Where They Go

Chapter Sixteen: Slipped Out

Zoey sat her bag in Erin's room and took a seat in the hanging chair.

They talked for a bit before deciding to play "Minecraft". They had made a survival world earlier in the Summer, they were going to work on it a bit more.

Erin worked on expanding their small wooden house, while Zoey dug deep underground, collecting an abundance of stone and various ores.

Zoey glanced over at Erin, who was intently focused on the game.

She looked back at her side of the screen, as a thought violently hit her head: "Tell her".

The thought was immediately shrugged off, because it wasn't going to happen.
She wasn't just going to confess her feelings to Erin right now, out of the blue.

She was going to tell Erin eventually, but not right now, maybe not even at all today.
Right now, in the midst of playing video games, was not the right time to bring those intense and deep emotions up.

At around five o' clock, Erin asked,
"Are you hungry? My mom left us money for pizza."
"Yeah. Who's gonna order it?" Zoey asked.
A nervous expression came across Erin's face at the idea of calling in the order.
Zoey noticed this instantly. "I'll do it, if you don't want to."

Erin's look of nervousness went away as she let out a sigh.
"Oh, thank you." She said, relieved.

They ordered a half-and-half pizza with one side being pepperoni and the other side being Hawaiian.

Zoey ordered the food, hung up, and smiled at Erin, who had taken a seat on the couch.
She joined her on the couch and watched her flip through the television channels.

Erin had mentioned one time that she didn't spend much time in the living room, since her mom tended to hog the remote, so this was one of the first times in a while that she got to watch what she wanted to watch.

Knowing this made both of them happy.
Zoey was happy for Erin, and Erin was happy that she got to watch whatever she wanted with her best friend.

After a few moments of flipping through channels, Erin chose "DisneyXD", which was playing a marathon of old "Gravity Falls" reruns.

A half-hour went by as their food finally arrived. Zoey, sensing that Erin did not want to have to make small talk with the pizza deliverer, stood up and opened the door.

She set the pizza box on the kitchen counter, while Erin got up and pulled two plates out of the cabinet.

The two of them put their pizza slices onto their plates, then sat back down on the couch, and continued to watch the show.

A little later into the evening, after their dinner had been eaten and their plates had been put into the dishwasher, Erin rested her head on Zoey's shoulder.

"Are you okay with this? It's not weird is it?" Erin asked. Zoey looked down at her.
"What's 'this'?"
"Me leaning on your shoulder. I just wanted to see if you're comfortable with it, that's all."
"Oh, okay. I'm comfortable with it."

Zoey was very comfortable with Erin leaning up against her.
She felt happy being so close to her.

The thought of, "Tell her" had looped in her head all night. She had kept in her head for a while, until her focus went from the cartoon on the screen to the brown haired girl who was so close to her.

"I like you." She mumbled quietly to herself. She froze once she had realized what she'd just said out loud.

Her internal thoughts had slipped from her brain and out her mouth.