Intro
Evan takes a deep breath, and climbs up another branch. The wind whipping at his face and hair, hot tears burning on his cheeks. It's okay, everything will be over soon. He reaches up for another branch, he's already more than halfway up the tree, he won't look down, if he does he might change his mind. It's cold, and he's swaying with each branch he grabs, climbing ever higher as he wonders if anyone will miss him.
He's getting close to the top of the tree now, and it's starting to sway with the wind. He's at the top now, Evan takes another deep breath and sits on one of the thicker branches. He wonders if anyone would notice he's gone. His mom is never home, she would hardly even notice he was gone until a few days had passed. His eyes were drying out, it burns. Jared probably would completely ignore the fact that he was gone until school started.
He looks down, bad idea, his breath hitches. He stood up again on a higher branch, there is a snap sound, the branch he was hanging onto is breaking. It's too late to have second thoughts, he thinks. He's too far in to back out. He takes a breath and closes his eyes. And he lets go.
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Evan wakes to the sound of beeping. He opens his eyes and shuts off the alarm. Sitting up, he remembers, it's the first day of school. He groans and opens his laptop, brushing his hair back with his hand. His mom walks into his room to make sure he's up. She smiles at him and walks over to his nightstand.
"You okay on refills?" He nods "I'm fine." Heidi looks at his laptop "have you been writing those letters Dr. Sherman told you to?" He closes his laptop "yeah, I was just writing one." Heidi nods, satisfied "You should ask someone to sign your cast today!" She tosses him a sharpie "I have to head to work, have a good first day!" Evan sighs "Thanks mom." She leaves his room, shutting the door behind her.
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Evan is sitting on a chair waiting for his letter to print. He hates writing them, but he has to bring something to therapy. Otherwise his mom will make him write one right there. Someone walks into the computer lab behind him, he turns around.
The stranger looks at his cast "What happened?" Evan hesitates "I, uh, fell out of a tree." The stranger laughs "pretty fucking pathetic way to break your arm." Evan forces a laugh "Yeah, I guess." Evan wonders if he's being made fun of. The stranger motions towards his cast. "Do you have a sharpie?" "A sharpie?" He nods "yeah, so i can sign your cast.
Evan fumbles through his bag for the sharpie his mom gave him this morning. He finds it and hands it to the boy. He uncaps the sharpie and writes 'CONNOR' on his arm in big letters. Connor nods, satisfied "Now we can both pretend we have friends." Evan nods, not knowing what else to say. Connor walks over to the printer, grabs something out of it, and storms back over.
"You meant for me to find this didn't you!" He yells, squishing the paper in his fist. Evan struggles to find words "I-I it's not-" Connor cuts him off with more yelling. Evan closes his eyes and tries to tune him out. Connor stomps out of the computer lab, banging his shoulder into Evan's as he leaves.
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Evan is sitting in English class, his last one of the day. When the teacher quietly walks up to him and hands him a note, it says for him to head to the office asap. He gets to the office and walks to the reception desk. There is a woman sitting with a phone to her ear and writing something down on a pad of paper. She looks mildly disinterested. He stands at the desk until she puts the phone back in the receiver. She straightens up and looks over to him "Do you need something honey?" Evan stutters "I-I got a,um, a note to come down here?" She nodded "The principal will be here in a moment, there's someone waiting for you in his office." Evan nodded and hurried over to his office, where two people were sitting. They looked to be husband and wife. The woman was dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, the man looked very stern and was reading something off of a paper. He knocks on the door frame to get their attention. The woman’s head snaps up, she stands up and hugs Evan. Evan is shocked by this “Uh, hi?” the woman dabs at her eyes again “We’re Connor’s parents, he tried to kill himself last night.” She took a deep breath “He had this in his pocket last night,” she pressed a piece of paper into his hand, the letter he printed last night. He opens it and starts to read it again. Connor's mom sniffles and smiles at him "we never knew Connor had friends, its nice to know that he has someone." Evan forces a smile "yeah."
He's in deep shit