ᴛᴏᴏ ʏᴏᴜɴɢ » ᴢᴀᴄʜ ʜᴇʀʀᴏɴ

Chapter Twenty-Six

June 6, 2018

Maeve entered the hotel lobby with Corbyn by her side, eyes immediately flicking over to Zach, out of habit. He was standing across from Jonah with his hands wrapped around the straps of his backpack, momentarily looking away from the older boy to share a glance with her.

She cast her eyes down as she moved towards the front desk, trying not to smile in a noticeable manner.
   
Once the whole group had checked out, they made their way out the doors to the tour bus already waiting outside by the curb, Zach falling into step beside Maeve. They were in the back so he bumped into her shoulder lightly, brushing his hand against hers. He reveled in her smile, leaning his head down to whisper in her ear.
   
"We're not telling the boys yet, right?"
   
She shook her head a little, still smiling.

***

Maeve did, however, tell Jess.
   
Her best friend's screams echoed through her phone in such a boisterous manner, she held the device away from her ear for several minutes.

She was standing in the parking lot at one of the rest stops they'd breaked at traveling to Milan, tolerating the predictable reaction from the girl on the other end of the line.
   
"I CAN'T BREATHE—YOU TWO ARE GONNA GET MARRIED!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
   
Several rounds of squealing and eruptions of ecstacy later, Maeve cut in on the so-far one-sided conversation.
   
"Jess, we're not getting married, we're seventeen," she tried to argue, but Jess wouldn't hear it.
   
"You're in love," she sang.
   
Maeve smiled to herself, eyes following cracks in the pavement beneath her feet.
   
"I knew it," Jess said suddenly, in a voice of great victory. "I knew it, I knew he felt the same way about you. I didn't have any doubt in my mind by the way you talked about him before the airport, but seeing you two together sealed the deal."
   
Maeve waited patiently for another outburst.
   
"Oh my word," Jess breathed out. "I've never felt this much emotion at one time. What is this, happiness? I think so. I might throw up."
   
And that's when Maeve broke, her laughter ringing out in the parking lot bathed in the afternoon sun.