ᴛᴏᴏ ʏᴏᴜɴɢ » ᴢᴀᴄʜ ʜᴇʀʀᴏɴ

Chapter Ninteen

May 12, 2018

Zach looked after Maeve as she passed by him and walked away.
   
He had said good morning, which she returned along with a half-hearted smile. He let her go without asking, figuring it had probably been another early morning of doing work for her online classes.
  
As the day passed, however, he noticed she continued to act in the same fashion. She didn't avoid him, but their interactions weren't as they usually were. She still smiled, but it was faint, and she looked tired. She kept zoning out, lost in her thoughts, and sometimes she wouldn't meet his eyes even though she was aware he was looking in her direction.
   
It concerned him, but he knew her. When she was working through something, she needed time to herself before being confronted about it.
   
So, even though he was worried, he let her be.

***

The venue was filled with chants and screams as the line of five boys took their final bow together at the front of the stage. Everyone inside the building was smiling and cheering. All but Maeve.

She stood in the soundbooth, feeling as if she were seperated from the moment, like she wasn't really there.
   
The day had been filled with so much thinking and worrying, she felt exhausted.
   
She had always trusted what her sister told her. Now doubts plagued her heart.
   
What did she know about love? She knew it wasn't much, if not nothing at all. The only example she'd ever had was Greyson, and he'd never reciprocated her feelings.
   
One part of her mind told her the bitter truth: there was a large possibility that he didn't feel the same way about her. That he didn't look at her as she looked at him when he wasn't paying attention, that he didn't view her as anything more than a friend. Maybe all the times she'd spent thinking about him, she was the farthest person from his mind. It was more possible than she cared to admit to herself.

The one phrase Kendra said that stuck out like a flashing beacon in her head was that she was too young to be in love.

If she hadn't had anything with Greyson and she didn't have anything with Zach, how could she reject that? How could she say she was old enough to know what being in love was like when she had yet to experience it with someone who showed the same amount of interest in her?

Overwhelmed and confused, her eyes filled with tears as she watched him grinning on that stage, lights fluttering over his shoulders and chest and across his face.

***

The cool wall pressed against Maeve's back and shoulder blades. Sitting there in a dark part of the cleared venue, she closed her eyes, leaning her head back.
   
The silence was broken by a soft voice nearby.
   
"Maeve?"
   
Zach was standing a few feet away, his hands shoved in his front pockets. His hair was messy from the show, hanging over his forehead as he looked at her carefully.
   
Slowly, he moved to sit down beside her.
   
"Don't lie to me, Orland," he said after awhile. "Are you okay?"
   
She turned her head to look at him. They were very close to one another, but he didn't move.
   
"I will be," she finally responded.
   
He nodded slightly, deciding against asking further at that moment. She would tell him if she wanted to, when she was ready.
   
He cast his eyes down, touching her arm lightly.
   
"Mae... you know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
   
Emotion welled up in her throat.
   
"Yeah, I know."
   
He held her gaze then, smiling just a little. She didn't return the gesture, but he saw it in her eyes.