Turned To Stone

Chapter 5 - Evan

Evan wasn't sure how he had ended up in this situation.

Sure, he'd meant to make friends with Connor. The poor gorgon boy didn't have any because of who he was.

But this. This was. Yeah.

It was actually Zoe who had invited him over, two weeks after the lunch incident. "Mom will love you!" She'd exclaimed excitedly.

Evan hadn't been able to say anything at first.

Being around Zoe did that to him.

Yeah. Evan had a mountain-sized crush on Zoe Murphy, the cool little sister of the local outcast.

He was pretty sure the only reason she even noticed him was Connor though. Their first interaction had been because of Connor, and Zoe talked about him a lot.

He didn't think it was intentional, but he supposed that having a brother who can turn people into stone became a big part of someone's life.

"Mom, this is Evan!"

Mrs. Murphy had screamed when she saw him.

Evan didn't think he was scary, or intimidating. Sure he was made of rocks, but he was shy and quiet, and always wearing the most non-threatening clothing he could find.

"I'm sorry, honey, I didn't mean to frighten you." Mrs. Murphy apologized quickly. "We've just.... become accustomed to reacting when someone looks like stone in this house."

A door slammed sharply upstairs. Mrs. Murphy flinched.

"Anyway, what did you say your name was dear?"

"E-Evan." He offered quickly, sticking out his hand carefully for her to shake.

"Hi, Evan. I'm Cynthia, Zoe's mom. You can call me Cynthia, Mrs. Murphy, whatever you like."

"Thanks." Evan smiled nervously.

"Dad will be home by dinner, I can introduce you to him then. You're staying for dinner right?"

"Well I- if- yeah if you want- want I just-"

"Oh right!" Zoe smacked her forehead lightly with her hand. "Mom, Evan eats rocks."

Mrs. Murphy smiled and winked at Evan. "I think I can figure something out."

He smiled again.

Connor stomped into the kitchen, head down. Evan noticed that both his mother and his sister shied away from him as he walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a carton of milk.

"Connor, use a cup." Mrs. Murphy reprimanded weakly when the gorgon boy began to drink straight from the carton.

Connor made a strange noise between a hiss and a growl and tipped his head back, finishing the entire thing. Without a word he tossed it in the trash and shoved past Zoe to go back to.... wherever he had emerged from.

"He always does that." Zoe complained. "And he never tells anyone."

"I'm not going to worry about it, Zoe." Mrs. Murphy said, looking at where her son had disappeared to. Her voice was almost as shaky as Evan's always was.

"C'mon, Evan, we can work on homework." Zoe suggested.

He nodded, wringing the edge of his polo between his hands.

She led him up the stairs. There were five rooms. The first was open, revealing a well-decorated and adult-like bedroom. "That's Mom and Dad's." Zoe explained.

The second room was a bathroom, and Evan could see a second door that connected it to the master bedroom.

After that was a room with the door closed. He could guess whose it was based off of the huge sign on it that said some very rude things on it, and spelled out GO AWAY in big block letters.

"Why can't you just act normal!" Zoe shouted as she walked past it, smacking her hand sharply on the door. There was a loud noise, like something being thrown agains the other side.

"He's got a bathroom to himself, so we don't have to deal with him." Zoe pointed to the door next to her brother's bedroom door. "I share with Mom and Dad."

They walked into her room. Evan looked around.

Posters everywhere. Bands, movies, he even saw a couple of famous witches and wizards.

"C'mon, you're a genius in Basic Mythology and I need help with my homework." Zoe pulled him over to the bed and sat down, dropping her bag next to her.

Evan sat shyly, trying to make himself as small as possible so he wouldn't take up too much space because then she'd be annoyed and tell him to get out and he didn't want to have to call his mom in the middle of her shift to pick him up because then she'd end up losing money and they'd probably be short on rent and he'd-

"Evan?" Zoe waved her hand in front of his face.

"Sorry! I was just- sorry."

She giggled. "No big deal. Lets get started, if we finish our homework before dinner I'll see if Mom's okay with us playing videogames in the basement for a bit."

"O-okay."