Sucking Up – Evan tag Barnes & Durrand household

[Evan Hughes]

It ended up being really good foresight that Evan had set his alarm clock, because if it wasn’t for the blaring alarm from across the other side of the room, it was very likely that the candy filled teenager would have spent the morning sleeping. But somewhere between his cursing and his forcing himself out of bed to walk across the room and shut off the awful sound, he remembered just why he had the ungodly thing on in the first place. And he never moved so fast in his life.

He bolted for the shower, ignoring the freezing cold water for the sake of getting clean as quickly as possible. And then there was a naked dash from the bathroom to his room, luckily for his mother she was in the kitchen, to quickly get dressed. And he made himself look nice, well, he tried to make himself nice. His good jeans, his nice, not yet torn AC/DC shirt, nice sneakers and relatively combed hair. He really was worried about what Brittany was going to say to him.

And then he rushed downstairs, yelling out to his mum both morning greetings and assurances that he wasn’t hungry. Something that was enough unlike her son to get the older woman a little worried. Jumping in his car, he made his way to Brittany’s house, taking a brief detour to get flowers. He figured it couldn’t hurt, and he picked up the most colourful bunch he could, all yellow, red and pink, not having a clue what flowers they actually were. He knew roses and tulips, and he knew the bunch he had didn’t have any of them in it.

Fearing the worst, he pulled up in front of the house, and it was an usually restrained and quiet Evan who very slowly made his way to the front door, knocking on it.

[Brittany Barnes]

Mrs. Maria Durrand was in the kitchen, usually an early riser--even on weekends because she was used to it--she'd gotten up and had breakfast with her husband and now was working on her second cup of coffee, while he'd retreated to his studio to work on his latest composition. Maria didn't really mind so much though. It was Sunday morning and she was enjoying the time to herself as the girls were still sleeping. Or maybe Brittany was just sleeping. She knew that Aly had gone out last night and mentioned that she might stay over at a friends. Either way, it was time to Maria to enjoy her coffee and the crossword puzzle in the Sunday paper. It was just as she sat down with it that she heard the knock on the door.

Still dressed in her robe, since she hadn't been expecting anyone, she quickly smoothed over her hair as she walked to the door, peaking through the peep hole. Evan. And were those flowers? Maybe this would explain why Brittany was acting the way she was acting. She'd seemed unusually upset all weekend, not to mentioned she'd stayed in, which was something that wasn't normal for the girl, especially since she'd started dating Evan. Sure, she'd had Ian over, but Maria had still been worried about her daughter, not that Brittany would tell her what was going on...which was somewhat annoying since Maria liked to consider her relationship with her daughter rather close, especially since they'd spent all those years living on their own.

"Evan," she said, once she opened the door. "Come in," she told him. "I'm sure you told Brittany that you were coming but of course she's still asleep," she said lightly, although eying the flowers she almost wondered if the boy had come over unannounced. Sure, Brittany tended to sleep in whether she had early plans or not, but it was also clear that something was going on with the couple, from how Brittany had been acting to how subdued the normally vivacious boy seemed to be. "Would you like a coffee or anything? I can go wake up Brit," she offered. While she trusted her daughter, she still didn't really think it was proper to send the boyfriend up to her room while she was still in bed. She also wanted to give Brittany the opportunity to refuse his company, if she chose to.

---
Upstairs Brittany was in bed but she wasn't really asleep. She hadn't slept well. She'd woken up a few times during the night and again that morning when she'd heard her mother and Michael get up. She hadn't been able to fall back asleep yet but that didn't mean that she was ready to get out of bed either. She heard the knock on the door, but wasn't really sure who it would be. She knew that Evan had mentioned stopping by today...something she was sort of dreading, only because she still wasn't sure how to face him, but she really wasn't expecting him until later. So she stayed there lying on her stomach, wishing that she could fall back asleep.

