Zack lay in bed the next morning, smiling at the ceiling. Since when had he felt this happy about a girl being interested in him? Well, he was pretty sure that she was. Why would she blush so furiously if she wasn't? He grinned to himself as he heard a knock on his door and saw Cody walk in, dressed in his work outfit of white shirt with a blue and green strip on the front, and white pants. He came up to Zack's bed.
"You're still in bed? It's already 9:15. We have to be on the Sky Deck by 9:30."
"It's Sunday. You're lucky I didn't sleep walk onto the Sky Deck."
Cody chuckled. "You've slept walked before, and let me tell ya, that wasn't pretty. You remember Zombie Mom, don't you?" He eyed his twin. "What's with the smile?"
"Two words—study buddy."
"Oh..." Cody enthused, understanding. "You're little study date with London went well yesterday?"
"It wasn't a study date," he countered, then paused, and grinned again. "Actually, it was, wasn't it?"
Cody's looked turned sly. "What happened, other than studying?"
Zack stared back at the ceiling, remembering London's blushing face. "I discovered something."
"What?"
"London's so into me." Cody snorted, and Zack gave his brother a look. "Hey, I'm serious. She was blushing most of the time she was with me, especially when we were in close proximity."
"Okay, one, I'm pretty impressed that you used the word 'proximity,' and that you were that close to her to begin with; and two, London wears a lot of makeup."
Zack sat up and creased his brows at his brother. "Her face turned totally pink—I saw it." He smirked. "I knew I had that effect on the ladies." He popped his lime-green work polo collar.
"Not London. Don't get your hopes up. She still thinks the both of us are annoying kids, and she still gets us mixed up."
"Hey, you don't know what she's thinking. She was totally nervous around me."
"Think what you want, Zack. London will only think that way about you if you suddenly become the heir to some milti-million dollar corporation, and magically grow five inches. Plus, weren't you freaking out that you have feelings for her in the first place? Why are you trying to convince yourself that she has feelings for you, too?"
"I'm not trying to convince myself," he said and lay back down on his pillow and folded his arms behind his head, content and sure. "I know that she does."
"Whatever you say, Zack." He went to the door. "Now let's go. We have to be on the Sky Deck in ten minutes."
"You go first. I'll stay here for a few more minutes."
"London might already be up there, you know. It's her favorite hang-out spot."
Zack paused and stared at his brother for a moment. Having London see him and prove his point would be awesome. "Fine. Give me a minute."
Cody stood near the door as Zack got up and spritzed himself with the cologne that took him thirty minutes to find the night before. It was under a week-old piece of pepperoni pizza on a paper plate. Cody coughed, waving the air because of the cologne. "Hey, is that my cologne that Bailey bought for me that went missing three weeks ago?"
"Maybe."
Cody snatched the bottle back and put it in his slacks pocket. "Let's go."
The two boys left the room, Zack smiling to himself.
~ ~ ~
Good, he's not at work yet. But would he be at work today?
It was Sunday, and not many people worked on Sunday. She would know since a lot of clothing boutiques were closed on Sundays, which was completely selfish of them. They should be open all the time so they could serve rich people like her, a person who could give their stores all the money they needed to stay in business. Oh well. Their loss.
London stood near the stairs leading to the deck above the Sky Deck, wearing black pants and a shimmery purple tank-top, and eyed the smoothie counter. What was she even doing? Why did she make sure she looked extra-gorgeous when that was impossible since she was always at her max level of gorgeousness?
It was because of that twin who became cuter somehow in the past twenty... how may hours were in a day? It didn't matter. She just knew that he somehow became super hot. Maybe she only just noticed that he was hot? She shook her head. No, she would have noticed before. Someone just turned the hot button on him. Too bad for Cody—no one bothered to turn on that switch on him yet. Apparently, Bailey was the only who really noticed how attractive he was.
"Hey, London!"
She jumped at the sudden sound of her name and she turned around to face the very twins that she just thought about. She eyed Zack, who had an amused smile on his face.
"Looks like someone ate the jumping shrimp," Zack commented, and she felt heat travel up her neck in embarrassment. She stood as tall as her five-foot-two stature would allow, and in her shiny pink Gucci heels which brought her up a few more inches. The twins still stood taller than her.
"I didn't eat the jumping shrimp," she defended. "I promised myself that would never go near the stuff. I even called the kitchen to make sure they don't serve it on the buffet table."
She nodded her head in finality and both guys continued to smile, amused. Why? "Right," Cody enthused. "Well, I have to start work. See ya."
