the chronicle of queer kids

seriously? (post canon)

trigger warning: anxiety, unintentional misgendering, deadnaming

"-have to take all of them," Evan says, throwing his hands into the air. Jared hums, looking up at the sky. Evan glances back over. "You're not- you're not even going to say anything?" Jared looks away from the oncoming clouds and over to Evan.

"What is there to say? Study harder?" He huffs, pulling a little farther ahead as the two stride across the center. The golden retriever at Evan's side lets her tail thump against his leg as she wags it. Evan smiles as he looks at her. Then he looks back up at Jared.

"I- I don't kn- know," he says, looking away again. The conversation grows quiet after that, neither of them knowing what to say. Jared turns his head back to the clouds, noting that one of them had taken the shape of a dolphin. Evan looks back down at Luna, her tail still thumping against his leg. She stays gazing ahead since she was still in work mode. Evan smiles again before looking straight onward. A faint bell rings in the distance from an old church, signaling that it was noon.

"How long until you have to go to class?" Jared asks, an idea in mind.

Evan looks down at his watch, frowning a bit. "About an hour, why?" Jared nods, grabbing Evan's hand and dragging him towards the parking lot. "Jared?" Jared doesn't answer, still walking towards his car. "Jared, what- what are you doing?"

Jared turns back for a moment, giving Evan a soft smile. "Just trust me." Evan feels a blush creep across his face.

"Okay."
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"See?" Jared gestures to the somewhat tall building behind him in a sort of ta-da pose. Then, he pushes his glasses farther up his nose where they had slipped, before looking back at Evan. "Isn't it awesome?" Evan leans to the side, reading the sign behind his boyfriend.

"An arcade?" Evan asks, an eyebrow raised. Now don't get him wrong, he loved arcades, it's just- "How is this supposed to help?" He leans back so he could look at Jared.

Jared smirks at him. "With stress! Remember when we went to the arcade, like, a few buildings away from your house before finals?" Evan lets out a small snort.

"You mean what we- what we did to avoid studying for them?" Evan smiles, one eyebrow cocked. "We almost failed that- that semester!" He half shouts at Jared, but Jared retaliates by sticking his tongue out.

"So we almost failed, we had fun, didn't we?" Evan shrugs, and Jared shoots him a look saying, "really?" Then, Jared backs up, leading the three of them off the sidewalk and into the arcade. A few people look up when they enter, but no one seems to want to bother them so far.

Evan immediately lights up when he sees the skee ball machines.

"No way!" He grabs Jared's arm, dragging him over. He reaches into his pockets, coming up empty before turning to Jared, who already had a quarter out.

"I'm not going to bring you here without adequate change, Ev." Evan answers by taking the quarter and sliding it into the slot.

"Rude."
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"Jeremy! Let's go!" Brooke grabs them by the hand away from the car as soon as they've closed the door. Jeremy lets out a chuckle but follows the energetic blonde through the doors and into the arcade. As soon as they step foot inside, she's dragging them over to the Pacman machine. Luckily, she had change since they had neglected to grab any.

"Gotcha, " they hear her mutter to herself. They chuckle a little before deciding to leave her to her thing and walk around the arcade to find something to do.

Thankfully, there aren't that many people in the building, so they don't feel too nervous. Out of the corner of their eye, they see two highschoolers, most likely skipping. On the other side of the room, they see a familiar blond that they had noticed in a few of their classes. What was his name again? Ethan? Jeremy decides the best way to find out is to approach him, but the moment the thought enters their head, doubt settles in. Did they really want to bother him?

Right as they are about to turn away, they hear Brooke's voice.

"Jeremy?" They turn, seeing her looking at them with a confused look before spotting the blond behind them. When she does, a knowing look appears on her face as she grabs their hand. "You're not getting out of this."

"Wait- wait, Brooke!" They try to stop her, but she's determined enough that nothing they say will deter her.

"Hey, Blondie!" She calls out, and the guy turns, confusion crossing his features. The two of them are close enough now to see that he had brought someone else with him. Though, something about the other guy seemed familiar, almost like Jeremy knew him from somewhere.

The guy with the polo seemed a little nervous as they approached him, but he relaxes a little when the other guy grabs his hand. So that settled that. Though the other guy looked to be a little on edge until he saw Jeremy, and his face shifted to one of confusion as well.

That is until that confusion slipped into a mixture of recognition and awe.

"Oh my-" The guy in the polo cuts him off with a jab to the side. "Ow! Evan! I was just going to-" He gets cut off with a glare this time. On the other hand, it was nice to know the guy's name now.

"So you're Evan," Brooke points at Evan and then turns to the other guy. "Now, who are you?"

He holds out a hand. "Jared Kleinman, at your service." Jeremy frowns. That name sounded familiar for some reason, but they couldn't for the life of them figure out why. As Brooke continues talking to the two, they take it upon themself to inspect Jared to maybe get a clue as to why he was so familiar. Jared's hair was a light brown and sort of wavy, almost as if he flat-ironed it a while ago, and it was just now getting back into shape. Then they notice his eyes. They were mostly brown, but there were also spots of blue in them, and for some reason, that brought out a memory of someone else.

"Sarah," they mutter to themself, eyes wide.
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Jared, for the most part, takes over the conversation with the girl, Evan and the other guy being mostly quiet as they talk. That's when he realizes something.

"You never said your name," he says, gesturing to both of them. She seems to realize he's right and introduces both herself and the guy next to her.

"I'm Brooke, and this is Jeremy." She smiles a little as she says his name, which leads to the thought that they might be together, even if she does look out of his league. Then she goes back to what she was saying.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jeremy watching him, a focused look on his face before it turns into something else, and Jared hears a name that he hasn't heard in years.

"Sarah," he mumbles with wide eyes, and Jared has to repress the urge to flinch. Brooke looks over at him.

"What?" Jeremy looks from her to himself, looking to be at a loss for words. Then it seems like he settles on something to say since he looks back at Jared.

"You look different." Jared nods.

"You too." Then Brooke interrupts them.

"You two know each other?" Jared glances over at Evan, noting that he looked confused as well. Then he and Jeremy share a look.

"Yeah. We do."

welcome to the series!! i hope you enjoy reading!! and be sure to check out my other works!!