Evan stared at the ringing phone in his hand, waging an internal war against himself on whether to answer it or not. On the one hand, nobody ever called him, so if they did it must be important. On the other hand, the number wasn't in his contacts and the thought of talking to a complete stranger was petrifying. On the seventh ring—the last one before it would go to message, he knew from previous experience—he pressed the green button and held the phone to his ear, holding his breath. Silence.

"…Hello?"

"Oh yeah um hi?" He let the breath out in an explosive gasp. He had forgotten you were supposed to speak first when called.

"Is this Evan Hansen?"

"Yes, um, it is him. I mean, uhh, yeah. I'm Evan." He cursed himself silently.

"Oh, hi dear! This is Cynthia Murphy, Connor's mom! I was just calling to see if you would like to come over for dinner tomorrow night. Zoe told me how you've been going to visit Connor with her and that just struck me as so sweet, I figured you could just come home tomorrow night with her and have a nice meal."

"Ohh uhh, that's very sweet Mrs. Murphy, but I really wouldn't want to intrude, I'm sure you're just so busy right now and—"

"Nonsense! I'm cooking and I insist you come. Also you can call me Cynthia. Zoe will give you a ride home after as well, we wouldn't want to inconvenience your mother. Oh, Larry and I are just so excited to meet you! Well I won't keep you for long, I'm sure you have homework to attend to. We'll see you tomorrow! Oh I almost forgot to ask; do you eat chicken? I'm planning on making a nice chicken parmesan, but I could use eggplant if you're vegetarian."

"No uhh, chicken is fine. Thanks Mrs. Murphy."

"Just Cynthia! Ok Evan. We look forward to seeing you. Goodbye now!" He started to say goodbye one more time but she had hung up.

How did that just happen? He had been excited for, yet dreading the next day at the hospital because Connor was going to be released the day after, so it would be his last day with any excuse to hang out with Zoe. Now he was somehow going to dinner at her house? And—oh god—her parents.

He was lost in thought ten minutes later trying to brainstorm ways to get out of the dinner without missing going to the hospital when his phone buzzed in his hand. It surprised him so much he accidentally tossed it into the air and fumbled to catch it. It bounced off his cast and landed on the ground. He leaned over the edge of the bed and picked it up. It was a text from Zoe.

Zoe: omg I'm so sorry about that. My mom can be so pushy sometimes. She really doesn't get it.

Evan: Oh it's ok! Idk if I can do a dinner like that though.

Zoe: I would totally understand if you want to not do it, I can make an excuse to my parents for you if you want. I could also just give you the lowdown on how to talk to them though. They're pretty predictable.

Evan: What do you mean?

Zoe: Oh well I'll tell you more tomorrow, but essentially you get my dad talking about baseball or how to begin investing and you just ask my mom what she likes to do and they can both go on for hours. I'll give you pointers tomorrow, ok?

Evan: ok. Maybe.

Zoe: Let me just say, Connor is 10x easier than my parents. Gotta go study now, meet you at my car tomorrow after school?

Evan: yeah ofc! Seeya tomorrow.

Zoe:

Evan stared at his phone screen, wondering if he should send a smiley back or not. He decided against it, didn't want to seem too desperate. Dinner with the Murphy's. Shit. For Zoe, he would do it.


The car door slammed shut a little harder than he intended and Evan turned bashfully to Zoe, feeling bad. She didn't seem to notice, putting the bug in reverse and looking over her shoulder to back out of their spot in the underground garage.

He didn't know it was possible to enjoy an afternoon as much as he had, but somehow sitting there and just talking with Zoe and Connor made him feel at ease and just… normal. They hadn't even talked about anything important; starting with cool mods he could make to his cast for higher functionality—obviously pockets, perhaps some swiss army knife tech—and moving on to what songs would sound the worst covered by jazz bands. Zoe did most of the talking and Evan was content to let her. Both him and Zoe seemed surprised when Connor wanted to pipe in to add his opinions, without any snot or rudeness.

At one point Evan had started in on the topic of trees—comparing a jazz song to a weeping willow and getting a bit carried away—and had stopped when he felt the intensity of the siblings eyes on him. Both Connor and Zoe had been sitting there, just listening to him, soaking up what he said like they actually cared. It felt weird. It felt nice. Now it was six pm and they were heading to the Murphy home. Evan gulped.

"I haven't seen Connor like that in a long time." Zoe looked straight ahead as she spoke, the tone of her voice neutral.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, just… sober, I guess? Happy-ish? I never really see him bantering or even really talking or anything like that."

"Oh. I think he liked it. Or it seemed like he did. Though I don't know if I could lift my cast after all the mods he wants to make to it." Evan awkwardly lifted the cast up in the air to emphasize the joke, then realized how dumb that was and awkwardly lowered it to his lap again. Zoe just kept looking ahead, pensive.

In a burst she snapped out of it, turning to him with a wide smile on her face.

"So, my parents."

"Yeah about that, it's really nice and all but I probably shouldn't push it and I don't want to like, interfere with your whole family or whatever, like you probably want me to just go home—"

"I don't want you to go home. So my mom is crazy. That's the first thing you need to know. Just smile and nod and if she stops talking say 'tell me more!' and she'll just launch right in again. She loves it. My dad is all about sports and I hate them so if possible just keep my mom talking, ok? It'll be easy, they don't even know you but they already love you—they're just enchanted with the idea of Connor having a friend. Never mind the fact that you're actually my friend, right?" She didn't pause to let him answer before launching in again.

"Anyways, I told them we have a lot of homework for math so it should stay short and sweet, and I can give you a ride home after. I think we're due to move past the oldies and start listening to some new stuff, don't you?"

"Yeah, sure. Ok. Sure. I can, I can just listen, right? They'll just do all the talking." Evan spoke mostly to himself and Zoe turned and smiled at him again.

"If all else fails, give me the signal and I'll do an emergency rescue."

"And what is the signal?"

"How about this?" She took both hands off the wheel and put them in prayer pose on top of her head—bent slightly because there wasn't much headroom in her bug—and started moving her head from left to right, doing an Egyptian-style dance. She couldn't hold it for long before breaking into giggles. Evan glanced nervously at the wheel but caught himself laughing nonetheless.

"Ok it might be a variation of the signal, but I'll let you know if I need rescuing."

"Sounds good. Now play some music. Don't worry, you can play from my collection so you know I'll like it." She held her phone out to him and he took it nervously, scrolling through. He found all her Beatle's songs and put them on shuffle. She grinned at him and starting singing the lyrics to Hey Jude with maximum drama. Evan smiled. This would be ok.


Sorry that this chapter is so short! Originally I intended to have it include the dinner itself but the build-up required so much more than I previously anticipated I decided to split it into two.