One Night

Evan cleaned off his plate, rinsing it before placing it in the sink, and left the kitchen. He went to the living room, picking up his bag, and put up his hood. While he waited for the bus to arrive, Evan glanced at his phone. He had a few messages, mainly from one of the girls at school. Her name was Sally. She had fancied him since they were in the second grade, despite her claiming to hate the very idea of men. For the most part, she had sent him texts to remind him to wake up. Whenever she visited, Evan always gave her a hard time when it came to waking up. One one particular occasion, Sally had to resort to putting a few ice cubes down Evan's shorts. Needless to say, he awoke very quickly afterwards.
As he scrolled through the messages, he noticed one from a different friend. NICK had texted him. This, at least for Nick, was fairly strange. In the mornings, he wasn't usually coordinated enough to even find his phone. Let alone text. Yet, there it was, right in his messages, a text from Nick.

"Sit with me. Back seat, to your left as you get on the bus, and put your head against the seat in front of us" he said, in the message.
Evan replied to the message with a simple "K" and then sat on the steps in front of the house. It was probably another three or four minutes before the bus came to a halt at his stop. As he stepped onto the bus, he looked towards the back. Walking down the aisle of the bus, he noted just the top of Nick's hood. He sat down, did what the message said, and smiled.
"Are you okay, man?" Evan asked, a little fidgety. His hands were over his knees but, despite his grip, would not keep still.
Nick nodded, not giving a verbal answer. Instead, he handed an ear bud of his headphones to Evan, as a silent offer to join him in some music. Evan placed it into his ear, listening close to the lyrics.

For the past few years, Nick had a habit of singing along to songs that he loved. However, he wouldn't do it very loud. If he was sitting with someone, he tried to make it so that they couldn't hear him. Evan was one of the few who'd actually ever heard him. Most of Nick's friends thought that singing was a weak hobby and made fun of the chorus group at their school.
"I thought you didn't like Evanescence..." Evan said, noticing Nick mouthing the words to the song Good Enough.
Nick sat up a little, looking towards Evan, and spoke. "So, I can still surprise my best friend after all these years? At least one of us can. You're too easy to read..."
Evan shrunk down, feeling about two inches tall, until his hands were steadied by Nick.
"Just like kids are with food, sometimes our tastes change when we get older" Nick said, giving him a smirk and letting go of Evan's hands very slowly.
This sent a cold shiver through Evan, one that he hated, and Nick laughed a little.

Evan had a sensitive side of him, of which he resented fully, that a few of his friends took advantage of. Including Nick. They'd first noticed it, when they were about fifteen years old, during an overnight at Evan's house. They'd been watching some lame comedy, of which they'd seen probably fifty times, and were mocking it. Sometime during the movie, they'd started a bit of play fighting. After a few minutes, Nick had Evan pinned on the floor being tickled and childish things as such. However, when Nick went over a spot near Evan's mid left side, a side of weakness came out through his voice. Shivers went through him, as he arched back slightly, and leaked out a quiet whimper. Since that evening, Nick made sure to keep Evan on edge, watching and waiting, in case it was repeated.

"I'm sorry" Nick said, looking back towards the floor of the bus.
Evan let out a scoff of disagreement. "No you're not..."
"You make it too fun to resist, though. Even just as a joke" Nick chuckled.
"It's NOT funny" Evan snapped.
"Dude, what are you going to do when you finally get a date and they realize that about you? If you don't learn to pull a poker face or distract yourself or SOMETHING, you're doomed. You'll be as weak as a drug addicted hooker" Nick said, nudging him.
They both laughed, despite how upset Evan was and serious Nick had tried to be.

It wasn't so much that Nick knew about Evan's weak spot, really, that bothered him. In fact, it was a secret joy to him that Nick knew. No, what bothered him was that he actually liked Nick and he knew that there was no way in hell Nick would ever look at any guy like that...let alone Evan.
That was what bothered him so much. That was why he got all flustered. And, that was also why he usually avoided Nick during the day whenever it happened.
Sometimes, depending on how focused he'd end up on him, he'd just walk home. It was about a twenty minute longer journey than the bus would've taken but, as is expected, Evan really didn't care.