Connor and Evan stood in the doorway. Evan was frozen, his eyebrows furrowed. A woman with blonde hair ending just below her shoulders entered the hallway. She was speaking to Evan.

". . . Your friend?" Was all he caught. Evan stuttered out a response. He was talking to fast and repeating so many words Connor couldn't understand him.

The woman directed her speech towards Connor. He was about to sign that he couldn't hear, but Evan beat him to it. The woman gasped and covered her mouth. She spewed out an apology.

'I'm sorry,' the lady signed. Connor took a step back in surprise. He wasn't expecting her to know sign language. 'I'm Heidi Hansen.'

'Connor Murphy,' he responded. 'How do you know sign language?'

'My parents wanted me to be bilingual when I was younger, but I couldn't speak at the time so they taught me sign language. I ended up forgetting how to do it, but when an eight-year-old Evan came to me saying there was a deaf kid in his class and that he wanted to learn sign language, I ended up learning it too.'

Connor nodded and Heidi directed her attention towards Evan. She said something to him. He mumbled a reply.

Evan kneeled down to undo the dog's work vest and leash. Once free, the dog ran over to the grey couch and jumped on it, laying down on the arm. His paws hung over the edge and he rested his head on his paws.

The two continued speaking but Connor wasn't making a move to try to understand them. He was busy looking at the apartment. There was an old box television with a Wii hooked up to it next to the patio door. Confused, he decided to ask Evan about it when Heidi left the room.

'I don't use it often because I can't,' was Evan's reply, 'but whenever Jared comes over, he turns on Netflix and I just listen to it.'

Evan walked over to the couch and sat down. Connor followed and sat next to him. They sat in silence for awhile.

'I should probably go get my copy of the Raven so we can begin the project,' Evan said. He stood up and walked over to the hallway and disappeared. Connor dug out his phone so he could look up a copy online. Upon turning on the phone, texts filled the lock screen. They were from Zoe, asking where he was and that if he wasn't back in time for dinner, Larry was going to be mad.

Connor's reply was a simple: fuck off Zoe. He pocketed the phone right as Evan returned. He was holding a book of what Connor assumed was poems. He also had a sheet of paper and some other things. He had no idea what they were.

Evan sat back down, on the left side this time. Heidi came back into the room, saying that she was leaving for her next shift and would be back around six and if Connor needs a ride, she can drop him off.

When she left, the two boys got to work.

Heidi paced around in the living room, phone up to her ear. It was midnight and she was trying to be as quiet as she could. She had just gotten done with class when she got the phone call.

"Heidi," the man said, "I know I haven't been there but I care about-"

"You lost your chance, John," Heidi interrupted, "you lost that chance when you left us. If you truly cared about us you wouldn't have left."

"I have rights too, you know!" John exclaimed. "I want to be a decent father but you won't let me help, let alone be near him!"

"If you want to be a decent father, then why don't you try talking to him?" Heidi stood in front of the door to the porch. "And if he doesn't want to talk to you, then I guess that settles it."

"Can you get him, then?" John asked, sounding desperate.

"It's after midnight, why would he be up? And he has school tomorrow, so I'm not going to wake him." Heidi turned and saw Evan standing in the end of the hallway, leaning against the wall. "I'll have to call you back John. It's very late and I have work in six hours."

She turned off her phone before John could respond. "What are you doing up, Evan?" She asked, her voice low.

"I uh, you were kind loud and, and it woke me. What were, what were you talking about?"

"Your father had called saying he wanted to pay for your eye surgery," Heidi said. She took a few steps toward her son. "He also said he wants to try to talk to you, but that's up to you."

Evan shook his head and walked over to the kitchen table. He pulled out a chair and sat down. "I don't want him to." He crossed his ankles and put his hands between his knees.

"Don't want him to what?"

"Both," he explained. "I just- why does he think he can ent- walk back into my life after nine years and make a big decision in my life? But. . . At the same time I want him to pay for it. That, that way you won't have, have to work more hours to pay it off. I don't want to be a bother."

Heidi frowned and hurried over to her son. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. He let out a noise of surprise, but she didn't let up. "Evan," she started, "it doesn't matter how much it costs. You are not a bother, a burden. Don't you ever think that."

"Sorry." Evan fidgeted in his seat.

Heidi let go and smiled at him. "I love you."

"Love you too, mom."

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Heidi suggested. "It's late."

Evan nodded and stood up. Heidi backed up and watched her son move down the hall. He stopped at his room and turned around. "And mom? Tomorrow is Saturday."

