When You're Falling In A Forest

Chapter 1

"Come on I dare you to go talk to her."
Jared said to Evan as they sat in the high school cafeteria.

"I don't know..." Evan said looking nervous and glancing across the cafeteria at Zoe Murphy.

Evan Hansen has had a crush on Zoe ever since the seventh grade. Every time Evan thought about talking to her, he got really nervous and dwelled on how he might screw up with talking to her, so he tried to push Zoe out of his mind because it was bad for his mental state.

Just recently Evan had started talking to his (family) friend Jared Kleinman more often after they started sitting together in study hall. One time Evan had explained to Jared how he had feelings for Zoe but didn't know how to deal with it. Jared, being snarky as usual wasn't much help, but it felt good for Evan to have someone to talk to about this. He never had time to talk to his mom about girls because she was never home, and his dad had left them when he was 7 and moved to Colorado, so he was no help.

"It's really not that hard." Jared said to Evan. "All you have to do is go over there and tell her you want to make out with her."

"It's really not that easy for me." Evan replied quickly, becoming annoyed.

"C'mon Hansen." Jared chided. "This is getting boring for me. I'm trying to help you with girls but nothing's gonna happen unless you make a move."
Evan was getting more and more angered after every word. Jared didn't understand how hard this was for him, and he wasn't like Evan who had the constant fear that he might say or do the wrong thing. Evan decided that he'd had enough and was tired of just waiting for something to happen between him and Zoe.

"You know what?" Evan said getting out of his chair. "Fine."

"That's my boy!!" Jared said eagerly and prepared to observe everything play out in front of him.

Evan walked over to the lunch table at the other side of the cafeteria where Zoe sat with 4 of her other friends. They seemed to be deep in conversation about something but one of Zoe's friends saw Evan walking toward them and nudged the girl beside her so they all stopped talking by the time Evan got there.

Evan was feeling confident when he was walking to the table, but every ounce of confidence he had was gone when Zoe and all her friends stared at him wondering what he wanted.

"Hey-um, hi Zoe." was all Evan could get out.

"Yeah?" Zoe said nicely to Evan, confused about what he might want since they barely knew each other.

Evan didn't know what to say next. His hands started to get sweaty and he knew if he tried to speak nothing would come out.

"Evan?" Zoe said sounding concerned. "Did you need something?"

Evan couldn't concentrate. He must've looked so stupid.

"I'm sorry." Evan muttered. "Never mind...sorry."

Evan ran back toward the table where he was sitting, but he noticed Jared there falling over laughing at how Evan had failed miserably.

Evan avoided Jared and went straight to the boys bathroom and locked himself into the biggest stall so he'd have enough room to breathe.

Evan was having a panic attack and the realization that he was having a panic attack made him panic more.
Evan's life wasn't easy, and it seemed that it wouldn't get any better without Zoe.

Or so he thought.