Fleur

Chapter Thirteen

Trigger warnings (wow what a surprise)

•

Recovering rather quickly from the shock, Connor lunged at Heidi and pushed her aside, grabbing Evan's limp arm and pulling him to his feet.

"Evan let's go while she is..." Connor gestured towards Heidi who was struggling to stand, her foot stuck between two rotting wooden beams.

"C-Connor, Jared," stuttered Evan. "Just please go. I-I'm n-not worth all this trouble! One day I'll die, affect maybe three people and the next generation will c-completely forget about Evan Hansen, the boy who jumped off a forty foot tall oak tree in a desperate attempt to kill himself and, because he is such a failure, only broke an arm!" He was crying and trying to let go of Connor's firm grip. Heidi managed to get out of the wooden panels. "S-so p-please stop
t-trying to be heroic and l-let m-me
disappear."

The small shower was silent except for the creaking wood.

"No."

"What?"

"I will not let you disappear. Not so easily anyway," Connor pulled Evan into a tight hug and glared daggers at Heidi. "No matter what."

"You don't know what's good for him," Heidi said, grabbing her son's other arm. "I'm his mother. I raised this... thing. How many nights have either of you spent with this crying imbecile? How many days have you worked extra shifts to deal with this ungrateful brat? How many times have you gone to Dr. Sherman's office and sat in the dinky waiting room for two hours just waiting for his appointment to be over? You have done nothing. You're just the guy who happens to be his soulmate and you only hang out with him for the sake of car insurance," she sneered gesturing towards Connor and Jared who was desperately typing something on his laptop.

Connor pulled Evan closer to him as if he was a rope in a game of tug-of-war. Heidi yanked in the opposite direction. She was surprisingly strong for a woman her age and managed to get him on her side. Connor pulled, as did Heidi, and Evan tried to break free of his mom.

"Jared I could use some help here!" Sweat was forming on Connor's forehead, matting down his long hair which caused the tips to get into his eyes. Jared dropped his computer and ran to Connor's side. Together, they managed to pull Evan out of Heidi's grip.

"Jared," Heidi pleaded "you out of all people know how much I take care of him. Jared?"

"That's Mr. Kleinman to you."

Jared thwonked her over the head with his laptop case and used the distraction to help Connor drag Evan outside where it was starting to rain. With Heidi inside, he locked the door and ran up to his friends. The rain was terrible, thunder clouds dropping buckets of rain at a ferocious speed.

"Wow," Jared yelled over the rain, trying to lighten up the mood. "It's almost as if we're in a book and the author used a cliche 'rain escape' because she knows that all escapes are more interesting in the rain."

His comment got a few chuckles, mostly because everyone was focused on saving Evan. Connor was carrying Evan so Jared had to lead the group back to his car. He wasn't a very good leader and, due to the rain, he couldn't see for shit and kept on making multiple wrong turns which confused Connor terribly. It didn't help that Evan was vomiting for most of the trip. They must have looked odd to any passerby.

When they finally reached Jared's car, Evan was thrown into the backseat with Connor holding him and Jared went to the driver's chair, revving the car.

"Okay where to now?" Jared asked driving way over the speed limit.

"The hospital of course! Evan isn't going to survive if we don't make it on time!" Connor had found a water bottle in the car and was giving it to Evan who was just regurgitating it.

"Which way is the hospital?"

"I don't know, read a fucking street sign!"

"The rain is too heavy! I can barely see two feet ahead!"

"Try!"

"Don't you think I'm trying?" Jared yelled "he's my friend too! He means something to me and I don't want him to die. I am trying so hard to get us away safely so don't you dare say I'm not trying!"

"I say what I want, Kleinman! You got us into this mess anyway. If you had just reported the call to the police then nothing would have happened. You're the fuck-up in this situation!"

Jared slammed on the break, screeching the car to a halt. He leaned over his chair and looked at Connor in the eye.

"You shut your mouth Murphy. You shut your mouth right now because you aren't any better. We're all fucked-up. Every one of us. And if you go on and blame this whole kidnaping on me, then I'll tell you something, Connor Murphy. You will wish that you were never born."

"I already wish I was never born!"

"H-hosp-pi--" Evan groaned.

"We're trying!" Both boys yelled. Jared started up the car again and continued to speed.

"Head south!" Connor yelled.

"It's north!"

"No, south"

"North!"

"South!"

"North!"

"It doesn't fucking matter because I don't know where the hell we are anyway!"

"You're a terrible driver, Kleinman!"

"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you do any better!"

"P-please stop f-fighting," Evan said between deep breaths. His words were ignored as both boys continued to scream at each other.

"North!"

"South!"

"North, goddammit! Why do you have the need to always be right? Just accept what someone else is saying for once!"

"Right back at you! I can't even see!"

Just as he said that, the car skidded, screeching across the road. The airbags popped out and the car started to feel smaller and smaller. Suddenly they were on their side, broken glass from the windshield scattered across the leather seats. They weren't protected from the rain anymore as their clothes were stuck to their skin from so much water. Jared had a deep cut on his face from his glasses and Connor had suffered back pain from hunching over Evan to protect them. In their ears, it was silent except for the pounding rain on dented metal.

"Shit the car wasn't insured."