A New Start

Chapter 13

Evan was tapping his pencil against the paper he was doing his math homework on. The numbers all seemed to blend together and he'd been working on the same problem for about an hour. He felt his eyes start to sting with warm tears and he tugged at his hair. (A/N: I apologize for this; I'm projecting)

His phone started ringing and he gladly picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ev!" Connor said. "What's up?"

"N-nothing. J-just hanging at home."

"You're crying. What's wrong?"

"I-I'm not crying." Evan sniffled a bit, giving himself away.

"Evan."

"Fine. I can't focus on my math homework and it's stressing me out," he rambled.

"I'll be right over."

Connor tried to go right over, but his parents held him up.

"Where do you think you're going?" Larry asked, actually looking up from his newspaper.

"My... friend... needs help," he explained.

"Friend? You don't have any friends."

Connor glared at his father. "I don't tell you everything. Actually, I don't tell you anything. So I am going to go help my friend and you are not going to stop me, Larry."

"Connor, wait," Cynthia called. Connor spun around, a hopeful look in her eyes. "What-what's your friend's name?"

"Their names are Quinn and Evan." And with that, he walked out the door, slamming it so hard the glass panes rattled. He practically ran to Evan's house, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Why couldn't his parents just leave things alone? He finally got to Evan's house and knocked on the door. Heidi answered.

"Oh, hello Connor!" She said cheerily. "Evan's upstairs in his room."

"Thank you, Mrs. Hansen."

"Connor, I told you, call me Heidi," she reminded him.

Connor smiled. "I'll try to remember that." He climbed the staircase to Evan's room and slowly pushed the door open.

Evan was hunched over at his desk, hands threaded through his hair. His breathing was labored and his leg was twitching.

"Evan," Connor quietly called. His boyfriend looked up from his desk. Connor crossed the room and pulled him into a gentle hug. "Tell me what happened," he whispered.

"I-I just don't get this," he said, gesturing to the paper. Connor picked it up and looked over it.

"Let me call Quinn."

- - -

An hour later, both Quinn and Jared were in Evan's room. Quinn was attempting to explain the problems to Evan, who was desperately trying to follow along. Jared was trying to annoy Connor and, let's be honest, when was he not?

"And then you subtract from both sides," Quinn said.

Evan stared at the paper. "I-I think I got it." He started on the next problem and slid the paper over to Quinn to check.

"Hey, look, you got it!" Quinn said.

Evan smiled a bit. "Thanks, Quinn."

Quinn looked at her watch. "Well, Alana and I were planning to meet up for lunch. Bye, guys!" She walked out of the room as the others waved.

"I should get going too. I have a big meeting with my couch and video games. See ya, gays. I mean guys."

Connor rolled his eyes. "See you, asshole. Oh, wait, I meant Jared."

Jared walked out of the room and Evan heard the door close. Evan finished up the paper and sighed. Connor walked over to him. "You okay?"

Evan nodded. "Just stressed."

"About what?"

Evan rubbed his eyes. "The musical. I-I just... it was a mistake for me to even audition."

"Evan. Evan, no. You'll do amazing. Plus, it's not for another few months, right?"

Evan nodded. "Yeah. But everyone else is so good and I'm just," he shrugged, emphasizing his point.

"Evan you are amazing."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"I'm no-"

"Evan I swear," Connor pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked at his boyfriend and sighed. "You're amazing, Ev. Your voice is beautiful. You're beautiful." Evan's cheeks flushed pink. "What?" Connor chuckled.

"I-I'm just... I'm just not used to being complemented."

Connor kissed Evan's forehead. "Well, get used to it. 'Cause it's gonna happen a lot more."