When You're Falling In A Forest

Chapter 4

Evan and Zoe walked inside the Murphy house and Zoe led him to the living room. In there was Mr. and Mrs. Murphy.
"Hello! You must be Evan." Mrs Murphy said reaching out to shake his hand. Evan hesitated at first, but then grabbed her hand and shook it gently.
"I'm Zoe's mom," She said with a smile. "but you can just call me Cynthia."
"And I'm her dad," Mr. Murphy said getting up from the couch. "and you can call me Larry."
Evan then shook Larry's hand too.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Zoe started to walk toward the dinning room. "So, mom, dad. Did you make some extravagant dinner since we have a guest?" She said pointing toward Evan.
Cynthia looked a little disappointed in herself. "I wish we could've, honey. But it was such late notice I just ordered a pizza."
"Really?" Zoe said, her eyes lighting up.
"Yeah, we're sorry Evan," Larry said. "we wish we could've done something a little better."
"No it's fine." Evan said quickly.
"Yeah, guys it's fine." Zoe said happily.
"Alright..." Cynthia said looking questioningly at her daughter. "Why don't you take Evan upstairs so he can put his stuff in your room while we find him a place to sleep?"
"Yup." was all Zoe said and she walked up the stairs and Evan followed.
When they got upstairs Evan sat his suitcase on the floor and Zoe sat down on her bed. Evan would've sat down too but he didn't know if he was "allowed to" or not.
"So uh...what was that all about?" Evan asked.
"What do you mean?" Zoe said, her slight smile fading away.
"No, no never mind it doesn't even matter really I shouldn't have said anything sorry."  Evan rambled.
"Wait..." Zoe said. "Oh you mean the pizza thing??"
"Yeah I guess."
"Well, I mean...it's just with my family, we never do fun things like go out and get pizza ya know?"
Evan nodded
"I guess I just got a little overexcited." Zoe said. "I'm so tired of all the boring proper meals that my mom cooks. It's nice to finally have a break and have something a little more fun."
Evan couldn't resist the urge to speak up. "You know you're pretty lucky with this family and everything you have."
"What do you mean?" Zoe said sounding a bit mad.
Evan instantly regretted what he said.
"Sorry never mind its fine really, we should go down stairs."
"Whatever." Zoe said and stormed out.

Evan hated himself. He felt like a screw up like always. He wondered how he was able to ruin everything within 10 minutes. He was really close to calling his mom, but he debated it over and over in his head. Before he new it, Evan realized that almost 10 minutes had passed, he was sitting on Zoe's bed and he wondered where she went, but he didn't feel like looking for her because she was obviously mad. Just then Zoe walked back into the bedroom to find Evan.
"Hey..uh, sorry..." she said.
Evan jumped off of Zoe's bed. "No no, it's my fault. I really shouldn't have said anything I'm just really, really stupid."
"No you're not," Zoe said with slight humor in her voice. "and you were right."
Evan looked up at her.
"I was thinking about what I said a few minutes ago, I thought about how I went on about hating all of those fancy meals my parents make, and I realized that you don't have all that do you?" She asked.
"Yeah I guess..." Evan said looking down at the floor. "How'd you know?"
"Well I mean...no offense but you wear the same few shirts everyday, and you're house was pretty tiny and didn't seem to have much."
"Yeah." Evan said with a sarcastic chuckle. Then he sighed. "Yeah, uh, my mom doesn't have a lot of money and she's never really around to cook those nice dinners that your mom does."
"I'm sorry." Zoe said
Evan paused for a moment. "Thanks."

"I promise tomorrow night I'll have my mom make something nice for you."

"Oh, no that's fine honestly."

"She was probably going to anyway."

"Alright." Evan said.

After a few minutes of the two standing in Zoe's room, Evan was  about to try to start some sort of conversation with Zoe but he was cut off by Zoe's mom, Cynthia.

"Pizza's here!!!" She shouted up the stairs.

Zoe looked at Evan and and then turned to head downstairs. Evan followed. While descending down the steps, Evan stopped Zoe.
"Hey, uh, you know you can be excited and all about getting to have pizza. I'll be fine." He let out a small laugh.
Zoe smirked. "Right" she chuckled.!

They walked into the dining room and saw two boxes of pizza.

"You take whatever you want." Cynthia said to Evan. "There's plenty to go around."
After Zoe, Evan, Larry and Cynthia got a peice of pizza, Cynthia turned to Zoe.
"Where's your brother?" She asked.

"I don't know, his room?" Zoe replied.

Cynthia got up from her chair angrily and walked over to the bottom of the steps.

"CONNOR!!" She shouted. "THERE'S PIZZA."

A muffled reply came from down the hall and inside Connors bedroom

"GOD GIVE ME A SECOND."

Cynthia signed and sat back down at the table, Evan looked a little shocked and scared at the same time.

A few minutes later, they heard a loud door shut, and Connor stomping down the stairs. He plopped himself down in a chair and grabbed a peice of pizza. He didn't even notice Evan till a few minutes later.
"Wait...Hansen? What is he doing here?" Connor said, his voice escalating to a louder and more annoyed tone.
"Oh jeez." Cynthia said putting her hands over her face. "I didn't tell you." Connor sat there waiting for an answer. "Honey," Cynthia said taking her hands away from her face. "This is Evan. He's friends with your sister and he's going to be staying with us while his mom's out of town."
Connor sat there for a few seconds then let out a laugh "Wow Zoe. That's an all time low for you." Connor leaned back in his seat and laughed to himself while Zoe glared at him.
"Connor, please." Larry said to his son.
Connor just sat there smirking.
Evan just sat there and looked at his hands, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.
Connor sat up and acted more serious. "So are you guys like dating now?" He asked Zoe, quietly waiting for a reply.
"What? No!" Zoe said surprised.
Evan looked up at her a little disappointed.
Zoe noticed and looked at him apologetically. "I mean...I don't know..." she said making Evan grin.
Cynthia and Larry exchanged looks.
Connor stared at Evan. "Cool." He said, his voice sounding like he was trying to hide anger.
"Can I leave now?" Connor said impatiently at his mother and father.
Larry opened his mouth as if he was going to start yelling something at Connor, but Cynthia stopped him.
"Larry," she said. "Just let him go."
Larry looked at his son, and then back a Cynthia. Connor was looking at his dad waiting for an answer.
"Fine." Larry said at last.
Connor got up and loudly bolted up the steps and slammed the door to his room.
The four of them sat at the table without saying a word.

Larry broke the silence. "So, Evan. You seem like a very nice young man."

"Oh...uh, thank you." Evan said quietly.

"Evan, do you play any sports?" Cynthia asked following Larry's failed attempt to start a conversation.

"Uh, no not really."

"Oh okay." She replied.

The family sat there in awkward silence and Evan could feel that it was his fault. He could've gone on about the stuff he does do, but he figured no one really cared that much. Evan also felt bad about already upsetting Zoe and Connor while he's been there, which had only been for about half an hour.

this is going to be a long week. He thought.