That Night (Tree Bros)

Chapter 4: Sincerely, Me

wow, look at me, actually publishing a chapter for something again. That's right, I'm back!! Merry Christmas!
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Jared's POV:

"Jared! Wait up! I need to talk to you right now. About Connor." Evan sped down the school hallway after me, carrying way too many folders.

"Yeah, I heard he pushed you over yesterday. What was that about?" He caught up to me and we walked together.

"That's not what I need to tell you about. Well it kind of is. I guess it's related to that? Um..."

"Just spit it out already."

"Okay, so you already know the part about Connor pushing me, but you probably don't know why, right? So what happened was I was printing out one of those 'sincerely, me' letters my therapist tells me to write to myself. He was closer to the printer than I was and he grabbed it and read it, and I talked about Zoe in the letter, and he got really pissed about it. He pushed me and stole the letter, and when I got back home I realized he stole the bottle of anxiety pills from my bag"

"Holy shit!"

"Shh! There's Connor!"

Connor was slouched over, doing something on his phone. He walked down the hallway past us in the opposite direction and then up the stairs.

"Okay, He's out of earshot now."

"Ok, so then.."

"There's more?"

"Yeah! So I was at home, about to go to sleep, and I heard a knocking on my window, and it was Connor!"

"Okay, what the fuck?"

"I know! So I let him in, because I didn't know what else I was supposed to even do in that situation, and he gave me back my pill bottle and letter, and he told me that I'm 'the only one who might understand him and the closest thing he has to a friend', whatever that means! Then he asked if he could stay the night at my house and said he couldn't stay at his own house that night, so I let him. I let him borrow a pillow and a blanket and he was sleeping on my floor, but he started having a nightmare, and it also looked like he was cold, so I brought him over to sleep next to me in my bed. Then when I woke up, he was already staring to climb back out the window and go home." Evan was paying more attention to his story than his surroundings, and he tripped over his feet, dropping one of the folders he was holding.

"Wow." I bent down and picked up a few papers that fell out of his folder while he grabbed the folder off the ground. We kept walking.

"I know!"

"Evan, do you know how gay that sounds?"

"I- wait, what?"

"Dude, you let him climb through the window into your room, let him stay the night, and then ended up sleeping in the same bed as him! That's so gay!"

"I'm not gay!" Evan stopped in front of a door. "Hey, this is my next class."

"See you." I replied and kept walking down the hallway.

"Bye."

"Wait-!" Evan had already went into the classroom and left me still holding a few of his papers.

I looked at the papers in my hands. I could probably just find Evan in the hallway again later and give them back then. One paper in particular that was sticking out of the stack caught my eye. It was one of Evan's "sincerely, me" letters. I pulled it out, smiling. Evan's personal life. This ought to be hilarious.

I read the letter. It talked a lot about Zoe, so this must've been the letter that Connor had stolen. As I scanned the page, my smile turned into a frown. Evan really felt this way? He said his hope was pinned on Zoe. And that no one would notice if he disappeared. What about me? I thought Evan considered me a friend, and I guess I didn't really want him to, but maybe he needed me. Maybe I should try to be a better friend to him.

But what about Connor? He had read the letter and told Evan that he was the only one who might understand him. Was that about the letter? And why didn't Connor feel like he could stay at his own house?

I pulled out my phone and texted a number I hadn't texted in a while. "Meet me at our old spot after school. I just want to talk."