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Dana had put on an act like she didn’t like his humour over the state of his face, but he could tell he was chipping away at her sensibilities. Ultimately this just wasn’t the worst injury he could have gotten playing hockey, this was remarkably tame in comparison to what you would see on the tv sometimes.
He knew it was worrying to look at, mostly because Jess had pretty much refused to be alone in the room with him since it had happened.
It had been a source of pride at practice, Patrick had been so deeply apologetic about it but with the amount Evan was smiling and not letting it affect his skating (because why would it) Patrick eventually relaxed into joking about it sheepishly by the end of practice.
Their coach had checked in on him when he turned up for practice, making sure everything was okay, but knowing full well that Dr Jack Abbot would have come in shouting if it had been anything serious. Or well, Evan figured his coach would assume his dad would come in raging but that was more Mike’s speed, you wouldn’t see his dad coming but it would be equally as devastating. If not incredibly traumatic.
He’d be scared for anyone if someone in his family decided to avenge his honour, it was definitely a potential decision rather than an attempt, because he knew they would follow through with no regrets. And that was a big reason why anyone should be scared of them.
He wondered if that was what it was to feel loved, to be a part of a family, or if it was something so unique to his family. Either way, he felt safe attached to them.
Benji had winced sympathetically when he saw him, but then reverted quickly back to the excitable dog personality he always had, wanting to know in detail how it had happened. He’d realised pretty quickly that he’d accidentally introduced Benji to his favourite sport, and he was pretty much trying his best to be at every game he could possibly get to, and getting first hand information from Evan was like treasure to Benji.
Dana always smiled fondly when he was peppering Evan with questions, dropping silly ones in every now and then so they could both sit there and giggle.
It was hard to see Jess barely able to look at him while he was bruised, he spent so much time at their house that it was second nature to hang out with the girls. But Sadie was still three years older than him and sometimes she didn’t want to be hanging out with a thirteen year old, especially when Tommy seemed to be a constant in her life right now and Evan could never stop grinning at them when they were all together.
Tommy hadn’t been keen about the bruise on his face either, but he understood sports injuries more than most of them.
He was stretching out on the floor of the Evans’ living room as Sadie lounged on the couch watching one of her many shows that Evan could never keep up on, when he saw Jess dart in and out of the room.
His bruise was healing now but it probably looked worse to everyone else, what used to be dark purple and red had faded into an ugly mottled green and yellow colour, and it still stung to touch. His lip was scabbed over and pulled in awkward ways but it just was what it was.
He sighed in reaction to the little girl still avoiding him. He kept a hold of his foot as he stretched out his back, feeling the pull in his muscles. Sadie glanced behind her, before turning back to her show.
“She’ll come around, you’re just ugly.”
He laughed, feeling the strain in his muscles as he held the stretch for a bit longer before turning around to stick his tongue out at her.
She laughed, “oh very mature, shrek.”
He switched to the opposite arm and leg to repeat the stretch on that side. It was meditative almost to practice through his pre-practice stretches, he was more likely to go to sleep than do any form of exercise but it didn’t hurt to stay stretched.
He jumped when Sadie suddenly shouted out, shooting up off of the couch and disappearing up the stairs. He looked up at the tv trying to understand what had her moving so quickly all of a sudden, the advert for some medication didn’t help him at all, it just confused him more.
He sat up and pulled his feet together into a butterfly stretch, pushing his knees closer to the floor until he felt the pull and released it again. He was in a better position to catch Sadie tearing back down the stairs with a bunch of things in her arms, he squinted worryingly at her.
“Spa day shrek, maybe I can make you less ugly for Jess.”
He wasn’t sure what that meant, and he wasn’t convinced this wasn’t just for Sadie. But she might have just learnt the trick to getting him to do whatever she wanted, telling him it was for Jess, especially when she was already so clearly upset with everything.
So whatever this ‘spa day’ required, he was sure he could grin and bare it for now.
As it turned out, it wasn’t too bad, but he wasn’t fancying telling her that unless she roped him into it again.
But it meant that the next time Jess risked coming down the stairs to see what they were laughing about, she lingered longer than a few seconds for the first time since he had come round with the bruise on his face.
Because this time, instead of the muddy green colour on his cheek, he was sat there with a full face mask on and a fuzzy headband holding his hair back. Sadie was also painting his nails, because why not, she’d gone for yellow and black for the Penguins, but he mostly just looked like a big fan of bumblebees.
