Chapter 3
Evan slept for the car ride, instantly passing out when he sat in James’ nice, warm car. The radio was playing quietly in the back, but as Evan lay his head against the open window, and let the wind hit his face, he began to feel normal again.
He awoke to James’ face, his calming scent bringing a small smile to Evan’s face. James handed him a bottle of water, and Evan sat up in his car, finally taking in his surroundings as he downed half the bottle, gulping rapidly, suddenly realising how thirsty he had been.
‘Uh.' Evan let out a pant as he finally stopped drinking the water.
‘Christ, Ev,’ James spoke from the driver seat, amusement clear, ‘You must've been pretty fucking thirsty. Huh?’ He began to laugh to himself. Evan joined in chuckling lightly, happy to be feeling back to his regular self as the high wore off.
From where they were sitting in James’ drive, Evan could hear the loud music, see the flashing lights from inside his house through the windows, and a few stragglers could be seen around his house, either throwing up or making out.
‘Did I miss out on much?’ Evan asked, still panting slightly to get his breathing normal after chugging so much water.
‘Nah, but if we are sitting out here much longer we will miss spin the bottle, so let's go.’ James laughed him off, and got out his car, waiting for Evan to join, before locking it and walking with him in tow.
As Evan entered James’ front door, any normality from the quiet of James’ car was instantly gone, it was hellish in there. The loud music only became louder inside, and the noise of all the people was unbearable. Evan thought the high was going, but he was wrong. He instantly lost James the second he was inside, with the massive crowd of people swallowing him whole.
Evan wanted to go home, but he couldn't, so he had to stay at James'. The sea of people parted and he saw James with a cup of something or other stood at the other side, smiling and calling him over. Evan felt sick.
As he pushed his way through everyone he felt worse with every step, he needed to sleep, he needed air, and in this room it felt like the air was being sucked out. He reached James with a sigh of relief as he managed to finally pushed through the last few people.
‘Spin the bottle! Mia is here, Ev you better pull through for me here, man.’ James patted him on the shoulder and tugged him to sit down in a massive circle of people.
As he looked across the way he noticed some familiar faces, Sirius, Mary, Lily, all the usuals. And of course, Mia was there, Mia went to their school, but she was in the year below, and she was quite infatuated with Evan. She was pretty, Evan thought, but he wasn't really interested, and he had told her this on multiple occasions, but it amounted to nothing, as it seemed her crush on him was bulletproof, no amount of rejection could get her down. She sat pretty much directly across from him. He noticed her immediately, as she smiled at him and waved brightly. He gave her a small thin lipped acknowledgement in return, before he downed the cup James gave him. It was pretty full, and was so strong it was almost certainly straight liquor. He was going to need it if he was to survive this night.
James began to loudly talk to the circle, explaining the rules of the game with a cheering response from the rest of them. Evan remained silent, eyes focused firmly on his cup, willing it to refill, or somehow turn into a horse and carriage and drag him out of there. James downed the bottle of beer, and placed the empty glass in the centre of the circle before giving it a fast spin. The glass turned for seemingly ages, before landing smack dab in front of no other than Sirius Black.
Everyone hollered in reaction, loud whooping could be heard from across the room, but to Evan it just sounded like ringing in his ears.
James and Sirius were good friends, and so to nobody's surprise James gave a hand to help Sirius up before asking dramatically, ‘Padfoot? May I?’ in the worst posh accent Evan had ever heard, and Sirius' reply couldn't be heard from the cheers as James dipped Sirius by his waist and kissed him stupidly, like a two year old kissing a teddy bear. It was ridiculous, but everyone else seemed to find it the funniest thing ever.
‘WHO IS UP NEXT?’ James bellowed through the room. He looked at Evan. Evan shook his head. James smirked.
‘Evan!’
There was another round of loud cheers, much to Evan’s dismay. Evan tried to shake his head, but James simply said 'those are the rules mate!'as he passed Evan the empty bottle and took his seat beside Lily. Evan looked around. He didn't want to do it, and realistically he didn't have to. But he couldn't get up without facing booing and it was worse than just dealing with a shitty kiss, so he finally gave in and span the bottle.
