A Life Worth Living «tree bros»

17.a week later, it happened again

It had been a solid week since they got high. Cynthia arranged for a family therapy session once every other week with Connor, and Connor was invited back to his house.

In school, however, Connor seemed to be falling apart. Without the extra time for Evan to check on Connor, and with the fear of talking on the phone, he felt like he was drifting.

Until one day, Connor was noticeably coming down from a high.

Zoe got caught in the middle of it.

"Why can't you be normal for once!" Zoe screamed at her brother, who was clenching his fists together. "Why can't you act like a brother!"

"Why can't you act like a sister?!" Connor retorted. "You know what?"

They weren't standing that close.

He was about to punch.

"Connor!" Evan choked out, leaping from the surrounding crowd to the center, right between Connor, who was roaring with anger, and Zoe, who was already huddled in a flinch.

"Move, Hansen," Connor growled.

Evan wasn't sure if it was going to work again.

He seemed even more furious than last time.

"Don't punch her," Evan exhaled heavily. "You need your family. Punch me."

"Evan, n--" Zoe began, but got interrupted by Evan's shouting.

"Think of all the wrong doing," Evan seethed out, not even angry. In fact, he was scared. He wanted to cry, he wanted to curl up and get left to die. "And just fucking deck me already."

"Eva--"

"JUST HIT ME ALREADY, CONNOR!" Evan screamed, tears in his eyes. "YOU CANT HIT HER THIS TIME!"

Yet again, he aimed and punched at Evan's stomach. They both ignored Zoe's cried out protests and the crowd cheering by the school doors for them to fight.

"Don't stop hitting me until you got all of your anger out," Evan breathed out, clutching his side, all the wind knocked out of him. "Zoe doesn't deserve your abuse. I do. Now get it over with."

His collar was grabbed, and suddenly he was slammed into the brick wall of the school behind him, head surging forward to avoid getting knocked out. Connor's face was only an inch from his own, hot breath smelling like weed and mint gum, and it made Evan's stomach turn.

A gasp sounded through the crowd as Evan was slammed on the ground heavily, then kicked in the side three times. Again.

God, it was taking a toll on Evan. He was still hurting from the last time it happened, but he was literally asking for it so he wasn't in the place to complain. He gagged a little bit, but soon saw Connor's hand extended towards him.

He hesitated to grab his hand, but when he did, Connor just pulled him to his feet, giving him a small pat on the back, a thank you, and then yelled for the crowd to fuck off.

"Oh my god Evan are you okay?!" Zoe rushed, approaching them both. "Connor, what the fuck?!"

"Zoe, i-its ah, it's, it's okay," Evan stammered, turning to Zoe. "I d-don't --don't want you g-getting hurt."

"I don't want you getting hurt!" Zoe defended.

"You don't even know me," Evan mumbled.

"You don't know me either. Why did you stand up for me?" Zoe retorted.

"B-because I--I uh, hear about you from Connor, sometimes," Evan muttered, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

"Really?" Zoe peeked up, but soon fslihched back down and frowned. "Probably about how much of a bitch I am."

"N-no," Evan shook his head.

Connor retreated to the far side of the hallway near the water fountain, outside of hearing range to let them talk while he cools down.

"He always says how he wants to be closer to you," Evan said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "He always said how he could never tell you because he never knew how."

"R-really?" Zoe asked, hope filling in her blue eyes.

"He's really p-prot--tective of you," Evan smiled.

Zoe chuckled. "He always was. I miss him. I miss the old Connor. We used to do stupid little kid things when we were thirteen and fourteen, like search for four leaf clovers and climb apple trees to reach the reddest apples. I'm not sure when or why it stopped."

"I'm sure if you try to talk to him he'd love it," Evan assured her with a warm smile and a gentle pat on the shoulder. "He's just upset now, I'm not sure what happened but he must've smoked again."

"When is he not high?" Zoe scoffed, frowning.

"I got him to stop for a couple of weeks," Evan squeaked out, excited and proud of himself and Connor.

"That's actually amazing," Zoe smirked. "He's a creature of addiction and habit. You must be a pretty great person if you got him to quit that long."

Evan smiled wider, genuinely happy even if his ribs ached.

Zoe said she had to go soon and walked out, waving goodbye to Evan and even waved to Connor, who was approaching slowly.

That was, until Evan noticed Jared standing against the wall rather close to Evan.

"Dude," Jared sighed. "Are you sure that relationship with Connor is healthy?"

"I wanted it, Jared," Evan whispered, barely loud enough for Jared to hear.

"But it's not good for you," Jared countered. "If this keeps up, shit I don't know what I'll do to him."

"Jared, it's fine," Evan assured him with a small smile. Evan was still short of breath, sides aching immensely and head making the world spin. "You know I'll tell you if things get too far."

"Things are already too far," Jared insisted. "He's physically hurting you."

"Did you not hear me scream and tell him to?" Evan asked, unknowingly snarky towards Jared.

"I'm just looking out for you, man," Jared sighed. "I care bout you a lot, Ev. More than you think."

And he left.

And Evan was still shaking.

--
Boy I sure am milking this fic

I love Jared. Jared deserves more depth. He's wonderful. He's my wife. Jared being protective is my favorite thing.

Also this is slowly starting to end but please keep up the comments they really make my day it can be compliments, insults, even just shitty humorous commentary!! Love y'all!!