Catch me if I Fall (by MysteriousMidnight on ao3)

Tommorow

When Connor got home, he let the door slam behind him, announcing his presence. No point delaying the inevitable. He'd get screamed at sooner or later, and if he got it over with now, he could escape upstairs and they'd leave him alone for the rest of the night.

"CONNOR! Get in here, NOW!"

Connor smirked bitterly, nodding to himself. This was already going exactly as he knew it would.

He turned on his heel to gracefully make his entrance. But he wasn't graceful. Not at all. He lost his balance and fell into the doorframe as he made his turn. His arm slammed painfully into the wood, but instead of hissing in pain, he snickered.

Yes, he was high again. It was the best way to deal with his parents. And it made things entertaining.

"Do you want to explain why you skipped your last three classes? Or where you've been all day?" Larry demanded, arms crossed.

"Nope," Connor shrugged.

"Connor, we were worried when you didn't come home," Cynthia chimed in, voice wobbly, like she'd been crying. "When we didn't hear from you, we thought..." she sniffled.

"Well, you're the ones who took my phone away, so I couldn't exactly call and tell you, hey mom and dad, I'm going to go get high in the park, now could I?"

"High again, huh?" Larry asked, shaking his head. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Connor shrugged, a giant, dramatic gesture. "Cause you've learned to accept that I'm a stoner who won't amount to anything? Oh, wait, you came to that conclusion years ago, when it wasn't even true."

Larry gritted his teeth. "You're grounded for three more weeks. No phone. Straight home from school."

Connor rolled his eyes. "Sure, okay. Not like I have anywhere else to go anyway."

He stomped loudly up the stairs. Zoe's door was closed. He paused outside it, frowning for a second. Her music was loud, probably to drown out the argument she knew would happen when Connor got home. A small part of him wanted to knock, to flop onto her bed and complain about how unfair everything was and how much life sucked. But he'd ruined any hope that they could have that kind of relationship a long time ago. So instead, he slumped down the hall to his room - only to discover his door was gone.

Again.

Connor huffed in frustration. His father loved the "take your door" bit. He thought it a fitting punishment, a way of saying without words that Connor didn't have their trust in that moment. Joke was on them, though, because he didn't give a shit about their trust. That was something he knew he'd never have, no matter how hard he tried.

He stomped to his bed and sat, staring up at the ceiling. Today had started out really weird. At least it had ended on a more normal note - getting yelled at and grounded. Something familiar.

He couldn't help but reflect on the day's events, though. On Evan. On his interactions with Evan. Something about the anxious boy tugged at him, made him want to... Well, he wasn't really sure what he wanted. But it didn't matter anyway. As soon as he'd found out Connor had tried to kill himself – had found out just how fucked up Connor was – he'd shut down. Connor had seen it in his eyes.

So it didn't matter what Connor wanted. As usual, the universe didn't give a fuck what Connor wanted.

~*~*~

Evan sat cross-legged on his bed, staring at his computer. Jared was sending him dumb shit, as usual. But he couldn't really focus on anything. His mind kept wandering back to the park. To the feeling of being up in that tree, standing precariously on a thin branch.