He surveyed the circle praying he could have some stupid meaningless kiss like James and call it a day, but of course, because the universe hated him, it landed on Mia. Her smile lit up, jumping instantly to her feet and meeting Evan in the middle of the circle. Evan stood, frozen, hands at his side. He tried his best to tune out James’ encouraging yells, and the general noise of the party. He looked at her, barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes as she took his hands and placed them on her waist. She was quite short, despite her massive heels, and Evan gave James one final glance to see if he would be able to get out of this, and when he realised it was a definite ‘no’, he leaned down to give a quick peck.
Mia however, had different ideas, as she opened her mouth and lifted her hands to his hair, pulling him in close and taking away his air as she inhaled his soul. She planted thick heavy open mouthed kisses to his lips, and Evan gave her what she wanted in return, feeling the alcohol. He pulled away after a reasonable amount of time, and when he looked down at the girl in front of him, he felt sick. He was going to be sick.
He grabbed his phone from where he was sat and ignored the yells as he ran off to a quiet corner. He could not do this. Today had been horrible, his father, his high, his kiss, all of it. He needed out. So he took his phone with his hand and as he lifted it to call Pandora and leave, he noticed the numbers written on his skin. Barty.
He paused. He could call Pandora, but she was going to Regulus’ tonight, and she didn't have a car, she had no way of getting him, and so all she would be able to do was comfort him. But Barty? Barty could drive, he knew this, he had seen Barty on his motorbike in the mornings.
Evan checked the time. 11:30. Barty said his concert started at 9:00. Evan wasn't sure if he would be done yet, or if he was even sober enough to come get him. He didn't know anything, but the alcohol was strong and it filled his system, and he was tired, so for whatever reason, he began to type the number from his skin into his phone. He hesitated, thinking about what would realistically happen. Barty hadn't offered him a lift, maybe he would be pissed off, he probably couldn't even go home, his dad would be fuming. But he clicked the call anyway, expecting nothing in return.
Evan brought his nails to his mouth and anxiously bit them as the phone rang once, twice.
The phone had rang four times and Evan was gonna just give up when a recognisable voice chimed through the line.
‘Hello?’ The voice asked, ‘Who is this?’
Of course, Barty didn't have Evans' number so he wouldn't know. Evan struggled to get himself to speak up.
‘Barty?’ He asked anyway. ‘Its Evan.’
The line was silent for a couple of seconds.
‘Rosie?’
Evan had never been happier to hear that nickname.
Evan let out a relieved laugh ‘Ha, yeah, Rosie ’ He echoed. ‘Random question, are you sober enough to drive?’
The line fell silent once again.
‘Rosie, where are you? You need me to come get you?’ Barty said, smoothly.
It was Evan’s turn to fall quiet. He honestly hadn't expected to get this far, and was pleasantly surprised by Barty, but to be fair he found that most days he was pleasantly surprised by Barty.
‘Really? You don't mind?’ Evan finally said, shock evident in his voice.
Barty just laughed it off.
‘Course, what's the address?’
Evan messaged him his location, ‘I sent it.’
He could hear Barty typing, probably checking where it was, his breathing audible through the phone.
‘Okay sweet, I am just around the corner. It is a motorbike though Rosie, not a car, that okay?’ Barty mentioned, questioning tone.
‘Yeah that's great, Crouch. Thanks’ Evan shrugged his tone off.
‘ Crouchhhhh .’ Barty groaned down the line, ‘ Rosie, no.’
Evan could get used to that voice. He ignored that thought.
‘I will be outside. Be quick.’ Evan pushed forward with their conversation, trying to end it. If he had to hear Barty’s deep voice talking to him like that, saying his name like that , for one more second he was going to combust.
He paused in his steps.
‘Barty.’ He found himself adding, secretly wanting to hear Barty’s happy response.
