One Summer

Chapter 33: Unraveled past

While everyone went inside to either watch movies, eat or go to the pool, I sat down in the front steps to wait for Hailey and Zach to arrive. As I heard laughter from a distance, I just knew that she was already arriving at the house again. I couldn't help but feel even more worried when I saw her in a short distance because she looked very scared and it looked more obvious when she was shaking in fear. What happened today? When she got closed enough and looked at me straight into my eyes, she embraced me on a tight hug as if I was going to disappear at any moment. What confused me so much was the fact that she started to say sorry into my chest and even started to cry. 

What happened today? 

I looked at Zach while I was holding Hailey and by the way he was looking at me, I knew that he had something to do with what happened today. He broke away from our intense stare quickly and looked down at the ground as if he had done something bad today. What did he do? Something happened to make her act this way and by the way that Zach couldn't even look at me in the eye, I knew that he had something to do with all of this.

"What are you sorry for, princess?" I asked as I released her from the hug and only to see more tears streaming down her face

"Bryce, we need to talk" Hailey said as she let more tears spill down her cheeks endlessly

"What's wrong? What happened?" I asked as I wiped some of her tears and she sighed before looking at me straight into my eyes with a pained emotion

"Something...happened" she stammered in her words and I immediately looked at my brother who was looking afraid now

"Tell me, Zach, what happened?" I glared at him and he looked taken aback from my cold expression. He really shouldn't be that surprised by this outburst because this isn't the first time that he had seen an outburst from me. I just hope that this isn't for the same reason as last time

"I...I...well, you see...um" he muttered and just couldn't find any words to say to me. Just as I was about to press him for answers, Hailey raised her hand as if to not insist on Zach

"When I first saw Zach today, I thought it was you because of the note that Cameron had left me and he didn't notice that I mistaked him for you until I said your name..." she sent a questioning glance towards Zach, who looked pale now, and he nodded before finally speaking up

"I pretended to be you after she had said your name" he said nervously and I knew that something else was up because of how quiet they both got suddenly. What did he do?

"How didn't you notice that it wasn't me, Hailey?" I asked curiously

"He was wearing Ray Bans so I couldn't really notice the difference until he had them off" she said and I nodded in understanding before questioning further

"And what happened after?" I asked curiously even if I was containing my anger inside because my worst fear of today was coming true. Zach indeed had pretended to be me today and it just hurts me that Hailey had to go through that

"He admitted his mistake afterward and apoligized to me for doing such thing" Hailey said and I narrowed my eyes at my brother because I just had to know why he had done that today

"So why did you do it, Zach? Why did you pretend to be me today? I don't think, I just know that something else happened today" I looked at Zach straight into his green eyes and I noticed how a pained emotioned flashed before it changed back into his usual blank expression