STRONG
STRONG
STRONG
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"ELLA ARCADES ARE CHILDISH AND FOR IMMATURE PEOPLE," zach started, pursing his lips as he looked up at the neon sign. "it's perfect for us, let's go." zach elbowed her before the two of them walked in.
after having to spend the entire day in meetings and speaking with their entire team, zach had to cancel his date with aniela. just as he knew he had to. aniela didn't blame him because it wasn't his fault.
the boys either way had been moping around because people couldn't even wait one week before their album came out. really now it was only a couple of days, which they were spending working their asses off to make everything perfect.
it was stressing them out either way, daniel barely slept, zach had resorted to only texting aniela because he had no time in doing anything else. the girls stuck together, chelsea, eden, and freya teaching maddy and aniela how to handle with the boys disappearing. they were practically experts by now.
it didn't make aniela feel any left out though, but she still stayed there and texted zach even though she so desperately wanted to tell him to at least facetime her for ten minutes. he was busy, and she was going to respect that.
it lasted up until now, where zach was tired of not being able to see aniela so he told the boys that he was going to be out a couple hours and they allowed him. their managers weren't really okay with it, but the rest of the band were there to cover for him if any problems started.
he had picked up aniela and now they were just walking around downtown LA, where there were small businesses and bowling alleys. this was exactly how aniela liked it, peaceful and not too crowded. zach could tell by the way her eyes lit up with every step they took.
they had been walking side by side and zach had wanted to reach out and grab her hand, but he didn't want to make it weird between them. he was always the first one to rush into relationships, but they always ended horribly. aniela meant a lot to him, so he wanted to take his time and not rush things, because frankly zach really wanted this one to last.
"i told you zachary, you never say no to me." aniela laughed as they walked up to the token dispenser so they can use the games.
"i'm pretty sure i've said no to you before ella." zach scoffed and aniela only raised her eyebrow challenging, knowing that she was right.
"can we blast one direction when we're driving home?" aniela pouted as she put her hand on his shoulder, only testing what she already knew was correct.
"of course." zach blurted out once he met her eyes. though when he figured out what she was doing he glared at her before pulling out his wallet.
"you hate it when i blast one direction." aniela laughed as he ignored her, putting a twenty dollar bill and watching the machine dispose of a bunch of tokens they could use in all the games.
"I've never said that, i happen to like one direction. you just play it way too much." zach shook his head as they began making their way through the arcade, looking for the first game they were going to play. aniela gasped dramatically, not believing the words that had come out of the boy's mouth.
"i'm going to pretend you never said that just so i can beat you in skee ball." she smirked before grabbing his wrist and pulling him over to the first game.
aniela scored higher than zach in the game which caused a small competition to spur up between them. whoever had the most tickets by the end of the night, owed the other something. they hadn't agreed on what yet, but they were sure that whoever won would get something out of it.
the next game was arcade basketball, which wasn't the best for aniela because zach was taller than her. and she always sucked at basketball, baseball was her sport back in highschool. zach knew this because they had this conversation already, so he suggested basketball knowing that he would have the upper hand.
"i say this is cheating." aniela grumbled when zach won.
"you're really bad at this one." zach laughed and aniela rolled her eyes before pointing at the hoop.
"how can you get that," she pointed at the basketball, "in there?!" aniela exclaimed, her eyes wide as she reached into her pocket for another token.
"I call rematch." she shook her head, bending down to put them into the machine.
"alright whatever you say." zach put his hands up in defense as he laughed, knowing that she was just going to lose once again.
"well aren't you going to compete against me?" aniela asked him when she noticed that he hadn't put his own coins into the machine right next to the one she was using.
"no i'm going to make fun of you." he shrugged, putting his hands inside the pocket of his jeans.
"zachary!"
"i'm joking!" he laughed before her game started. zach grabbed the first basketball, going to stand behind her.
"what are you doing?" aniela asked, tilting her head slightly in confusion as he handed her the ball.
"I'm going to help you throw the ball into the basket. look," he started, putting his arms around her and lifting them to how they should be to get them into the basket. "it's all in the way you throw the ball and where you throw it." zach explained in her ear as he adjusted her arms the way they should be so she could make the basket.
aniela's cheeks were covered in a blush as he did so, but he couldn't see it being that he was standing behind her. she knew that zach was aware of what he was doing, and he was being smooth with it too. but really? he was too scared to grab her hand but he could do this.
who said girls were confusing? boys were the confusing ones.
"ready? aim for the board it'll make it easier for it to get in." zach asked and she nodded, before zach nudged her hand, telling her to throw the ball up. it hit the backboard before going through the net causing aniela to slap her hand over her mouth as she let out a laugh.
"smooth zachary, smooth." she shook her head as she twisted around in his arms so she could meet his eyes.
"i don't know what you're talking about." zach spoke innocently, biting back a smile as his arms went around her waist.
"i still have more tickets though." aniela shot back and zach narrowed his eyes at her, not wanting to lose.
"basketball rematch."
