head over heels

67 ~ the root cause of panic

[A/N - tw for some major panic in this one.  theo. dickhead. anyways, ONWARDS]

Ethan had put them all on lockdown.

Oliver was camping out in his room with Willow, Luke and Mia who'd shown up to watch the boys teams play, after her team had cleared the girls nationals, winning the whole thing.

Ethan had all but barricaded their door.

If Theo was going to try anything, he'd try it tonight.

He wanted to win the championships, and to do that, he needed to get his shitty little hands on someone, which would most likely be Evan if Theo got his way, but Evan knew he wasn't below settling for someone else just so he could get his way.

He knew it killed Theo to know that he wasn't good enough to win on his own. Theo was a good player, sure, the best even, but the Lakes had a full team of good players. The Canyons, not so much.

Where the Lakes had energy and life, the Canyons had monotony and slave-like skill.

The entire team was built around Theo, who was like rot in the foundations.

Sooner or later, the entire thing would collapse, and Theo knew it.

So, he would do something.

Evan was horribly antsy as he sat, holed up in their room. It was nightmarish. Everything about this was nightmarish. He felt like a lamb being stored before slaughter.

Theo was going to fucking kill him tomorrow. If he made it to the end of the game and won, he'd be angry enough to do it. If Leo made the video for them. Dead. If he got the confession. He was fucked? If he hid for the rest of his life, Theo would undoubtedly still find a way. If anything, the waiting would be the thing to do him on.

He couldn't keep doing this. He couldn't.

It was either wait him out, or fucking do it himself.

Today, he'd gotten a true glimpse of what it should be like. Over the last month, he'd been happier than he'd ever been.

Just, Theo. He was the dark cloud that stood in his way.

Sure, with the evidence Oliver had gathered, he'd be screwed, but with a full confession of all the shit he'd done?

Evan swallowed.

It was bad enough that he would be in serious trouble.

Beside him, Kei nudged his shoulder gently.

"You okay?" he murmured, winding their fingers together.

Evan nodded, "Weird, but okay."

"Weird how?"

He gnawed on his lip, "I don't know."

"C'mere," Kei said softly, pulling him into a hug.

Evan clutched onto him. Oh man. He didn't want to do any of this. He just— he wanted to go home, but then— he didn't really have much of a home going for him anymore, so...

Then, Kei gently dragged him down onto their mattress.

"Sleep?"

Evan nodded into the crook of his neck. "Yeah," he managed faintly.

...

Evan woke up the morning of the finals almost surprised he had.

He had seriously been expecting Theo to cause a scene.

This? This silence? It was weird.

He was curled into Kei's chest. The other boy had their blanket hiked all the way up over his head, leaving both their feet sticking out the bottom. But, the way it was, it created this shield between them, and the rest of the room.