We got to Evan's house, and thankfully, Heidi was not home. I don't think she'd really like the idea of her son coming home a weeping mess accompanied by me, of all people.
Evan went straight for his room and plopped on his bed, face first. I sat beside him and put my hand on his head.
"Is this when we get arrested?" Evan asked sincerely. Poor kid, I scared him with all my law-talk early on in this endeavor.
But I couldn't lie to him, "Maybe."
Evan groaned and rolled over so he was on his back. "We screwed up, didn't we?"
I nodded, "Defiantly." I said casually. This is like the 97th time today I've tried to act casual while internally freaking out. "But it's in the past, now. We can't change it."
"I wish we could."
I nodded.
"Do you think Alana misunderstood something?" Evan asked after a split second of comfortable silence. "Like, why did she even hug us? We straight up broke the law and she comes down and hugs us?"
I shook my head, "I really have no clue. But I pray to god that she didn't misunderstand. Because then misinformation would be all over the blog by now."
Evan's face lit up and he pulled out his phone.
"Ah. Checking the blog." I stated.
"Nothing." He said after a moment.
"So she didn't post anyth-"
"No." Evan said, dumbfounded, "I mean, there is nothing."
What?
I crawled over to where Evan was and looked at his phone. Sure enough, nothing. Nothing other than a gray screen and "This webpage is nonexistent."
"Holy shit."
He went on to Twitter and scrolled to Alana's profile. She did tweet there, thank goodness.
Alana Beck
@Alana__Beck
We did it, everyone! We reached our goal of $50,000 for the Connor Memorial Orchard! We did it extremely fast, too! Two months before the deadline! You guys are awesome!
A thread.
We plan to have the Orchard back up and ready for visitors by next weekend, November 13th, to be exact. We hope that some of you come to visit! Thanks for helping us through this sad yet hopeful time.
Another.
That being said, the Connor Project is sort of being disbanded. The orchard was our goal, and we achieved that goal. I will be starting a webpage and a Twitter profile for the orchard once we get it set up.
Another.
Evan Hansen and Jared Kleinman have also decided to part with the Project and the Orchard. They may still help from time to time, but they no longer wish to be affiliated with the Project. They have done what they can, and we should all thank them for what they accomplished for the group!
And one last one.
Moving forward, I am excited to get the Connor Memorial Orchard into action and to see you guys there once it opens! Thank you all for the support you have given, and I hope you stick around for the grand opening!
"That's a lot of tweet." I said bluntly, and Evan stiffled a laugh."But who is she to just remove us from the equation like that? She didn't even ask!" I said.
"Why would she want t-to work with someone who l-lied to her?" Evan stuttered out. The whole situation seemed to be hitting hard for him. Understandably, though.
"But she made it sound like it was our decision!" I sputtered.
"It was in a way, wasn't it!" Evan hashed back.
I shrugged and shook my head. The whole situation was sorta hitting hard for me, too. I should've known Alana would quit working with us. Hell, she'll probably quit talking to us, too, after what we did.
"No one's ever gonna talk to us again." I said bluntly.
"I'm talking to you right now." Evan said just as bluntly.
"Yeah but you love me."
He just turned away at that.
"We're totally gonna get arrested." Evan said at the same time I said "The Murphys are gonna murder us."
We both looked at each other and nodded, agreeing with each other's statements.
"What do we do?" Evan asked.
"Get our finances in order?"
A door opened downstairs.
"Your mom?"
"My mom."
"Hey Evan," Heidi called up, "I just heard from that Alana girl-"
"We're screwed?"
"We're screwed."
Heidi opened Evans door, and when she saw I was there too, sitting on her son's bed, her face formed a whole new emotion. "OH! Jared! Hey... buddy."
"Don't worry, he knows everything, too." Evan said, sorta taking the reins on this one. "Just punish us already."
Heidi sighed and sat on the other side of Evan. "It makes sense now, what you were trying to say last night... You lied."
Evan nodded, "About a lot of things."
I felt like this was another one of those mommy-son moments I wasn't supposed to be here for. But I'm here for it. So obviously it's not a mommy-son moment.
"I think we're gonna get arrested." I said to Heidi. I was basically her second son, right? Family-friend-son, is that how that works?
Heidi shook her head, "The Murphy's won't want revenge, don't you think?"
"I mean..." Evan pitched in, "We did commit identity theft... in a way."
Heidi nodded slowly, "The Murphy's are nice people. I think... they'll understand. If we just give them time."
Evan's head shot up, as if he had just remembered something, "Zoe!" He said.
I smiled for a second at his concern, but then shook my head, "You can never talk to her again."
"Hey, don't talk like that!" Heidi said , "She'll come around, too. You two have been through a lot, I'm sure she'll understand."
I suddenly remembered when Evan broke up with Zoe, and how I tried to take responsibility for it because I thought he was ratting us out on the Connor Project. I subconsciously started wondering if Zoe would look back on that and mentally punch herself for not figuring out what I was referring to.
Maybe. But I can't control that, could I?
"Alana's already forgiven you-"
"I'm not sure." Evan jumped in.
I jumped in on Evan jumping in, "She was all like 'You really had me fooled, you dumbasses."
"She did not-"
"That's because she's..." Heidi tried to clarify, but she didn't seem to want to. "You did have her fooled. She believed in the lies."
"She believed in us..." Evan mumbled sadly, the truth probably hitting him.
"And she still does!" Heidi said with too much enthusiasm. "She wants y'all to help plant some trees next weekend!"
"But she-"
"She was trying to protect you." She continued, "From the media and from yourselves. The internet was why you started lying, and she didn't want it to happen again. At least, that's what it sounded like when she explained it to me."
The three of us sat there in silence for a long while.
Heidi gave Evan a quick hug and then walked to the door.
"She is a nice girl." Heidi said as she opened it, "You two would make a good pair."
Evan smiled a little and shook his head, "I k-kinda like someone else, mom."
"What! Who-?" But her gaze shifted from me to Evan to me to Evan, and she just smiled and nodded, before closing the door.
-
Man i suck at this
Almost at the last chapter believe it or not.
I wouldn't even consider this a kleinsen fic. More like a plot-based fanfic with kleinsen on the side.
jeezus.
Published 4/16/20
Word Count 1269