Rewrite Some Lines

Evan found himself outside his long time friend's house. He had gone back to the suburbs for Christmas, but he refused to go back to his own home. Besides, he was not even sure where that would be anymore, if his parents still lived here, that is.

He plunged his gloved hand into a pocket, coming up with a phone gripped tightly between his fingers. He flipped it open, stiffly dialing Skye's number, when the door opened in front of him and a sleepy looking man poked his head out. Evan slid the phone back into his pocket quietly, his eyes zooming in on a small child running about in the background.

"Yes? Who're you?" The man asked, idling rubbing his five o' clock shadow and looking Evan up and down, as if sizing him up. Evan was not fond of the look, and almost wished he could wipe it off the man’s face.

"Oh, uh," Evan started, craning his neck to try and look inside more; worried he had gotten the wrong house. "Is Skye here? Or am I at a different house...?" He trailed off, watching the man’s eyes squint at him.

"What 'cha want Skye for? I don't remem-"

"Oh my God!" A high pitched voice chimed in somewhere behind the man. "Ev? Ev Baby, is that you? Oh Jesus, Kyng, you ass, let him in! It's cold outside!" Skye pushed her way around her older brother and shoved him off to the side to run out on the snow covered porch and fling herself into Evan's arms. "Oh, I missed you so much! It's been forever!” She pulled back from the hug to look Evan in the eyes, a giant smile on her face. "How are you? Are you hungry? Come inside, come inside! You must be cold!" She grabbed his wrist and dragged him along the foyer, through the sitting room, and into the kitchen to plop him down at a sizable table.

Evan kept quiet while Skye bustled around the kitchen, setting coffee makers to heat water and some toast to brown. Her brother stood off to the side of the kitchen, leaning against the wall and looking him over disapprovingly. It took him a moment to figure out what had warranted the strange and hateful stare. Oh. "Hey um, I'm not her boyfriend or anything." He said aloud, making a gesture towards the oblivious Skye. "We're just friends." He added a bit later, for emphasis. The man’s eyes tightened even more.

"You a fag?" He questioned lightly, his mouth turning into a minute frown.

Evan swallowed, not entirely sure how to answer that. "Erm, well, I'm not-"

"Here you go! Eat up! We have plenty of food so don't worry about getting more." Skye interrupted, placing a plate full of toast smothered in jam and a steaming cup of unsweetened tea in front of him as she joined him at the table. She turned her head to the side a bit, casting Kyng a death threat that Evan did not fail to notice. Her brother then left the room to go round up the small children.

Evan had barely begun to eat when Skye spoke back up. "Don't mind him, he means well." She excused, sighing wearily. "He gets really protective of me for the most part. It's nothing personal. He'll come around later." She smiled softly, looking up from under her lashes at him while her hand reached out to play with a single wavy lock of his hair that had fallen into his face. To anyone else, this might have looked like flirting.

But Evan and Skye worked on a different level. Neither could explain it, it just simply was. And they were okay with that explanation. "Oh, hey. Take off your jacket for me and I can go hang it up in the closet so you don't get anything on it." She scooted back from the table and stood up, standing over Evan, waiting.

Evan unbuttoned his thick jacket and let it slip off his shoulders and pool around his waist. As he turned to pick the garment up from behind him on the chair, he heard a light gasp and quickly turned in question. "What...?" He turned to meet with a finger dangerously close to his face. He remembered the events of the day before clearly in his mind and frowned a bit at the thought.

"You...you're all..." Skye cocked her head to the side and took a few tentative steps forward, reaching out slowly to touch his arm at first, but then later she began to paw at him, feeling his arms. Evan felt a little more than awkward at this point. "When did you get all...muscly?" She asked boldly, squeezing his bicep all the while. "I guess I should've noticed when I hugged you but I just thought...I just thought it was your jacket. Did you start working out? When did this happen? I was certain you'd always be a skinny little bean pole, Ev."

Evan rolled his eyes and continued trying to hand her his jacket. "You haven't seen me in a few years, Skye. People can change a bit in that time, y'know?" She shook her head quickly, refusing this idea of a manlier version of Evan. He sighed. "After my first year of college, when you saw me last, I decided I was sick of being the lanky kid. So...I trained, and here I am. I'm still the same person, Skye. I can just stick up for myself now." He had such a look of pride on his face when he gave his little speech that Skye could do nothing else but agree with him.