‘That's better. Thanks Rosie, I will be there soon.’ Barty sounded so sure of himself, Evan didn't know what to do so he just hung up, though he thinks Barty didn't need a response, Barty probably knew the way his words made Evan feel.
Evan walked back into the living room, from where he was standing in the corridor, and the second he did he felt James’ eyes on him. He stood with Mia, an arm around her shoulder, and when he tentatively glanced at her, he noticed tears in her eyes. Well, fuck.
James pointed at him and he had no choice but to go over.
‘Everything okay?’ He quickly asked, really not interested in having this conversation.
James quickly whispered into his ear, voice tight with warning ‘Mate, you ran off after kissing her, she ain't exactly feeling too hot right now.’ quiet enough for Mia not to hear. She looked up at Evan, and sniffled at him, giving him dramatic eyes and pouting.
Evan once again fought the urge to roll his eyes and instead said, ‘Sorry, Mia, I am properly high is all, and I greened out there.’
Half truth, half lie.
James shot him a concerned look after hearing this, and he just shook his head and pulled James to the side, ignoring Mia’s squeaky voice.
‘I am getting a lift, thanks for the offer to stay here tonight, but I feel like shit, and the noise isn't helping. Thanks for the lift though, you're a lifesaver.’ Evan rattled off his excuses. James looked at him silently.
‘Who is picking you up?’ He spoke after a moment, sounding suspicious.
‘Crouch.’ Evan simply said, knowing this would get him a look in response, Evan averted his gaze, to the entrance where he was meant to be when he saw Barty stood outside, phone to his ear. He suddenly noticed the buzzing in his pocket.
‘Look, I will be on top of my game for the match tomorrow, okay? All is good, seriously. I gotta go.’ Evan hurried towards the door and as he opened it to wave at Barty, a hand tapped his shoulder.
Barty saw him open the door and had turned to face him when he saw Evan standing with the small girl. Mia, his brain helpfully provided. She was pretty well known around their school, despite being in a younger year, as she was also pretty beautiful. She had gotten with tons of older guys before, even a rumour that she dated a guy in university when she was in year 10, before she announced her devotion to a certain Evan Rosier, and began to confess her love to him weekly.
Barty frowned upon seeing them. Evan said something to her when she tapped him and attempted to walk away but was kept there by her grasp on his skin. Evan’s eyes seeked out Barty’s with a look of desperation in them, a silent plea of help. She ignored any such looks and used her hand to pull his jaw towards her instead, standing on her tiptoes for a goodbye kiss, as she pulled off smugly, turned to wink at Barty, and walked back inside.
Evan was planted in shock, as he lifted his fingers to his lips as if to check if that was real. He shivered in remembrance. Evan brought himself out of his thoughts to trod over to where Barty stood only a few metres away, with a strange look on his face.
‘Nice.’ Barty said, emotionless, as though it was anything but nice.
‘No. I don't like her, God she needs to leave me alone. I have told her I don't want her before, so many times!’ Evan’s voice groaned.
Barty’s face seemed to relax at this, as he simply replied ‘Good.’ with no further explanation, before pulling his helmet from atop the seat to place it onto Evan’s blonde hair. He tugged Evan closer to him by his waist to allow him more leverage. Evan was stunned into silence at the feeling of Barty touching him like that, a large hand splayed out on his waist keeping him firmly in place. Evan’s hands remained awkwardly by his sides as he spoke, ‘Thanks for picking me up, Crouch.’ He kept his gaze planted firmly on the floor, refusing to look Barty in the eye when they were this close, at risk of doing something stupid.
‘Nuh-uh-uh! Rosie, what did I say? I got a taste now, I can’t get enough, you teased me, but you gotta keep it up. You gotta say my name, Rosie.’ Barty spoke with a hint of humour in his voice, but his hand was still on Evan’s waist pulling the boy between the taller’s open legs gently. Evan stood between them, not close enough to be touching, but close enough for Evan to feel the heat radiating off Barty's skin.
‘How was your concert?’ Evan offered up instead, attempting to move to sit on the seat, but Barty’s hand remained planted on his waist.
