"We put the world away, we're so disconnected. You are my getaway, you are my favorite place," -Disconnected, 5SOS
Zoey Willow Hunter
"LETTER?" I stretched out my hand. A letter was put in my hand and I tossed the mail in the box. Nico and I biked in silence to the next house. I caught him looking at me for a split-second, I felt uncomfortable under his eyes.
"Yo, Forrest?" I stopped in front of the next house.
"Yo, Zorro?"
I shuffled my feet as I reached out to grab the letter myself. He caught my hand and put it away from the mailbag. I felt as if my hand was on fire for a second there.
"I do the mail giving, remember?" His accent made it sound like he had said rememb-ah.
I nodded, "yeah, sorry. I wanted to ask—"
"Did you just apologize?" He gaped at me. And then grimaced. "You keep forgetting I'm not your friend."
Glaring at him, I named the family name and watched as he gave me two letters. Over the last week, Nico Forrest and I had cooperated. We rarely argued anymore, he was almost always on time and I never saw him after the mornings. He really did take our truce seriously, which was very surprising.
I thought he was the kind of guy who didn't have a single care in the world, besides girls and shaving every morning. Well, he did care about all of that. Every time a girl passed by us in the mornings, he wouldn't even be slightly shy into checking her out, from head to toe. His comments were anything but gentlemanly.
The amount of times I'd heard: "She got a nice bum, right Zorro?", "I'd tap that" or "Wow, I like Canadian girls" was incredible. He sometimes asked them out, which worked out very well for them. The next day, the same girl would walk down the same street as us at the same time of the day before.
The thing was, about all of this, we thought of each other as people obligated to work together. Not, according to him, friends.
"You keep forgetting that you suck."
He snorted, "nice insult."
"My insult is as original as your face."
"Seriously?" He laughed, "You're horrible at insulting me."
I stayed silent and mentally Avada Kedavra'd his butt. (1)
"Are you going to the campfire tonight?"
He shrugged, "If my schedule frees up."
"What schedule?" I chuckled, "all you do is stay home and watch inappropriate things."
"Oh please, Zorro, we both know I have a date every night."
"With a different girl each time, might I add," I said. He smiled at me playfully.
"Wait a second," he paused, "do you want me to be there?"
I furrowed my eyebrows together. "How'd you get that?"
"You asked me if I was going. Wait—do you want me to be your date?"
I took my water bottle out of my backpack, opened it and poured it on his head. He gasped at the coldness. The bottle was in the freezer all morning, yet it had melted. The water was freezing.
"What was that for? Bloody hell, what's wrong with you?" He looked down at his shirt, which clung to his body now. It was quite a sight, actually.
"That was for you thinking I actually like you. I was just making conversation, Forrest."
He took his shirt off and threw it at me. I screamed and threw it on the ground. He started to laugh and he moved to the next house. I quickly caught up to him and grunted with annoyement.
"You wanted to see me shirtless, Zorro. Admit it."
Focus on the mailbox, don't look at him. I mentally chanted.
"Don't look at me."
When someone told you not to do something, what was your automatic reaction?
Do the complete opposite.
I turned, fully prepared to only look at his face. Sadly, being the teenager I was, I had a moment where I looked at his chest. There went my dignity. As sad as I was to admit it, he was hot. Plus, his hair was all wet so it made him look like a wet dog.
"Honestly, Hunter," he smiled in a way that could make the sun dim,"Try being just a bit subtle, yeah? Drooling doesn't suit you."
He biked away.
-
I sipped on my freezing smoothie and sighed in content. Was there anything better than mango smoothies? Well, other than actors who, through time, blossomed into gorgeous men with sharp jaw lines and rock-hard abs.
"What are you wearing tonight?" asked Lucy, laying a bunch of shirts on her bed. I shrugged.