Cody abruptly left, and Zack stared after him with wide eyes, and he looked a little annoyed. Why would he be annoyed?
"Don't you have to work, too, Zack?" London asked.
"Yeah..." he said, still eyeing his brother with that annoyed look. He brought his gaze back to her. "Well, I guess I should get to that."
He walked away. She turned and watched him go as he wore that hideous work uniform. She felt her heart sink, and she momentarily wondered how she would get it back into the right place into her chest. She wanted to talk to Zack a little longer. No, she shouldn't bother with him, no matter how hot he suddenly became, and how nice as well. She was surprised that he insulted and then complemented her hair the night before, mainly since he never complemented her about her looks. She was also surprised that he grabbed her arm suddenly, stopping her from grabbing that textbook. She had locked gazes with him and she couldn't help her face heating up. That only happened when she was around guys that she liked.
Did she like Zack? Zack? One of the kids who always caused problems and ran rampant wherever he went? Someone who she knew for years?
It just didn't make any sense, like most things in her life and on this planet. The only things that really made sense to her were money and fashion. She shook her head and walked across the deck, dismissing those thoughts, and she finger-waved people as she walked by, even if they weren't looking at her. She knew they knew who she was—everyone did, after all.
"Excuse me," said a red-headed young woman who came up to her, wearing a tacky blue blouse and khaki capris. "Are you London Tipton?"
Apparently not everyone knew who she was. She would enlighten this girl who looked around her age. She flipped her hair. "Why, yes, I am London Tipton."
"Oh my gosh, really?"
"Yes. And no pictures, please. Actually, click away."
She posed, and the young woman said, "Oh, there's no need. I already have a poster of you taped to my wall."
London put a hand to her heart. "Oh, really? I'm flattered!"
"Oh, you should be. Mainly because..." She took a step up to her, and her expression turned mean. "I love to use it as a dart board. It's calming, making bulls eyes at the world's dumbest heiress."
The young woman gave London a smug look, and London stared at her as hurt pinched the center of her chest. She attempted not to show her reaction to those harsh words. "Oh, well, that's..." she started to retort, but the young woman cut her off.
"What? Are you going to throw that expensive handbag at me? It's most likely faux leather."
London's mouth dropped open, appalled. "It is not fow leather, whatever 'fow' means. This is real leather, imported straight from Italy. In fact, I have five more exactly like it, but in different colors."
"Like I care." She leaned in close to London's face, her nose twerked. "Do you like living off of daddy's money? Have you even worked a day in your life?" She laughed. "Oh, no, probably not. You wouldn't even be able to hold a spatula at Burger World on the eatery deck."
London's lips pursed as she glared at this young woman, fire in her eyes, as well as stinging tears. "I..." she stared, but stopped. How come she couldn't think of a come-back?!
"What was that?" the young woman mocked, squinting her eyes. "I... what?"
"I think you should leave her alone."
London's heart jumped when she noticed Zack suddenly enter the picture, giving the young woman a mean look. She hadn't heard Zack use that scary tone of voice before, and it was rather low. Had his voice lowered in the past day also?
"Who are you?" the young woman asked Zack, eyeing him.
"One of London's good friends, and I'm not going to let you slander her any longer. Now beat it before I break my rule of not hitting girls."
The red-head aimed that smug look at Zack, and the young woman stuck up her nose and walked off near the pool. Zack let out a breath and looked at London. She stared at him, wide-eyed.
"What?" he defended. "I wasn't going to let her make fun of you more than she already was. Honestly, I really wanted to punch her."
London didn't say anything and just stared at him. She wanted to hug him, kiss him... do anything to thank him for getting rid of that girl, but instead, she walked away from his presence before she was tempted to do so.
~ ~ ~
Why did London just walk away like that after he rescued her form that mean girl? Wasn't she grateful that he told her off? Wasn't she grateful that he came over and rescued her after he felt his blood boil when he heard that nasty remark that girl made and ensuing ones? Of course, the girl was right about London being dumb, but she didn't need to say it right to her face.
"Hey, watch it."
Zack got back to what he was doing and noticed that he set the smoothie cup down on the counter harder than he should have and splattered some Tangerine Tango onto the guy sitting there. "Sorry, man," Zack said and eyed the direction London left. He would go to her cabin later on the pretense that they needed to work on their report, just to see if she was okay.
Zack worked on until the end of his shift, and Cody came up to him just before seven. "Hey, you wanna hit the tennis court? It's free racket day."
