The bell rang.

It's finally time for students to leave, for at least a good two days of rest. Yep, the sacred Friday of the week.

Jared was walking over to his locker, ready to place his annoying Chemistry textbook in his locker and leave. His chemistry teacher had been going on and on about how in order for them to pass their tests, they would need to bring the textbook and take notes, because they'd have notes to back up on whenever the needed to revise something quickly.

Which is true. Jared was very much aware that he needed to do that. What he hated was the way he presented it. He kept repeating the same sentence over and over and over again. It was one of his pet peeves. To hear someone repeat the same instructions over and over again. He knew that the teacher meant no harm, he probably just wanted to emphasise that fact. It made Jared feel bad to think he hated his teacher for something he couldn't control, but it infuriated him and ruined his mood to do anything chemistry related.

He fiddled with his locker, a frown on his face as he recollected the horrible memory of his teacher's rambling, when he felt a tug on his shirt.

He turned to face the person, to find Evan timidly gripping onto him.

"Oh, Evan," Jared said, smiling as he opened his locker, "what's up?"

He placed his textbook in his locker and shut the locker, careful not to make it too loud or it might shock Evan.

"A-are you, um," he asked, fiddling with his shirt's hem and shifting in place, "are you free today?"

Jared raised an eyebrow, as he saw Evan quietly and patiently awaiting an answer.

"Are you going on another—"

Evan quickly threw his hands forward to cover Jared's mouth, and was glancing around while panicking. Only a few students around them turned to face them out of curiosity, but eventually they all continued walking about, ignoring the both of them.

"D-don't call it a date," Evan screamed quietly, removing his hand and sighing with relief that nobody cared to ask, "and no, I'm not."

"Okay," Jared replied.

He then thought about Evan's question, thinking about what he'd be doing. There isn't any homework, luckily so. He did want to play a game today, but he'd be fine.

"I'm free, by the way," Jared replied to his question, seeing Evan's eyes light up, "why?"

"A-awesome! Okay, let's go get Alana," he continued, grabbing his hand and pulling him over to where he last saw Alana. Jared was just extremely confused, as he's strung along by Evan by the arm.

Eventually, they found Alana, who was just about to leave the building.

"Alana," Evan called out, which made her turn towards her right to locate Evan. Funnily enough, as she whipped her hair back, it danced and landed on her left shoulder. This made Evan giggle a bit, and made Jared roar with laughter, to the point it took him a solid two minutes to calm down while Evan and Alana stood by and watched.

"Okay, okay," Jared said, wiping tears of joy from his eyes he stood up, since he was slouching over when he laughed, hands on his knees, "I think I'm done."

Evan stared at Jared, very much unamused at this point, and then looked at Alana, who wore the same look.

"O-okay," he breathed, seemingly reciting the words he wanted to say quietly to himself, "a-are you, um, are you free today?"

"Oh, yes," Alana replied, as she dug into her bag. She pulled out what seemed like a notebook of sorts, flipping through some pages, and then looked at Evan with a smile, "I am free today. What do you need?"

"Good," Evan exclaimed, "c-can you both follow me?"

Alana, being the good friend that she is, agreed immediately. Jared, suspicious of the sudden request, begrudgingly agreed to see what Evan needed them for.

Evan smiled, and then lead them.

—————

"W-we're here."

"Isn't this the Murphy's house," Alana asked, which confused both Evan and Jared.

"H-how did you know," Evan asked, looking at her with bewilderment.

"Oh, Zoey has invited me over multiple times," she said, smiling, "so I've been here before."

Both of them nodded in acknowledgment. Evan then went over to the door, knocking on it enthusiastically. Intrigued, Jared and Lana followed Evan up to the door, waiting for someone to open it. The door opened, revealing Connor in a black T-shirt and shorts that reached his knees, hair tied back in a small ponytail.

"I, um, hi Connor," Evan managed to stutter out, a blush appearing on his face as his eyes wondered about. Jared noticed the blush and giggled, nudging at Evan with his elbow to gain his attention and then raising his eyebrows suggestively. Evan realised what he meant, and slapped him playfully on his arm.

"Hi, Ev," Connor said, a small smile on his face, "c'mon in!"

