Friends with the Babysitter (a Dear Evan Hansen Fanfic)

Ch 15--The Fight

After hanging out at Connor's house for a couple hours after school (detention for Connor), Evan made his way home. He was able to convince Connor not to fight Ferb afterwards...by literally dragging him out of the school the back way.

He unlocked the door to his house, expecting it to be dark, like usual, but the living room light was on. He looked up in confusion.

His mom stood up from the couch.

"Hi, Evan. Where have you been? I've been so worried!" She ran over and hugged him tightly. He flinched when she crushed his ribs and she pulled away. "Sorry, I didn't mean to overwhelm you, sweetie." She backing up, thinking it was his anxiety about being touched that was bothering him. He'd let her think that since the real reason required too much explanation.

"M-mom, why are y-you home? N-not that I don't like that, b-but..." he covered when he saw her hurt look.

"I got the night off so I could spend time with you. I haven't actually seen you in four days," Evan had hidden in his room the last couple nights because of his bruise. "And I haven't been home for a night in almost a month." Around the same time Evan started working for the Murphy's. "I just thought it would be nice."

"N-no, yeah, it-it is, mom." he smiled at her.

"Good. I made food." She ushered him into the kitchen where a pizza sat on the table. "And I burnt it, so I ordered pizza." Evan laughed. His mom was a terrible cook. The only thing she made well was breakfast food, for some reason.

Evan sat down with his mom to eat together. She asked him the regular questions about school, about his homework, and if he needed any more refills for his anxiety pills.

"Hey, how did that project go?" She asked after they'd finished eating and had moved to the couch to continue talking. "You know, that one I helped you with? It was a couple weeks ago."

Evan started getting nervous. He'd been struggling all night about if he should tell her or not about his job. Now would be as good a time as ever...

"M-mom?" She looked up at his change in tone.

"What is it sweetie?"

"Uhm...w-well, uhm, you know I l-love you, right?"

"Of course I do, Evan!" She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "And I love you."

Evan nodded, taking a deep breath.

"Well, I love you, and I want to help you out because you're always working and going to class and this is the first night you've had off in a month and you're spending it with me instead of relaxing which is nice, but I want you to be able to and--"

"Evan, honey, relax. You need to take a breath and slow down." She held his shoulders and he took a deep breath. "Good. Now I know I work a lot, and I'm sorry I'm not around much, but I do it so I can provide for us,"

"I know." Evan cut in, interrupting. Heidi looked at him in shock. He never would have done that before. "And I want to help."

She looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what would you say about me getting a job?"

Her jaw dropped and her eyebrows rose.

"Evan, you don't need to do that. We're fine--"

"Mom, you can't keep going like this. You're going to work yourself to death, and I can help, I--"

"Evan, just think about your anxiety. People in the real world aren't nice. They wouldn't be understanding if you had a panic attack."

"Well what if I babysat?" he said, not liking where this conversation was going. Did she think he wasn't capable of handling himself?