"Okay then," Skye mumbled, finally accepting his jacket. "It just took me by surprise is all. Not used to you like this. Maybe if you had, you know, come to visit once in a while I wouldn't be so shocked, but whatever." She left the room sounding miffed, and Evan felt like a douche.

This was going to be an awfully interesting stay for the week.

--

It was Christmas Eve, and Kyng's children were fast asleep at this late hour while the adults in the house busily set up Santa's nightly visit. Skye sat on the couch and busily munched on the cookies she had baked earlier that evening with her youngest sibling, Ryan. Tyler, Lloyd, and Kyng all bustled to get the presents in the right order and set out carefully. It was Evan's job to 'clean up after Santa' and gather all the stray wrappings, random pieces of litter, and anything else that could clue the kids in on how Santa got into their house when they had no chimney.

Despite the late hour and the task given to him, Evan felt at ease while he went around picking up various items to keep the room spotless.

"Hey Ev," Skye whispered around a chunk of cookie. "I was wondering, after the kids get their stuff and we take pictures and things, if you wanted to go out to the park with me and ice skate."

Evan looked up at her face, so rosy and bright, and shrugged. "Yeah sure."

Skye went back to her cookie happily, nudging Ryan when he began to fall asleep with a cookie sill lodged in his mouth. Apparently they had made up now. It was always simple like this. They would get into a tiff, one of them would go away, pouting, and then they would make up soon after. Evan felt comforted by the fact that Skye ran like clockwork and was always so predictable, even when to the untrained eye she was as spontaneous as a jackrabbit, and just as bouncy, as well.

The skating trip went rather well, Evan had to admit. While drifting over the slick ice, their lungs filling with that distinct smell of the snow, Evan had told Skye all about Rea and her insanity. Skye seemed appalled at the mention of some of the things the crazy woman would do or say to get Evan to stay with her. She could not imagine ever acting that way to a guy, and clearly gave her opinion on how nuts this woman was.

Evan almost caught himself smiling while he watched Skye rant about women like these giving females a bad rap. He loved his friend, deep down. He really did. He supposed he could safely say Skye is the only person he has ever loved, though the love did not extend passed friendship, nor did he ever want it to. Somehow, he knew going beyond that line they had both drawn early on would ruin the magic of their relationship and they would never get it back. He could not dream of such a day.

Early in their relationship - right after Skye came up to him in the hallway of their mutual high school and declared him to be her new friend - Evan actually had a small, boyish crush on her. It was nothing serious, as he had Jason to worry about at the time, but he still felt as giddy and warm around her now as he did then. He knew that even if no serious relationship ever worked out for him, as how it was beginning to seem now, that he would always have Skye by his side, being his little cheerleader, through thick and thin, and that thought made him smile ever so slightly.

--

New Year's had been a few days ago and soon it was going to be time for Evan to head back up to the college. He and Skye were currently sitting on his loaned bed; Skye's brothers and their respective families having left their parent's house earlier to go back home now that the festivities were over.

"I'm going to move away from here this summer." Skye blurted out, a pile of the year's photographs to her left with a scrapbook to her right. "I mean, I want to move to New York. I'm sick of living in St. Louis. My brothers can be overbearing at times. I love them sure, but I've lived so close to them my entire life and I just want some freedom, you know what I mean?" She put down the photos in her hand and looked up at him carefully, reading his face.

Evan pressed his mouth into a thin line, his brows furrowed in thought. "Why so far away?"

"I like New York. Besides, I have a friend there." She said, smiling.

Even frowned and tilted his head a little. "Ya do? I didn't know you had a friend up there. Who is it?"

Skye chucked lightly under her breath and set a warm hand over his arm. "You."

--

A/N: After writing twice as many words as I needed earlier today, I figured I'd spoil those of you reading with an update since I really want to hurry along to the good stuff. ;D

Also, I wanted to thank Lisa for reviewing! And you'll see if Evan eventually tells about his experience later~