Evan sat on the couch across from the fire in Caribou Coffee. He sipped his hot chocolate as he waited for Connor to show up. He had his copy of the Raven out on the table in front of him. They had planned to finish up the project which was due on Monday. Evan was afraid of what would happen after it was finished. Would Connor still want to hang out? Probably not, he was too odd and awkward. Who would willingly hang out with him? Not Jared apparently.

The bell above the cafe door rang and the door slammed shut. Evan tried not to jump at the noise. The couch dipped down and two shoulder taps caught his attention. He gave a small wave in the general direction, hoping Connor was there and that he wasn't waving at a random stranger. Or the barista that made Evan's order.

'You ready to finish this thing?' Connor asked. Evan nodded, although he wasn't really.

'We just need alliteration, consonance, and personification,' Evan said. 'I worked on it a little last night because I couldn't sleep.'

'Aren't those like, the hardest ones?'

Evan nodded. 'Which is why I saved them for last.' Although, now that he thought about it, it would've made sense to do it first. Because what if they got stuck on it? Then they wouldn't be able to turn in the project, and even if it didn't count toward your grade, Evan would till fail somehow because he'd probably get stuck on other problems involving those terms because he didn't know how to find them the first time. And then the teacher would call Heidi to say that her son was failing class because of multiple missing assignments and she'd be disappointed because it's only the first month of school and she would take longer hours so she wouldn't have to see her disappointment she called "son" and if he failed it, then Connor would fail it and then he'd be mad—madder than he already is at him—and then-

'Dude, are you alright?' Connor asked. 'You're kind of shaking and rocking back and forth.'

Was he? He immediately stopped. "Sorry," he said, momentarily forgetting Connor couldn't hear him. He could feel his intense stare and he shakily reached for his cup. He sipped slowly, holding the liquid in his mouth, hoping the burning sensation would calm him down. "Let's just get this over with."

He was about to reach for the book when Connor stopped him. He looked over, furrowing his eyebrows.

'Look, don't think that I care, because I don't,' he started, 'but I don't think you're in good condition to work on this right now.'

'I'm perfectly okay, what makes you think otherwise?' He signed so fast he wasn't sure Connor got it all.

'Your dog is staring at you.'

Evan looked to the floor. He bent down to pet Charles and realized his head was a lot higher than it was when he got here, so he was sitting up. Evan frowned and rubbed the dog's head before turning back to Connor.

'You don't understand,' he said. 'If I don't get this done, I'll freak out more.'

'We are not working on this until you've calmed down.'

'I'm completely calm.'

'Hansen, you look like you're about to break your cup.'

Sure enough, that's what happened. Evan yelled as the hot drink spilled onto his pants and shirt. Charles barked and hopped onto the couch. The hot chocolate burned his skin, probably going to leave a nasty mark considering he had gotten that drink only five minutes ago, leaving no time for it to cool down. Walking around was going to be fun.

Connor returned from wherever he went and pressed napkins onto Evan's pants. Evan started patting down his clothes, hissing in pain. Charles rested his chin on Evan's shoulder. Once the napkins were damp with hot chocolate and his pants were mostly okay, all of Evan's senses came back.

People are looking at me. I am now officially dubbed the stupid junior who managed to get so worried over a stupid project that he spilled his drink over himself and was mostly likely going to get third degree burns and have to go to the hospital. Which would mean mom would have to work more to pay for my hospital bills and she'd hate me-

Two taps on the shoulder made him freeze. He was spiraling again.

'It got over the papers,' Connor said.

Evan's blood turned cold. Was he joking? It had to be a sick joke to make Evan panic. There's no way he-

Sure enough when Evan touched the paper, warm liquid met his fingertips. He could feel his heart spazzing and sweat forming on his back and forehead.

What were they going to do now? They had spent three days on the whole thing and right as they were about to finish, Evan had to go and screw it up all because he couldn't keep his emotions in check. Now they were going to fail, Connor would blame Evan—he has every right to—and the stress of knowing he made Connor fail would eat him alive and he'd fail all his classes and have to live in a box on the street because he wouldn't graduate and get a job-

Connor shook the anxious boy. 'Stop crying, people are staring.'

He was crying? Evan put a finger to his cheek and it came back wet. He sniffed and wrapped his arms around himself. Connor grabbed one arm so he could speak.

'Let's go somewhere else,' he suggested. 'I know a great ice cream place nearby. You up for it?'

Evan reached out a shaky hand. 'Count me in.'