Not Based on a Lie

You Were There For Me

Evan stared at the ground as they walked, they were both silent, and he assumed that Jared, like himself, was deep in thought.

It was Evan who finally broke the silence, looking up at Jared.

"You didn't answer my question last night."

Jared looked up at him, obviously confused "What question?"

"Jared, what are we now...?"

"Unless I missed something, I think we're humans."

Evan rolled his eyes, groaning at his comment, looking back to see Jared with the same stupid, gorgeous grin he had whenever he made a joke. He felt his cheeks flush slightly as he looked at the shorter boy.

"I- I meant in terms of relationship and you know it."

He saw Jared grin wider, the end of his tongue between his teeth, and his eyes squeezed shut. Evan felt his stomach do a flip as he blushed brighter still, looking away from Jared to focus on the path, though he'd walked it enough times now that he could probably walk it blindfolded without getting lost or tripping.

"J-Jared, please. What is our relationship?"

"Well, I think it's clear that we're more than friends now. That much seems clear."

Evan nodded, looking back up at him.

"So... Are we like... Boyfriends?"

Jared smiled at him "If you want to be."

Evan looked down again and nodded ever so slightly, surprised as Jared wrapped his arms tightly around him, stopping him in his tracks. 

"Boyfriends it is, then."

He hugged Jared back for a few seconds before gasping. 

"School. We have to get to school. We're going to be late."

"We have fifteen minutes for about five minutes left to walk, Ev."

"True, but we should go..."

Jared nodded and pulled away from the hug gently, taking his hand again and starting to walk, almost dragging Evan with him.

"Hey, Jared...?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you... Love me?"

Jared laughed a little, and Evan felt his heart sink, he was laughing, it was a joke, all a joke, one of his pranks that he found so funny, he never liked Evan or wanted to be his boyfriend, it was a joke, and Evan was stupid for thinking someone could ever-

"Of course I do, Ev."

Evan stiffened slightly, half shocked and half relieved.

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'?"

"Why do you love me? How? You hate me, you insult me every chance you get."

He heard Jared sigh. "I...Didn't mean any of the insults. I really didn't... I guess it's kind of a force of habit. Don't let people know you like them, by any means necessary. I've liked you for years. Since we were little kids. About since we were eleven years old, maybe ten."

Evan looked at him, amazed. "That's seven- almost eight years."

Jared nodded, looking down.

"Jared... Do you have a moment...?"

"A what?"

"A moment. Like, a specific point at which you realised you were in love." 

"Oh. Uh, I think it was when we were ten, then. We were out on some school trip, and we were meant to be taking a bus back to school, but it wasn't coming. But instead of freaking out like you usually would, you sat down on the grass and started making flower crowns from the tiny flowers growing there." Jared chuckled slightly, before continuing, "God, you were so happy. You must've made about a dozen, initially putting them all on your own head, but after three or four, you started giving them to other kids, and then everyone started trying to make them, with, uh... varying levels of success, but I couldn't do it. So you moved over to sit next to me, took off one of the ones you had on your head, which you'd been refusing to share with anyone else, and then showed me how to make them, to interlock them, make sure the stems were big enough, and to turn it into an actual loop rather than a chain. And then, when I finally did it, you smiled at me so genuinely, so proud that I'd done it, so happy with yourself for teaching me. That was it. That's when I realised I was in love."

Evan watched his face grow gradually pinker as he told the story. Jared was still staring at the ground, not looking at him.

"And then you gave it to me."

Jared looked up at him, surprised "You remember that?"

"Of course. You'd spent ages trying to make that thing. So many flowers were destroyed in the process. It took almost the entire half hour the bus took for you to make it, but when you were done, you gave it to me." He looked at Jared and something clicked. "I think that was my moment too."

"What?"

"Well, not the same exact moment, but when you put the thing you'd put so much time and work into, I never really looked at you the same again."

Jared smiled at him as they waited for a car to drive past in front of them. "But you surely had one you were thinking of before I told the story. What was it?"

Evan laughed slightly "Well, when I properly realised was last night. Before that I didn't even know I liked boys, but looking back to before that, I think it was when we were fifteen. We were out getting sushi with some classmates that for whatever reason considered us their friends. I had a piece of salmon, and it had way too much wasabi on it, and I ate it, and started tearing up because of how spicy it was, and they started laughing at me, but then you took the entire blob of wasabi from your plate and just ate it, straight up. And you didn't even seem that affected. But you doing that gave me a way to have a drink without the others teasing me. It was when I realised how much you actually meant to me, and that you were there for me, though it wasn't nearly as strong as what I remember feeling on that school trip."

Almost as soon as Evan said that, they arrived at the school gates. They gripped each other's hands tightly and looked at each other, preparing to go in.

[aaaa sorry for the kinda late chapter. I had no idea how to write this honestly, but I kinda like how it turned out. I reckon you guys were probably expecting some angst this chapter but nope. Almost pure fluff. Take it, you're probably gonna need it? maybe?]

[also again shout out to my sister for editing. I know I say this every chapter but she's helpin and I gotta acknowledge that]