U.M. // H2OVanoss

Prologue

"Hey."

"Hey."

It was awkward, the meeting, that is. Unplanned, unexpected. Neither of them knew what to do as they stood in the middle of the hallway, thin carpet smushed down under the soles of their shoes. They could hardly look at one another, their past hanging in the air between them. They couldn't move, it was like time was frozen. It had been years, seeing one another was like seeing a ghost. Unnatural.

"Uh.." he began to speak, trying to leave by going around the other boy. This encounter was too weird, it was too soon. The wounds were still too fresh, he couldn't. "I should probably get going-"

The other boy gripped his arm tightly out of nowhere, startling him as he turned, silently judging if he needed to scream for the help of his neighbors. The desperation in the boy with the tight grip was blatantly obvious.

"I'm sorry."

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Tyler Wilde expected better for himself. He followed the rules, mostly, was polite, to most people, got average grades, for a good portion of the school year. Like other kids, he had goals, dreams, aspirations.

His spiral into darkness began with an essay. A single assignment given to him in English class.

What is guilt, exactly?

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"Why did you do that?" He looked at himself in the mirror, the door left open since he was the only one who was home. His parents were on a date, or something of that nature. The teen looked himself over in disbelief. "Why did you do that?" He repeats the question, gripping the edges of the bathroom counter.

Earlier, when he had confronted Evan at his locker and created the whole bet, he hadn't felt what he was feeling now. Then, he had felt confident and clever since getting Evan to agree to the bet was the first step in Tyler's grand plan. The plan to make sure Evan was over whatever he had for Jonathan.

Tyler had known about his friend's crush for about a year, now. It wasn't hard to catch on, after following Evan one day after they arrived at school at promptly 7:13 AM. As usual, Evan hurried off somewhere for a few minutes, but this time, Tyler's curiosity got the better of him. He had to know where his friend was running off to every morning, where he had been running to everyday since freshman year.

He saw the way Evan looked at Jonathan as he passed by with his friend, Luke. He saw the way Evan's gaze followed the two boys as they disappeared into the sea of the student body. He saw the small frown appear on Evan's face once he realized he could no longer see him.

It was a weird experience for Tyler. He had never thought of Evan as the type to hold those kind of feelings for someone, especially not Jonathan, who the two had known since elementary. Another thing he noticed, as he quickly ran back to where his friends were, was that he felt something other than surprise. He had never felt it before, but it must have had something to do with Evan. Because he liked Jonathan....instead of him.

Suddenly, all of Evan's behaviors that Tyler had always found weird but seemed to make sense. Evan was always trying to get a glimpse at Jonathan, ever since the day the two had been lab partners.