"Tempting, but I have to go meet London for our study date. I'm willing to call it a study date now."
Cody eyed him for a moment. "Yeah, so what was that about earlier? You stopped a girl from criticizing London, and then London ran off."
"Yeah, I have no idea why she ran off. I'm gonna ask her when I meet her, which is now. See ya." He left and made it back to his cabin, changed out of his fruity-scented uniform and into jeans and a long-sleeved deep-green plaid collar shirt, and soon stood in front of London's cabin door. He knocked.
"Who is it?" asked a small voice from the other side.
"Who else? It's Zack. You want to get that report done, don't you?"
He heard shuffling, and then the door opened. He blinked. London's makeup was smeared all around her eyes. "Hey, you okay?"
She pulled him into her room by his arm as usual and pointed a pink-nailed finger to his face. "Don't you dare say a word to anyone that you saw me like this. If you do, I promise, I'll make your life miserable. I'll call Daddy and make him lower your pay, or take it away completely."
He put his hands up. "Okay, okay, I promise I won't say anything."
She turned away form him and sat on her bed. He eyed the open textbook on the desk and the open notebook. He saw an extra paragraph. He looked at London, pointing at the notebook. "You wrote another paragraph?"
"I had to do something to get my mind off of what happened earlier."
He came over and sat near her on her bed and faced her. Those insults really hurt her if it made her work on the report by herself. "You mean... that girl making fun of you?"
She nodded.
"But that was like seven hours ago."
"Exactly. It took me that long to write that one paragraph. I just hate it when people make fun of me. I know I'm not smart—people don't need to remind me of it. And... people throwing darts at my picture? One, that's really mean; and two, who would want to throw darts at this?"
She indicated her body, and Zack attempted to not have his gaze linger on her chest—she still wore the same outfit from hours before. He cleared his throat. "Well... everyone has their own opinions."
"But their opinions hurt."
"That's true. Other people's opinions can hurt sometimes."
She eyed him for a moment. "People call you dumb, don't they? What do you do about it?"
She was pretty blunt, but she wasn't wrong. "I think nothing of it because I'm used to it."
She folded her arms and frowned. "Well, I'm not used to it. Like I said, I know I'm stupid. I don't need to be told that I am."
Zack pursed his lips, thinking about how to respond to that in a way that wouldn't hurt her feelings even more. In all honesty, she was probably the stupidest person on the ship. Oh, how mean that sounded. "You're not stupid, London, you're just... different. And people make those comments because they're jealous of you."
She nodded. "It makes sense that people would be jealous of me. Everyone should be, but they don't need to be mean about it."
Zack smirked at her being self-centered again. "Well, people are just mean. It's how the world is."
"But you're not mean. You know, I'm smart enough to know that you came here not to work on the report but to see if I was okay. That was nice of you."
Apparently she was smart enough to figure that out. He smirked in a suave way. "Yeah, well, I can sense when people are feeling bad, but most of the time I do nothing about it. And I guess you're right. You're my friend, and I don't want you to feel bad." He paused, the question he wanted to ask her pushing at his lips. "So... why did you just walk away earlier after I shooed that girl away?"
London pursed her lips and looked into her lap. He had never seen her like this before—so torn up and timid. In fact, he never seemed himself like this before, caring so much about what someone thought and felt. "I... was embarrassed. I didn't want anyone to see me cry. My makeup would run and then I would become ugly like I am now."
Zack shook his head. "London, you're not ugly. You of all people should know that."
"But I am with makeup streaked down my face."
With the amount that was smeared around her eyes, he surmised that Cody was right in saying that London wore a lot of makeup. Also, he surmised that she must have cried a lot. She looked like a raccoon with black smeared around her brown eyes. He said, "Again, you're not ugly. You're just... a raccoon."
Her brows creased. "A raccoon? You think I look like a raccoon? What is that, even?"
"A cute animal. But you're a gorgeous one, not just a cute one."
She stared at him, surprised. He couldn't believe that he just said that! He looked away from her gaze in embarrassment, his gaze on her other vanity desk. Heat traveled up his neck and he couldn't stop it.
"You... think I'm gorgeous, Zack?"
He looked back at her and attempted to appear cool. "Doesn't everyone?"
"Yeah, but... I guess it means a lot more when it comes from you."
He stared at her makeup-ringed eyes as his heart banged against his ribs. His gaze went to her mouth. He couldn't take it anymore... He leaned in and kissed those lips of hers, which were incredibly soft. She froze. He held himself there for a moment, his lips sitting on hers, then disconnected. He stared back at her, eyes wide. I've really done it this time!