‘Not what I was looking for, Rosie,’ Barty said back, finger lightly pinching Evan’s stomach where his hand rested on his waist, ‘But it was fine, would've been better with you there, I'm sure.’
‘Well, It can’t have been worse than this…’ Evan’s voice trailed off as he thought back to the party standing metres behind him.
‘Let's go home, Evan.’ Barty’s voice cut his train of thought, bringing him back to earth, as his fingers slowly rubbed circles onto his shirt. Evan noted that he liked it when Barty called him Evan, almost as much as when he called him Rosie.
Evan looked up at Barty through hooded lids, and felt Barty quickly inhale as they held eye contact, eyes meeting though the lifted visor of his helmet. ‘I can't go back to mine, my dad will kill me…’ Evan thought out loud.
Barty rolled his eyes at this, a small smile on his face. ‘Obviously, you are coming back to mine, Rosie. Do not fight me on this, I refuse to let you in the house with that man if he is going to hurt you.’ Barty spoke lightly, but his words felt heavy to Evan.
Evan had never been protected like this, he was always the protector. It felt nice to have someone look after him, to care for him. And though he wanted to fight, because the thought of sleeping at Barty's house made his stomach flip, the alcohol weakened him, and in Barty’s arms he didn't mind feeling weak.
Evan nodded, and Barty's smile grew in response, as he put his own helmet on. Barty let go of Evan’s waist, much to Evan’s disappointment, and hopped onto the bike. Evan followed suit behind him, hesitantly wrapping his arms around Barty’s waist, as Barty kicked the stands up and drove off. Before they hit the start of the road, Barty yelled behind him, ‘Hold tight, Rosie!’ and Evan let his arms squeeze Barty, as Barty sped onto the empty road, driving crazily. It made Evan feel lightheaded, as he watched Barty recklessly drive, arms holding the bars tightly, tattooed arms out on display.
The drive went fest, Barty seemingly was ‘just around the corner’. They pulled up to the bottom of a stack of apartments, on the edge of the town centre. Barty parked up, and Evan kept his head placed firmly on Barty’s back, his arms wrapped around his waist. He was so tired, at this point his day had been going on for over 18 hours, and he was ready to collapse. He could hear Barty saying something that was muffled through the helmet, when he felt hands snaking around his arms, to gently unclasp them, allowing Barty to get off. Evan forced his eyes open, to look at where Barty had slid off the ride.
‘Tired, Rosie?’ Barty teased, a hand resting on Evan’s knee where it sloped off the seat, rubbing small comforting circles into where the denim ripped. It sent shivers up Evan’s leg, but he couldn't bring himself to pull away.
It was strange to see Barty, the guy known for smoking in school, having crazy tattoos underage and starting fights with random strangers for acting out of line, being so gentle. He was soft with Evan, and it left Evan with a sense of pride, knowing that he got to see this side. He didn't want anyone else to see Barty like this. This was his.
Evan grunted in response and hiked his leg over the frame to jump off, his fall softened by Barty’s hand which had seemingly found a new home in the comfort of his waist. Barty’s hands brushed up Evan’s sides. And over his arms to his head, where Barty gently pulled the helmet off Evan, leaving his hair in a wild blonde mess. Barty laughed at this lightly, taking in the sight of a tired Evan, heavy lidded eyes, cheeks flushed from alcohol and messy hair. His lips still pink and wet from his kiss. Barty’s mouth fell dry as he looked him up and down. Barty lifted the seat and locked their helmets away, and began to walk out the car park towards the lift. He held it open for Evan as he slowly realised what was happening and followed after Barty, with a soft jog.
Barty pressed the number 7, and the doors shut, the lifts quiet buzzing the only noise as Evan stood, trying not to pass out. Barty just leaned against the glass looking fondly at the younger. When Evan’s eyes closed for a moment too long and he fell asleep for a short second, causing him to stumble and lose his balance, Barty just let out a soft chuckle, and let his hand slope against the small of Evan’s back. Pulling him flush to his side and letting Evan’s head fall on his shoulder, in short solitude.
