Take One For The Team

Chapter 13

We'd been walking for nearly 10 minutes and neither of us had said a word to each other. To be honest I wasn't paying too much attention to Zack; I was concentrating more on not throwing up as well as not stubbing any toes on the sidewalk. Zack may have picked up my clothes but he'd failed to think about my shoes, which I'd left under one of Brooke's sun loungers.

So here I was, tipsy and barefoot, walking home with a guy I'd so far only ever had negative interactions with. This was not how I'd imagined this night would play out.

Zack maintained enough distance in front of me so that we technically weren't walking together, and I couldn't see his face. The streets were quiet apart from our footsteps - Zack, I noted bitterly, had thought to get his shoes. After a few more minutes passed, I decided I couldn't take the silence any longer.

"So why did you wanna bail on the party anyway?" I demanded. To my surprise he slowed down so I ended up level with him.

He shrugged, "It just got stale."

I scoffed, "Wow. The blondie you were making out with would be thrilled to hear you say that."

He just shrugged again. "Didn't even know her name."

"Charming."

He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Don't be a hypocrite Martinez, you weren't exactly short of male attention tonight. Why were you so keen to run away?"

I pulled a face. "You tell me, you're the one who just had a feeling about it."

Zack didn't say anything, he just carried on walking with that stupid smirk etched on his face. As if sensing my frustration, he broke the silence.

"Look, it's been a long day, let's just leave it ok?"

I grunted in response, reverting back to ignoring him and focussing on my own thoughts. It had been a long day - had the soccer game really only been a few hours ago? I played through the game highlights in my head; my two goals, proving that douchebag Westfield player Pearson wrong...

My mind loitered on my altercation with Pearson, and Zack intervening and carrying me away. I hated that he'd treated me like some weak damsel in distress, but couldn't stop the part of me that had loved having his arms around my waist. 

Seriously, would I ever learn?

A blush crept onto my face and I felt relieved it was so dark.

I looked around me and realised I had no idea where we were. Yeah, I was new to town, but I had a decent sense of direction and I was pretty sure we weren't heading towards my neighbourhood.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

Zack didn't respond - he just kept walking. 

I sighed, kicking myself for not bringing my  phone to the party just because Kirsty had hers and we were all supposed to stick together. I felt like an idiot for leaving with Zack. Maybe this was some stupid hazing stunt and he'd just lured me away from the party so he could ditch me in the middle of nowhere. 

"Look, if you're gonna ditch me in the middle of nowhere to teach me a lesson, I totally get it, I would've done the same, but at least leave me your shoes."

Zack actually snorted with laughter. "I'm way more imaginative than that."

"Well whatever it is, it's not gonna work. I'm not quitting just because you can't handle having a girl on the team. If you don't like it, maybe you should quit."