Nobody Was There. | Dear Evan Hansen | Tree bros

connor murphy's three weeks of suffering

October 3, 2017

Dear Evan Hansen,
It's been two weeks since you and Connor Murphy became friends. He's proved to be... a lot to deal with. Still, he's getting better. And he's pretty fun to be around. It's nice to have a-

"Hello? Evan? Earth to Spruce boi!"

Evan looked up from his phone and at Connor, who was sitting in front of him, waving his hand in Evan's face.

"Good. I finally got your attention! Dude, didn't we agree to not use phone's while we were hanging out?" Connor said with that smile that seemed to become more common each day.

"S-sorry, Con. I was trying to finish my letter. I skipped yesterday's so I have to catch up." Evan said with a nearly unnoticeable stutter. He had been getting better at that, and well, everything. That's just what happens when you have a real friend.

"It's cool, Tree Dude. Just don't freak out too much okay? Freaking out is forbidden with frozen yogurt in our presence." He said, slightly chuckling at his nickname for his best friend. Evan was terrible at coming up with nicknames for anyone, but Connor seemed to come up with a new one for Evan every so often. He said it would help them be closer, and that proved to be true.

Smiling, Evan surrendered and put his phone away. Connor finished the rest of his frozen yogurt quickly and leaned back in his chair, dramatically sighing with satisfaction. Evan laughed at this. He was glad Connor was in a good mood. He was also glad it occurred more frequently now that they had been friends for a while.

But the light in Connor's eyes was swept away by his phone ringing in his pocket.

Evan tensed.

He knew this could only be bad.

It could only be Connor's family.

Connor hated talking to his family. He stressed that a lot, and complained about it a lot. Giving Evan an apologetic look, Connor answered the phone. Evan couldn't hear the other person talking but seeing the expression on Connor's face was enough to let him know it was bad.

Connor didn't say anything on the phone, which was strange, because Connor usually yelled when this happened. This must have been different. Hanging up with a worried expression on his face, Connor stood up.

"Sorry, Evan. I have to go." Connor said, taking money out of his pockets and slamming it on the table. This startled Evan, but Connor was too distracted to notice.

"Come on. I'll drive you home."

...

Connor looked up to see his mother with a disappointed and angry look on her face. She was holding his stash of weed that he thought he had hidden well enough. Everything just had to be ruined when he was happy. He thought things were getting better. He hadn't argued with his family in almost two weeks, and now that was all ruined because of his stupid drug addiction.

Truth be told, Connor hadn't smoked in a long time. Years probably, the last time he got high, but he still kept the weed just in case he needed it. He almost forgot it was there. He almost forgot he did illegal things during freshman year of high school.

So his punishment was being grounded for three weeks. It wasn't much, but Connor wouldn't be able to call, text or hang out with Evan at all for three weeks. He doubted he would be able to live through that.

No frozen yogurt for three weeks.

No cracking jokes instead of doing homework for three weeks.

No extra hours of Evan Hansen's smile for three weeks.