[Evan Hughes]

Though three other people shared the house with Brittany, Evan still wasn’t expecting the door to be answered by anyone besides her, which was why he was caught by surprise, for just a moment, when the door was opened and it was her mum, not his cute girlfriend, standing on the other side of it. “Uh, hi, good morning Mrs Durrand.” he quickly recovered, giving a forced smile, before taking a step in like she suggested. “Thanks.”

He was nervous before he had even arrived, and now that he was speaking to her and not her daughter, he was even more so, for two reasons. One, it meant he had to wait longer to speak to Brit, when the night was long enough already, so more time just made the nerves grow. And secondly, he didn’t know what she had told her mum, this was the sort of thing girls talked to about with their mums, right? So he was expecting the woman to blast him at any moment. When she didn’t, he felt slightly relieved, though still awkward. He saw her eye the flowers and he wondered how much she knew. Like his mum, the older Barnes, well, Durrand now, seemed oddly perceptive. It was weird, like it was some sort of mum super-power.

“She is?” he spoke softly (odd for him), sounding a little surprised. He didn’t get much sleep himself, finding it hard to fall asleep, and he guessed, kinda hoped actually cause that must mean she cared about him still, that Brittany had been the same. Obviously not. “Yep, she knew I was coming. I didn’t tell her, um, what time though, so maybe that’s why. She’s still asleep.” he explained, for once having a hard time speaking.

The offer of coffee once again reminded him he hadn’t had anything this morning, and reaffirmed that fact that he really didn’t want to. “No thank you, I’m okay.” he told her politely, while his hands tightened around the flowers in his hand, holding onto them for dear life. “Um, sure, maybe just go see if she’s awake. Cause she knew I was coming, maybe she’s getting ready? Uh, please, if that’s okay.” he managed to get out, moving nervously from foot to foot.

[Brittany Barnes]

Maria felt sorry for the boy. He seemed unnaturally quiet and Brit seemed unnaturally down about things. What ever was going on between them seemed like it was quite serious...or at least serious to them. Maria doubted that the problems of a high school couple could be that huge after all.

She nodded, empathetic ally when he asked if he could go up and wake Brittany, even if it did sort of go against her better judgment to let her daughter and the boy she was dating alone in her room while she was still in bed. The thing was, that Maria actually liked Evan. Brittany had been really happy since she'd met him, and he had sort of pushed her into making some new friends as well, which she thought was healthy. Heck, Brittany was even getting on with Aly a little better, and she'd heard about Evan helping out in the shooting. He was a good guy.

"Go ahead," she said, motioning for the boy to go up to Brittany's room. Whatever they needed to sort out, hopefully they could figure out what worked best for them. Maria watched as the boy headed up the stairs, turning back to her coffee and cross word, although she made a mental note to check on them at some point.

---
Brittany was still laying in bed when she heard a light tapping sound on her door. She sat up. "Mom? Aly?" she asked, not sure who it would be. When the door opened and she saw Evan her hazel eyes widened slightly. "Oh...um...I didn't realize you'd be coming this early," she said quietly, smoothing over her bangs a little so they weren't sticking up. She stared at him for a moment...he was holding flowers and she sort of had the urge to hug him, but she didn't. It was harder being mad at him while he was standing right there. "So...um...what's up?" she asked, quietly, still sitting in bed.

[Aly Durrand]

Aly did stay out all night. She and Tyler had quite the night. Yes like most virgins it did hurt, but Tyler was an exceptional lvoer so the pain did not last long and Aly was left satisfied more then once. So she barely got any sleep. She woke up the next day took a shower with Tyler and got dressed. She thanked Tyler for dropping her off back at home.

Aly saw the new car and looked at it with disdain. God, he was here wonderful. It just made Aly think of Jasper. Aly shook her head and rolled her eyes and tough back to Tyler, which made her glow. Aly walked in and nodded at Maria. Maria might not approve of Aly staying out all night with a boy, but Michael was wrapped around Ally's finger, so of course he said yes and he is the one who mattered. Well kind of.

