Just Another Lie, Right? [Kleinsen]

•1•

"Hey Jared."

I looked up from my phone to see Evan awkward standing in front of my table, holding his lunch tray.

"Hey acorn. How's it hanging?" I put my phone down and laughed hysterically at my own joke. "You get it? Acorn? Hanging?"

"Uh... Yeah..." He responded, sitting down across from me.

"Woah woah woah why are you sitting here?"

"Well I usually sit by myself and we're frien-"

"We're family friends, Hansen." I said, cutting him off. "Just because we're in the Connor Project together doesn't mean we're suddenly friends."

Senior year so far is complete hell. I was kind of hoping to just breeze past it and make my way into college, but Evan was like "nah Ima screw it up for you, Jared." and proceeded to lie about his relationship with Connor.

Which, at first, I thought he didn't have any relationship with Connor. But after this month or so, it seems him and Connor were soulmates. That is, if this wasn't all a complete lie.

I'm not exactly sure what situation Evan got himself into, but it's screwed with our school year so far. I've barley had anytime for... homework... with all the scoobity-gloobity we have going on right now.

Every Thursday he'll ask for more emails. That's not too hard. But Alana's 100% dedicated to this. She wouldn't let us go a week without supervising a fundraising event.

Last week we had a bake sale, and she made me dress up as a grandma selling cookies.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

"O-oh..." Evan sighed, walking away. After a moment of hesitation, I yelled, "Wait- Uh, sure." I gestured the seat across from me.

Evan smiled broadly for a second before composing himself and sitting down.

I focused back onto my phone, resuming the video I had playing.

"Are you... um... gonna talk to me?" He asked nervously, as Evans do.

I shrugged. "Are you gonna talk to me?"

He shrugged. We both continued eating in silence, that is, until Alana came over.

"EVAN! JARED!" She yelled, racing toward us from the other end of the cafeteria.

Before she got to us, I slammed my fists on the table and said, "Can I just have two minutes to enjoy my p- YouTube video?"

"No time for that!" Alana said, taking my phone. She glanced at it for a second with a disgusted look before closing it out and handing my phone back to me. "We need to brainstorm fundraising ideas!"

"Relax..." I said, pocketing my phone. "We already have a thousand dollars, and we still have like, what, three months?"

"Four-" Evan corrected quietly.

"Three months-"

"Four-"

"Ok, four months might seem like a lot, but it really goes by fast." Alana said, rambling on. I've lived more than four months, Alana, I know how slow it goes. "Besides," she continued, "If we do the math-"

"I'm out." I said, pretending to stand up and take my tray away.

"If we do the math" Alana continued, ignoring my interruption, "That's a thousand dollars in a week, there's four weeks in a month..."

I tuned out, really not wanting to hear Alana's calculations. Math was first period. Math is done for the day.

"That's only sixteen-thousand by our deadline." She said, "And that's only if the rate of donations stays the same, which it might not."

I won't admit it out loud, but I have no idea what she's talking about. I can barely do slope intercept, and now she expects me to understand the ups and downs of economics? No way, sister.

"Anyway. Ideas?"

"If we do the bake sale again, Evan's the grandma." I blurted.

"Hey don't be a sour sport," Alana said, "We both know Evan's too smol to be a grandma."

Evan's like half a foot taller than me.

"Uh... well... I don't know..." Evan started, fidgeting with his fingers, "but maybe we could do a dance or something?"

"That's great!" Alana said at the same time I said "That's stupid."

"Everyone loves dances! And since Ms. Skylar retired, we really haven't had many." Alana reasoned.

"The money will start pouring in!" I added.

Alana rolled her eyes at me and I rolled mine back at her.

Alana's a pain sometimes.

"You're a pain sometimes, Jared." She said.

Well, she got me there.

"See y'all around." She said before picking up her lunch try and walking over to her usual table.

Evan and I were sitting in silence again.

Every here and there, Evan assures me that what we're doing is for a good cause. All this lying. "It's for the Murphys." He says. I've never really gotten around to asking him how, but it's for the Murphys.

So far, though, all it seems this project has done is get Evan with Zoe and me dressed up as a grandma. And a thousand dollars. But still. That orchard closed for a reason. Does Alana just expect everyone to suddenly start going to it again if/when it's restored? Cause I don't.

I should've just not wrote the emails for Evan. I should've stayed in bed watching movies and eating popcorn. Right now, I could be eating my mac and cheese and watching "YouTube" in peace. But no. I had to do this. Had to take the hard way.

I could march up to the Murphy's right now, and skip the last two school periods. I could walk up to Zoe and tell her the whole story. But we're so far into it that no one would believe me. Evan's viewed as the hero, now, not some kid with anxiety who writes sex letters. They'd all think I'm some crazy, immoral friendship-killer.

And that's exactly the opposite of how I want to be viewed.

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Published: 5/13/19
Word count: 970