She referred to the annual summer campfire Silvercrest organized. The adults sipped wine in their own section of the forest, keeping an eye at the teens. Eventually, at 12, they all fell asleep in their chairs and that was when the real fun began. Mainly, it was an occasion for teenagers to get drunk and eat an endless amount of s'mores, hot dogs and marshmallows. Some stayed until morning, and some left somewhere after midnight. My friends and I had a big tent where we all ended up sleeping.
"Clothes."
She raised an eyebrow and gave me a glare. "No, I'm serious. You have to look damn good, Zoey. I heard that Oliver's going to be back tonight."
"You're kidding, aren't you? He shouldn't be back until the end of July." My heart started beating a little faster at the thought of him.
Lucy shook her head, "I heard from Joel that he had some kind of emergency and his family had to come back as soon as possible."
Joel was Oliver's best friend. They were like brothers, so if he said that Oliver would be back tonight, then there was no doubt that he would.
"Oh my God."
Oh my God.
He's going to back tonight.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" I shouted, making Lucy jump.
"It slipped my mind, sorry! Gosh, don't get your panties in a twist."
"My panties are completely twisted because the guy who freaking kissed me is going to be at the campfire tonight and I'm freaking out."
She grinned and patted my head, "don't worry, I'll be here for you."
"Of course, you'll be there, stuffing your face in food and in your boyfriend's face," I made a gesture of exaggerated making out.
A pillow hit my head and I gaped at her. "I kiss like a princess," said Lucy, "not like a frog when there's a million flies around."
"Whatever you say, Frog."
She held up a crop top and I shook my head. "So, how's it going with hot piece of mail?"
"Surprisingly okay, he's been cooperating. He's still rude though."
"Is he going to be there tonight?" asked Lucy, tying her hair up.
I shrugged, remembering my earlier conversation with him, "why would I care?"
"Because you're partners."
Snorting like a pig, I said: "Trust me, we both hate the idea. He calls me Zorro, for some reason."
"You know, Zorro," smiled Lucy like she knew something I didn't, "guys like to tease girls they like."
I hit her with a pillow so hard she fell on her bed.
-
The clear meadow in the forest was filled with tents and little stands to buy marshmallows or hot dogs. There was a big circle in the middle of it all, traced by big rocks used as seats. A dozen branches were the main point of the whole thing, ready to burst into flames and produce a fire. The sun was almost completely gone of the sky and it was at that time of day that everyone started to gather.
The boys (Fred, Aaron, James, Joel and Amir) were almost completely done with setting up the tent, which was undoubtedly the biggest one of all. When us, the girls (Lucy, Xandra, Diana and I), had volunteered to help, they waved us off by saying that our job was to put the sleeping bags inside. According to them, this was a big boys' job.
It took the big boys almost three hours to set up the tent because they kept fooling around and messing everything up.
"We're done!" They shouted, fist pumping each other and grinning like idiots. Aaron came to Lucy and put his arm around her shoulder, kissing her cheek.
Joel and the others walked over to us.
"Zoey! How've you been?" He reached out to ruffle my hair. I grabbed his wrist and twisted it. He grunted in pain as I took great satisfaction in all of this.
"Please let go." I obliged, laughing at his expression.
"Never touch my hair, Joel. Or else, I will kick you somewhere you won't be able to reproduce with whoever unlucky girl it is."
He nodded and did a salute, "yes ma'am."
Someone messed up my hair from the back, I turned swiftly, prepared to scold whoever of the boys was being stupid and just risking their life. I came face to face with a handsome face I'd missed so much.
"Oliver?"
Big brown eyes stared at me with mischief. "Zoey."
Stay cool.
"Hi," I smiled. I could hear Diana and Lucy giggling in the back.
"Oh, so he gets a smile and I almost lose my dingdong."
I turned to Joel, glaring at him. "You can't lose what you never had."
Ooooh's were heard between my friends and Joel blushed. Oliver started laughing and patting his friend's shoulder in pity.
"Aw, Joel's being bullied by a girl," cooed James, pinching his cheek.