Aly slowly took her bag and made her way up the stairs to her room. She eyed the commotion down the hall and eyed the shadow. Yeah the stupid pig was here. Okay so Aly knew Evan should be forgiven, but still, Aly was about teaching lessons and Evan was no innocent. He hurt Barney and no one id that.

As Aly approached the boy standing there and she got this sudden urge to slap him upside the head and Aly did just that. She lightly slapped Evan upside the head. Aly smirked as she leaned against the door frame. "Oops, my bad..your head got in the way of my hand." Aly said eyed Evan with flowers. Really. Flowers. Stupid man. Although the slap was not hard, it was very light. Also it kind of helped, since she wished she could do that to Jasper.

[Evan Hughes]

“Thanks.” Evan smiled, one of his first real smiles for that morning, actually glad of the chance to go under the guillotine sooner rather than later. It was the not knowing that was getting to him, and while he was really, really hoping Brit wasn’t planning on doing what his pessimistic side told him she was planning on doing. It was just a kiss after all, one he didn’t want in the first place, and one he would take back if he ever invented a time machine.

He would never do something like that to her, cheat on her, he hoped she knew that. It was wrong, not to mention, he was crazy about her, and he figured he made that obvious. Especially after he dropped the big L bomb a couple of days earlier. He knew told any girl that before, let alone even thought about it, but he couldn’t help it with Brit. He knew how he felt about her, and he wasn’t one to keep his thoughts to himself. She was his girl. And hopefully she still would be at the end of the day. And if not, he thought to himself, that would really, really suck.

Second guessing his choice of flowers, at first wondering if he should have gone for roses or at least something more expensive, then wondering if he should have gone for something else entirely, he took his time walking up the stairs, towards her room. In the end, he figured it was too late to do anything about it now, so he might as well hope for the best. Knocking softly on her door, he waited for her to speak, half-disappointed that his name wasn’t included. If only Patch could see him now, he was sure his friend would find the sight of him funny. He just really wasn’t good with all this serious stuff.

Hesitating a beat, Evan opened the door, smiling a little when he saw her. “Uh, yeah, sorry if I woke you. I just, you know, didn’t want to wait. Wanted to see you.” He grinned a little more as he took the sight of his still current girlfriend in. “I like your hair. Back to orange.” he said, cursing himself as soon as he did. Of course she knew it was orange, he didn’t have to tell her that. “It looks really good. Uh, well, you look beautiful Brit.” Even with the sleep in the corners of her eyes, and her newly dyed hair sticking up in places.

He didn’t know what to say to her after that, quickly cycling through his head for any ideas. Before discarding them all. He was worried, so he might as well get those worries off his chest. It was why he was here so early after all. “Well, um, I....ow.” he muttered, taking a step into the room, in an attempt to avoid whatever it was that hit him. It wasn’t as though it hurt, he’d been hit in the head so many times by so many things, he was used to it by now. It was just the surprise, in the middle of him trying to say something serious, that got him.

His head whipped around, and he really wasn’t surprised when he saw the one person he really didn’t want to see that morning. “Uh, yeah.” he muttered, and it was obvious something was wrong, with the way he wasn’t ready with a comeback or smart remark. “Hi Aly.” he eventually settled on, and when he realised she was looking at the flowers, he remembered he was holding them again, so he set them down on Brittany’s bed. “Um, was hoping we could talk.” he directed at Brit, clearly not wanting an audience, ie Brit’s step-sister who hated him. He was curious, though, about what Aly knew about what had happened, or if she just hit him for the sake of hitting him. Which wouldn’t be surprising.

[Brittany Barnes]

"Its okay. I wasn't really sleeping anyway. I just refuse to get out of bed before noon on non-weekdays. Okay...maybe that's a lie, but I try not to. I like to sleep in whenever I can...but you know that," Brittany said. She felt sort of awkward...Evan just standing there, staring at her sitting in bed. Something was off and they both knew it. Normally he would have ran over to her, jumped on her maybe, but he was just standing there all polite and stuff. Brittany didn't really like it.

