I can't decide if I want to post an original on here for my friends birthday or update her favorite book of mine..... (her birthday isn't until April yet this is the kind of shit that's keeping me up)

--------

Something was wrong, Evan knew that, it was just a feeling he had deep in his gut as soon as he woke up.

"Whatever." He said to himself, checking the time. Five forty five, good enough for him. He slid out of bed, stumbling off the sleep, shaking his head a couple times to avoid passing out. If shit was going to go down today, he wanted to be awake for it.

--

He was dressed at his usual time, scarfed down his breakfast faster than usual-which wasn't surprising since he had a bit less this morning- but for some reason when he glanced through the living room window to see outside his friends weren't waiting for him.

Checking his phone, he saw that he had no messages. That was weird, usually they tell him when they're not gonna show.

He downed a shot of vodka before he walked out the door.

------

T H E   N I G H T   B E F O R E

"Drop it." Tyler insisted, moving the controller from side to side as if it would help him in the game.

"Look, all I'm saying is we could all do with a bit of time away from Evan." Brock said, holding his hands up in surrender.

Tyler paused the game in anger, turning around to face his friend head-on. "Oh, so did your parents finally have that talk with you, then? The whole 'I don't think you should be hanging around that kind of company', huh? Well, that's tough, because he's our friend, and your parents can't change that."

"But he really isn't a good influence on us, guys, you know that right?" Brock crossed his arms and cautiously glanced at his friends, who's confused faces were already aimed at him.

"When has he ever asked us to do anything with him?" Tyler countered, abandoning the controller on the floor as he stood up to get in Brock's face.

"He was literally talking about alcohol and fake IDs!" Brock's panicked voice was not helping his high-strung nerves.

"He was joking! Because that's the kind of jokes he makes, don't you know that?"

"They're not funny."

"You need to lighten up, Brock! What has Evan ever done to make you hate him?"

"Nothing, but that's not important! Because he could do something!"

"Don't you dare accuse him-"

"You know I'm right, Tyler! All of you do! Evan is a loose cannon and it's only a matter of time before he makes a move on us. You hear what people say about him, guys. He'll give you this look and suddenly you'll do whatever he says."

"You're ridiculous. He's our best friend, he wouldn't do that!"

"Ask Chase." Brock stated, his eyes locked onto Tyler.

"What? Why?"

"Don't you know? Evan slept with him last year. That's why he was so weird, that's why Evan has him wrapped around his finger, Tyler!"

"Don't you know that you're full of shit?" Craig retorted, jumping to his friend's defense. "You're suggesting that he can make anyone like him."

"He can." Brock promised.

"Doubt it." Tyler said, rolling his eyes.

Brock thought quickly, trying to come up with an idea. "We can prove it." He spoke suddenly.

"How the hell do you think we could do that?"

"Make a bet."

"That is such a cliche."

"If he can break someone's heart before the school year ends, we'll know just how dangerous he is."

"He's not a manipulative psychopath, he's not going to make someone believe that he likes them."

"He'll do it. He's desperate."

Tyler nearly slapped him, if Marcel and Craig hadn't jumped in when they did, holding him back. "Don't you ever say that about him again."

"It's just a bet, Tyler. No harm in asking him if you know he's going to say no, right?"

--

P R E S E N T

"Hey, guys? What happened to you this morning?" Evan asked, meeting his friends at his locker after he had went to see Jonathan.

"We were running late." Tyler said, not making eye contact with him, but Evan didn't notice since he had to put his books away anyway.

"That's cool." Evan didn't question how all of them had been running late, because he knew that they had all stayed over at one of their houses.

"We really missed you yesterday." David said, buying Tyler some more time to ease into the topic.

"Yeah?" Evan was distracted as he searched his bag for his math notebook.

"Of course! You're our best friend!" David smiled, and Evan suddenly grew suspicious. His dread-filled feeling slowly began to return.

"What happened? What did I do? I'm sorry!" He immediately spoke, shutting his locker and facing his friends with slight fear in his eyes.

"Relax, Ev. We're fine. Just worried a bit about you, you haven't really been acting like yourself lately." Evan still didn't feel right as Tyler slung his arm over his shoulder.

He pulled it off, backing away. "I-I gotta go." He said before leaving to his first period.

-

"See, dude? You scared him!" Brock scolded. "Let me handle it at lunch."

"Fine." Tyler grumbled.

-

"Well, this certainly isn't creepy whatsoever." Evan said, sitting down as he bit into his candy bar, rolling his eyes as his friends stared at him.

"Who's your partner for English?" David asked nonchalantly, and Evan had to hold back a smile as he thought about the class he had just come from.

---

E N G L I S H   C L A S S

"Alright class, we have about fifteen minutes until the bell rings, so I'm going to introduce you to our major project this year." Miss Lynn clapped her hands together, linking them in front of her face as she stood in the front of the class, smiling.

She picked up a paper from her desk, looking at it over her glasses before clearing her throat and addressing the class. "I'm going to assign you your partners and you must sit next to them for the rest of the school year, or until this project is due. We will be working on this during our free time between lessons and it is also homework."

The class collectively groaned upon hearing that while Miss Lynn continued to smile from the front.

One by one, she read out the pairs on her list, chairs screeched across the floor.

Evan pretty much blocked it out, filtering his head to only tune in once he heard his name.

He didn't wait for long.

"Evan and Jonathan."