Oh, me! Oh my, Ella!

I walked in the house, throwing my keys and books onto the counter.
My heart was racing with guilt. I was in desperate need to grab a cup of coffee and calm down, but just as began to pour some coffee, the front door jingled as it opened and closed.

I felt someone come behind me, and wrap their hands around my waist.
“Hey, elle.” Zach said into my ear, as he rested his head on my shoulder, and rocked me back and fourth.
I unlatched his hands at my waist and went to look under the counter for some baileys to mix in with my coffee. I knew I wasn’t going to get through this with out alcohol.
I grabbed the bottle and began to pour some in, watching in silence, as it ran like a bitter waterfall.

I turned around towards Zach, as I mixed my drink and brought the mug up to my lips.
Zach gave me an inquisitive look.
“Did something happen at school today?” He asked, glancing at the 3/4 full bailys bottle on the counter.
“Yes, something did. A [censored] kissed me and I thought he was cute. And I’m sorry.” I thought…
but I shook my head negatively, instead.

Zach signed and walked over to me, put his hands on both sides of the counter around me.
I tried to do the enevitable and back away.
“Why are you lying?” He said, looking into my eyes.
“I-I’m not.” I said, taking another sip of my coffee.
After my sip, he grabbed the coffer out of my hands and put it on the island counter behind him. I reached for it, but he pulled my hands behind my back and trapped me in a sandwich between himself and the counter.
“Yes, you are. You’re biting your lip, looking everywhere in the room but at me, you stuttered in your last sentence, and you’re drinking alcohol at 3:00, when you hardly ever drink.” He said, tilting my chin up, forcing me to look at him. “Now fess up. You can tell me anything, you know that.”

My mind screamed “He wins, now tell him the truth,” but my lips translated differently.
“Ms. Wattson, tried to fail me today.” I said.
It was somewhat true. She did after many class interuptions, and for some reason I couldn’t get myself to tell him about Alex.

Zach let go of me, and I examined him, hoping he bought the explanation.
“Why would she do that?” He asked.
I shrugged, “She said my paper on the anatomy of worms was inaccurate and late.”

Okay, that was a complete lie.
I had gotten a perfect score on that paper.

He looked at me, questioningly and walked over to the living room.
“Hey?” I called out to him. “What are you doing?”
I heard him stop walking and he came in with a phone, “Calling her. There’s no way that paper was late and you deserve a better score. I read it, it was flawless.” He began to dial a number off of a piece of paper I posted on the fridge.
“No, don’t.” I said, reaching for the phone.
“Why?” I asked, stopping momentarily.
“Because..” I began, as I stood there frozen in thought. “I am fine with my grade.”
Zach laughed. “To hell you are. You just drank 1/4 a bottle of baileys.”

I sighed, and took the paper he was copying the number off of, stuffing it into my mouth.
He looked at me, in awe. “Since when do you eat notebook paper?” He asked. “I mean, you used to eat sand, in kindergarten, but that was the last time I actually have seen you eat anything other than “acutal” food.”

I leaned on the refrigerator and tried my best to chew quickly.
“ermmm.” I said, nearly choking on the note.
Zach shrugged. “Whatever. I had it down before you decided you were craving lined paper anyways.” He said, walking away.
I spit out the paper into the sink, and ran up to him, jumping on his back.

“No, you can’t do that.” I said, trying to reach over him and snatch the phone from his hands. But it was too late. “Hello..?” I heard Ms.Wattson greet from the other line.

I got off of Zach and looked shyly into his eyes, to see him give me a questioning look.
“Why?” He said, as Ms.Wattson continued to say hello on the phone.
I looked at him, trying to grow the nerves to tell him.
“Because I lied.” I said, looking down at the floor, in shame.

Zach brought the phone to his mouth. “I’m sorry, wrong number.” He said, and then hung up the phone, so he could cross his arms and look at me in disppointment without any interuptions.

“Why would you lie, Elle? We’ve never lied to eachother.”
I kept my gaze down at the floor, and acted as if I was mute. Yet another moment where I wished I was invisible. Maybe if I was invisible, Alex wouldn’t have kissed me.
“Well?” Zach asked, growing annoyed with me.

I still couldn’t manage to make my lips move or make sound.
Zach looked at me angrily and picked up his jacket off of the couch.
“Well, if we aren’t going to talk, then I might as well just leave.” He said, heading for the door, and me, being the unintelligent person I am, just looked in his direction as he left the appartment.

Now, I understood what people meant when they said it would be hard to keep a relationship with your best friend.
Maybe, I under-estimated our strength as individuals.
Maybe...we weren’t meant to be like I thought we were.

It’s funny how when everything seems perfect, an “Alex” comes along and destroys all hope for a happily ever after.