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It was chilly outside, colder than usual. It was usually the perfect weather for kids to go outside and build snowmen and do snow angels in the snow in the great state. This year a TV reporter explained that the weather was far too cold, even for kids. Snow piled up against doors and everything. This year's snow is clearly far too much and not how it should look, according to the TV reporter and others.
While the people of the great state worked independently to clear their driveways with shovels in order to buy food, perhaps also buy more than usual and store it, just in case it gets that bad, while the roads were being cleared by workers in tractors with snowplows.
And like some citizens of the great state guessed, the TV reporter announced to the state to buy in masses now due to the snow piling up to almost 3 meters next week. Most citizens prepared and were safe.
Evan was unlucky in that case. The apartment above him had a giant leak, and due to safety reasons, they were all evacuated out of the apartments in case the leak would cause any further issues. And there Evan was; he stood idly by the road with 2 suitcases, with nowhere to go.
Evans's hand shivered in the cold. They clearly didn't lie about the frost and cold that was happening; it was like standing in the Antarctic. Evan's hand continued to shiver, and he wanted to call the first person that came to mind, Marco. While Evan hesitated, thinking marco might be stuck in the same situation, that he could rather call Peter or Emma. Altough even with hesitation, Evan still called Marco.
If Evan was honest with himself, he missed Marco even. They weren't in a relationship, but Emma always thought Evan and Legrand were birds of a feather.
Evan went inside the apartment building, which was now packed with repairmen. Evan glanced at what the repairmen were doing. The leak did in fact cause further issues to the building. Talk about being unlucky.
Evan looked a bit frantically for the landlord, and he did, in fact, spot him, packing his stuff and seeming annoyed and even a bit stressed. Evan walked up to him and asked the landlord if he could use the phone to call somebody. "Excuse me, I know it's bad timing, but do you have a telephone nearby? I need to call someone where I can stay for the week."
Evans landlord, Casper, responded politely but also shortly "Of course."
Evan nodded as a short 'thank you,' and he began dialing Marco's number on the telephone. Evan hoped Marco would pick up. The phone rang for a couple of seconds. Evan sighed and thought it was clear that Marco had stumbled upon the same situation. Evan took a deep breath and dialed Peter's number, but while he was doing so, the phone rang.
Of course, he picked up, hoping it was Marco. "Marco?" Evan asked through the speaker. "Evan? What are you calling me at this time of day for? It's Christmas! Whatever, can you come over? My father is pestering me…" Evan was baffled; he didn't expect Marco to invite him, but he wasn't mad about it. "Oh! uhm yes, of course, Marco. Could you pick me up? You know where my apartment is."
"Fine…" Marco mumbled through the speaker before hanging up. Evan went out of Simon's office into the hall, where a plumber had joined the group of repairmen. All of the repairmen looked the same, even the plumber. "Must be those Carl clones." Evan thought.
Evan waited outside, even in the icy cold. After a while a car parked in front of the building. The window rolled down; it was Marco's father. "Marco is at home; get inside," he said it fast as if pushing Evan to hurry up. Evan, who rather expected Marco himself to drive, didn't mind and grabbed his bags and put them in the trunk and got into the passenger seat. On the ride Marcos's dad asked
"Its christmas. Don't you want to spend time with loved ones or that stuff? or stay home?"
Evan thought for a long while, pondering about how he could say this the best way; he took a deep breath and spoke "No no… it's-" Evan left his sentence unfinished
"My apartment, the building you picked me up from, apparently has water damage. I was unlucky and had to be evacuated like the rest of some other tenants. In case the building comes down on us." Marcos's father didn't reply instantly; he had to watch the road carefully, especially when the roads were slippery.
It took Marco's dad a while, as if he pondered for a while. With a calmer tone, he said, "Evacuated for a water leak? Is it that much of a danger? It seems more like a lazy excuse to kick tenants out for a dumb reason." Evan, who was looking outside at houses with Christmas decorations, was suddenly pulled from his daydreaming. He pondered and replied, "I'm pretty sure the 'water leak' caused a great amount of damage to the building itself. I didn't check out the scene directly where it supposedly happened, but I was the unlucky guy who got himself into this situation."
The car ride was mostly quiet, subtly interrupted by a cough every now and then. Evan was looking outside the window again, daydreaming. He pondered about how Marco was doing since they barely saw each other.
Marco's dad pulled into the driveway, and Evan thanked him again for letting him stay for the night. Evan, who knew about Marcos's dad being rich, was still surprised at how good the house looked. Evan looked around in awe. Marco's dad had already left before he could ask him anything. Without help, Evan tried to navigate around the house, trying to find Marco. Evan soon found a door that he thought could only be unmistakably Marco's room.
He knocked 2 times before opening the door. "Marco?" he asked, peeking inside. "Come in." Marco said, annoyed, but he tried to remain polite in a way, not wanting to be rude in a way. Evan went inside Marco's bedroom and shut the door behind him. Evan moved to sit beside Marco on his plush bed. "I didn't expect you to be at your family's place." Evan said, which made Marcos furrow his eyebrows in anger. He tried to not even look directly in the eyes. It clearly was still an unpleasant topic. "Look, prickgrave... just don't talk about it."
