james to the side.
"She needs a wild heart, I got a wild heart." -the Vamps
Nico B. Forrest
I never knew I could fall in love with pancakes.
The pancakes from this diner were so good; I thought I could marry them. They melted in my mouth and made my hunger scale party and thank me infinitely. The maple syrup on them was delicious, Canadians did something right for once
“Yo? Don’t choke on the pancakes,” said Joel, sipping on a cup of coffee.
James nodded in agreement, while Zoey was too busy savoring the taste of the food. She looked like she was in another universe. Her hair had somehow slipped out of her high ponytail, hiding her face.
“They are freaking amazing,” I exclaimed, feeling happiness.
Ah, the wonders of food.
Reaching for the syrup bottle, another hand clasped itself on it. I looked up at Zoey, who had a fire in her eyes, almost like a tiger watching its prey. There wasn’t a lot of syrup left in the bottle, only enough for one.
I tugged on the bottle. “Let go, Hunter.”
“Let go, Forrest. The syrup’s mine.”
“I’m a guest in your country.”
“You weren’t invited here. This is my home. Give me the bottle.”
I held on the bottle harder, if that was bottle. “No. I want the syrup.”
“So do I.”
James nodded towards Zoey. “Z, just give it to him.”
“No, I’m starving. I want the syrup.”
“Okay, then Nico? Give her the syrup, man.”
I scoffed. “No. I want—” I pulled the bottle towards me. “The bottle.”
She tried to grasp it out of my hands but I had a grip of steel on it. The pressure we put on it was so hard that the syrup sprouted out and all over Zoey. I wanted to laugh at her expression. Her hair was now sticky with the last amount of syrup there was.
“Nicolas,” she growled, touching her hair. “You are dead.”
“Woah, woah! You’re the one wearing the syrup that was supposed to be on my pancakes!”
She grabbed the chocolate syrup and held it towards me like a weapon.
“Zoey,” warned James and Joel at the same time.
I started to slide away from my seat, my hands up in surrender. She was terrifying at this point. If looks could provide actions, I would have been underground with a tomb stone reading: Nicolas B. Forrest, death by savage Canadian.
Even if I was dead, my middle name would never be revealed. It was one thing that I was most ashamed of. Yes, my mom was the one who had chosen it, but it was a feature that I’d never ever say to anyone. Hopefully, my dad would keep shut about it as well.
Mum preferred to give me a middle name related to my last name, to make a joke out of it.
“Zoey? Hunter? Zorro? Stay calm,” I said. “Breathe, yeah? Just stay calm.”
She looked murderous. “Do not tell me to be calm, because that’ll make me even madder.”
“Well, how do I take the syrup threat away from my head?”
Her eyes flickered to something and she half-smiled. “Get me a napkin.”
“But there are some on the table?”
She approached the bottle from me and gave me a devious look. I nodded and turned to get the precious napkin.
Squirt.
“Ouuuuuuh,” said the guys, as well as every other customer in the diner.
When I turned, hoping that my assumptions were incorrect, I saw a very un attractive messy spray of chocolate sauce on my butt, my tush, my rear-end—whatever that was called.
Hoo-freaking-ray.
More importantly, it looked like my butthole couldn’t control itself and it had a poop party that got out of hand; or in this case, out of my pants.
“Zoey whatever-your-middle-name-is Hunter. What the actual fuck did you do?”
“Middle name’s Willow.” She shrugged innocently. “Make you look like you shit your pants, duh .”
Shove that duh up your—
“Why? Are you mad, Nico?” She batted her eyelashes.
My eye caught a full maple syrup bottle. “If I could sit on your face so you’d be covered in butt chocolate, I would.”
“Don’t, please! I beg you!” She cried out, her eyes as wide as Dobby’s.
I grabbed the bottle and sprayed it on her face and her shirt. She screamed and answered back by squeezing the chocolate sauce bottle all over me. We both closed our eyes until both of the bottles were empty.
When our weapons weren’t loaded anymore, I opened my eyes. She looked like someone who fell into a bucket of honey. I probably looked like the sky pooped on my body.
Everyone around us was staring, some with horror and others with big smiles. The second group was mainly based off James and Joel, who seemed to be enjoying this the most.
I couldn’t help but laugh. It felt like the biggest weight being lift off me, I hadn’t laughed like this in forever. I laughed so hard I had to hold on the counter so that I wouldn’t laugh.
Zoey joined along as well, clutching her stomach. A few whale laughs came out, as well as a snort. I was too happy to comment on it. I wasn’t happy; I was relieved.
“Wanna make a maple syrup chocolate mix?” She said, opening her arms.
Oh, what the heck?
I hugged her for two seconds before letting go, because I couldn’t stop laughing. Now, we were both sticky and messy. Looking at James and Joel, they suddenly looked horrified.
Zoey stuck herself against Joel first, messing him up. He was whining and groaning because apparently this was ruining his favorite shirt. James, on the contrary, greeted Zoey with the biggest hug. He held onto her and started shimmying against her to get the biggest amount of gooeyness. In a different circumstance, this would have looked very wrong because he would have been rubbing his body on hers.
