Falling For You (Treebros)

Chapter Seventeen: Trouble

A/N like 3 years later: y'all I wrote this before the DEH book came out don't @ me saying his name is mark pls okay thx

"Look Evan, I'm really sorry I wasn't there," his dad said.

They both sat on the swings. Confident Evan was slowly slipping away.

"Just... a call would've been nice," Evan said, picking at his cast.

His dad seemed to notice the cast for the first time.

"How did you break your arm?"

"Oh... I, um, fell out of a tree," he lied.

His dad nodded. "Look, I've really missed you over the past ten years, an-"

"Then why did I never hear from you?" Evan asked, getting angry.

His dad sighed and looked down. "After the divorce, your mom moved and changed her phone number. There was no way I could get in contact with you."

"What, are you saying it's mom's fault?"

His dad shook his head. "No, no, not at all. It's no one's fault," he said. "Look, I've really missed you, Evan. So, so much. You have no idea how much it hurt me to never see you again."

Evan shook his head. "This feels weird. I mean, I don't even know anything about you!"

"We can change that," his dad smiled. "I can give you my number or something and we can talk."

Evan hesitantly took his phone out of his pocket, made a new contact, and handed it to the man.

He typed his phone number in and handed the phone back with a smile.

"Thank-you, Evan."

Evan looked at the contact, the name section blank.

"Um... what's your name?"

"James. Are you not just going to save me as 'Dad'?"

Evan shook his head. "I don't want mom seeing that I'm texting you."

James' face fell. "Why not?"

"I want to wait for a bit before I tell her."

James nodded. "Fair enough."

"So... do we have the same last name, or...?"

He shook his head. "You were given your mom's last name. Mine is Gates."

Evan nodded, typing James Gates into the name space.

Evan shoved his phone back in his pocket and gestured to the three children, who were playing with Connor.

"So, um..." he started, not sure how to put it.

"They're your half-siblings," James said, answering Evan's question. "Addison and her twin brother, Jaylin, they're both eight. The two-year-old is Heath."

Evan nodded, looking at the children. They all had the same eyes as their father; the same eyes as Evan.

He was still struggling to wrap his head around all this.

He was on a date with his boyfriend when all of a sudden his dad shows up with his half-siblings.

Fun.

"Look, I'm really sorry, but I have to go now," he told James. "It was really nice seeing you again, I'll remember to message."

James nodded. "Thank-you. I look forward to hearing from you."