"Dude that movie was sick! Did you see the way that guy stabbed that girl? Her fucking heart exploded from her chest!" David exclaimed, using hand gestures to emphasize his words as the group walked out of the theater, still hyped from the movie.

They all laughed as David continued to do his rendition of what had taken place in the movie, Evan somehow ending up behind everyone, like he usually did. It was way better to think behind everyone rather than in front of them.

Currently, they were headed back to Craig's place, since they had planned a sleepover for tonight since they couldn't really hang out yesterday. Evan, of course, had agreed to go because he really didn't feel like starting his homework just yet, although he probably could finish it rather quickly.

Yet, he wasn't really all that excited about getting to his friend's house because he knew that Craig's parents were home for the weekend, and that meant they would be casting all sorts of evil glares at Evan.

You see, being the jackass player he was, always going to parties and sleeping around, his friends certainly had a lot to tell their parents. Especially if Evan came to their house drunk because he forgot how to get home.

So naturally, Evan had been deemed 'the bad influence' by all of his friends' parents, which meant that they would constantly be watching over him whenever he was around. At first, Evan had tried to ignore it, knowing that he didn't do anything to his friends that would give their parents the wrong idea, but they always found something to blame him for.

One time, it was so bad that all of their parents had cornered him and threw him an intervention, making him swear to never do anything with his friends. Evan, terrified of all the angry looks being thrown at him, had agreed immediately, promising himself to not say a word about anything to his friends, who were waiting for him a few blocks away. Evan could still remember his stupid excuse.

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Evan hurried away from everyone's parents, feeling their stares of disgust and hatred burn into his back as he walked away. He shoved his hands in his pockets, attempted to drop his tense shoulders, and put a smile on his face, trying to look normal for his friends who were waiting for him no doubt.

It was 6:47, and Evan was anxious to get to school already, and he had only been walking for two minutes.

He brightened up when he saw his friends, walking a bit faster towards them. Tyler turned around and noticed Evan, signaling for the rest of the guys to wait for him.

"Hey guys." Evan said, inwardly cringing at how shaky his voice sounded, wishing he had practiced before he had reached his friends. But he still counted on his large smile to save him in the situation.

"You ok, Ev? You look a bit shaken up, what happened?" Tyler asked, his eyes narrowed as he looked Evan up and down, noticing how tense and stressed he looked behind his bright eyes and hopeful smile.

"What? Oh, I'm fine, Mom was just talking nonsense earlier, said something about slaughtering penguins. And last night she was talking all about the economy for lion pelts, I think she had one too many glasses of wine, actually, I saw a bottle in the trash last night...what were we talking about?" Evan rambled, the shakiness leaving his voice after a few words.

Everyone stared blankly at him, trying to figure out what the hell he had just said.

What could he say? Rambling was a defensive mechanism.

"Ok then, remind me not to talk to your mom when she's buzzed up on wine." Tyler said, starting to walk to school once again, everyone followed behind him, Evan decided to bring up the rear.

He couldn't wait to see Jonathan that day, maybe that would cheer him up a bit.

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Since then, Evan had stopped acting touchy feely with his friends even when their parents weren't around, scared that they had placed cameras everywhere just to watch him.

At first, his friends were concerned, thinking that something had happened to Evan that caused him to stop acting like himself, but then eventually stopped, realizing that nothing was wrong. Evan just assumed they had asked their parents and in return had gotten very harsh responses. Because there was no way in hell that he was going to admit to his friends that he was scared of their parents.

Realizing that they had arrived, Evan stood up a bit straighter, planting yet another confident grin upon his face as they entered, Craig immediately called to his parents. "Mom! Dad! I'm home! The guys are sleeping over too!"

At first, Evan hoped that maybe they weren't actually home, but that hope depleted as he heard rushed footsteps come from the staircase as soon as Craig mentioned they were all there.

"Craig! How was the movie, sweetie? Oh, it's wonderful to see all of again, it certainly has been a while since you've had a sleepover here, hasn't it? Sit, sit. Let me make you some lunch." His mother fussed, ushering everyone to the dining table in the other room. She ended up behind Evan, making sure to hiss in his ear. "Don't you dare try anything, boy."

In return Evan flashed her an innocent smile before sitting next to Tyler on his left, Craig on his right.

David continued to recreate the entire movie with just his hands, which the group laughed at the whole way through, Lui ending up rolling on the floor by the end of it, tears of laughter rolling down his cheeks.

Mrs. Thompson had made them all sandwiches, which they ate at a moderate pace since they were still discussing the movie and other topics. Evan could feel Mrs. Thompson's glare at him as he sunk a bit lower in his chair, eating his food quicker than his friends since he was being a bit more quiet, hoping no one would notice.

"Whatcha thinking about over there, Ev? You've barely spoken a word." Brian said, directing everyone's attention to Evan, the conversation cut short.

Evan swallowed the last bit of food in his mouth before answering. "Oh-I was just-um, thinking about what the English project was going to be about. You know, the one Miss Lynn will be assigning to us on Monday, the one with a partner?" He knew it wouldn't bring any suspicion, Evan was usually concerned about school.

Tyler glared at him playfully. "How dare you bring up school? This is a safe place." He fake pouted.

"Yeah, actually. She made it sound like such an important thing, isn't she choosing our partners too?" David asked, taking a break from his conversation about the movie to intervene.

Evan nodded. "Yeah, she's choosing them." He continued to eat his food a bit faster as everyone else devolved into this new topic.

"Who do you think she's gonna partner us with? What if we get stuck doing all the work? What if we get stuck with someone who-" Craig was cut off by Brian.

"Are you really worried about partners? I think the only person who has to worry about partners is Evan," He paused, turning to Evan. "Sorry, but it's true." He said apologetically as Evan nodded at him, agreeing. "If anything, you should be worried about the project itself. After all, she was very cryptic about it."

"Yeah, think about it, she's never actually have us any forewarning about a project before. It's got to be important or something." Lui said, pushing his empty plate forward, the others following suit.

The group of boys found themselves in Craig's room, still on the topic of the English project as they played games, yelling at each in frustration the longer they played.

Evan didn't want to play, it had never really been his thing, playing video games. He only really played for fun if he was bored, and he wasn't bored right now, so he stuck to just watching his friends enjoy themselves. Not even taking a slice of pizza when they ordered it later on.

"I'm fine." He had insisted when they shoved the box closer to him, hoping he would take a slice, but still Evan had refused, claiming to not be hungry. He knew his friends didn't buy his response, but his smile was good enough for them to drop the topic.

Evan hadn't even noticed he had fallen asleep on top of Craig's bed until he was gently being shaken awake by Tyler.

"Ev, wake up, that's not where you sleep." He said gently as Evan stirred.

"It was her fault..." Evan mumbled as he sat up, expecting to be in a random girl's room. "Oh wait...." He said, remembering he was at Craig's house.

"Yeah, you need to sleep, come on Ev." Tyler said, lifting his best friend up and helping him over to where he would be sleeping, which was across the room on the floor.

As soon as Evan was on the floor, he curled into a ball as he often did when he was tired as he tried to go back to sleep. Yawning, Evan pulled his jacket tighter around him as he fell asleep once more, the sound of his friends still playing bringing him comfort.