That Night (Tree Bros)

Chapter 3: For Forever

Connor's POV:

I wake up in Evan's arms. One of his hands is tangled in my hair, so I can't move my head or my hair will get pulled. I can't even see Evan's face, just the fabric of his shirt. My head is buried in his chest, and my hands are holding on to his shirt. The position we're in, laying intertwined in Evan's bed, while physically comfortable, was making me anxious. I don't like being this close to other humans. I lay there for a while, thinking, before I realize I have to leave. I have to get back to my own house before breakfast or my parents will figure out I'm not there and freak out.

I gently untangle myself from Evan (wow, his hands are soft), climb out of the bed, and start towards to the window that I had come in through last night.

"Connor?" Evan groggily asks. I guess my moving around had woken him up.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry about bringing you into my bed last night without asking or anything. You just seemed really cold, and you were having a nightmare, and I didn't want to wake you up, s-so I thought that would be best. I'm sorry, I-I really should've asked you first a-and-" He looks like he's about to start hyperventilating, crying, or both.

"Calm down; you're rambling."

"Sorry."

"It's fine." I glance at the clock on his bedside table. "I gotta go."

"Oh... Yeah. Bye." He looks a little sad about me leaving.

"And Evan?"

"What?"

"Thanks for everything."

Evan blushes and smiles a little as I climb out his window. I try to use the fence I had used to climb up to get down, but end up falling on my face. I get up and brush myself off, noticing that Evan is worriedly looking at me from his window. I mouth "I'm okay" to him and give a thumbs-up. He does a thumbs-up back and closes the window.

I walk back over to my house and climb up the tree next to my window. Just as I open it and get ready to crawl in, one of the small rips in my jeans catches on a branch, pulling me backwards and tearing my jeans a little more than they were already.

"Fuck!" I yell, immediately slapping a hand over my mouth, trying to control my heavy breathing and praying that my scream didn't wake anyone up. I hear footsteps coming towards my room. This is bad. This is really, really bad. How the hell will I explain this to my parents. I know I have to get into my room before whoever it is opens my door and sees me in the tree. I tug on my jeans, trying to get them free of the tree branch that is desperately holding onto them.

The branch snaps with the force of my pulling, sending me tumbling through the window and onto the floor of my room. I stand up, quickly brushing myself off and carefully pulling the piece of branch that broke off of the tree out of the now bigger hole in my jeans. I look up. Shit. Zoe is standing in the door to my room, staring at me.

"What were you just doing? Were you out all night?"

"Uh, I wasn't out all night, I was just... hanging out in the tee blazing for a little bit, why?" I make up an excuse and brush the hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ear.

"Sure." It's clear she doesn't believe me. "Look, I'm not gonna ask what you were actually doing, and I'm not even sure I want to know. But be careful. If dad finds out about whatever this is, he'll be pissed; and I'm not covering for you." She turns around and shuts my door behind her. I can't really tell if she was actually trying to protect me or if she was just being her usual annoying self.