Step Into the Sun

3

"Fuck you," Evan announced, shutting the door loudly behind him and locking it.

"Oh hey, you're back," Jared noted offhandedly.

Evan stalked over and slammed down the screen of the laptop.

"What the hell," he seethed, letting his emotions pour out. "Why did you think it was a good idea to leave me, an anxiety-ridden teenager who is barely legally old enough to fend for himself and is an unashamed virgin, in a spooky motel on the bad side of town with a stranger who literally has sex with people for probably less than a living and another stranger who is most likely raping the first one as we speak right now."

"Woah, woah, woah," Jared held up his hands to signal Evan to stop, "I'm sorry. What?"

"I think you heard me." Evan crossed his arms expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"How do you know he's supposedly being raped?"

"I heard James say 'you're gonna be my bitch tonight' or something like that and he dragged Connor off while I just watched from the corner, absolutely helpless," Evan explained, feeling empty inside. He couldn't blame himself for what James had been doing, but he definitely could blame himself for not doing anything about it. "I wanted to call 911 but I figured that either they wouldn't care because it's the slums anyway, or I would just make Connor mad or James would somehow get revenge. He scares me."

"Wow... That's, uh..." Jared looked, for once in his life, serious about the problem at hand. "I... I really didn't know that would happen, Ev. I'm sorry, dude."

"You could have at least thought about the fact that people over there are not trustworthy or safe people."

"I-I know," Jared sighed, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. "I really fucked up, I didn't mean to be that stupid. God, what the hell. Why did I think it was a good idea to let you go off with some guy I met a couple days ago?"

"Jared. I forgive you," Evan dismissed, waving his own issue aside. "The thing we should focus on is finding out what's going on with Connor. He definitely deserves a better life than the one he has."

"How do you know? You barely spent five minutes with him," Jared pointed out.

"I just... My intuition tells me he's a decent guy. And I got vibes from James that he was abusive and then I watched him slap Connor and pull his hair for not forcing me to have sex, so I think my gut is a reliable source."

"Okay. And how do you propose we go about saving him?" Jared asked, still somewhat skeptical, but willing to humour Evan.

"I don't know," Evan groaned, flopping onto his bed face first. "How did you even meet those guys?"

"Well, I met James at a bar a couple nights ago when I went with Zoe. And I've never met Connor, I have no idea what he even looks like," he explained briefly.

"Did James just say 'hey, wanna have sex with my friend?' or something?"

"Basically, yeah. Then I thought of you and how I really think you should try to get laid because I'm the asexual here and I've had more action in the past year than you have in your life and I decided to set you up. Again, I'm so sorry, Evan. I didn't take your feelings into account."

"Okay, I get it. You can stop apologising, I won't hold it against you. You know I don't do grudges," Evan sighed. "I can't believe I'm about to ask you this, but do you have a way to contact James? I want to talk to Connor and try to help him."

"Yeah, I have his phone number if you want it," Jared replied, grabbing his phone from his desk.

"Wait, should I call him now and try to interrupt whatever he's doing to Connor?" Evan sat up again with this idea. He took Jared's phone to copy the number into his own.