Mailboy (Wattys 2015 Winner)

7. He's Not Yours

"Broken hearts are like an exposed wound. Pour salt on them, the wound will burn even more and the chances of getting fixed lessen considerably." -the Author

Zoey Willow Hunter

“Zoey! Where you at?” cried out Skye, her voice booming from the living room. This was our way of communicating, when one of our phones was charging around the house. My mom purposely bought herself earplugs after a while, as a joke.

“ROOM!” I answered back.

Smoothing down my curls in the mirror, I tried to smile to make myself look less than worried and completely freaked out. Nico and his father were going to be here any second now and I was still contemplating how to approach the kiss subject.

Skye came in my room and let out a whistle when she saw me. “Are you trying to impress someone, Z?”

“I’m trying to impress myself,” I replied, looking down at my white summer dress. Was it really a crime to try to look nice for once? I didn’t dress up because I was going to see the guy I drunkenly kissed and hated might I add as well.

“Riiiiight, and I’m secretly a vampire.” She plopped herself on my bed and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, shut up,” she and I said at the same time, her mocking me. I glared at her and pointed my arm towards the door. She put her hands up in surrender and walked away.

At that moment, the door bell rang and I jumped. Taking deep breaths to steady myself, I headed downstairs to greet our guests. My mom was wearing an apron and there was flour on her chin. Quickly, I gave her a signal that there was flour on her face and she wiped it. She threw the apron in one of the cabinets.

Julia was the one to open the door, smiling wide. “Hi! You’re tall.”

Mr. Forrest was dressed in a casual suit, his hair perfectly combed. He looked like an older man model who just stepped out of an Armani magazine. He bent down at Julia’s level and stuck his hand out at her.

“Hi, I’m James Forrest.”

Julia grinned and shook her hand in his. “I’m Julia Hunter. I like your eyes.”

“I like your face,” he said, poking her nose. Julia giggled, she, like Skye, loved to be complimented.

I figured that Mr. Forrest, or James, had the same eye color as his son, a bright green. He ruffled her head and stood up again. Nico had a small smile on his face when he saw Julia. He did the same thing as his dad, which made Julia very happy.

Mr. Forrest complimented my mom and placed a kiss on her cheek, which obviously made her blush. If this went on like this, the four girls in this house would become as red as tomatoes.

“You must be Skye,” said Nico, nodding to Skye.

“You must be Nico,” she replied, giving him her famous flirty smile. 

Nico winked at her and turned to my mom, without even paying me a glance. Skye pinched my arm, waving air on her face. I rolled my eyes at her and mumbled: “Get real.”

“You must be Zoey’s other older sister,” said Nico, to my mother. Her face glowed and she shook her head.

Nico was completely aware that she was my mom, but he just wanted to be on her good side. This annoyed me a lot. He was a charmer, like his dad.

“Aren’t you a sweetheart! I’m her mom, actually,” she said.

Mr. Forrest turned to me and shook my hand. “Nico, you never told me your coworker was so beautiful!”