Evan walked in eagerly, while Jared and Alana followed suite. Connor then lead them all to Zoe's room, opening the door to reveal Zoe busying herself with the television remote.

"Oh, you guys arrived," she said excitedly as she reached for the remote that controlled the television in her room.

Connor nodded and then sat down on the floor, with Evan following swiftly after to sit beside him. Alana, being comfortable as she has been to their house many times, sat on Zoe's bed, and Jared quietly sat beside Evan.

"Alright, what are we here for, exactly," Jared asked, a tad bit annoyed about being kept in the dark. Evan giggled, and then just smiled at Jared.

"W-We're gonna have a bonding session," he said, "I-I hope you don't mind, I mean, I should have asked if you did before hand but I, um, I figured that you wouldn't since both of you are free today."

"Alright, I guess," Jared replied, which came out more as a question rather than a reply.

"Well, not exactly a bonding session," Zoe added in, sitting on her bed next to Alana, "more like a have fun session."

Jared then looked from Zoe to Connor, giving a look of disbelief.

"Hey," he replied, noticing the look of disbelief, "this was Ev's idea. I couldn't deny it even if I wanted to."

This made Jared look at Evan, with the same look of disbelief.

"Wh-what?"

"And you say you two aren't dating? Just 'fess up, will ya?"

Evan felt his face burn up, which led him to playfully smack Jared's arm and then hide his face in his hands. Connor, on the other hand, just let out a nervous chuckle, a light shade of pink on his face.

"Alright," Zoe interrupted, tapping her phone which caused the music she paused to start playing again, "let's just have fun!"

—————

They are now sitting in a circle, facing each other. Evan felt nervous, as he could feel Connor right beside him. His heart went wild, thumping against his chest as he felt their knees accidentally brush against each other while Connor was trying to find a comfortable position to sit.

"So," Zoe spoke up turning her head from left to right. Alana, Jared, Evan and Connor, "anyone need me to explain this?"

Evan timidly tried to raise up his hand, but steadily moved it down as he noticed that no one else had queries about it. He glanced about, trying to see if they were all silently judging him. Connor realised what he tried to do and raised his hand non-chalantly, giving Evan the support he needed to raise his own hand emeith Connor.

"Alright, so we're gonna play Paranoia," Zoe said, leaning backwards to grab hold of the cup of orange juice she poured herself earlier. She then lifted it to her mouth, taking a quiet sip.

"So, we will go in a clockwise direction starting from me—" she moved her hand in a circle, from herself, to Alana, to Jared, to Evan, to Connor and then back to herself— "and when it's your turn, you will whisper a question to the person next to you. That person next to you have to answer out loud honestly, without saying the question."

She dug into her back pocket, pulling out a coin and placing her cup of orange juice back down onto the floor.

"Then, we flip this coin—" she placed it above her thumb, flicking it upwards and then successfully catching it with one hand— "Heads, you say the question, Tails, we move on to the next person. Got it?"

Evan felt anxious as soon as Zoe finished her sentence, but nodded his head to agree. It made him anxious to think of what would happen if they asked a question such as, 'who is your crush,' making him answer with Connor, and flipping the coin to get a head. That would be rather devastating.

Scratch that, extremely devastating.

"Ev, you okay," Connor asked. He noticed that Evan had been staring off into the distance, his hands constantly interlaced and fidgeting about.

"Uh, yeah, I, um, I'm just nervous about the, um, the questions," Evan replied, noticing that Jared was now smirking at him.

Oh boy.

And thus Zoe started. She whispered a question to Alana, cupping her hands to prevent the others from hearing the question. Alana smiled, confidently replied with, "I haven't," flipping the coin and getting tails.

She then moved on to Jared, who seemed very ecstatic to receive a question. She leaned over, cupping her hands near her mouth just as Zoe had done and whispered her question. Suddenly, Jared's look of excitement vanished, now with a more disappointing look.

"Aw, that wasn't intense at all, I have."

He flipped the coin, getting a heads.

"She asked me if I've ever eaten food after I dropped it for more than five seconds," he replied. Everyone looked at each other, and hummed in agreement. No one was surprised. It honestly seemed normal for him.

