[✓] 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑, 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚗

fifty-six ☆ you can't keep doing this to me

MARCH
of twenty-twenty

narrator's pov.

midnight slowly crept among the nine friends, and they all decided it was time to go home since they still had school the following morning. corbyn dropped off presley, rosaline, and daniel, and jonah dropped off jack and june.

"hey, do you want to go home?" zach asked, lounging on the couch with elena.

the dark-haired girl shrugged, "i just want five more minutes to be with you."

zach smiled, and placed his right arm across elena's lower back. as happy as he was to be cuddling with the girl he's in love with, he couldn't help but think about his and elena's future. he wasn't sure if elena kissing him was an answer to if she's ready to date again.

"alright, now i'm ready to go," elena remarked, standing up from the couch.

she put her shoes on, grabbed her bag, and made her way outside toward zach's car. before hopping in, elena turned to zach. she placed her right hand on his chest, and her left on his cheek, "thank you so much, zach, for giving me a memorable seventeenth birthday."

elena started to lean in to kiss him again. however, zach turned away.

"uh, what?" elena laughed.

"elena, i know it's your birthday, but you can't keep doing this to me," zach declared, a teardrop falling from his left eye.

"doing what?" elena asked.

"leading me on!" zach answered, practically shouting, "you tell me that you've liked me since homecoming, but then you say that you're not ready to date. now all of a sudden we're kissing all the time, but we don't even have a label. are we just friends that kiss each other? are we dating? just tell me what we are and if you're ready to be with me, because if you're not, i'll leave you alone from now on."

"zach..." elena started, tears now falling from her eyes.

"i can't keep doing this, elena," zach sighed, pools of water filling his eyes, "i can't just pretend that i'm fine with not being with the girl i'm madly in love with. i can't just let you kiss me four times in total without us having some sort of closure on what we are. i need you to tell me, elena. do you want to be with me.... or not?"

elena looked down, tears practically flooding from her eyes. she didn't want to make eye contact with zach. she felt so ashamed for making him feel all sorts of emotions when she never considered their status. zach took elena's silence as an answer, and shook his head as he made his way to the driver's seat.

before zach could get in the car, elena ran and hugged him from behind, "zach, i love you. i love you so much. you mean the world to me. i love you to stars and back. i'm madly in love with you. i don't know how else to say that i love you, but it's truly what i feel in my heart. i-i'm so sorry for making you confused, and i've just realized that i'm ready. i'm ready for us to happen."

zach smiled, and turned around to face the girl. he cupped her cheeks, and immediately kissed her plump lips. they kissed with such love and intensity, and they both were thrilled to officially be together.

-

"and that's basically what happened last night," elena declared, explaining the story to rosaline, presley, corbyn, and daniel.

"oh god, we have another guy to deal with," daniel scoffed, "first we had jonah and jack, and now zach. i swear, if her hurts you like those two hurt rose and presley, it's off with his head."

"come on, daniel, you all know zach. he's a good guy," elena stated, "i can't imagine him breaking my heart, and vice versa."

...

a / n :

after fifty-six chapters, elena and zach
are finally a couple! (: