Can You See Me/Can You Hear Me

Secrets Are Spilled

Evan walked up to Jared's front door. Heidi dropped him off at his house after school before she left for her classes.

    He decided to bring Charles because Jared absolutely adored the dog. Evan lifted his left hand and rang the doorbell. He fiddled with the end of Charles's leash as he waited for someone to answer the door.

    He heard the door open. "Hello Evan!" a female voice said.

    "Hey, Mrs. Kleinman," Evan answered. "Is uh, is Jared here?" He should be here, he was the one that asked Evan to come over. Unless he was joking and didn't want to hang out. Maybe he was filming this to show the school how much of a loser he was.

    But Jared wouldn't go that far. Sure, he may poke fun at him all the time but he'd never publicly humiliate him.

    "He's upstairs in his room," Mrs. Kleinman replied. Evan heard her step to the side. He walked into the house and Mrs. Kleinman shut the door. "Are you staying for dinner?"

    Evan nodded. "Yeah, uh mom is at her, her class and she won't- she has a late shift tonight. And I'd, I'd rather not order anything." He kneeled down to untie his shoes. He tossed them over to the closet (He hoped it was the closet. He hadn't been in their house in a while).

    Mrs. Kleinman didn't say anything and the echo of her feet softly padding across the wooden floor rang in Evan's ears. The boy made his way over to the staircase next to the front door. He carefully made his way up the steps, fingers clutched around the railing so he wouldn't fall.

    He let his fingers run against the wall as he walked. He got to the third floor and knocked. The door swung open.

    "Hey Evan," Jared said. "Come in."

    Evan smiled in thanks. He gently tugged on Charles's leash to keep him from sniffing everything. He stepped into the room and Jared closed the door.

    "Glad you could stop by," Jared continued, "parents almost took away my car insurance."

    Evan swallowed. Of course, the stupid car insurance. Evan forced a laugh. "Yeah." He made his way over to Jared's bed and sat down. He felt Charles curl up on his feet.

    "So, you've been hanging out with Connor a lot." Jared coughed. "What's that about? You dating?"

    Evan blushed. "No!" he exclaimed. "We just— we had a project together and we kinda. . . Became friends. And besides he leads me to class so that's probably why you think we hang out a lot because we're always near each other but most of the time we don't even talk."

    He sensed Jared's eyes on him. He was probably not believing anything he'd just said. Evan bent his head and picked at the skin around his fingernails.

    "Alright, what's wrong?"

    Evan looked up. "What do you mean?"

    Jared cleared his throat. "You only pick at your fingers when something's really bothering you."

    Evan chewed on his lip and forced his hands apart. "Nothing's wrong."

    "Evan—"

    Why do you care?" Evan blurted. He instantly tensed up. "We, we're family friends. That's what you always say."

    "What are you talking about?" Jared's voice was quiet. "Of course I care. We're fam— we're. . . We're friends."

    Evan's eyes widened. They were friends. Jared actually thought they were friends. Not family friends. That word flooded through Evan's mind. Friend friend friendfriendfriend.