Jared moved over to Evan, and immediately Evan felt the intense fear for Jared's question. Not only was he about to ask him some super weird question, but he was breathing down his neck and it made him extremely uncomfortable.

"Have you ever wanted to kiss Connor?"

That was easy.

"Y-yes," he replied, seeing Jared pass him the coin. Now he wanted to tear up. Please don't be heads, he chanted over and over again in his head. He threw the coin up, catching it with his right hand and slamming it down on the back of his left. Slowly, he moved his hand over. He felt as if the rest of his life depended on this coin right here.

Tails.

A huge wave of relief swept over him. He felt his shoulders slump down, although he didn't remember tensing up at all. He felt himself let out a sigh of relief. He quietly passed the coin to Connor. He leaned in to Connor's ear, quietly whispering.

"D-do, um, do you have a…a crush on anyone?"

He moved back, seeing a light blush on Connor's face.

"Yeah, uh, I do," Connor replied, sheepishly scratching the back of his head with one hand as he tossed the coin and caught it.

Tails.

To be honest, Evan felt a little hurt by that statement. There was no way that Evan could have been that crush. That would mean that Connor had liked someone else. His crush liking someone else? That was a blow he couldn't take.

However, as hurt as he was, he was happy that Connor liked someone. Connor deserved to be happy. If Evan couldn't make him happy, then he would be willing to be the friend who would help him become happy.

Connor whispered his own question to Zoe, earning him a look of mild irritation from his sister.

"Urgh, I told you, no," Zoe replied, snatching the coin from Connor's hand, flipping it and getting heads.

"He asked if I stole his nail polish," she said, clearly irritated. Evan assumed it was something that Connor had been pushing her about for the past few days, inferred from her extremely aggressive response.

She then calmed herself, whispering her question to Alana. Alana seemed to smile a tad bit more. She then excited nodded her head, flipping the coin.

Heads.

"She asked if I shipped you two," she replied excitedly, pointing to Evan and Connor. Once again, Evan's face bloomed with red and Connor's with a light pink.

"Lol, who doesn't," Jared added in, chuckling as he grabbed the coin from Alana, making the both of them feel more embarrassed.

Alana seemingly stuck on what to ask Jared of all people a question, took a moment to think about a useful question. Zoe moved in, whispered a question to Alana which made her giggle. She leaned over, whispering to Jared. Jared's excited face quickly morphed into a face of disgust.

"What? Of course not," Jared exclaimed, taken aback. He seemed genuinely shocked about the question asked, which was rare. He snatched the coin from Alana's hand, throwing into the air and then catching it, aggressively so. The coin showed heads.

"She asked me if I liked eating bathbombs," Jared mocked, mimicking Alana's high pitched voice horribly. He seemed seemingly disgusted with the idea, mimicking gagging noises, "just because I worked at Lush doesn't mean I tried to eat those."

"W-wait, you didn't," Evan asked, confused, "I thought, um, one of the employees saw you eating it in the backroom?"

Jared sighed, irritated. He pushed up his glasses, proceeding to explain the back story behind it. He explained that his aunt wanted to surprise her daughter with a beautiful bathbomb, and thus he decided to help by sneaking it into his satchel.

While doing that, he was caught by the employee who suddenly walked in one him hiding it in his satchel, causing him to throw it upwards. His mouth was wide opened with the shock of being caught and possibly fired, and the bathbomb just got thrown into his mouth.

They all nodded in acknowledgement, a tad bit mystified with the story behind his whole bathbomb joke. He then passed the coin over to Evan, and leaned forward to whisper his question.

"Do you want to su—"

"Jared, c-come on, be serious," Evan interrupted, insisting that he shouldn't be joking around with these types of questions as his face felt like it's burning up.

"Alright, alright," he replied, leaning in once more.

"Do you think you'll be happy if you're with Connor?"

Evan leaned away from Jared, taken aback by the sudden seriousness in his tone as he asked that question. That question was too serious for Jared, even without his jokester persona. It was completely unexpected, but Evan knew the answer well. He didn't even faze when answering the question.

"Yes," he answered, confidently and without a shred of doubt, "I do."

Jared smiled acknowledgingly, placing his hand on Evan's shoulder to show him that he supports his decision.

