Why Her? (13 Reasons Why)

Chapter 18

"Oh...", I thought. Is this what Hannah meant by being happy with her? "Forgive me, Zachy. I really wanted to--"

"Hey," he gave me a warm hug, "It's okay, little girl."

Oh no. Did you really just call me little girl, Zachary?

"How dare you?" I tried to imitate him when he gets dramatic, "I'm not going to react to that name, it feels good." 

I answered the hug and held onto his abdomen. At the same time, my crutches fell off.

"First time using these?" he asked between laughs.

"Can you tell?" I was standing on one foot while he picked up my support. But he didn't give it to me.

"I'm going to carry you, you're too inexperienced to climb stairs with these," and he lifted me up again.

"Shouldn't I be practicing it, then?" I asked.

"Not this time."

The laughter was immediate and simply hugged his neck with subtlety. When we reached the door, the boy blocked the door and gave me the crutches.

"Before you go in, if you start crying, you can stain my shirt with your makeup." he said and pointed to the little powder and base that I had on my cheek to cover the intense purple stain that I had.

"May I know why?" I asked laughing.

"You'll see." he opened the door and ushered me in.

"Surprise, motherfucker!" some people exclaimed. The tears came as soon as I saw them.

"Tatiana! Ludo!" I exclaimed. My best friends came from Moldova, "Oh my God, Sonia!"

"Damn, Vanessa. You're literally shit." Tatiana said.

"Don't stress it, Tatu." Sonia scolded her.

"Thanks," I said between laughs. I missed them so much.

"We brought everything because we know you miss Moldova a lot, we even bought the ingredients for the coliva that you like so much!" Ludo hugged me.

"Seriously? I adore you!" My face lit up, and then I remembered that Zach didn't even know what we were talking about, "Oh, yeah, Zach. The coliva is a dessert made with grains of wheat with honey, walnuts, cinnamon, raisins and sugar. The story behind it is a bit weird, but it is delicious."

"Is it worth searching the internet?" He asked and I laughed.

"It's easy to do, Zach." Sonia said, "We will do it, it's not a big bother."

"But I want to!" I demanded. "They know I adore preparing it, don't take away the privilege."

"Girl, you're white. That's enough priviledge and you look like shit." Ludo clarified, "The most I will allow you to do is whip up the mix and have Zach help you. We'll do the rest."

"Okay..." I buffed.

[...]

After about five minutes of disagreement and foolishness, they let me mix the ingredients. Zach didn't put any strength into helping me reach for the things on the shelf as I mixed everything.

"There's a vanilla extract bottle in the third shelf, bring it." I pointed out.

"This one?" He opened one of the shelves that was not the one I told him, "Nope, these are dishes."

"It's the one on the other side..." he opened another that wasn't.

"Those are pots and... I don't know what these are called."