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Finals season had begun, and some were coping with it better than others.
Vinny had somehow struck the perfect balance between studying for his exams and relaxing with his friends. Evan had stopped turning up to class a few months back, so he didn't have anything to worry about. Alex, the typical high schooler, had all but moved into Evan’s basement to play video games and generally avoid his brother like his life depended on it. And Jeff seemed to have undergone some sort of psychotic break and hadn’t been seen in days.
Which worried Evan, to say the least. So he staged an intervention.
It was a pretty genius plan, and Evan was proud of himself for thinking of it. First, he bribed Alex for temporary ownership of his house key (and damn the kid drove a hard bargain), which would be vital if he wanted to break into Jeff’s house successfully. Second, he called Vinny and sent him to buy a shitton of snacks. Third, he grabbed a couple of DVDs from his collection, some of those zombie flicks that Jeff seemed to be obsessed with. And finally, satisfied with his preparations, he made his way to Jeff’s house.
As expected, the house looked almost deserted. The only sign of life as Evan opened the front door came in the form of Sparky throwing herself into his arms, tail wagging furiously. He quickly checked if she had full food and water bowls (she did, thank god) before he let her out into the yard and made his way upstairs.
There was light shining through the crack beneath Jeff’s bedroom door, but Evan couldn’t hear any movement coming from within.
That’s concerning, Evan mused. Is he alive?
Evan barged through the door without knocking, because why would he waste time doing that? Jeff, who was pacing around a pile of open textbooks and muttering something about ‘laissez-faire capitalism’, froze when he entered the room.
“Hey, Jeffers.” Evan somehow managed to smile both sweetly and threateningly at the same time. “Close the textbooks before I close them for you.”
“What are you doing in my house?” Jeff blinked up at him with his huge brown eyes that reminded Evan somewhat of a deer. Whenever their gaze was fixed upon him, Evan inexplicably felt his cheeks heating up. He always tried to ignore it.
“Close the textbooks.”
“I have an exam on Wednesday.”
“Do I look like I care about that?”
“Well, I care. It’s my exam.”
“If you don’t relax you’re gonna… burn out or something.”
Jeff seemed to consider this, which Evan took as a win. “Awesome, I left some DVDs in the sitting room and Vinny is on his way with snacks.”
Finally accepting his fate, Jeff rose and ushered Evan out of the room and back downstairs. Evan went to let Sparky back inside – leaving Jeff to inspect his movie selection – and returned to find him loading something into the DVD player.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Vinny?”
“He won't mind.” Jeff winked conspiratorially as he spoke, giving Evan the impression that Vinny probably would in fact mind. Which was good news, because fucking with Vinny happened to be one of his favourite hobbies.
“If you say so. What did you pick?” Evan asked, moving to stand behind Jeff and peek over his shoulder.
“28 Days Later,” Jeff beamed, straightening up so that his back pressed against Evan’s chest.
Evan coughed and swiftly stepped backwards. He thought he saw Jeff frown to himself, but the expression was gone so quickly that Evan wasn't sure that he hadn’t imagined it.
Brushing the interaction aside, he moved to switch off the lights before realising they were already off and standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. Jeff grabbed the remote and began playing the movie.
“Sit down,” he grumbled from the couch, “You’re blocking the TV.”
Evan rolled his eyes but joined him on the couch anyway. Jeff slumped against him almost as soon as he sat down. He must be fucking exhausted, Evan realised. He’s never usually this affectionate.
“How’s Vinny getting in?”
“I left the door unlocked.”
“Good,” Jeff mumbled into Evan’s shoulder,” ‘Cause if you move now, I think I’ll die.”
Evan hesitated for a moment before snaking an arm around Jeff’s shoulders. Fuck it, he thought, he can’t find it weird if he’s the one initiating everything.
They stayed like that for what felt like hours (but Evan knew it couldn't have really been more than a few minutes) before Jeff shifted, twisting to peer up at Evan. “Thanks for... Y’know, saving me. I think I was two chapters away from a full breakdown.”
Evan stared back at him, smiling softly. He was suddenly aware of just how close their faces were. If he just adjusted the way he was sitting slightly, leaned forwards a couple of inches, he could –
The sound of the front door opening snapped him out of his thoughts. Despite his previous statement, Jeff sat bolt upright, putting a few feet of space between Evan and himself.
“You guys better not have started the movie without me,” Vinny teased as he entered the room, dumping his armful of snacks onto the coffee table. He was either completely oblivious to the tension in the room, or simply choosing to ignore it. Knowing Vinny, Evan guessed it was probably the latter.
Jeff grinned sheepishly. “You’ve only missed, like, five minutes.”
“Fuck you, Jeff,” Vinny sighed dramatically, throwing himself down onto the couch. “I thought we were friends.”
“I’m just using you for snacks,” Jeff replied, grabbing a bag of Sour Patch Kids as he did. This seemed to spur the other two boys into choosing their own snacks, and they all silently munched to the background noise of the movie for a few minutes.
As time went on, Jeff slowly began drifting closer to Evan until he returned to resting his head on Evan’s shoulder. Every so often, he would hand Evan a blue piece of candy and Evan would dutifully eat it. Hey, it’s not a cheat meal if it’s for the greater good of Jeff’s happiness.
In the movie, the character Mark was bitten by a zombie, which sparked a question in Evan’s mind. “What would you guys do if we were in a zombie apocalypse?”
“I don’t think I’d survive,” Jeff admitted, “But I’d do my best to make sure you guys and Alex were okay.”
Evan frowned. “As if I’d let you die. I’d murder a million fuckin’ zombies before I let you get bitten. Any of you guys.”
“I’d start a little community on an island somewhere - like in the middle of a lake,” Vinny said, “Zombies probably can’t swim, so we’d be safe.”
“See, Jeff, Vinny’s got a plan. We’d be fine. We could even train Sparky to go hunting for us.”
At the mental image of Sparky hunting anything other than stray tennis balls, snow, or jets of water from the hose, the trio burst into fits of hysterical giggles. When they finally stopped laughing, they once again fell into a comfortable silence.
Evan wasn’t sure when exactly Jeff fell asleep, but he noticed sometime between Jim being shot and the end of the movie. Vinny noticed too, when the end credits started playing, and whispered, “At least we don’t have to watch all of the alternate endings now.”
“Let yourself out, man,” Evan replied, smiling softly. “I don’t want to move and wake him up.”
Vinny looked like he wanted to say something, then thought better of it. He waved to Evan, leant down to scratch Sparky’s ears, then left the room. Evan held his breath until he heard the front door safely open and close, and a car engine start outside.
He stared down at Jeff, who was still sleeping soundly on his shoulder. Evan raised a hand and cautiously brushed his fingers through Jeff’s fringe, studied his eyelashes and the soft curve of his lips that formed a subconscious half-smile.
STOP IT, his brain screamed, HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND.
It's not hurting anyone to just look, his heart replied, though it knew he was fighting a losing battle.
Evan sighed and dropped his hand. It was a demoralising thing, to remember that Jeff was very straight and very in love with Jessa. Almost demoralising enough to put him off his trail mix.
Almost.
The TV still glowed gently, but he couldn’t be bothered to find the remote to turn it off. Jeff murmured something unintelligible in his sleep. Sparky had curled up in her bed and seemed to be dozing off. Evan finished his snacks in silence. When he tried to stand up, Jeff gripped onto his arm and refused to let him pull away.
One couch cuddle session couldn’t hurt, right?