Zachary

Chapter Six

Dedication this time goes out to my good friend, @a_colorful_dreamer. Check out her stuff.(:

But anywho.

Ah. This one was a hard one to write..

Not too long, but still one of the most powerful in my opinion.

Enjoy.

xo.

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CHAPTER SIX

For the entire next week at school, I complained to anyone who was silly enough to listen. They would all quickly realize their mistake, offer their condolences, and try to change the subject very inconspicuously. It was rather funny actually. The lame excuses they came up with never failed to amuse me.

From the get-go, Claire made it very obvious she would not be accompanying me on my little journey to the unknown. Whenever the opportunity arose, I begged her and begged her not to leave me to fend for myself. Every time, she simply scoffed at me, shook her head and laughed.

Bryce on the other hand told me he would love to come with me to Skid Row. I couldn’t have adored that kid more at that point. He was the first person to show any sort of interest or pity for my dilemma.

That’s why I was dating him.

Unfortunately, as quickly as I was saved, I was thrown under the bus. Again.

On Friday, a day before our scheduled departure, Bryce confronted me at lunch. He had a terrified look in his eyes, the same one that always seemed to show up when he had bad news.

“Baby, you know I love you, right?” He smiled over at me shyly, taking a bite of his tatertot. I looked at him questioningly and wondered what he was getting at.

I nodded slowly and cautiously. He grabbed my hand from under the table and squeezed it tight.

“And you know I would never back out of one of our deals unless I had a really good reason to, right?”

Oh god. I nodded again and shuddered, knowing what his next words were going to be.

“Baby… I can’t go.”

Shocker.

He started to explain himself, but I stopped him. I didn’t need details. All I knew was that he was abandoning me, and that was enough.

He instantly took notice of my growing annoyance towards him, and was silent the rest of the meal, with his tail obviously in between his legs. I know he didn’t want to start any trouble. He squeezed my hand even tighter under the table until it started to hurt a little. I pulled it away and continued eating the corn that was on my tray. Or at least, it looked like corn. I wasn’t really sure.

For the rest of the day, Bryce wasn’t cold to me like I had expected him to be after I was so rude to him at lunch. Once again, that boy never seized to surprise me. He was sweeter than usual, always holding the door open for me, holding my hand wherever we went, and providing me with more sweet kisses than usual.

As per usual, I forgave him.

I didn’t sleep at all on Friday night. It wasn’t even because I was nervous about Skid Row, even though, deep down, I was terrified.

No. It was simply because there was a seven-year olds butt in my face.

Hayley insisted that she should sleep with me that night, and unfortunately for me, the kid had a tendency of moving around a lot in her sleep. She usually ended up all topsy-turvy or in some other obscure position.