Come Back To Me

Zacky flipped his phone over in his hands as he sat on the couch. Colleen's number was on the phone's display and he was debating whether or not to call her or wait a few days first. He knew that he was probably supposed to wait but he was too excited about having a girl ask him out to wait.

He pressed the "TALK" button and put the phone to his ear, his heart racing as the phone rang. It rang once, twice, three times, four times before he heard someone pick up.

"Hello?" Colleen's voice answered cheerily, making Zacky smile at how happy she seemed.

"Colleen? It's...uh...it's Zacky, you know? From this morning?" He asked nervously, kicking himself for sounding so incredibly awkward.

"Of course I remember you Zacky!" She said happily and Zacky breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm really glad that you called! I was afraid that you were going to wait too long and then forget about me."

"I wouldn't have forgotten about you. I'm glad you don't think I'm being creepy or anything for calling in the same day."

She laughed and Zacky relaxed more, "No, I don't think you're creepy" She said with another laugh, “If you had waited I may have called you!”

“Well, maybe next time.” He said cheerfully, feeling happier in just the minute or so he was on the phone with her than he had felt in a while, “So, do you want to get coffee or lunch or something tomorrow?”

“Sure! I’m a Starbucks fiend, coffee sounds great.”

“Sounds good. How about noon at the Starbucks in the center of town?”

As weird as it sounds, Zacky could hear her smiling, only causing him to smile as well as he waited for her answer.

“Perfect. I’ll see you then!”

“Bye.” He said and hung up the phone, feeling very proud of himself. He heard the front door open and Brian walked in, hands full of grocery bags.

“Need help?”

“Nah, I got it.” He said, dropping all the bags into the kitchen and taking a beer from the fridge before closing the front door. “Why are you so smiley?”

“I have a date tomorrow” He said in a smug voice and Brian basically dove at him, jumping over the back of the couch and landing beside him.

“What!? With who?”

“Calm down Brian, you’re acting like a middle school girl.” Zacky said with a laugh and Brian couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“Well shit Zacky, you haven’t had a date…” He trailed off, not wanting his friend’s life to seem pathetic, “...Well you’ve had other things to worry about. But tell me about this girl. Where did you meet her? What’s her name?”

“Once again…calm down. I met her when I pretty much ran her over walking out of Dr. Wright’s office. Her name is Colleen, she’s adorable, red hair and green eyes…she looks like Ireland just dropped her here. She has an accent too, she’s…not like any girl I’ve been interested in before.”

As soon as Zacky said that, Brian knew that he was lying. He knew that in Zacky’s mind, no one compared to Hollis but Brian wasn’t about to say that out loud, especially when he seemed so excited about this new girl.

“She sounds great Zacky.” Zacky had a smug look on his face. “You know…for a ginger.” He finished and the smug look disappeared.

“Shut up! She’s not a ginger!”

“Oh, she’s not? Red hair? If she’s Irish she’s probably light skinned with freckles. AKA…a ginger.”

“Brian! Shut up!”

“Careful Zacky…gingers steal people away in the night. You better be on your guard.” He said, nearly hysterical at this point as Zacky began to hit him in an attempt to get him to stop laughing, which only made him laugh more.

“Take it back!” Zacky managed to say between hits and Brian’s hysterical laughing.

“NEVER!” Brian exclaimed, breaking free and jumping off the couch, finishing his beer and putting it on the kitchen counter as Zacky jumped from the couch and began to race around the house.

“When you see her, you’ll take it back!” He yelled as he began to run out of breath and it only took a few minutes before they were both wheezing and unable to breathe from laughing and fighting.

“That. Was. Too. Funny.” Brian said between breaths (or attempts to catch his breath). “You know I was just kidding Z, if you like her I’m sure she’s beautiful.”

“Well she is, so thank you.” He walked to the fridge and pulled two more beers out of it and tossed one to Brian, who caught it effortlessly. They both moved back to the couch, chuckling randomly as they both replayed the “fight” in their minds. Zacky promptly turned the TV to cartoons and they settled in to watch “The Fairly Oddparents.”

“I love this show,” Brian said between swigs of beer.

“I thought you hated cartoons.”

“Nope. Cosmo is the bomb. I want to be like him when I grow up.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Norelle that and then you can see how much longer she stays with you.”

“Oh, everyone loves Cosmo. She would stay with me forever if she found that out. You know it.”

They both laughed at their own stupidity and sat in semi-silence as they watched the cartoon.

“What did you do today?” Zacky asked after a few silent minutes.

Brian shrugged, “Nothing really, I had to do work stuff so I had to cancel my PT appointment this morning which made Elle pretty pissed but then I said that I would take her to dinner tonight to make up for it, but I think that I’m going to cook for her instead. So then I went grocery shopping and I think I might have-“ He abruptly stopped his story, knowing that no good could come from telling him that he might have seen Hollis…especially when he didn’t even know for sure if it was her.

“Might have what?”

“Bought too much food for one dinner…but hey, no such thing as too much food right? And then I came home and heard about your ginger lady and now I’m on my second beer, watching cartoons with my best friend.”

“Sounds like a pretty good day.”

“I would say so too. If I’m cooking for Elle tonight you’re welcome to stick around and eat with us. I know that she doesn’t mind.”

“Thanks Bri.”

“So what are you doing with your lady on this date of yours?”

“We’re going to go to Starbucks tomorrow. Just to talk and get to know each other better, then the day dates end. No friend zone for me.”

“You’ve seen Just Friends too many times.”

“…No such thing as seeing that too many times.”

“Amen to that” He said, clinking bottles with Zacky and settling back in to watch the second episode in a Fairly Oddparents marathon.