strong (z. herron)

011; 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐲

"Well are you okay?"

"I'm fine, i was trying to take down the stupid Christmas tree and I fell." Aniela reassured him and Zach furrowed his eyebrows.

"Christmas is next week, why were you taking down your Christmas tree?" Zach asked and aniela sighed, beginning to pick at the bed sheets.

"Because I don't even like Christmas, I only put the tree up so maddy would leave me alone." The brunette mumbled and Zach raised his eyebrows.

"What's the point in it anyways? I have no one to spend it with." Aniela shrugged, trying to changing the subject. She could practically hear the gears turning in Zach's head, but she didn't want to him to respond.

"I'll tell you what," Zach broke the silence between the two of them, "I'll buy you animal crackers after I'm done here at Daniel's house."

"Yes!"

"But only if you come to the mall with me on friday." Zach finished.

"No!" She shot back sighing.

"But you just said—"

"Yeah but I thought I was going to be able to convince you out of it!" Aniela exclaimed and Zach raised his eyebrow as he took another sip from his water bottle.

"Nope, now you finally get to see me in all my glory." He grinned and aniela only scoffed.

"Don't get cocky Zachary."

"I'll see you friday ella!" The boy cheered, already taking the phone away from his ear so he could hang up on her.

"No you won—"

"BYE ELLA!" He yelled into the mic before pressing the button that ended the call. Aniela called him back two times to convince him out of it, but he didn't pick up on any as he finished his water bottle.

The moment he was done he walked into the living room where everyone else was waiting for him so he could sign cds. The moment they all saw him walked in, they ceased their conversation and turned their heads towards him. Zach felt as if he was back in middle school and there was some dumb drama scandal going around that he was somehow involved in.

His friends often did that, single him out. But they only would when he kept things from them. And aniela was something he was keeping from himself. After Eden and Chelsea scolded corbyn and jonah, they decided in staying out of Zach's relationship. But in reality, he knew that deep down they hated the girl. Which was what bothered Zach because they didn't even know her.

Corbyn and jonah were always the first to jump to conclusions in the group, which was why they were the first ones to go after Zach. Yeah sure, sometimes he didn't think things through before he acted, but he was trying his best to change that.

Either way it didn't give them the excuse to not like someone they haven't even met, especially since she was such a great person. Maybe they needed to meet her to finally stop judging his decisions, but he knew aniela would never be up for that.

She didn't even want to meet him. It took forever to convince her to FaceTime him. So meeting in person and hanging out was going to be an even harder task.

"Who was that?" Eden asked curiously. She was always the oblivious one of the group, especially in times like these.

"A person." Zach grabbed a box from the corner of the room filled with the cd covers he had to sign.

"And that person was...?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrow slightly.

Zach hesitated before answering, but just deciding that there was no point in being scared of them. He was his own person, he was nineteen, he didn't need jonah and corbyn bossing him around.