Stress Reliever //// {TreeBros}

douze

Evan was feeling significantly better after they left the city limits of their hometown. Something was still gnawing at the back of him mind though, and he wasn't much of a fan. He was tempted to take his meds a little earlier than he needed to make this dreadful feeling go away.

Evan sighed and pulled his backpack up from the floorboard. He unzipped the smallest pocket before carefully wrestling around with his items to get what he was looking for. After a good minute, boom, Ativan.

"You better not start popping pills on me. At least wait till we get to a hotel," Connor said, sounding more serious than he actually wanted to.

"No, no, I'm not. It's for something else." He popped the cap carefully, reaching in the bottle and raising a tiny pill up to his mouth.  Dry swallowing without a problem, Evan sat back and focused on the medicine working its magic.

"When do you think we should stop at a hotel?"

Evan shrugged, looking at the map on his phone. "Maybe when we get to Philadelphia or Ohio. It just depends on how late it is."

"How long will we be driving through Philadelphia?" Connor leaned over to look at the map.

"Maybe an hour or two, I don't know." Evan zoomed in on Philadelphia. "It doesn't look like we'll be there long."

"Let's buy a room in Ohio, I'll give you my parents card number."

Evan felt uncomfortable using the Murphy's money without their permission. Hotel rooms are expensive, and even if they are rich, it still would make a dent.

"Are you sure your parents are okay with using their money?" Evan scratched underneath his cast, a force of nervous house.

Connor let out a laugh, but no smile crossed to his face. "Of course not."

"Oh," Evan mumbled, looking down at his lap.

"I've done worse, Evan. This is going to be nothing. Cynthia will scold me and Larry will take my phone away, nothing."

Evan couldn't understand why Connor could be so nonchalant about this. What if it doesn't turn out like it always does? What if this crosses the line and he gets kicked out? Will Evan's mom react the same way?

"I don't think I can go back home. Showing my face in front of my mom is a death wish."

There was a tense silence that followed. Not even the sound of Nico snoring in the backseat was heard.

"Maybe we don't have to go home," Connor said suddenly.

"What?"

"We don't have to go home."

"We have to go home. It'll be h--- if we don't." Evan could barely wrap his head around the idea of never coming home. Sure, next year he would be 18 and he would move out anyways, but he wasn't ready. He was too scared to even drive, how would he move away from home?

"Evan, think about it. You don't have to be scared to go home," Connor sounded hopeful. Too hopeful.

"I-I can't. That's insane."

The tension returned. "Insane. Right."

"No, Connor, I'm sorry, I-I shouldn't have said it like tha-"

"Save it."

Evan sat back in his seat. The weight in his shoulders returning with a hard smack. His stomach bubbled with regret and anxiety.

He wanted to take back what he had said. He never meant for it to turn out like this. 

"Connor I'm sor-"

"Evan. Stop."

Maybe Connor was overreacting. But Evan knew that he shouldn't have said that in the first place. Connor gets called insane on a daily basis, and that's what they were trying to get away from. Evan ruined that for him.

How is this going to work with such a heavy weight holding both of them down? 

Super short for being gone to long. I'm sorry for being gone for so long, I've been grounded for 5 months