Waiting For You (Tree Bros)

Chapter Four: Find My Friends

TW: Physical abuse and violence.

"Evan accepted my request," Zoe said, opening the Find My Friends app.

"Will it even work if he's in a different state?" Alana asked.

Zoe nodded. "Yep. It'll work. I think."

"Have you even used it before, Zoe?" Jared asked.

"No," Zoe admitted.

"Here, pass it to me," he said.

Zoe gave Jared her phone, and he began to attempt to find Evan and Connor's location.

"Wait, why have you used it before?" Zoe asked Jared.

Jared paused and looked up at Zoe. "It's best if we don't ask questions," he said seriously.

Everyone laughed a bit.

"Oh! Got it!" Jared exclaimed, passing the phone back to Zoe.

Zoe looked at the location.

"Okay, everyone," she smiled. "Who's ready to take a trip to California?"

Heidi grinned. "I'll go pack," she said, slowly going to stand up.

"Oh, um, Heidi? You should probably stay here," Alana said.

Heidi looked confused, but then looked down at her stomach. "Oh," she said. "Well, if I have this baby in California, so be it."

"That's... not how it works, Heidi," Alana continued. "You could go into labour on the plane."

"And besides, if you had the baby in California, dad would miss it," Jeremy added.

"You're right," she said sadly. Tears began to well in her eyes. "Just... promise me you'll find my son. Please."

Alana nodded. "We won't rest until we find them both."

"Thank-you." A tear streamed down Heidi's cheek.

"How are we going to get the money for this, anyway?" Jared asked.

He had a good point.

"I can use my money from my part-time job at the cafe," Alana said.

"I have some saved up," Isabel added.

"I do not," Jared said.

"Me neither," Jeremy said. "All our money is going towards the wedding," he said, gesturing to his fiancé. 

"I'll pay for you guys," Zoe said. "My mom gave me some money before I moved out. It should be enough to pay for the four of us."

"You don't have to do that, Zoe," Michael said. "It's your money."

"It's fine. It doesn't bother me," she replied.

"We'll pay you back, we promise," Jeremy said.

"You don't have to," Zoe insisted. "It's for Evan."

The three boys sighed in defeat. "Thank-you. So much," Jared said.

"When do we leave?" Isabel asked.

Zoe pulled out her phone to look at the flight app she had installed the other day.

She looked up one-way flights to California. It loaded and she looked up at her friends.

"We leave tonight."

***

"Zoe says she's coming to find us," Evan whispered to Connor.

"How is she going to do that?" He whispered back.

"No clue," Evan told him. "Although she did send me a request on Find My Friends."

"What, so she's going to save our lives using Find My Friends?"

"Probably."

Connor sighed. "I can't wait to see her again. I've missed her so much."

Evan put a hand on Connor's knee. "She's missed you, too. So, so much."

Connor smiled a bit. "I've missed everyone else, too. By the way, how did Cynthia and Larry react to my disappearance?"

Evan took a deep breath. "Well..."

"It's okay, Tree Boy. Tell me the truth," he said kindly.

"Cynthia... she cried at first. Larry didn't really react," he said, looking down at the floor.

"Hey, it's okay," Connor said, lifting up Evan's chin so he could see him. "I'm proud of you for telling the truth, and I'm not upset that they didn't really have a reaction. They're assholes anyway."

Connor gave him a quick peck on the lips. "By the way, I never got around to asking you," Connor said. "What were you doing in California anyway?"

"It was the one year anniversary of the bombing," Evan replied.

"You went to that?" Connor asked, smiling.

"Of course I did," Evan smiled, interlacing Connor's hand with his.

"I love you so much," Connor said.

"I love you, too."

Suddenly, the door at the top of the stairs swung open. 

Evan and Connor pushed away from each other as they heard footsteps trudging down the creaky, wooden steps.

Evan's first thought was Zoe, but then he realised that was impossible. He had only spoken to her half an hour ago, so she couldn't have been there yet.

At the bottom of the stairs stood a man. Evan couldn't see too well due to the lack of light (he had turned the light on his phone off as soon as the door open), but from the light illuminating from the door at the top of the stairs, he could see that he had jet black hair and emerald green eyes. He looked like he was around his mid-twenties.

He actually looked attractive, except for the anger in his eyes.

"What's going on here?" He asked, his voice rough.

"N-nothing," Evan replied.

The man's vision flicked down to Evan's wrists. "Your hands are untied," he said.

Evan looked down at his wrists. Shit.

"You did this, didn't you?" The man turned to Connor.

"N-no, he didn-"

"Shut up!" The man yelled. "You freed him. Now I'm going to have to punish you."

The man kicked Connor hard in the chest, causing him to fall backwards.

He stood over the boy, kicking him hard in the back. Connor curled up in a ball and began to cry softly.

"S-stop!" Evan yelled through tears. He stood up and pulled the man away from Connor.

The man grabbed Evan and punched him in the side of the head. Hard.

Evan fell to the ground with a thud.

He looked over at Connor with tears in his eyes, seeing the blurry vision of the man continuing to hurt him.

Then he saw the room begin to spin, and then he saw nothing at all.