew what happened behind closed doors.

Doug had made her stay in Hershey while the rest of her family was halfway across the country. She had no say. Evan was resistant to leave her behind but there wasn't much he could do. Doug had such a tight grip on Maddie.

After one fight, the last fight, where Maddie ended up in the hospital, Evan finally convinced her to leave him. He flew out there as soon as he had heard, not even telling his parents. He held her as she broke down in her hospital room, asking herself how she had let this happen. Evan hated seeing her upset. Even as the younger brother, he would always be her protector. Doug was arrested for domestic abuse, Maddie broke off the engagement, and she moved down to El Paso to get as far away from him as possible.

Now the problem is convincing Maddie to get as far away from their parents as possible. He wanted to leave the life he knew behind, but Maddie had just started her new one. He couldn't take that away from her. She was finally safe happy and comfortable where she was. So he would stick it out for as long as he could. For Maddie. 

Something positive did come from him sticking around. Eddie Diaz. They had been talking every day since they met at the hospital a little over a month ago. It's so funny how a complete stranger could become his best friend so quickly. Evan had gotten to hang out at Eddie's place a few times too and meet Eddie's son, Christopher. Chris was absolutely adorable. He was the happiest little baby and Evan loved spending time with him.

He loved spending time with Eddie just as much. Eddie had become someone stable in Evan's completely unstable life. He was someone he could confide in, someone who made him laugh until he cried but also comforted him when he was having a terrible day. And he did the same for Eddie. Anyone who didn't know them would have thought they had been friends for years.

"Where are you going now?" he heard his father yell from the living room. He had almost made it out the door.

Rolling his eyes, he turned and responded. "To a friend's."

"You've been going out with friends every day for the past month and have still done nothing to find a job. You got kicked out of school, Evan. You need to learn that this world does not do well with laziness."