"Good," he replied, while Evan flipped the coin, once again hoping it doesn't get heads. He got tails again, thankfully. He then passed the coin to Connor who witnessed the whole scene with the both of them, obviously confused and intrigued by the topic.

"D-do you, um, do you wanna tell me who your crush is," Evan asked, suddenly feeling like everything was uncomfortable. His body felt warm. All his limbs suddenly felt like they don't belong in the position they are now, even though they were all comfortable before.

"You don't have to," he exclaimed, leaning away from Connor, trying to explain his question with a more than obvious blush, "i-it's just that I was curious, is all…"

Connor smiled reassuringly, petting Evan on his head and ruffling through his hair. He then said, "yeah, I do. Just, not right now."

He gestured over to the other three people in the room by glancing over at them, which Evan nodded in response to show that he will comply with his request. The other three in the room held expressions of confusion, but followed the rules and did not ask for what the question was. Connor flipped the coin, tails. He passed the coin over to Zoe, and whispered his question.

"Nah, Mom just hid it under your bed since you thought there were monsters," Zoe replied, flipping the coin. Heads.

"He asked if our Mom actually threw away his old stuffed toy," Zoe chuckled, staring at the coin and passing it off to Alana. Connor stood up, walking out of the room in a hurry. Evan, Jared and Alana looked up in confusion.

"He wants to check if it's still there," Zoe replied, and then leaned over to whisper her question to Alana, who giggled.

"You started it, I'm not apologising," she replied, still giggling as she flipped the coin, tails. She then leaned over the Jared and whispered the question, getting another look of annoyance from Jared.

"No, I don't want to," he said, getting angry as he threw the coin up. Landed on heads. Jared sighed, very much angered to have to answer this question, but he repeated the question anyways.

"She asked if I would want to eat a bathbomb if I'm given one right now."

All of them started laughing except for Jared, who was just annoyed and unamused. He didn't wait until the laughter died down, and just leaned towards Evan.

"So, you have a major crush on Connor," Jared whispered the question over to Evan, who seemed a little more relieved that Connor wasn't in the room. That way, if it landed on heads at least Connor would not hear it.

He nodded and flipped the coin, which landed on heads.

Immediately, he buried his blushing face in his palms, attempting to drown out the loud howling laughter from Jared. Alana and Zoe were now intrigued, and stared at Evan with anticipation.

"H-he, um—" he asked swallowing his saliva out of nervousness— "he asked if I, uh, if I had a crush on, um, on Connor."

With that he buried his head in his legs, blushing furiously while Jared continued with the laughing session. Alana and Zoe both had this moment of acknowledgement, staring at Evan with hope in their eyes.

"Who wants some snacks—"

Connor walked in on Jared slamming his fist onto the floor with one hand, and clutching his stomach with the other, laughing loudly. Zoe and Alana loudly exclaiming 'aw' while giggling and Evan burying his head in his legs on the floor, head down.

Evan noticed the door open, and looked up, face still red as he faced Connor. Connor was holding onto this little stuffed bunny under his arm, with packs of chips in his hands. He noticed the doll and how adorable Connor looked, forcing his face to become hotter, burying it deeper in his arms and legs.

Jared was calming down, and looked over to the door. He noticed Evan looking at Connor and blushing even harder, which made him laugh even more, with occasionally coughing fits.

"Ev, you okay," Connor asked, concerned about how red his face was, "what did they do?"

Evan, who was so embarrassed by his confession, buried his face in Connor's chest the moment he saw him bend down beside him to look at him in his eyes.

Connor, confused about the situation, just followed along, hugging him back.

"Oh my god, I was gone for five minutes," Connor said, looking up from Evan to face the other three, "what did you guys do?"

All Connor got for a response was more laughter and more 'aw's, while Evan wished he could just hide somewhere.

—————

"Alright," Zoe said, as Jared apologised to Evan once more, "let's start singing."

Evan finally stopped feeling embarrassed, and was now excited by the idea of singing with Zoe again. They were honestly the first two people who's ever heard Evan sing, and they liked it, which made Evan immediately feel comfortable with it.

Jared suddenly lit up, and placed his hands on Evan's shoulder.