Two Player Game

~Chapter Six~

When they finally arrive, Jared's all fueled up. He leaves them, as usual. He can't deal with this shit. But Throughout the day, Connor does small, affectionate things and it lights Evan's face up like a Christmas tree. It's amazing!! this has never happened before!! Then comes the end of the day, Zoe's gonna make her move. She needs to do it fast.

Connor texts him as he walks to the band room. He can't get that smile off of his face and it's about to get brighter when Zoe finds him.

"Hey, Evan!" He looks up and grins so wide.

"H-Hi, Zoe." She smiling bright as well, it's beautiful.

"C'mon, I'll take you to the band room." When they walk in, jared as to look away. He hates this too but it's less irritating with Zoe.

"Man, there's- there are so many instruments in here."

She laughs. "Yeah." She goes and picks up her guitar to tune it, she really likes Evan, she'd hate to lose him to Connor.

"I-I really like your guitar. And i think you're... you're really good at playing it, the guitar."

"Thanks," She's blushing. Shewould really like to kiss him right now, and she doesn't care that it's in front of all these people. Evan's blushes in return. Honestly, they're cute as hell right now. She could take him into one of those private practice rooms, she's thinking about it. Evan's just excited she wanted to hang out with him. he itches at his neck.

She sees, "What happened? To your neck?"

Evan freezes and blushes. "......Tree." His voice cracks. Oh God, what is he gonna do?

"...Tree? From like... when you broke your arm?"

"...N... No. A... Different tree."

She chuckles, "What's with you and trees?"

"I... Really like plants."

Zoe smiles. "I do too." She sets down her guitar and takes his hand, "C'mere"

He blushes hard. "yeah, okay." Zoe pulls him into one of those private practice rooms I was talkin' about.

"Uh, Z-Zoe? What are we doing?" She closes the door then slowly reaches out and pulls down his collar too reveal the Marks.

"...Connor?"

"..." He's sweating. ".....yes?" Zoe sighs. Should she tell him?

"... I-I-... There's no point reasoning around it, I'm sure you've seen him too."

"Yeah... well I have to.... Look. I like you a lot. But so does Connor." Evan's heart is going a mile a minute. His brain isn't working properly.

"uhuh..."

"So it's uh,... you're gonna have to choose." He's panicking now. He doesn't know what to do. He liked Zoe first, but Connor made the first move. He still hasn't let go of her hand.

"I... I want- I'm gonna-" He takes a shaky breath. "I think I'm gonna see how it works out with Connor... I'm sorry Zoe, but-" His grip tightens. "I... He made a move. I can't leave him hanging, I- I like him too." She takes a deep breath

"That's alright. that's fine." She does a sort of a fake smile. Evan hesitates but pulls her close with a burst of courage, staring into her eyes.

"but let me do this once before I give Connor his answer." He kisses her passionately. It's like a movie scene. She's caught by surprise but kisses back. This is the only chance she'll get to do this so might as well make it worth it. Evan finds it extremely worth it. This is gonna be something he tells Jared most definitely.

They part and she hugs him. At least they can still be friends right?

"Please tell me you'll still talk to me, you're really nice and I don't want to lose you." He's nervous again.

"Yeah definitely."

"Thank God"

She hufss. "Well..." She's gotta get back to practice.

"Do... Do you want me to leave?"

"No... I mean if you don't want to. You can stay here..."

"...Okay. I... I still wanna hear you practice."

"Then c'mon." They walk out and she goes right to practice. Evan finds a spot to be and spots Jared. He waves. Jared smiles only a little and waves back. Evan makes a hand signal that sort of resembles a laptop. he asking if they can skype. Jared nods and breaks the silence in the room by playing Never Gonna Give you up, starting quietly then getting very much louder when he gets to the course. Evan laughs really hard, and half the room yells at Jared to shut the fuck up. He laughs and does. At least he made Evan laugh. Evan stops as they quiet down. He can't believe that guy. Then he gets a text.

C: [Wanna come sit on the roof and see the stars tomorrow night instead?]

E: [sure, I'd love that]

C: [sweet]

Jared's always there making jokes and just sorta referencing memes that only a few people laugh at. Honestly, half the people there wish he wasn't, but Evan finds him hilarious. He wishes they were close. They're technically friends with benefits. Insurance Benefits.

When it's over, Evan needs a way home. He doesn't want to walk alone. He lives closer to Jared then Zoe. So he walks over and asks

"Walk home with me?"

"sure? For 20 bucks."

"Jared."

"I'm Just teasin' ya. Let's go."

"You're terrible."

"Biggest asshole around."

"Proud of that title?"

"If makin' jokes and being the biggest meme is considered an asshole then absolutely."

"You're a dork, you know that?"

"Yeah and you're a nerd. What else is different?" Evan chuckles and goes quiet for a bit as they walk.

"..... Zoe confronted me today."

"Yeah? What'd she say?"

"She said... she said she liked me. Asked me to choose her or Connor." He swallows dryly.

"Well... who'd ya pick?" Jared's wishing it's not Connor.

"I-.... I went with Connor."

"Huh. That's.... that's not who I thought you'd choose."

"I don't know, he made a move first. I like him I guess and he CLEARLY likes me. I... Thought he seemed like the better option."

"Well, uh." He clears his throat. "Okay." He wishes it was him.

"...You think I made the right call?" He's so nervous. "No one has ever showed any interest in me before, Connor was the first and I didn't want to let him go so quickly."

"No, I think you made a good call. But really, it's whatever one you wanted."

"....Okay."

He's quiet again. "Do you wanna play video games with me tonight? I-I got a steam account recently, I don't have many games yet..."

".....sure yeah."

"Cool. Nice. Awesome."