"no way." aniela laughed before moving to get the tickets from the machine.
the continued walking around, finding games to play and having mindless competitions. the smile that zach had on his face hadn't left once. well except for the time that aniela beat him in the mario kart game.
zach was convinced she cheated because she leaned over and kissed his cheek which made him crash his car and freeze completely. aniela obviously won, therefore zach's response was that she cheated by doing that.
how she had gotten the courage to do that? she didn't even know herself.
now they had sat down to eat, aniela making fun of him because she had the most tickets. and zach still accusing her of cheating. though she would only flash an innocent grin at him each time, saying she did no such thing.
"zach i'm telling you, you're just mad that i'm winning." aniela spoke before taking a fry from her plate and dipping in barbeque sauce.
"aniela you cheated!" zach accused, trying to hold in his laughter so he could be serious.
"i didn't cheat! how on earth did i cheat?" aniela played innocent and zach narrowed his eyes at her.
"you know exactly what you did."
"i have no idea what you're talking about." aniela grinned, before taking a sip from her milkshake. zach only shook his head, scoffing before throwing a french fry at her.
"you want to come over after we leave? i think daniel's with maddy right now." aniela asked as she broke the silence and zach pursed his lips before shaking his head.
"nah leave them be, daniel's been planning on making a move for a while." zach shrugged as he grabbed her milkshake from her, going to take a sip from himself. "what if you come over mine? reese has been bugging me to bring you over again." zach suggested and aniela nodded.
aniela had been to zach's house twice, one time his family was home, the other time they weren't. the only one that had been home was reese because zach had to babysit her for his parents and he invited aniela over. reese loved aniela from that moment forward, more than any other girl that zach had brought home.
"and today's a movie night either way." zach shrugged and aniela smiled slightly before nodding.
"you do know your mom invited me over after she found out we were going out today right?" she raised her eyebrow as she grabbed her milkshake back and zach narrowed his eyes at her.
"i did not know that, and that is the second time my mother has murdered her son." he mumbled and aniela furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding what he meant by that.
"huh-"
"nothing it was just a joke." zach waved it off before waiting for her to finish her milkshake. "hurry up and finish i want to find a game that you aren't good at so i can finally win." he rushed her, pointing at her milkshake before he took her fries.
they spoke a little more as aniela finished her drink. by the time they got up, she downed the last of it so she could get up. zach noticed the whipped cream that had stayed on her face so out of instinct he reached over and wiped it off with his thumb.
though both of them froze the moment they realized how close they were. zach could easily kiss her right now, and he really wanted to. but he didn't, because he got nervous, his heart was beating so hard and fast he swore she could hear it.
aniela's cheeks were growing pink with a blush as he kept his hand on her cheek. secretly she was patiently waiting for him to kiss her, but she saw the way his eyes were flickering between her own searching for some kind of opening.
he was going to chicken out.
maybe she should kiss him that could work. no it wouldn't because she tried moving and the most she could do was blink because of how nervous he had her. so maybe she wasn't good for first moves, now it was all up to zach.
when zach finally made the decision to lean in, he didn't even get the chance because her eyes went around the arcade, trying to find something to occupy her attention. she was just trying to break the nerves between them.
"come on zach there's a claw machine!" aniela slipped her hand into his quickly, using it as an excuse to grab his hand.
"wait ella-" zach cut himself off as he was being pulled towards the end of the arcade.
"can you get me the penguin?" aniela pouted as she pointed at it, zach laughing at her adorable state, forgetting yet another situation that the two had put themselves in.
"yes ella, i can get you a penguin."
liked by imzachherron, maddietaylor, maddytaylor, and 13,253 others
anielacarson: hi bestie won me a penguin 🥺
tagged: imzachherron
tap to view comments:
username: pls they're so cute
username: im convinced they're dating that's it
imzachherron: i worked so hard pls be proud of me
↪️anielacarson: i'm so proud
username: idc how many times they deny it they're dating
username: bestie my nonexistent ass y'all are dating
corbynbesson: that side profile though 🥵
username: pls zach is so attractive
username: king asf
maddytaylor: ofc ur at an arcade
↪️anielacarson: sis we know i'm always here
username: miss girl- that's my man
freyadaniels: ew no i want to see aniela not zach
↪️imzachherron: don't be rude 😡
jackaverymusic: this is aniela's best post 🚫🧢
username: oop- hi bestie
username: date date date
username: guys it's finally a nice one
username: lmao i don't like aniela
seaveydaniel: ana i stole ur apartment
↪️anielacarson: i'll steal ur house and ur dog
username: i want to see the penguin
edensailors: hi bestie
↪️anielacarson: hi bae
username: he's so concetrated
↪️anielacarson: he really wanted to get that penguin
↪️anielacarson: what a good bestie 🥺
↪️username: FRHUHIURE OMG HI
imzachherron: omg who's that hottie 🥵
↪️anielacarson: what hottie i only see u
↪️imzachherron: "zach's smile so cute irsoiugerhuirhwuiwhu"
↪️anielacarson: ihu
↪️username: LMAO-
username: idc what anyone says aniela and zach are so cute
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leave me alone ik this is why i'm failing school
but i can't just abandon zaniela they're my everything 🥺
okay okay i swear i need to stop by guys love you all. remember that it can only be a good day if you make it. happiness is an emotion and joy is a choice so smile for my gorgeous. whatever you're going through is only temporary i promise, it's only going to make you a better person, you can work through this.
i don't know who needed to hear that but i knew i needed to write it so remember all of it throughout your day <3
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