Joel slapped his hand away and pushed him, making grimaces. James raised an eyebrow and they both started to wrestle right there, in the middle of the crowd. We shook our heads at them and turned away. This would be over soon.
"So, why are you back?" I asked Oliver.
He put a hand on his heart, "Ouch. You didn't want to see me at all, did you?"
"NO!" My eyes widened, I coughed and crossed my arms. "I mean, uh, nah, I never said that. I'm just asking why you came early."
"Family stuff," he said, but his tone implied that he didn't want to talk about it at all.
"Oh, well on the contrary of what you think, I'm glad you're back."
He smiled. "Good."
"Yeah."
Xandra tugged on my arm and made me turn to her. "I need to talk to you."
"Now?" I glanced at Oliver and back at her impatiently.
"It's urgent."
Oliver ruffled my hair again, "I'll see you later, Zoey." He walked away.
I looked at Xandra. "This better be a life-or-death situation."
"It is," she nodded her head, making her blonde curls bounce on her shoulders.
She leaned in my ear and whispered, "Is there any chance you have a pad?"
-
"Karaoke time!" shouted Marissa, a loud perky girl who was all into the whole yay life! thing. Some of us groaned, Lucy murmured something about no one wanting to hear her sing. This was actually one of my favorite moments in the campfire. The songs chosen were always nice and it was pleasant to discover a few with a talent now and then.
Diana put her head on my shoulder. "You should sing, Zolly!" Needless to say, she had drunk tonight.
"Maybe later, Diana. Go to sleep." I set her head on Joel's shoulder instead. He flashed me a thumbs up, as he was completely crushing on her.
"Okay, we have a volunteer! Nico, you just sit here," said Marissa, handing him a guitar. My eyes went wide and I looked at the very smiling Nico Forrest holding a guitar. I could hear the girls sighing and the guys groaning. His dates cheered him on the loudest.
Please be a good song.
"Guess it's true, I'm not good at a one-night stand
But I still need love 'cause I'm just a man
These nights never seem to go to plan
I don't want you to leave, will you hold my hand."
Oh God.
I hate this song.
Of course, he knew it. A few days earlier, this song came on my i-pod and I couldn't help but curse at it out loud. He sang this to piss me off. Well, it wasn't working because he had a really nice voice.
Someone tapped my shoulder. "Want to get out of here?"
Oliver held out his hand to me.
"Of course," I said, my heart beating five times louder than usual. I took his hand and we walked for a bit.
"So, about the thing that happened at the Falls."
I took a deep breath, "Yeah?"
"I wanted to apologize. It was a mistake."
Oh.
Tears welled up in my eyes and I nodded. "Totally. I'm sorry too."
"I was drunk and I didn't mean to. I know I said I had a crush on you, but—" he said, looking at me straight in the eyes. His eyes were a comforting chocolate color, I wanted to melt in them. "I was drunk."
"It's cool, it meant nothing to me anyway," I said, shrugging.
Lie.
"Okay, well I wanted to clear that up. Besides, I kind of asked Xandra out today," he said, scratching the back of his neck.
Oh.
"That's awesome! What did she say?" I could feel a knife twisting in my back.
He laughed, "She said yeah."
"Cool," I said. "I should get back to Lucy and Diana, they looked pretty drunk out there."
"Yeah," he smiled. "Hug?"
He offered his arms to me and what kind of idiot would I be to say no?
"Sure."
Just so you know, she's on her period, I wanted to say.
I pulled away instantly and walked away to my friends. Lucy was completely sober and I was aware of that. At my tears, she was alarmed.
"What happened?"
"Nothing," I said, grabbing the bottle of beer from her hands. "Do you know where the guys hid the rest of this?"
Lucy gaped at me, "But you never drink."
"And I thought Oliver liked me. I guess there's a lot we thought we knew."
-
HELLO YES I AM BACK HELLO.
Updates every Saturday? Yes? No?
Thoughts about Zoliver?