A/N: I am at a loss for words. Thank you, thank you, thank you JaredCRONCH . Thank you for this absolutely amazing and beautiful fan art and the kind words. Your love for this book means so much to me. And once again, thank you to everyone who has been taking time to read, comment, and vote. Time for the next chapter :
"Zoe," Connor exclaims as he runs to the car. She's standing by the passenger's door. I watch as Connor wraps his arms around her, hugging her tightly, taking in her presence. She hugs back, and I see her start to cry a little into his shoulder. It takes me a minute to realize that my mom has wrapped her arm around my back in attempt to comfort me. I'm not really sure how to react. I only have three options that make sense, but I'm a terrible decision maker. The only things I could do are:
A) Get closer to my mom and lean into her or something - no way Evan. You might start crying too.
B) Pull away from mom and, just, do nothing else - not happening. Talk about awkward.
C) Pull away from my mom and run over to Zoe and Connor.
So what do I end up doing? Standing still like an idiot. Because what else would a smol socially anxious teenager with crazy awkwardness and uncontrollably sweaty palms do when his boyfriend's sister crashes a car?
I turn my head to look at my mom. After about a minute, she realizes I'm staring at her. I also realize that I'm staring at her. "We're going to have to call the Murphys, aren't we," I mumble, defeated. My eyes are now slowly darting from place to place. The light whooshing of wind fills the air with noise.
"I'm so lucky that you're my son."
"Me?"
"Yes," she laughs. You always think of what's right, not just what you want. And you're kind, and fun to be with." I feel myself blush, which only makes my face heat up even more.
"Let me do it."
"What? Oh WOAH HI," I say, noticing Connor and Zoe standing about three feet away from us. "How much of that did you, uh, did you see?"
"Seriously Evan? I say that kind of stuff to you all the time. But yeah, let me call my parents."
As he pulls out his phone, I look at Zoe and notice something. "C-Connor," I whisper. He shushes me, and says that it's ringing. "b-but Connor," I whisper again. Once again he shushes me, telling me that he'll handle it, and that it'll be fine. I look back at Zoe. I try whispering to Connor one last time, which only results in Connor struggling to move the phone from his left hand to his right hand, and I can tell that he's nervous the cast will get in the way. He takes his now empty left hand and swings it around my body, pulling me close to him. "Connor," I say, slightly louder. He looks down at me and I try and get him to look at Zoe without Zoe knowing. I look up at his face, or what I can see of his face since he is holding me so tightly. I hear the vibrations of the ringing on the phone stop, somebody must have answered.
"Shit," Connor says, anxiety spiking in his voice. He throws the phone at me and runs to Zoe. I scramble to catch it and when my shaking hand finally grasps it, I shove it against my ear.
"Connor Murphy you answer me right now! You don't just call your mother and start swear-"
"Um... Mrs. Murphy?"
"Evan? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I thought that was Connor."
"No, no, that was Connor. Sorry." Awkward silence. I stifle a pained laugh and notice mom looking at me. Gosh, what a great son I am. Part of me wants to give her the phone, for the Murphys sake, but part of me doesn't want to give in, because that part of me doesn't want to be anymore of a letdown to my mom. "Uhhhh... so how has your day been?"
"Fine, Evan," she says, and I read slight sympathy in her voice. "Are you three at Á La Mode?" I gulp, and say nothing. I look over at Zoe, who is now sitting on the grass with Connor and my mom.
"Ummm, Mrs. Murphy. Zoe is fine. She is not dead. She is in one piece," I say, but I feel like I'm trying to calm myself down more than Mrs. Murphy.
"Evan? Is everything alright?"
"Um, yeah, Zoe's here, Connor's here, I'm heere," I say, dragging out the 'e' on the last one out of nerves. "Don't worry. Zoealmostgothitbyacarsosheswervedandcrashedhers. So yeah, everything's fine." When you really think about it, everything is fine. Once, in class, I wrote it out on a scrap piece of paper:
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According to the scale, the current situation is bad (almost terrible). But fine works.
I glance over at Connor, Zoe, and my mom again. My eyes widen at the sight. There's more blood than I thought. Crap, she's gonna need stitches. I let out a nervous breath.
"Evan, I'm going to get Larry, where are you?"
"I, uh-"
My mom comes running over to me. "Evan, we need to take Zoe to the hospital."
I hear Connor. "Evan? Are you okay."
This isn't "fine". This is "the worst".
I hear my name come from all directions; the phone, my mom, Connor.