She liked how they used to be. She wanted to go back to that. She almost wanted to suggest they go back to that but at the same time she sort of knew that it wasn't exactly possible. He mentioned her hair and she ran her fingers through it again, causing some of the pieces she hadn't even realized were sticking up to flatten on her head. "Yeah...sorry I didn't wait for you to dye it. I just wanted to do it. I left some of the blonde in though," she said pulling at the hair on the half of her head she'd left mostly blonde, even though it was sort of obvious that it was still this was. "And my bangs are yellower I think," she said, once again pointing out the obvious.

She smiled, not really sure why. She still wanted to hug him. Maybe she should mention the flowers. No one had ever gotten Brittany flowers before. She didn't really even know what to do with flowers, but she figured it was still a nice gesture on his part. Is that what guys did when they screwed up, buy flowers? Brittany made a mental note to tell him that the next time he screwed up she'd prefer candy or maybe pizza with everything on it...the Brit special he'd called it. She kind of wanted pizza even though it was the morning.

Did that mean there would be a next time? That she'd forgiven him. She wasn't sure. But she wanted to forgive him, she knew that much. She just wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to get the picture of Syn kissing him out of his head.

Aly walked in and slapped him on the head just like she said she would. Aly was dressed as she had been last night when she'd went out but Brittany didn't comment on it. She knew that Aly hadn't come home last night, but she'd tease her about that later. For now, Brittany was just giggling. She couldn't help it, but Aly hitting Evan in the head made her giggle. "Sorry...I might have given Aly permission to do that," she admitted, "meaning that I totally told her she could do that...you're lucky she didn't hit you harder."

She sort of hoped that Evan didn't take offense to Brittany telling Aly she could hit him, mostly because Brittany thought it was funny. But her smile quickly suppressed when he said that he wanted to talk. Her face was suddenly serious. Talk...he wanted to talk. The last time that he wanted to talk he'd told her that Syn had kissed him. What if now he was going to break up with her? Maybe he'd decided that he wanted to be with Syn instead. But Brittany didn't want to hear that. She didn't think she could take another humiliating blow like the last one. It was bad enough that he'd already cheated on her and now he was going to dump her for Syn. She was sure of it. She knew that he'd seen her yesterday--or at least she assumed that he had since she knew he'd gone to Dare's and she knew that Dare knew Syn.

"Right...talk...can't that wait till later. I'm hungry. Wanna get breakfast...Aly--you're hungry too, right?" Brittany asked, her eyes wide as she looked at Aly, desperately trying to tell her telepathically that she needed her and that she didn't want to be left alone with Evan just to hear the inevitable that he was going to break up with her. He wouldn't tell her in front of Aly right? Please...oh please Aly, please stay, Brittany mentally urged.

[Aly Durrand]

Did barney seriously just invite Aly to breakfast. Hell must have frozen over since barney was inviting Aly to breakfast. Aly could make the excuse she had to shower and get dressed, but she had already done that in the morning. She had showered brush her teeth and everything else she needed to do at the villa, so there was no excuse. Not to mention was a woman, so she caught the look Barney was throwing her.

Aly smirked at the idea, that for once Barney needed Aly's help. What a day. Perhaps this day was going to be a good one indeed. She had a great morning with Tyler and now this. Aly responded by walking further into Barney's room and smiling at Evan, "i second that idea. I am starving. I missed breakfast this morning." Her words meant to to imply just why she missed breakfast. "But I am driving...no way and I going in his car...and he sits in the back." Aly told Evan.

"Besides nothing ever good comes from the words I need to talk, so that's gonna have to wait." She told Evan as well. "Unless you wanna talk in front of me. In that case be my guest. I could use a morning dose of scandal and gossip." Aly told Evan. Now she was just attempting to annoy the boy. The idea was too good to pass up.

"But seriously..if you both are going to talk, its best to not do it when you are on an empty stomach, so lets go...breakfast time." Aly motioned for barney to get up. Aly finally looked at Brits hair and chuckled. "You just had to mess it up..the beautiful hair I gave you. Come on. blond is such a better color on you." Aly said joking around as she eyed her step-sister. A look that said she was not leaving.

