The Bad Boy Effect (H2OVanoss) [Completed]

Chapter 13

I checked my watch, I was half an hour early, Craig is also most likely to be fifteen minutes late.

Forty-five minutes here. Alone. Good, that's great, I have a lot to think about anyway.

Tyler knows, he doesn't know much, but he knows, and I'm scared.

Yeah, that's right, I'm scared. Scared that he'll find out what happened, find out about what is currently happening, scared that he's going to tell everyone.

I'm scared of everything falling apart.

Because once it falls apart I'm gonna be the bad guy, I don't want to be the bad guy, I don't want to believe it.

But I know it's true.

It was my fault that Lui hates me, it was my fault. I can't lie to myself. He trusted me, he trusted me with something so important, and I ruined it. I. Ruined. It.

I'm guilty, but Lui won't tell, so neither will I. Until the guilt gets to be too much, and with the amount of times everyone asks me, it might be soon.

"Evan? You there buddy?" I snapped out my thoughts as I realized Craig was there now.

"Yeah, yeah I'm here." I said, darting my gaze back down, I was still a bit shaken up about earlier

I could tell he wanted to ask, I knew he did.

"So, why did you want to meet me? Is it because of that ominous message you left in my locker?" He said instead, for which I was grateful.

"You better take that seriously, Cub Scout. Because after we part ways tonight, it's going to be the last of me you'll see for a while."

"Evan, you're scaring me, possibly more than usual."

"Listen, Craig, okay? There was a picture on your locker, and I know for a fact that Lui was the one who took it off your locker. I meant for it to happen. He's going to talk to you, and you're going to listen, you're going to make him think he's got you hooked." I stopped, our faces so close together that if I was in a cheesy romance this is the point where I kiss him. I don't.

"What does that mean? Is that why Lui smiled at me earlier?"

"Probably. Anyway, once you're one of them, I just want you to do one thing for me, okay?"

"Anything."

"I want you to find out why he hates me, I need his version of the story, I just do. I need to know, Craig, please."

"Why are you asking me to do this, Ev? Why not one of the others?"

I backed away from him. "Because you're the one who's scared of me, that's got to count for something. Come on, Craig, just find this out for me, please, I'm begging you."

Craig looked at me like I had just slapped his dog, probably because I would be shocked too if I saw me right now, begging for this.

"Why do you need his version?"

"I need to know how much I hurt him, because he's going to do the exact same thing to me."

------

"Anyone seen Craig today?" Tyler asked his friends as they met up in between first and second period.

"Nope, also, where's Evan?" Brock asked, looking around for the other boy.

"Probably absent, he wasn't in first." Tyler stated, not bothering to check his phone to see if he had gotten a text.

It was at this moment that Jonathan walked past them, talking to his usual group, Lui and Marcel, but what really caught the friends' attention was who they were waving to.

"Craig!" Lui said excitedly, fist-bumping him as they caught up with each other.

"Holy shit." David whispered. "Craig's gone dark side."

--

Evan walked in halfway during second period without a care in the world. There was their usual substitute who automatically marked everyone present because they were just lazy, so he didn't even need a slip.

He slunk down next to Tyler, who slid his notebook over to him without question, watching as Evan struggled to copy the words with his left hand. A question tugged at his mind, but he didn't want to ask it, he had already put Evan through enough.

So instead he joked around with him like nothing had happened the day before.

--

Jonathan knew that Evan's friends were trying to keep him at a distance, they didn't want Evan to see that Craig had chosen them. That he was sitting at their lunch table, joking with them.

But he knew Evan saw it anyway, because when he caught the boy's eyes, he felt guilty, like it was his fault that this had happened, he couldn't explain it.

He didn't want to do this to Evan.

--

As he went about the day, Evan had a 'don't care' attitude, which the guys completely brushed off. They're used to his mood swings by now, but they still didn't want him to see Craig, sitting at Lui's lunch table like he's been there all along.

They don't know that Evan knows, that he's the one who sent him there, because Evan refuses to share anything with them.

"I'm sorry." He said, his eyes glued to the untouched tray of food in front of him. "I didn't mean to get like that yesterday." He looked up at David. "None of it is your fault, okay? I don't know where that came from, it was me, all me."

There was silence for a few minutes before Evan sighed and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a recorder.

"Here." He said as he stood up. "I recorded myself explaining it, just press play."

"Ev, are you sure?" Tyler asked, looking up at his friend.

Evan messed with his jacket. "Positive." He walked away, leaving his friends behind him confused.