Connor's words cut Evan right to his core, but it was exactly what Evan expected. Connor was hurting, in ways no one could imagine. Evan knew more about that than he should. He knew, because he had been with the Murphys after Connor was gone. He'd stepped into the role Connor should have filled, and he saw first hand how Connor had never fit the mold his parents tried to stuff him into.
He understood how desperate and alone Connor had felt, because he felt it too. It was different for him. Where Connor's mother was always there, hovering and weighing him down with expectations and essentially blaming Connor when he failed to meet the bar, Evan's own mother had barely been there at all. She'd come into his room to berate him, to make sure he was taking his pills and trying to fix everything that was so horribly wrong with him. But then she went to work, and class after, and expected Evan with his fear of talking to people to order his own dinner and pay for it too, and then she'd get upset with him when he chose instead to skip dinner.
Their situations were vastly different, and yet yielded the same result. A teenager on the cusp of adulthood with no idea who he was, because he wasn't who his mother wanted him to be. And with that failure so prevalent in both their lives, they had both gone down a dark and dangerous road that halted at a dead end, and no light to see either ahead or behind.
Evan drew a breath. He had two choices here. He could walk away. He could go back inside as Connor suggested. He could leave Connor out and alone. He knew how that would end, and that was unacceptable. So really there was only one choice. And that was to stay. He would stay and show Connor that he was not alone, that he didn't have to go through this alone.
He shook his head, and made a point to make eye contact. And he continued singing, his voice growing stronger as he moved closer step by step until he was close enough to reach out and touch Connor. He didn't, but he could.
Well, let that lonely feeling wash away Maybe there’s a reason to believe you’ll be okay ‘Cause when you don’t feel strong enough to stand You can reach, reach out your hand
And oh, someone will coming running And I know, they’ll take you home
Even when the dark comes crashing through When you need a friend to carry you And when you’re broken on the ground You will be found
So let the sun come streaming in 'Cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again Lift your head and look around You will be found