Sadie sensed his distraction, turning around to see Jess and reveal that she too had a face mask and fuzzy headband on. She smiled and tried waving her over with the hand that wasn’t holding Evan’s still.
“Come join us Jessy, I’m going to teach Evan to braid my hair next.”
She shuffled closer to the couch slowly, and Evan had to give it to her, whatever had clicked in her brain during her show had more merit to it than he’d thought. This was the closest Jess had gotten to him all week, excluding when she was sat at the table with him for dinners, she’d never looked up at him then.
She peered at the weird green gunk on their faces with a distasteful scowl.
“I don’t have to put that on do I?”
Sadie laughed, “you don’t want to?”
Jess shook her head, “not if you don’t want to,” Sadie agreed and Evan squawked.
“You never gave me an option!”
“Yeah shrek, I told you I’d make you less ugly.”
Jess relaxed into a little bit when she was sat facing away from Evan and his hands were in her hair. Sadie was walking him through a braid step by step, correcting and mocking him every step of the way.
With his hands halfway through a braid on Jess, Sadie found the time to finally strike.
“Hey Jess, why’ve you been ignoring Ev?”
Jess tensed up, and Evan froze, Sadie waved at him to continue to braid even as Sadie pushed for the eight year old to find her voice about what had been bothering her.
She was quiet for a while, “I didn’t like it.”
Evan’s breath stuttered, “why don’t you like it, Jess?”
She was quiet again for a while, head tilted forwards out of the position Sadie had insisted in for the best braid.
“Last time you got hurt, I couldn’t see you for weeks.”
Sadie’s mouth dropped open, of course, summer.
Evan let go of the really terrible braid he was doing in her hair, “I’m not going anywhere, Jess. It’s just a bruise, I’m not even hurt that bad.”
Jess swung around, “that’s what they said about Sadie!”
Evan tugged at her hands before she vanished back upstairs again, his face mask had long since been washed off, revealing the mottled green on his face that made her flinch.
“This is just about summer, isn’t it? Not my face, because you know I’m okay, right?”
Tears were spilling out of her eyes and Evan dove forwards to pull her into a strong hug, Sadie wrapping around them from the side, sadness pouring off of her too.
That was how Dana found them when she eventually came back from her shift, curled up on the couch, at least one of them still sniffling but none of them would admit to who. Slightly more healed from the long hug, Jess’ hair a little bit ratty from the failed braid but that would be a problem for the morning.
Evan padded into the kitchen early, having extracted himself from the cuddle pile that they had all seemingly slept in on the couch that was usually his bed. Dana and Benji stood talking quietly around the breakfast island.
Dana smiled warmly when she spotted him, eyes casting back in the direction he’d come from, “they’re still asleep.”
Benji offered him the cereal from the cupboard and he nodded easily, accepting everything needed for his breakfast.
“Do you mind if I ask what happened last night?” She prodded lightly, having been aware of Jess’ aversion to getting near him despite not really understanding the reason.
Evan yawned into his hand, “Jess was worried she wouldn’t see me. Said the last time Sadie got hurt she wasn’t allowed to see her, she was worried that would happen to me.”
Dana’s eyes widened and then got sad, Benji rubbed her back leaning into the conversation, “I think therapy for both girls might really help.”
Evan nodded, not trying to get involved but knowing how much therapy had really helped him this far, and he was still talking to his, now once a month but it was helpful, especially with what had happened over summer. Realising it wasn’t his fault that it happened was life changing for Evan.
Realising that the big things weren’t his fault was only because of the therapist Jack had insisted on right at the beginning. Therapy was healthy, therapy was life changing, especially for Evan.
He focused down on his cereal, the emptiness of his stomach having been what pulled him out of the warmth of the cuddle pile on the couch.
Therapy had convinced him against the feeling that things might have been better for them if he’d never been there, but he was too committed to healthy mind healthy life to even let himself spiral down that pathway. He was here now, he could only go forward it wasn’t worth looking back, he would choose to look forward.
And he was especially looking forward to his day, only one more day of school until the weekend, and the first game of the season sat on the horizon a couple of weeks away. He was sure his bruise would be faded by then, back to the usual Evan, the same Evan he was right now full of hope and excitement just without his new facial colourings.
He was also looking forward to his face not hurting anymore, or at least until the next time he got in the way of a solid defensive parry (if it was Patrick again he might start to think they had a problem).