FireFly

Chapter Seventeen

It had been two hours since Heidi left and Jared showed up.

Two hours where Evan was just sat up in that uncomfortable, cold, lonely hospital bed, his arm throbbing in pain even though he had taken almost every pain medication under the sun, the beep beep of the heart rate monitor the only sound filling the room whilst he starred at the plain white wall in front of him.

He was glad Jared had came, Evan assumed Heidi had told Jared's mum what the blonde had done and Mrs Kleinman had told her son to go visit Evan.

He wished it was Connor instead, but he would take any company he could get, anything to distract him.

Distract him from his argument with Heidi, which he was very quickly starting to regret, distract him from the fact that yes he had tried to kill himself, distract him from his argument with Connor and from that fucking pain in his left arm that made him feel so fucking tired.

"So," Jared mused, sitting himself in the chair by Evans bed, "you quit your job at the Orchard?"

He shrugged, "I-I'll have t-too. Can't work with t-trees with a b-broken arm."

His friend nodded, "You know," he began softly, moving his chair closer to Evan, "I'm always here for ya, Evie. I know you didn't fall out of that tree, you've been climbing them since we were kids. So when you're ready to tell me what happened, I'm here."

Evan clenched his jaw. He wanted to tell Jared, oh god, he wanted to. But it wasn't like he needed another reason to make his best friend hate his boyfriend, the two of them already despised each other. But at the same time, what were friends for if they didn't help you with things like this?

He wasn't going to cry, he wasn't going to cry, he was not going to cry.

But he did wipe at his eyes before the tears had the opportunity to fall.

"C-Connor and I," He drew in a shaky breath so that he wouldn't choke on the next few words, "We g-got into a f-fight."

"Physical?"

"No!" Evan exclaimed, an outlandish look on his face, "H-He wouldn't do t-that! It j-just hurt. A lot."

It still did. He couldn't even remember exactly what they had fought about, but he knew that the very thought of it hurt his chest more than his stupid broken arm ever could.

Jared sighed, Evan hated it when his friend got that look on his face. His usual joking, lighthearted best friend very rarely looked that serious, and it was only when they were talking about Connor. "You need to leave him, Evan." He said, firmly.

Evan shook his head, he dragged his good arm across his face to hide his tears and blotchy red cheeks, he didn't want to hear this. He wanted to hear him say that these things happen! All couples fight! You two love each other so you'll work it out! He didn't want to hear all of his doubts that he had pushed down inside of himself rush to the surface to be spoken out loud. He didn't want to hear the truth, not yet, he wanted to live in ignorant bliss just for a while longer.

"How many times has he hurt you?" Jared was saying, "And you've only been together for a couple of months. What's he gonna do next?"

"I can't l-leave." Evan whispered, "I love him."

Jared laughed and shook his head, "Is love just a lot more dramatic for the gays then? Or are we all fucked?"

He shrugged and began picking at a loose thread of his cast, "H-He said he'd c-change for m-me. He promised."

The other boy had this incredulous look on his face, "People like Connor Murphy don't CHANGE, Evan! The quicker you realise that, the less it's going to hurt when he leaves."