Happy birthday to me!!!! (Also I have a vanladd book now if ya want to check it out :))

Jonathan was thrown off guard by the sound of something falling, silence following right behind it. After a couple more minutes of silence, Jonathan begins to worry about his friend.

"Evan?" He called out, venturing out of the kitchen, leaving the dishes on the table like Evan had told him. Jonathan goes up the stairs, trying to calm himself down and assure himself that nothing was wrong. "Evan?" The boy called out once more.

He reaches the top of the stairs with a gasp, seeing Evan's collapsed form a few feet from his doorway. "Evan!" He rushes forward, only to find that Evan's breathing is slightly irregular. Immediately, he panics, pulling out his phone to call for help only to stop himself.

"Think logically, Jon." He whispers as he gets closer to his unconscious friend. "Why would he have passed out? Anxiety, he could have anxiety, which is probably the cause because he gets very nervous at times." He speaks aloud softly to himself, since this is usually what calms him down enough to think through all possible outcomes in stressful situations.

After a few more minutes of thought, he deduced that anxiety must've been the main cause. He wants to shake the boy awake, but doesn't since he read somewhere that you're not supposed to touch people who are having anxiety attacks, but Jonathan was unsure if that was how Evan's anxiety worked.

So, still unsure of how to handle the situation, Jonathan instead took a few steps back, sitting cross-legged on the ground so he could wait for Evan to wake up. Luckily, he had grabbed his phone earlier, so he took it out and checked his notifications, being sure to text his mom that he would be home later and that he was safe.

After texting his mom, Jonathan decides to text his best friend, Luke, to pass the time.

Jonathan: hey loser, what's up?

Luke: nothin, hbu

Jonathan: just hanging out at Evan's house, he made me breakfast

Luke: ur still there??? Did u spend the night or smthng?

Jonathan: yea I spent the night

Luke: so is he good in bed?

Jonathan: wtf? Nothing happened dude

Luke: dude u can tell me it's fine I'm bi

Luke: I've had sex with Anthony like three times

Jonathan: Evan hasn't even hit on me don't get ahead of yourself

Luke: that's impossible, has had to have hit on you by now

Jonathan: well he hasn't??? We've actually been working on our project???? Unlike some bitches???

Luke: you don't need to throw shade I got an umbrella bitch

Jonathan: did you open it inside? Cuz maybe that's why you're unlucky

Luke: hey I'm not the virgin here

Jonathan: having sex doesn't make you cool

Luke: yes because that's the purpose of a juul duh

Jonathan: alright I'm leaving fuck this shit I'm out

Jonathan chuckles to himself as he locks the phone, eyes glancing up to see Evan stirring from his previous unconscious state. Originally, he was going to say something, but held his tongue in case it started the boy.

Evan looked around, wincing as he sat up, most likely not have waited long enough for the dizzy, panicked feeling to leave. "Shit." He curses softly, looking up to realize his English partner was quietly sat next to him.

"It was anxiety, right?" Jonathan asks, eyes full of concern for the boy who looked like he still had the capability to pass out once more. "I would've moved closer, but I didn't know if it would trigger something, so instead I held back." He offers a smile to his now standing friend.

"T-thanks." The teen stutters out. "Sorry if I-" He gets cut off by Jonathan, who is now also standing and cautiously moving closer to him.

"Don't apologize for things that are out of your control." Jonathan smiles kindly at him, following the boy into his room, where he immediately goes to his desk chair to sit down.

Evan's head still felt a bit fuzzy, but the sudden silence the two had entered after their awkward exchange is what was killing him. "You want to keep working? If not, I have some movies or you could just go home if you want." His eyes darted down, avoiding Jonathan's analytical stare.

"Why don't we go out? I'm sure there's some parts of town we have yet to explore." Jonathan wanted an excuse to hang out with Evan more, he found the boy interesting and fun. He also wanted to calm his nerves, which seemed to happen quickly when there were other people around. "I have some spare clothes, don't worry about it."

Evan nodded his head. "Yeah, that sounds fun. The bathroom is down the hall, if you need something just tell me." He plugs his phone into a power strip he had mounted onto the side of his desk. "Need a charge?" Evan gestures to the strip, tilting his head at Jonathan with a smile.

Jonathan pulls out his phone, checking his percentage before fishing his charge out of his bag, thrusting it at Evan. "Sure, thanks." He offers another smile before grabbing his bag and walking out to the bathroom.

"No problem." Evan says to no one in particular since Jonathan was practically already at the restroom by now. He plugs in his friend's phone before turning back to his own.

Tyler: yo Ev, still being a nerd and doing ur proj

Evan: nah, taking a break rn, just ate

Tyler: what did u eat

Evan: Jon had bacon and eggs, I had

Evan hesitated, wondering if he should tell Tyler the truth or not. During his hesitation, he pressed send, making him panic and begin to type frantically.

Evan: sorry I accidentally pressed send lol, I had a muffin since I wasn't that hungry

Tyler: nice, was it the chocolate ones ur mom bought

Evan: yea, they were pretty good

Tyler: you should've eaten more tho, you didn't eat lunch yesterday at school

Evan: lmao I literally never eat lunch

Tyler: Ik but still u need to take care of yourself

Evan: I'll be fine me and Jon are gonna go out to eat for lunch

Tyler: k have fun

Reading Tyler's text, Evan exits his messaging app and instead opens a random social media, scrolling through the news articles quickly to see if anything major had happened overnight. Seeing nothing of interest, he walked over to his closet to pick out a jacket to wear.

As he stood up from the the desk, the screen of Jonathan's phone lit up, and he had to resist the urge to look at the notification. All he saw was that it was a message from Luke, and that was all Evan would allow himself to see as he continued towards the closet. He quickly looked down to remind himself what he was wearing before looking back up and choosing a black military bomber jacket that he had found in a thrift store a few years back.

Sliding on the jacket, he walks back into his room to find Jonathan checking his phone, most likely scrolling through the messages his friend had sent him. The brunette looks up at him. "You didn't read my messages right?" Evan immediately shook his head, understanding the boy's paranoia at someone reading the messages.

"I was in the closet getting a jacket." He explained, walking over to Jonathan to grab his own phone. It was at ninety-eight percent, so he unplugs it, leaving the charger on his desk as he opens another drawer to grab his wallet.

"Hey Ev, look at me real quick?" Jonathan forms it as a question, when really it was more of a command. So Evan turns back to the boy in almost an instant.

Jonathan's face rushes at his so quickly Evan doesn't process what's happening until he feels hands in his hair and their faces are centimeters apart. Jonathan's eyes are focused above Evan.

"There." He says, smiling at Evan, who was frozen in place. "Your hair was bothering me, sorry." Jonathan chuckles before unplugging his phone as well, walking around Evan to get his own wallet which was still in his bag.

Evan's heart was racing as he thought about how close he was to kissing Jonathan.