head over heels

1 ~ a house not a home

[A/N - hello! welcome to my silly and gay little volleyball story. This is a hella slow burn, but i promise it is worth hehe. The mature rating will totally become a thing later on, our boys just have to do a bit of figuring themselves out first ;) Anyways, to anyone that finds this, enjoy your stay! this bitch is long as fuck. NOW COMPLETE!]

Evan had learned early to tune out his brother's volleyball talk. Now the skill came as easy as breathing, and he focussed wholly on his book, sparing his brother a small nod, and an occasional hum of agreement at practised intervals.

He heard the up spike in his tone as his brother asked him a question, and he absently listened in to avoid his ignorance being discovered.

"Come set me some balls Ev?" Ethan begged.

"No."

"Please?"

"What do I get?"

Ethan groaned, "Jesus Ev, I know you don't play anymore, but why not just for fun?"

He flipped his page. "It's not that fun."

Ethan sighed, then thought for a moment. "You can have the car this weekend," he muttered. He ran a hand through his close cropped pale red curls, waiting for Evan expectantly

Damn, he couldn't say no to that.

Evan closed his book, shooting a halfway annoyed look at his brother. "You get two hours."

Ethan grinned. "Outside now—"

Evan slowly picked himself up, thinking wistfully of his book. It had just been getting good. But he had to admit, denying his brother of the car for the weekend was too sweet a deal to deny, all for an hour or two of chucking balls at the meathead.

He whipped out his phone as he followed his brother outside.

@evan - i'll call you later, bribing eth into giving me the car this weekend

@rileyy - holy shit, lets go out somewhere

@evan - that was the plan

@rileyy - ;)

He pulled on his shoes, shoving his phone into his back pocket. 

Ethan raised an eyebrow, "Texting your girlfriend again?"

"Not my girlfriend," Evan retorted, shrugging on a hoodie.

"Riiiiiight," Ethan said, dragging out the word like he knew something Evan didn't, and he fought back a sigh. He and Riley were not, and never would date. There was a myriad of reasons, most of which made Evan want to hurl into the bushes.

"Jealous?" Evan taunted as Ethan threw the volleyball at him.

Ethan shrugged absently, "Why would I be?"

Evan fought the urge to groan as his brother opened the door, and the chilly autumn breeze hit his arms. He wanted to go back inside and curl up in bed with his book, but here he was, throwing fucking balls for the meatheaded idiot to whack over a net.

Oh how anyone found this fun was beyond him.

Ethan bounded out into the yard, and pulled the strings of the makeshift net taut. Their parents had erected it years ago when they had first played. Well, when Ethan had dragged him kicking and screaming to lessons, then clubs, then training, and finally the middle school nationals. It was there that Ethan had got the so-called volleyball bug, and well— Evan just hadn't, despite the fact that he had embarrassingly been pretty fucking good at it. They both had.