~~Hope~~

Chapter Thirty

                                                             Chapter Thirty

                                                        *End of Month Five*

     "Sweetie, you have to talk to her sometime." Zach told me. He kept trying to get me to talk to Julia, and of course I was being stubborn.

     "No, she doesn't want to talk to me, and I don't want to talk to her." I replied stiffly. I leaned back, looking up at the sky. We were walking to his house, since we spent way too much time at mine.

     "Maybe she does want to talk to you, but is too scared to." He took my hand into his, squeezing tight.

     "But... what if our friendship wasn't going to last because of that night..." I looked up at his bright eyes.

     "But I thought you saved her from being raped?" We turned into his yard, and instead of taking me inside, he pulled me against the wall.

     'Yeah.. But... She saw me getting raped, Zach. I'm pretty sure that scarred her just as much as it scarred me." I closed my eyes, surprised at how easily I could talk about this to him. If it was anyone else, even my mom, I would have a lot of difficultly saying stuff about what happened to me.

     "I know, Anna. And that can distroy a friendship." I opened my eyes to look at him. "But I know you and Juila, you two are just meant to be friends."

     "Fine, I'll try to talk to her." I said with a sigh. 

     He smiled. "Don't worry, I know it'll be okay, trust me."

     "I do trust you." I smiled. He smiled back, and leaned in, letting his lips softly touch mine. I pressed mine back against his, feeling myself melt into his arms. 

    Slowly he pulled back, but wrapped his arms around me, so we were still close. I could see dark circles around his eyes, his skin looked even paler than it had the day before. 

     "Are you okay?" I asked him. "And don't say it's nothing because your way too pale for it to be nothing."

     "I'm fine, I just haven't felt the greatest lately." He took my hand and pulled me towards the door of his house. 

      Great, he blew it off... again. I thought bitterly. I reluctantly let him pull me into his house. This conversation wasn't done until I said it was.. I'd have to bring it up again.

     He pulled me into his kitchen where his dad was taking things out of the fridge. He had told me that his dad was a chief for some fancy restaurant I had never heard of. I'd only been to Zach's house a couple of times, so I didn't know rather his father liked me or not. 

     "Hey, dad." Zach said.

     "Hey." He grabbed a block of cheese and turned around to the counter, looking at us while he sat down the cheese. "Hey Anna, how are you?"

     I smiled at him. "Quite good, how about you?"

     "Oh, same old stuff." He said with a chuckle. "Are you hunger? I was just about to fix up one of my very delicious grilled cheeses."

     "Sure." I said, realizing how hungry I was, well I was always hungry now, but I was still very hungry. 

     "Would you like one, Zach?" He began to pull out some bread.

     "No thanks, I'm not hungry." Zach replied.

     "How can you not be hungry?" I asked, I crossed my arms over my chest. "You didn't eat anything for lunch."

     "I dunno, I'm just not." He said with a shrug. "We'll be in my bedroom, just bring it up when your done."

     He grabbed my hand again, and started to pull me to the staircase, I looked back at his dad, and saw he was watching Zach with a worried expression. So, I wasn't the only person worried about him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     I giggled as Zach kept trying to step on my feet as I walked. We had spent quite awhile in his room talking, and I have to admit, kissing. Then his dad brought up a grilled cheese for me, and it was the best sandwich I had ever had. Now he was walking me home, and we were going quite slow, not wanting to have to leave him.

     He stepped down onto the tip of my shoe, and I stumbled back trying to pull away. Of course, Zach caught me right away. "I better stop before I hurt you." He said.

      "But your always there to catch me." I argued.

      I looked up at him and saw he was staring at something. I followed his gaze and saw Juliasitting at a park bench, tear marks streaked down her face.

     "I'm gonna go see if she's okay." I said to Zach. He nodded and gave me a kiss before turning around to head home.

     I slowly walked over to the bench, and sat down next to Julia. She didn't even notice.

     "You okay?" I asked her, she jumped when she saw me.

     "I'm fine." She replied, rubbing at her tear stained face.

      "Don't lie to me." I bit my cheek.

     I saw a small smile play at her lips. "Anna... I'm so sorry."

     "Julia.." I began.

     "No. Don't. I shouldn't have said the things I said to you. It was completely wrong. Anna, you were right all this time. I don't know why I didn't believe you, I just don't..." By now she was sobbing, tears running down her light pink cheeks. "I should have believed you, I really should have. Anna, I'm so so sorry."

     "Julia, stop." I said. I could feel tears in the rims of my eyes. Stupid. Freaking. Hormones. I thought bitterly. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been so harsh." 

     We both leaned forward and hugged. Yes, I know what your thinking, it's like a stupid scene in a movie, that one scene that gets everyone to sob, well this isn't a movie.

     "So, to change the subject.." I said when we finally broke from the hug. "What happened anyways?"

      "Between Brett and I?" She asked. I nodded. "Well, I really thought we had something. I was so stupid. And we came so close to you know what. But I stopped and he got mad. He said I was... well it rhymes with witch, and some other very colorful words. Now he's telling everyone I'm a player and I just want to sleep with guys. Anna, he's a user."

     "I'm sorry, Jules." I hugged her again.

     "It's okay, but everyone makes mistakes, right?" Her voice was weak. "Can we change the subject before I start crying again?"

      I laughed. "Well, I have good news." I said excitedly.

     "What is it?" She started to jump up and down in her seat.

     "I'm gonna have a daughter!"

     She gasped. "Oh, Anna! I'm so happy for you! Have you decided if your going to keep her?"

     I ran my fingers through my hair. "I don't know... I keep thinking about it, but I'm so confused. It'll be so hard giving her to someone else, but it's a lot of responsibility to take care of a baby."

     "I know you'll make the right decision." She smiled.

     "I hope I do..."