𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖛𝖎𝖇𝖊 𝖎𝖘 𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖙𝖙𝖞

Treebros-soulmate au part 2

Hi I'm back! Here's part two of the soulmate au!
Tw: suicide attempt/talk, blood
Please don't hesitate to reach out to anyone if you have suicidal thoughts, actions, etc. If anything I'm always available to talk:)
(National suicide lifeline: 800-273-8255)
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The next morning, Evan felt a hell of a lot better than he did the previous days. He attributed this to getting more than an hour of sleep, which was seemingly a rarity these days. He praised the forces that be that it was a Friday; he was looking forward to a weekend of limited human contact.

Evan glanced at his phone as he got off his bus and saw that he had another fifteen minutes before the first bell rang. He sighed against the cool autumn air and decided to sit at the picnic table him and Jared ate at during lunch. He walked across the high school campus, carefully avoiding the puddles of rainwater that had accumulated in the night. The campus was always so peaceful before school started; Evan wished it stayed this quiet and serene.

As he crossed the school, he noticed a dark figure leaning against the brick wall of one of the buildings. Evan immediately recognized it as Connor with his eyes closed and a calm smile on his face. He walked closer and noticed a pair of black headphones in his ears; he could hear the drums from an impressive distance away. "Hey, Connor, y-you look like you're in a good mood," he greeted, and Connor tore the headphones from his ears and looked up at him.

"Hey, Hansen. I'm feeling uncharacteristically not angry today, so lucky you." His steely voice held a hint of humor as he ran a hand through his hair. "After I dropped you off last night, I drove until well after midnight. I managed to avoid Cynthia and Larry when I snuck back into the house, which is nothing short of a fucking miracle, so maybe that's why I'm not as murderous as I normally am before noon," he mused.

Evan was confused for a moment before he realized that Cynthia and Larry must be Connor's parents. He never called his mother Heidi. Connor must really hate his parents, Evan thought. He spoke aloud, "Well that's good, I guess. S-Sorry for keeping you out late." He picked at the dirt under his fingernails.

Connor laughed. "Evan, I was out driving and shit way after I dropped you off. It's what I do when I need to think. It's not your fault," he assured him in an oddly gentle manner. Evan realized this was the first time Connor called him by his first name and tried to suppress a wave of butterflies in his stomach. He brought his hand up to his cast instinctively and dropped it when he remembered he couldn't touch the tattoo under it.

"W-Why'd you need to think?" Evan asked hesitantly. Shit, that was way too personal, why did he even ask that?

Connor seemed to be caught off-guard by the question by the way his eyes widened. He cleared his throat. "I dunno. I--ugh. Um. Do you--Do you consider me a friend?" His head turned as he looked at Evan, who was stood by his side.

Evan choked on air and began coughing loudly. His chest felt like a piano was just dropped on it; his brain short-circuited and his arm burned with the intensity of a quasar. His ribcage ached acutely. Fuck, did Connor really just ask that? He finally cleared his trachea and coughed one last time with finality.

"You don't have to answer that, I was just--" Connor began again.

"No, no no no, no. I do consider you my friend. I-I-If that's okay with you," Evan blurted, feeling heat rise to his face.

Connor laughed again, easing some of Evan's anxiety. "Well, good, because it is. Now we both have at least one friend, eh?" he suggested, punching Evan's shoulder affectionately.

Evan nodded. "Yeah, that's true." He wondered if Connor was telling the truth as students lazily milled about the hallway in front of them. He thought about Connor's statement. He must have other friends, right? Even Evan had Jared, and Connor seemed infinitely more confident than Evan. What about Zoe? He didn't seem particularly fond of her from what Evan could tell.