pathetic; zach herron fanfiction

three

We've been hanging out a lot lately, especially on the weekends. I spend a lot of time at his house. He has the most perfect family I've ever seen.

His Mom, his Dad, his younger brother, Ryan, and his little sister, Reese.

I wish I had that. With everything in me.

"Hey!" Zach's high pitched -going through puberty- voice squeaked.

"Hi," I said breaking from my train of thought.

"I brought you a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich. I know how much you like it."

I smiled. "Thank you, Zach. I brought you Cosmic Brownies."

"Thank you!" He smiled and took the brownies from me.

In my house, I'm not allowed to have Strawberry jelly. My Dad hates it. It reminds him too much of my Mom.

Strawberry jelly was her favorite. We used to eat it all the time. But ever since she passed, my Dad has refused to ever look back at it.

My Dad hates it with a passion. And because I'm not allowed to eat it, whenever I get the chance to, I take it. It brings back so many memories of my mom.

I took a bite of the sandwich. The strawberry sensation gave me a nostalgic feeling. When I was younger, my Mom used to make Strawberry sandwiches. And during the evening, when the sun was setting just right, we'd sit on the beach behind our beach house on Hawaii and eat the sandwiches.

"You good there?" Zach asked with a chuckle. I snapped back into reality realizing that I was sitting in that same old worn out cafeteria.

"Yeah, it's just peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches remind me of my Mom..." I smiled.

Zach knew about my Mom. He asked me about my family once while we were hanging out and I told him everything. Leaving out the parts about my Dad being an alcoholic, who's never home on the weekends and sometimes at week nights.

I don't have any siblings and Zach is the closest thing I've ever gotten to a friend.

"So..." Zach said holding out the 'o' sound. "I was wondering if you want to go with me to Michael's party this weekend."

"Who's Michael?" I asked.

"The kid who sits next to me in Chem."

I knew who he was talking about now. But I never knew his name. He had light brown hair and pretty brown eyes. His skin was flawless and he had a perfectly perfect smile.

I sighed at the thought of him. Guys like Michael would never go for girls like me.

"So..." Zach said cutting off my thoughts.

"Oh... um, sure. I'll go." I smiled. "But please don't make it like awkward for me. Like don't introduce me to your friends. It's like really awkward."

He laughed. "Okay, I promise to not introduce you to any of my friends."

... *the Party*

I sat in my room waiting for Zach's signal. The window to his room and the window to mine were exactly across from each other. But we lived across the street from each other so this wasn't a Taylor Swift music video or anything.

Since I didn't have a phone and we needed a way of communicating, Zach would signal with his lights.

If the light turned off and on twice, it meant 'let's hang out'.