When You're Falling In A Forest

Chapter 2

Evan didn't come out of the bathroom for the rest of the school day.
When it was time to go home, Zoe was looking around for him and asked everyone if they had seen him, but most people said they didn't even know who Evan was.

Zoe was walking down the hallway when she saw Connor

"Hey Connor! Have you seen Evan?"

"Hansen? No...why?"

"Something was wrong with him at lunch. He ran out and I haven't seen him all day. No one has. I wanna make sure he's okay."

"Oh yeah, that's right." Connor said thinking. "I remember I saw him run into the bathroom during lunch, looked like he was gonna cry or something."

"Oh gosh, really?"

"Yeah whatever, c'mon we have to get home."

"Hold on." Zoe said. "I want to find Evan."

"Whatever." Connor said walking outside to the parking lot.

Fearing Connor would leave without her, Zoe tried to hurry and ran toward the men's bathroom.
Zoe opened the bathroom door but didn't go inside.
"Evan?" She called. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She heard Evan say quietly from inside.

After a few seconds, Evan came out into the hallway so he could talk to Zoe.

"Have you been here since lunch?" she asked him.

"Yeah" he said sounding disappointed in himself.

"Are you okay? what happened?"

"I-uh..panic attack..." Evan muttered

"Oh alright...are you sure you're okay? Should I call your mom?"

"No it's f-fine. She'll be here soon."

Evan was embarrassed. He figured Zoe thought he was weird. But then again, she seemed worried about him and came to find him, so that meant she at least cared about him a little bit.
Evan worked up the courage to speak.

"Hey-uh-we should probably go outside, my mom's gonna be here soon."

"Oh yeah right." Zoe said sounding as though she was being pulled out of a deep thought.

The two walked out of the school and to the parking lot, where Zoe noticed her car was gone.

"Great." Zoe said sarcastically. "Connor left without me. God, I hate him."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Evan said.

"You don't have to say that, it's not your fault."

"Yeah but still...sorry..."

Evan tried to change the subject. "So uh your brother Connor he's pretty cool right?"

"No. Not really." Zoe said sounding irritated at just the thought of Connor. "He hates me and everyone else he ever comes across."

"Oh, right yeah, I just didn't really think he was that bad...I never talk to him."

"Lucky you." Zoe said. "You know, he's not even supposed to be driving. He got caught driving around in the middle of the night while he was high. My parents took away his car. They're gonna kill him."

"Oh...." Evan said sounding surprised.

They stood there on the sidewalk for a little while longer as they waited for Evans's mom.

The wind was blowing and it started to get cold. Evan could tell that Zoe must've been freezing without a coat, so he wondered if he should offer her his jacket, but he wasn't sure if it was okay since they were barely even friends.

Just then, Evan's mom, Heidi drove into the school parking lot. The car pulled up toward the sidewalk where Evan and Zoe stood.

Heidi rolled down the window. "Is this a friends of yours?" She smiled asking Evan. "I never know about your friends anymore because I'm never really around."
Evan looked over at Zoe and saw her looking back at him also waiting for his reply. Evan started getting nervous and didn't really know if Zoe thought of him as a friend yet. He nodded.

"That's good, because I need to talk to you about something." Heidi said getting out of the car and walking over to them. "I have to go to one of the bigger hospitals for a while because there's an emergency situation there with one of the patients, and my boss is calling in all of us nurses to come help."

"That hospital that's about 2 hours away?" Evan asked.

"Yeah. The thing is, everyone else is busy and Jared's parents are out of town so I have no one that you'll be able to stay with. Would you be able to stay with-sorry I didn't get your name?" she asked looking toward Zoe.

"I'm Zoe Murphy." She said holding out her arm and shaking Heidi's hand.

"Right, Zoe. So would you be able to stay with Zoe and her family?" She said looking more at Zoe for a reply instead of Evan.

"I'm sure it would be fine." Zoe said. "I'll just have to ask my parents."

"Thanks." Heidi said. "It's okay if they say no though, we'll find something else right Evan?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

Zoe pulled out her phone and started making a call.

"Hey mom?" Zoe said into her phone. "So..uh one of my...friends Evan needs a place to stay, could he stay at our house for a while?" Zoe listened for a while as her mom answered.

"How long will you have to stay?" Zoe asked Evan, who looked at his mom for an answer.

"They're saying it's going to take about a week." Heidi answered.

"It's gonna be about a week." Zoe told her mom. After a few more seconds of Mrs. Murphy talking, Zoe said, "Okay, thanks...love you too." then she hung up her phone and put it back in her pocket.

"My mom said it's cool." she said to Evan and Heidi with a smile.

"That's great! Thank you so much this really helps me a lot." Heidi said. "Well we better get you home, Evan so you can get packed. Do you have a ride home?" She asked Zoe.

"Oh yeah, I'm just gonna wait for the bus." Zoe replied.

"Really, it's okay you can come with us and wait at our house till Evan gets packed," Heidi said. "and later I can drop you both of at your house. I'll need someone to tell me how to get there anyway."

"Oh okay, thanks." Zoe said smiling at Evan.

Evan and Heidi climbed into the front seats of the car and Zoe got in the backseat. They drove out of the
school parking lot and headed to the Hansen house.

~Authors Note~
Hello guys. I'm not really sure if anyone really reads this, but I hope you like my story so far. I've never considered myself a good writer so I hope this isn't too bad! I'm going to try to post every Sunday or Monday(no promises 😬) Thanks for reading!💕