Evan felt bad for Marco; even if he could have expected it, he thought Marco and his family had stopped fighting. A long silence stretched between the two. It was dead quiet. Evan looked around Marco's room, as if trying to distract himself from the silence that felt like it was going to crush them both. Evan broke the silence. "Marco, I know we didn't talk in a long while, but," Evan started saying, keeping his voice calm, his body shifted to face Marco's. He took marco's hand into his own. "I'm here for you if you need to tell anybody about this. I will be here for you."
The silence continued, even though his attempt at comfort didn't work out. Until he saw tears hitting the bedsheets. Evan slowly grabbed Marco's cheeks, making Marco face him. Evan put his forehead against Marcos. "Shhh, shhh, Marco, I'm here." Tears streamed down Marco's face, his eyebrows still furrowed; he didn't want to cry. He felt vulnerable and weak when he did. "Stop it," Marco said sharply. Evan didn't listen and offered silent comfort. Marco gripped Evan's hand in protest as if to push him away, but in the last second he decided otherwise; Marco's grip loosened. He just looked at the ground, ashamed of his own emotions.
Marco calmed down after a long while; his emotions just came crashing down on him in one vulnerable moment, as if he had some repressed emotions, one he pushed away because it made him weak, emotions that made him not seem like a 'sun bear' but as a 'wombat'. Marco could only feel shame after he cried.
Evan sat beside Marco, hands on his own knees. Marco stared at the ground. The silence returned, and it stretched itself long. Evan offered silent comfort, just sitting beside Marco to make him feel like someone is there for him. Marco, on the other hand, felt like he had to explain. He hesitated, but the words came out of his mouth, slowly and with gaps in between sentences. "Look, prickgave. . . Evan. My father finally wanted to sort this once and for all because he was getting tired of me being a disgrace. His idea was to shape me back into the right path or whatever."
Nothing. Silence. Evan waited, hoping Marco had finished explaining. Marco, who out of the blue regained his self-confident attitude, added, "Well whatever, let's watch Walking Boreans and forget my shitty dad and family." Marco stood up and walked towards one of the living rooms in the house.
"Make yourself comfortable prickgave" you could hear the attitude he usually had in his voice again. Marco turned around and went to his bedroom to get a blanket for himself.
Evan took this as an opportunity and went to the, surprisingly empty, kitchen to make hot chocolate for himself and Marco. He added whipped cream and some marshmallows. Evan looked around to see if he could find a small, round piece of waffle. The kind of waffle that always came with ice cream.
A small, crunchy waffle. Evan adorned the already Christmas movie-like hot cocoa with those small crunchy waffle plates. As Marco returned with his thick blanket, he saw Evan putting the hot chocolate on the table. The so-called self-confident guy Marco let a blush pass on his face a little at the sight but pushed it aside. "Fuck, I think I'm catching some cold," he muttered under his breath, yet loud enough for Evan to hear. Hoping he would see the blush on his face as some cold.
Marco sat beside Evan, hesitantly even sharing his blanket with Evan. "This. This means nothing, prickgrave! Just because this looks intimate doesn't mean we are… like that… I still like girls!" which sounded like the worst lie he could have ever told Evan. It didn't even sound like Marco. But Evan didn't say anything, especially if he knew that Marco was simply in denial.
It got late; hours passed. Marcos's family simply forgot about him altogether; they invited him, but that was it. They didn't want to see him. His father must have invited him out of pity before changing his mind as soon as he waltzed in… His father gave up on 'fixing him' just seeing him. Marco was fast asleep, his head resting against Evan's shoulder. Evan felt bad; even if Marco wasn't the best family member, he should at least be treated right.
Evan slowly moved, lifting Marcos's body before laying him down on the couch. He went into the kitchen; it was different from before. tons of dishes from a good Christmas meal. Evan made his way to the fridge, looking for leftovers from the festive meal. Evan looked and looked. The fridge was big, so he needed time finding it.
After what felt like 5 minutes, he pulled out a plate. He stared at the plate and its contents. Evan barely had a meal like this himself. He could only dream of such. He heated the food up. He quietly shuffled back to the living room where Marco rested.
Evan crouched down, gently and slowly stroking Marco's cheek; even though Marco was asleep, his subconscious leaned against the warm hand. Evan, who was paying attention to Marco's sleeping position, gave him a little kiss on the forehead before he quietly said, "Marco, wake up." Marco's eye fluttered open, his gaze meeting Evan's. "You have to be quiet, okay?" Evan added. Marco kept on meeting Evans' gaze; a minute passed before he sat up and saw the reheated meal, a Christmas meal. Marco sighed, realizing he was excluded from dinner, but he was thankful Evan cared.
"I may not have a gift on hand, but I hope this is any good." Evan patted Marco's back. Marco ate his meal like he had been hungry for longer. At one point he stopped mid-eating, looked at Evan, swallowed his food, and said, "Prickgrave, this is a good gift; don't be ashamed." Marco replied before returning to eat.
"Don't you want to eat anything, Evan?" Marco asked in a softer tone. "No, no, no, it's fine; I'm not hungry." I ate snacks while you were asleep," Evan replied.
Evan simply watched as Marco downed the food. He was glad Marco at least had a taste of Christmas dinner.
Marco, who was still chewing on some chicken, looked at Evan before pulling him into a tight embrace.
"Thank you."