Evan didn't show up to school the rest of that entire week. He was too miserable to move off his bed. His mom actually thought he was sick, so she called into school for him. Their relationship still wasn't the best, but she was trying to make it up to him.
Connor was miserable, too. He'd gotten used to being around Evan all the time, and without the boy's constant positivity, he quickly spiraled into depression.
Connor got home from school, dropping his bag by the door and sluggishly climbing up the stairs.
"Connor, shoes!" Cynthia scolded when she saw him. He'd forgotten to take them off by the door.
Connor stopped walking and slipped his feet out before continuing to climb the stairs, leaving the shoes there. He honestly couldn't do anything else.
"That's not what I meant, Connor Michael, and you know it! Get back here and put them away properly!" But Connor kept walking. He had no energy to do anything except collapse on his bed and that's exactly what he did. The only reason he'd gone to school was because he had to meet Ferb before class every day. He'd also hoped Evan would show up and he could see him, to make sure he was okay. But Evan wasn't there and that made Connor feel even worse, knowing he was the cause. By sticking his face in his pillow, he was easily able to drown out his mother's screeching with his own thoughts. His only mistake was he didn't shut the door all the way and she came in.
"Connor, what's your deal? Why are you-"
She took one look at him, his rumpled clothes that she could have sworn he was wearing at least two days ago, to his sad face and tired eyes when he looked up at her, and she instantly dropped the shoe issue.
"Sweetie, what's wrong?"
Connor's lip wobbled and he buried his face in his pillow before the tears fell out. He hadn't cried since he left Evan's house that night, and had four days of pent up sadness to let out.
Cynthia rushed to his bed and gathered him up in her arms.
"Shh, honey, everything will be fine." She held him until he calmed down, then asked, "What happened?"
"It's Evan. I...I...I messed up, and n-now..."
"Oh, Connor, people argue. I know you two are great friends, you'll get over it in a few days."
Connor shook his head, accepting the tissue Cynthia offered.
"No, I really fu--screwed up. There's no chance of us being friends again."
Cynthia smiled sadly.
"I know it seems like that now, honey, but I'm sure things will get better with time, okay?"
Connor shrugged. It didn't seem like Evan would ever forgive him. And he didn't blame him.
"What do you want for dinner, I'll make anything you want."
"Not hungry." Connor sulked pulling away from her.
"Okay, if you get hungry later, just come downstairs." She went to close the door, but paused. "And Connor?"
He looked up at her.
"I love you, okay? If you need to talk again..."
Connor nodded, a lump forming in his throat.
As soon as his mom left, he quietly snuck over to Zoe's room. Someone needed to check on Evan, and since he couldn't, he decided to ask the next best person.
Zoe wasn't in her room, she'd gone downstairs to help his mom make dinner, so he grabbed her phone and opened it, grateful that he saw her enter her passcode last week, and dialed a number.
"What do you want, I thought we were over?" Jared's annoyed voice said from the other line.
Connor was shocked at what he heard. His sister...and Jared had been a thing?!
"Babe? What's wrong?" He sounded concerned
"Dude, it's Connor."
"OHMYGOD CONNOR HI I DIDN'T REALIZE IT WAS YOU HOW ARE YOU WHAT ARE YOU DOING HAHAHA DID YOU HEAR ME TALKING TO MY EX WHO JUST SHOWED UP IN MY ROOM HOW FUNNY IS THAT HAHA WHAT DO YOU NEED?" Jared's voice cracked and he quit rambling.
"Hm, interesting, Jared. Who exactly is your ex? I didn't realize you were dating anyone."
Jared coughed.
"Yeah, uhm it was short lived and we never told anyone. Her name's Madeline. She's french."
"Right." Connor said. "So now that I know your little secret about my sister, I need a favor."
"This feels an awful lot like blackmail," He mumbled, "But sure, Connor. I'll help you out, since I'm such a good person. For five thousand dollars."
"That's not true and I know you were dating my sister, so let's call it even and I won't tell the entire school."
"Fine. Whatever. What do you need, asshole?"
"I need you to go check on Evan."
"What? Evan?"
"Yes, did I stutter? Go check on him and make sure he's okay. He hasn't been in school this last week."
"Yeah, I know. Aren't you two like attached at the hip usually?"
"Well,"
"And doesn't he supposedly work for you or something?"
"How did you know that?"
"Evan told me," Jared said smugly.
"Whatever. Well something's happened and I need you to go check on him."
"Why can't you? And why did you call me on Zoe's phone?"
"Oh, how nice. Look at these cute selfies of you and Zoe. Isn't that adorable?"
"Fine! Okay! Fine, I'll do it. Just promise me this is all and you're not going to tell anyone."
"Why, are you embarrassed of my sister?"
"No, she's embarrassed of me and I don't want people to hate her for dating me. I'm not really cool and all, and she's a good person, I don't want anything to hurt her." Jared paused then cleared his throat. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"
"No. That's all I need. I'll never mention it again." Mostly because it creeps me out. Although it did made Connor feel better to know Jared really did care about her and respected his sister.
"Thanks, man. I'll text you when I find out what's going on-"
"NO DON'T TEXT ME!" Connor yelled quickly.
"Uhm...okay?"
"Just tell me at school tomorrow. I uhm...lost my phone. Tell me at school."
"Uhm, yeah, sure..." Jared said. "I'll uhm...see you tomorrow?" He knew Connor was acting weird, but he wasn't about to call him out on it. Connor was always crazy.
Connor hung up the phone and returned it to Zoe's bed where she'd left it, but not before emailing himself some of the selfies he'd found of her and Jared. He'd only been teasing Jared about that, but after looking, he actually found some. He'd told Jared he wouldn't hold it over him, but he never promised he wouldn't do it to Zoe.
He had to email himself because Ferb had this weird phone hack app thing that let him see what Connor was doing on his phone. It was similar to the program computer programmers use to fix your computer from their home, except this one is for your phone. Ferb was monitoring Connor, so he couldn't call Jared from his phone. But he needed to know someone was taking care of Evan. If he couldn't look after him, someone had to.
He was doing everything he could to keep Evan safe. That included having to meet up with Ferb in a few hours. Connor decided to close his eyes for a bit and rest before whatever Ferb had planned.
***
I didn't edit this chapter at all, I've had a really busy week and an even crappier day so I'm sorry if it isn't as good as usual. Once I find the time I'll try to edit it a bit.
I'm going to be traveling next week and I'm going camping so I won't be able to post an update. I'm sorry.