Two Player Game

~Chapter Fifty-Nine~

The next day is rough. Jeremy texts Evan to tell him Jared's flying in that day. No one has seen him since the last day of college the year before. Evan decides to stay away for the day. He can't take Jared and Conner at the same time right now. He arrives and is greeted by Jeremy in the hall.

"Jared!"

"Jeremy!" He says it sorta weakly. He's messed up. Michael and Conner are playing Michael's old atari, Conner dominating the game.

"Bro... Bro... BRO."

"Oh, is That Michael?"

"Uh, Yeah. We're rooming again."

"What about our fourth? Is it still Rich?"

"No, uh-"

"CONNER, YOU ABSOLUTE BEAST, I'M AMAZED, CONMAN."

"Shit." Jeremy sighs.

"Is that-?"

"Please don't be mad Jared." Jared takes a deep breath and walks in past Jeremy.

"Connor fucking Murphy." Conner finally loses the game and turns to give him a cold stare.

"Jared Kleinman"

"Your hair look more School shooter sheik than the last Time I saw you."

"You look more like a repressed nerd."

"Alright alright don't start."

"Sorry to intrude on your space, Jar, I don't like it either." Jared sighs. He's annoyed.

"Now that I've apologized, I think we need to agree not to be dicks while in here. Treaty Zone. Neutral territory."

"I can try but I can't promise anything." He's already going through a living hell with where he came from. He doesn't need this. Besides the fact that he is now annoyed and angry, he looks absolutely terrible. Michael gives him such an apologetic look.

"Jared, you good?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." He sets his stuff down on the empty bed.

"You sure? You've been going through a lot, I just -"

"I'm good." He says it calmly. Michael has no idea what he's going through.

"... Okay. If you need somebody I'm here, J-red."

"Okay....." he just might leave again. He can't be around Connor right now.

"... Hey, Jared, can you take this thing to Rich's dorm for me? I stole a pair of his shoes last year on accident, I've got his room number here..." Michael writes the room number down and hands the shoes to Jared with an apologetic smile. He's trying to help. He doesn't know Evan and Rich are rooming together.

"Sure." He takes the shoes are starts off the their dorm. He gets there and knocks.

"Yo. Rich's ass in here?"

Michael comes to the door. "Nope."

"Does his ass belong in here?"

Jake shout. "Yep."

"Alright. I'll just drop these off then. They belong to him." He walks in and freezes when he sees Evan.

".........you've gotten taller.." Evan turns and looks at him.

".... Did you think I'd get shorter?" Jared feels like he might cry.

"N-no just that you.... never mind." He's a mess. Evan feels awful looking at him. Evan is in rough shape, but Jared is worse. Evan's face is stubbled, he's got dark circles under his eyes from sleep deprivation, and if you look really close at right before his Wyoming state hoodie covers his neck, you can see a couple of dark spots blooming all over his throat. Jared definitely notices it. He takes it as Evan's moved on from him.