'Vanessa!' Zay called out, panting, as he saw a brown-haired, dark-skinned girl just ten yards from him. He had been running for what seemed like ages and ran out of breath a long while ago. He didn't seem to notice, though, because he was desperate to find his girlfriend, 'Vanessa!' The girl turned around. It wasn't Vanessa. 'I'm... so... sorry', he said to the stranger, still panting, 'wr- wrong person.' The girl simply rolled her eyes and walked on. Zay ran past her and continued his search for Vanessa.
It took him about five more minutes to find her. His heart broke when he saw her sitting on a wet strip of sand near the ocean, tears rolling down both of her cheeks. 'V-Vanessa?' he asked softly, careful not to invade her private space. 'Z-Zay, is that you?' Vanessa asked without looking up. Zay could hear in her voice that she had been crying for quite a while now. 'Can I come sit next to you?' he asked. Vanessa nodded, still not looking at him. Zay slowly sat down on the sand next to his girlfriend. At least, he hoped he could still call her that.
'I'm sorry', he said, the words barely audible. When Vanessa said nothing, he continued. 'I was a jerk to you earlier. I never meant to snap like that, I just-' He didn't know how to say what he was thinking. 'You just what?' Vanessa asked him. 'I don't know', Zay said softly. This seemed to annoy Vanessa a little. 'You d-don't know?' she said. 'You completely f- freaked out on me, yet you don't know why ?' Zay looked down. 'Zay, I want a proper explanation', Vanessa said, her voice sharper than before. 'You scared me so bad. Y-you snapped at me, then ran off. The least you can d-do now, is give me a reason.' She wiped away a few tears.
Zay shook his head. He still didn't know how to translate his thoughts into words. But he also knew he had to at least try. Vanessa deserved an answer. 'You told them that secret', he said. 'I know', Vanessa replied, 'and I'm sorry for that. I shouldn't have done that, but I thought it wasn't that big a deal. I don't see why you were so upset you freak out like that.' Zay bit his lip.
'It wasn't really about that, though. I don't give a damn if the others know I'm afraid of s-spiders', he said, shivering at the word ''spider''. 'They can know, they're my friends.' Vanessa frowned. 'Then what was it about?' Zay looked at the ocean in front of him as he said, 'You've not said 'I love you' to me in a while', he said. Vanessa was silent as she processed what Zay had just said.
'Riley and Lucas, they're acting like two love birds pretty much all the time. Maya and Josh are always laughing together, and cuddling, and kissing. Even Farkle and Smackle seem to be more romantic than we've been lately. And I don't need us to be like Rucas, because, truth be told, they sometimes want to make me throw up glitter and rainbows, but when was the last time we acted even remotely like them? Crazy in love?' Vanessa just looked at him. 'Are you saying you're not in love with me anymore?' she whispered. 'N-no', Zay answered, his eyes widening in shock. 'That was not at all what I'm implying. I just... You don't make me feel special anymore.' As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew it was a mistake. 'Ouch', Vanessa said. 'I didn't mean it like that', he quickly said. 'But you did', Vanessa replied. 'No, Vanessa, please, it came out wrong.'
They were silent for a while, until Vanessa said, 'When was the last time you said 'I love you' to me ? When was the last time you tried to cuddle me, or kiss me? Zay, you've been so caught up with what I'm apparently doing wrong, that you've not once tried to think that maybe this is not all on me.'
Zay wanted to smack himself for being so stupid. Before he could say anything, Vanessa added, 'But it was definitely lovely to hear your side. Every girl wants to hear she doesn't make her boyfriend ''feel special'' anymore.' She made air-quotes with her hand when she said ''feel special''. Zay sighed. 'I told you I didn't mean it like that.' Vanessa shook her head. 'Then what did you mean, Zay? Huh? Tell me! I'm a big girl, I can handle it.'
'Nevermind', Zay said. 'How did we even get here? I was trying to apologize, and then we ended up fighting again.' 'Yeah, well, at least that's one thing we do that none of the other couples do. And that's what you wanted, right? Oh no, wait, I remember. You wanted me to be more like the other girls.' 'I never said that!' Zay exclaimed. 'But you thought it, though, right?' Vanessa asked him. Zay sighed again. 'I hate when you get like this', he simply said. 'Like what, Zay?' 'Like this! Trying to start a fight with me', he told her. 'I'm not trying to start a fight with you. You may not have noticed this, but we're already in one!' Vanessa tried to remain calm, but it was just too hard for her. She couldn't believe this was happening. Zay's comment about her not making him feel special hurt her a lot. More than she would ever be willing to admit. 'And for the record, Isaiah, I've not once treated you poorly. Even when you made some stupid comment that was meant as a joke, but actually hurt me, I always stayed nice and cool and collected. I've always been kind to you. From the start.' Zay raised one eyebrow. 'Even that one night years ago at Avery's party when you completely ditched me for some douche bag?' he said, recalling the first time he'd asked Vanessa out and she'd bailed on him to go be with another guy.
'That's just low', Vanessa told Zay. 'You told me you were over that. I apologized a gazillion times for that. There was no need for you to bring up that night, and you know it.' In truth, Zay knew he shouldn't have, but he was mad at himself for everything he'd said to Vanessa, and wanted to somehow convince himself he wasn't the only one guilty. Vanessa had been right; except for that one night, she'd always treated him the best way possible. But instead of telling her so, he said, 'Well, I'm not over that. I probably will never be, Vanessa. It was pretty hurtful what you did back then.' Vanessa was trying to hold back her tears as conflicting thoughts ran through her head. On the one hand, she felt guilty about what happened at the party all those years ago, and wanted to apologized for what she did, and comfort Zay. On the other hand, she was too mad with him to be sorry.
'This is our first real fight', Zay suddenly said. They'd had some argument, but nothing bad like this. Vanessa nodded. 'It is.' 'So what now?' Zay asked. 'I don't know', Vanessa answered. 'I think we need to cool off for a while', she said. 'B- break up you mean?' Zay asked, feeling like he'd just been punched in the stomach. 'I don't know', Vanessa said again. By cooling off she'd meant taking a while to think things through, not breaking up. But now, she was wondering whether breaking things off for a while was the better choice or not. Zay lowered his head after seeing the look in Vanessa's eyes. 'Okay', he said.
The two remained quiet for a minute or two, before Zay whispered, 'W- we just broke up, didn't we?' Reality hit the former couple hard as Vanessa said, 'I think we did.' Vanessa slowly stood up, brushing off sand, and walked away.
The water had started to rise, but Zay didn't care. He was lying flat on the sand and didn't move when the water reached his knees, and soaked his clothing. He'd go away when the water reached his shoulders. He closed his eyes and images of what had just gone down flashed through his mind. He opened his eyes again, before realizing, that it was of no use trying to block memories of what had happened a few minutes ago. The real world was just as much of a nightmare.
Hi everyone :) I'm so sorry for this sad chapter, I promise I'll make it up to you. I hope you all liked it anyway. Thanks so much for reading! And a special thanks to those who voted on previous chapters, and to those who added this story to their reading list, I appreciate your support a lot :) I wish you all an awesome day!
Love,
♥