“ZOEY, WHAT THE HELL?!” cried out a big voice that was enough to make me tremble.
She stopped smiling and looked at a huge bald man with a goatee. His cheeks were so red I thought his blood might start popping out of his veins.
“Uncle Bob, I’m sorry.”
He shook his head disapprovingly at her. “You should have invited me! You know how much I love maple syrup and chocolate together!”
“Bob is the cool uncle to everyone,” whispered Joel to me. “He’s not related to her. He hugs everyone.”
“Want a huuuuug?” suggested Zoey, her face brightening.
The man hugged her so hard I thought she might have died in his arms off suffocation. He let her go and indeed, she looked a little purple. He turned to me.
“We should leave,” said Zoey. “I feel like a million candies puked on me.”
“As if I’m letting you in my car like that!” exclaimed James. “Lucky for you, I have blankets in the back of my car. You’re as dirty as a baby playing in mud.”
Joel laughed and followed his friend. Smiling, I headed out the diner. Zoey was behind me, chuckling under her breath. James threw us two gigantic blankets and I wrapped one around myself.
We got in the car, James throwing us warning looks form time to time. He put on the radio and a song I had a special hate for.
“Can I have your daughter for the rest of my life? Say yes, say yes, ‘cause I need to know,” sang, or rather screamed, James and Zoey loudly.
I opened my mouth to tell them to shut up, but I decided not to. The song was almost ending, thank God. We arrived back at the mail station fast.
“Are we delivering mail like this?” I asked, after the guys dropped us off and left.
“Of course not,” She said. “And I’m not risking you going home to shower again.”
“Then what do we do?”
She got the crazy glint in her eye. “I think there’s a working hose in the back of the house.”
“The water’s probably rusty, Hunter. I’m going home to shower.”
“C’mon, Forrest! You know you want to! What did they teach you in England, how to drink tea and be bored?”
I ran after her to wherever the water was. She turned the water on and sprayed me with water. I remembered when Mum would scold me for playing soccer and diving face first in a mud puddle. She would hose the mud off me like this too.
“You’re good now,” said Zoey. “You might want to burn these clothes later, but you’re good.”
She handed me the hose and I did the same thing to her. The water on my skin was slowly drying off by the sun in the sky. When she was semi-clean of maple syrup and chocolate sauce, I turned off the hose.
She was looking at me with a weird look in her eyes. A different kind of crazy.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Zoey.”
“The fuck? Did too much water get into your head or something?”
She groaned. “Nooooo, I just want to start over with you. I want us to be mail buddies, not forever hating on each other.”
“What? You want to be friends?”
She nodded.
“But we’re fine like this!” I exclaimed, waving my hands in the air. “We’re great like this, actually.”
“No. I actually believe there’s a fun person under all the snarky comments.”
“If we become what you want us to be—”
“Friends,” she said.
“Yeah, that, the snarky comments won’t stop.”
“I’m cool with that,” she said calmly.
I didn’t answer that.
She stuck her hand out. “Hi, I’m Zoey.”
Staring at her hand, I thought of all the possibilities that could happen. We could be mail partners and actually be friends and this summer would be okay, or we’d go back to hating each other. Although, my hate for her was decreasing. She was something different than any other girl, even Beth, who used to be everything to me. At least, until I found her in bed with my best friend.
Zoey was different. She was kind and she had a soft side, which showed through her actions. She let me sleep in her island, she liked Douchebag a lot, even for a girl and she liked to have fun.
“Hi,” I said, putting my hand in hers. “I’m Nico.”
She smiled. “It’s a pleasure, Nico. I like your accent.”
The way she said my name was weird, English girls put more emphasis on the o in the end so that it dragged a little, like Nico-ooo.
“I can’t say the same about yours. Your accent creeps me out.”
She took her hand away and gasped exaggeratingly. “You’re rude.”
“You know me well already! We’re off to a great start.”
“Nico,” she said, crossing her arms. “Say something nice.”
I snorted. “No.”
“I like your eyes,” she said quietly.
I turned to her. “Thanks. Your eyes aren’t half bad.”
“Uh, thank you, I guess?” She started to walk back towards the front porch. “We’ll have to work on the whole nice thing, you know.”
"I've never been very nice in general Hunt—" I stopped. "Zo-ey?"
She grimaced. "Yeah, no. First name basis is too awkward." We prepared everything and we were all set to go.
“Let’s deliver mail, Forrest,” said Zoey.
"Let's, Hunter."
This might have been the best day in this shithole of a town.
-
HELLO, I am aware this is short.
FAVORITE MIDDLE NAME GUESSES:
1. Bitchass(punk)
2.Bartholomeus
3. Bae (did you know bae actually means poop in danish)
4. Bonkers
5. Booty
6. Banana
7.Bobbypoopoo? @vintagecrown I wish your son luck with his middle name hahahahaha (inserts zoey-snort)
8. Last but not least, BOB.
oh and almost 600 000 views already? ILY GUYS. Nico gives each of you a kiss on the cheek. No other places, no cheekiness.
see ya on saturday!
love, yas.