"Um, uh..." he stammered. "I was just..."
London suddenly took the back of his neck and kissed him right on the mouth. His eyes widened at the shock of her returning his kiss, but they eased closed as he brought a hand up to her shoulder and kissed her back. He moved his mouth on hers and deepened the kiss, feeling her soft lips and not wanting to stop feeling them. She moved her mouth along with his, which made his whole body tingle, including in places that he thought he wouldn't feel tingles for some time. And that perfume... it played with his senses like it never had before.
He felt her fingers grip the hairs on the back of his neck, which sent shivers up his spine. He didn't want this to stop, but... maybe it should. They were friends! This wasn't supposed to happen! He disconnected and the two looked back at one another. He turned away from her, his heart hammering and his face feeling like it was on fire.
"I uh... I have to go."
He stood up and went to the door. He took the door handle.
"Zack, wait just a minute."
He stopped and heard London get off the bed and walk up behind him. His heart never hammered so hard before, so hard, he had to wince with every pound since each of them hurt. He turned and faced her, and her face was flushed pink under all that smeared makeup.
"Look, that was..." he began, wanting to explain, but he couldn't think of what to say.
"Yeah, I know—not supposed to happen. Why'd you do it?"
He gave her an incredulous look. "Why'd I do it? Why'd you do it?"
"I asked you first."
"Well, ladies first."
They stared at each other for a long moment. London folded her arms. "Fine. Let's just pretend that it never happened."
He frowned. "Right. See you at tomorrow at school."
He didn't give her time to respond since he was out the door in a second. He cantered to his cabin, not even realizing that he passed his brother on the way. He collapsed on his bed right as Cody walked in. "Hey, what's going on?" Cody asked. "You're face is redder than I've ever seen it."
"Go away, Cody," Zack ordered into his pillow.
Cody shut the door and stood near the bed. "You went to go see London, right?"
"Yeah..." Zack said, still a bit dazed.
Cody sat on the bed, next to Zack lying there. "What happened, Zack?"
Zack told his brother pretty much everything, even when he didn't want to, and Cody could figure it out anyway. He would save him the trouble. "I'm sunk."
"Why?"
"I kissed London."
"You what?"
Zack sat up and faced his brother. "I kissed London, alright? We were talking and... it just happened."
Cody's eyes gleamed with excitement. "And? How did she react? I have to hear this one."
Zack thought about that amazing experience and smirked. "Well, I have to say that you were wrong again. She totally kissed me back, and I mean, really kissed me. That kiss was deeper than the ocean this ship's floating on."
Cody made a face. "Okay, too much information, but I can't believe she actually kissed you back! I wasn't expecting that one."
"Well believe it. Told you she was into me."
"Are you sure she wasn't just hurt from earlier and you just took advantage of that?"
Zack gave him an appalled expression. "What? No. I'm not that shallow." Cody gave him a look. "Well, okay, maybe sometimes I am, but I wasn't this time. Sure, she was still hurt from that whole situation, but she was so beautiful just sitting there with makeup smeared all over her face from crying, I just... I couldn't help it. And..." He popped his shirt collar and smirked. "She couldn't resist kissing me back, either. In fact, she took the back of my neck and brought my head closer and slammed her mouth on mine. The woman's an animal!"
Cody put up a hand. "Okay, again, too much information, but... I'm happy for you, Zack. You seem to really like London, and I mean not in the sleazy way you like other girls."
"I don't like girls in sleazy ways."
"How many girls have you claimed to be in love with since we were five? And how many girls' numbers do you have in your phone?"
Zack thought about that a moment. "Good point, and... maybe you're right. I admit it. I like London, after five years of knowing her, and... I'm sunk, more than when Titanic hit that iceberg."
"You paid attention in history class?"
"No, I saw the movie."
Cody shook his head at that. Typical Zack. "Well, all the same, I'm happy for you. So, what are you going to do the next time you see her?"
Zack huffed and felt irritation and hurt prick his chest. "Well, she said that we should just pretend that the kiss never happened, so... I guess nothing."
Cody's brows rose. "Seriously? She wants to pretend that it never happened?"
"Yeah, but I know for a fact that I won't forget it, and neither will she, no matter how airy her head is."
"Speak for yourself. You two are perfect for each other." He slapped a hand on his shoulder. "Good luck."
"Thanks, man."
He needed it.