American Girl: Can't I Just Be Chloe?

I’m not really sure why, but I decided to go see Joe the next day. He could probably use some help dealing with Kyra and her pregnancy cravings. So, after breakfast, I headed over to see Joe, Kyra, and Quinn. Surprisingly though, that was not who opened the door. “Hey,” Zoe said brightly.

When I saw Zoe still out here in California, I had to raise an eyebrow. From a conversation I overhead between Kevin and Betsy a few weeks prior to the wedding, I was able to deduce that Zoe lived in South Carolina along with her parents and older brother. That confused me because it was about two weeks into October and school would have been in session. Now, sure today is a Saturday, but Zoe should really be back there with her family. “Zoe, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be back at home with your family?”

Zoe shrugged. “Yeah, but I was allowed to stay. Betsy and I haven’t really seen each other since Aunt Lolly’s funeral. I never even got the chance to say goodbye to Amanda. My family was busy at the time. So, I came out here to spend some time with my favorite cousin.”

“But, she isn’t coming back until Monday,” I said.

“Yeah, I know. But, I’ll be here until Thursday. Probably not the best idea since Thursday is my brother’s sixteenth birthday, but whatever. I want to spend time with Betsy. I spend all my time with him and our grandparents; what I’d really like is to get away from that for awhile and spend some time with her. Plus, since Amanda is buried out here, I really would like to go out and see her grave. The fact is that I was always freaked out by Amanda. Before I found out that my cousins knew the Jonas Brothers, I was always afraid of Amanda. You see, she freaked me out.” Zoe laughed. “I wish that Betsy and Amanda would have told me that they were talking to the Jonas Brothers the last time that they came to visit us in South Carolina. That was the same summer that the brothers apparently had the live chat, so when I saw the next March at my aunt’s funeral, I realized that my cousin got married to Kevin and that Betsy was his sister-in-law. I never did get to spend time with the brothers until now though,” she said with a heavy sigh escaping her lips.

“Why? Did you want to jump Joe again?” I asked.

“Heard about that, huh?” Zoe asked. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised by that. Betsy did do a number on me when I was four. I mean, I melt when I see him. Not anymore because of Kyra, but I did at one point. So, when I heard from Betsy that Kevin couldn’t stand being around me because I’m related to Amanda through our mothers, Joe remembered what happened and let me stay here until the 20th when Betsy and Teddy get back. That’s why I’m not over at Kevin’s and Betsy’s; it’s because of Amanda and the fact that Kevin claimed to only be able to be around Betsy since she’s helping to raise Amanda’s kids.”

“So, have you been helping Joe?” I asked.

Zoe nodded. “Of course. I wasn’t just going to let Joe suffer through all of this on his own. He has Quinn to watch over as well as Kyra’s pregnancy to deal with. So, just for a few days will I be helping Joe with all of this. Then, you or Frankie would have to help Joe.”

“I highly doubt that Frankie going to help Joe,” I said with a sigh. “And, it’s not because Frankie doesn’t to, but more so because he’s busy with his own career. And, the others are busy taking a break from their careers until Kyra has the baby. The agreement was that during the nine moments that either Kyra or Selena is pregnant, they would not go anywhere. I heard from Betsy that they made that mistake with Amanda and she died giving birth to Jason.”

“Really?” Zoe asked. “Is that really how my cousin died?”

I nodded. “Unfortunately. You can even ask Betsy when she gets back. She would probably be the best person to explain all of this to you since she is your cousin. Actually, I think that Betsy was the only one who knew what really happened. Kevin and the doctors didn’t even know what happened until Betsy pointed it out to them. And, though you and Betsy obviously seemed to be afraid of Amanda at one point in your life, I know for a fact that you do care for her. You guys, after all, are family and that is what family does: they care about each other,” I said as I thought of my mother and her political career. Now, if only my mother would realize that she needed to do this. Maybe then I wouldn’t be so worried about wanting to have a normal life like every other kid in the world did.

“So, any reason for you stopping by?” Zoe asked.

“Why would you think that?” I asked.

“Because you wouldn’t have come here unless there was a reason for it,” Zoe said, knowingly. “Now, what’s up, Chloe? What’s the real reason that you happened to come over here to Joe’s place? I’m sure that you must have had a reason for doing all of this today.”

“I came to see how Kyra was doing,” I replied.

“There must be another reason though,” Zoe said.

Despite the fact that I really didn’t want to, it wasn’t like it was Joe. I could probably tell Zoe without her mentioning it to Joe. Zoe was going back to South Carolina and would be able to keep quiet about all of this; I was quite sure of the fact that she wouldn’t tell. “Okay, look,” I said, “there is another reason that I’m here, but you must promise me that you will never tell Joe or Betsy of this. I can’t risk either of them learning of this.”

“What about?” Zoe asked.

“Frankie,” I said simply.

“What of him?’ she inquired.

“Look, what I’m about to tell you is something I’ve only ever mentioned to Nick and Kevin. I could never tell Betsy, nor could I tell Joe. Both were known to be bigmouths meaning that telling them would mean revealing the truth about what’s been going on for the past two years to Frankie—the one person I couldn’t bring myself to tell—even though I knew perfectly well that I had to. Telling Frankie though, is not something I want to do. I know I have to, but I can’t bring myself to tell Frankie the truth.”

“What truth?” Zoe asked.

I sighed and told her what was going on and why I was so afraid to tell Frankie the truth. “You want the truth? Well, the truth is that I’ve hidden something from my best friend since I was thirteen. Ever since then, I’ve been in love with my best friend: Frankie Jonas.”