‘Rosie, we gotta go.’ Barty said in a whisper.
Evan kept his head tucked in Barty’s shoulder as he was dragged out the lift, and towards a door, reading 75. Barty pulled some keys out of his jean pockets, and plugged them into the front door, twisting a few times before shoving the door open. Barty pulled them both inside.
Evan was too tired to fully take in Barty’s apartment, but he noted that he couldn't see any parents. But who was Evan to judge?
‘Ev,’ Barty’s soft voice kept on jolting him awake as he fell in and out of consciousness, ‘You can sleep in my bed, I will sleep on the sofa.’ He heard Barty say. This woke Evan up.
Barty and him weren't friends, he called him on a whim, and Barty had been so nice to him, offering him a friend, a lift, hell, even a place to stay. Evan couldn't let Barty give up his bed for him either. That would just be unfair, he had already been kind enough.
‘No, No, I can sleep on the sofa, you have been kind enough, Barty.’ Evan shook his head firmly, voice thick with sleep, but he sounded certain as he looked up at where Barty stood beside him. Barty was smiling down at him softly.
‘It gets better everytime you say it,’ Barty mumbled, grin growing, ‘But you can’t trick me by saying my name, Rosie, I can't let a guest take the sofa.’ Barty insisted on walking Evan towards his room. Once inside Evan glanced around, his room was cosy, dark walls covered in posters, with stuff hanging from every crevice. There was a desk in the corner, the chair taken over by a pile of clothes, and his bed was against the wall, with dark, messy sheets and a warm looking blanket, where Barty had clearly been laying before he picked Evan up. The blanket looked really warm, Evan thought again.
He really wanted to be a good guest and take the sofa, but as he looked at Barty's bed that he was being led towards, he fell into it wordlessly, deeply inhaling the familiar scent of Barty and wrapping his legs around the blanket, which as he suspected was still warm. Barty sighed from above him, looking down at Evan once again.
‘I can get you some clothes, you probably don't want to fall asleep in those tight jeans.’ Barty was rifling through his drawers before Evan could say anything.
‘Barty, seriously, I can't make you take the sofa, I will feel sooooo bad!’ Evan groaned from under the covers, his words slurring, and reminding Barty that Evan had been at a party before this and was very drunk.
Barty looked up across the room at Evan who had turned to face him, eyes peeking out at him desperately from under the covers. The sight made Barty fumble a bit with his hands, but he spoke stable nonetheless.
‘No offence, Rosie, but it seems as though you are pretty set on taking the bed over there.’ He laughed gently, before chucking some joggers at Evan, and a baggy hoodie. Evan took them in his arms and inhaled them deeply. Fuck. This guy was drunk, Barty thought to himself. But the sight didn't make Barty any less dizzy.
Barty turns around, cheeks red as Evan unashamedly begins to undress, his newfound energy coming from seemingly nowhere. Barty had only seen a flash of Evan’s stomach before he turned around and made it towards the door, lest he get fucking hard in front of Evan.
‘Wait!’ Evan moaned from behind him, the sound of his voice making Barty feel embarrassingly faint. ‘Barty please, just stay in your bed, we can both fit, but I refuse to let you sleep on the sofa.’ Barty turned to say something, but Evan cut him off holding up a hand, ‘I am not taking no for an answer.’ He said in an unwavering voice. Barty sighed and gave in, walking over to the bed and grabbing some joggers from the floor before going into his bathroom to change, he didn't quite have Evan’s drunk confidence to strip.
He walked back in a second later to see Evan laying in his bed, with his phone in his hand. The sight made Barty’s legs feel weak.
Barty got in beside Evan, making a conscious effort not to touch him. Evan was drunk, he didn't want to do anything other than sleep. Evan turned to face Barty, hair still messy from his helmet, and whispered softly to Barty, ‘Thanks, Barty, you are the best, mate.’ Voice trailing off as he fell quickly into sleep. Barty sighed.
‘Mate…’ He repeated, groaning under his breath.
‘Night, Rosie’, Barty mumbled, but Evan was asleep.