Then she looked at Evan, "By the way nice flowers. " She told Evan with another smile. Oh this was going to be good. Aly just wished Jasper could be here to enjoy this. Then again Aly did not care to see Jasper at the moment. Which was her own sick and twisted crap.

[Evan Hughes]

Evan grinned, he couldn’t help himself, when Brittany confessed that she had let Aly whack him in the head. Of course he was going to smile when she told him that, regardless of his nerves. It was funny! And maybe that was a good sign, that telling her step-sister to whack him was actually a good sign. And he had to admit, he pretty much deserved it. He was still kicking himself that he couldn’t work out that Syn was going to kiss him. Of course she was going to, she made it obvious! He really should be less naive. Just because he thought it was wrong, didn’t mean that everyone else agreed. “You’re just lucky I don’t hit girls.” he warned Aly, the smile on his face. “I would hug you all day instead, but I can’t decide whether you would hate that or enjoy it too much, so I might not.” It felt good, and such a welcome relief, to be joking around now. This is what he knew, what he was comfortable with.

“Hungry? No, I’m not hungry.” he insisted, just as panicked as Brittany was, but for entirely different reasons. He didn’t want her to draw this, whatever this was, out. If it was going to be bad, it would be better to be quick, rip it off like a bandaid. Besides, normally he wouldn’t knock back food, but he still didn’t have his appetite back. He wished he did, he really liked eating.

But Aly just couldn’t leave them alone, and he quickly realised that the morning was going to be more drawn out than he hoped. And he had to spend it with Aly too. Just bloody great. And the girl was going to make it easy for him either. “Alright, let’s get breakfast.” he sighed, resigned. “And there’s nothing wrong with my car.”

The one good thing of this was that at least Brit wouldn’t break up with him in front of Aly. He didn’t think she would anyway. Cause that would be mean, and unlike her step-sister, that wasn’t Brit. “I think her hair looks good.” he mumbled in defence, shrugging. “I’ll be just outside then, while you get ready.” He made his way past Aly, ignoring her comment on the flowers, instead lingering slightly impatiently in the hallway. He really hated all this waiting.

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany was glad when Evan didn't seem to mind that she'd told Aly that she could hit him. That was a good sign at least. Or at least she thought it did. Or maybe it was because he was over it...he didn't even care anymore. Oh why was she suddenly reading so much into everything?! Brittany wasn't that girl! She didn't want to be that girl either. He mentioned wanting to hug her to annoy her instead. That seemed like something he'd normally say, right? So things were still normal?

Breakfast...Aly went along with breakfast. Evan said he wasn't hungry, but Aly made a big display about being hungry and it seemed like it was all settled. Truth be told, Brittany wasn't all that hungry either. If anything, she just felt sick to her stomach. Evan was going to break up with her and although breakfast would put the inevitable off...how was she supposed to eat when he was going to break up with her. He was going to pick Syn. That's why he'd gotten her flowers. They were supposed to signal some sort of constellation prize to candy.

Aly was making a big spectacle of it...really digging in about the fact that they were having issues. It made Brit almost regret trying to get Aly to help, let alone telling her at all. But as Evan stepped outside so that Brittany could get ready, Brittany had to thank Aly for helping out, even if she was doing it in an Aly way. "Just try not to be too mean," she said. "He's going to break up with me," she admitted as she climbed out of bed. "Just don't make it worse."

Brittany frowned as she made her way to her closet. She didn't pay attention to the clothes she'd pulled out at all, throwing on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt at random, and a hoodie. She grabbed some mismatched socks and pulled them on her feet finishing off with her Converse sneakers that she always wore. She looked in the mirror. Oh well, did it even matter how she looked? She pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "Stay off the subject of my hair...I left a little blonde in it," she sighed. "Heck, I'll dye it a natural looking color if you can some how fix this," she said, meaning herself and Evan, clearly still in a mood. She shook her head. "Let's just get this over with," she mumbled.