You're Just A Diamond In The Rough.

“Zack that’s the day my dad died.” I squeaked, his eyes widened slightly as the words left my lips. “I was going to come, I promise, I was about to leave the house but..”

Flash back.

Today was probably the best day of my life. I met a boy today.. His name was Zack. Technically, I’ve known of him my whole life but we never really had a proper conversation until today. He came over to me; he told me I had a beautiful voice. He also asked me out, on a real date! I was so excited; I’d almost skipped all the way home on a cloud.

I spent ages finding the right outfit, doing my hair up nicely. I’d already told my mom about it. She was a bit wary since he was older but she knew Zack and his family so didn’t see much of a problem with it. She was set to give me a lift actually. I ran down the stairs, beaming in happiness and ran into the kitchen. I stopped abruptly, seeing my mother sat at the table, tears streaming down her face. Two cops were sat at the table looking at her in sympathy.

“Mom?” I croaked, “What’s wrong?” She held her arms out for me and I ran into them.

“Sit down honey.” She said kindly, wiping the tears away hastily though I knew more were threatening to fall. I did as she asked and looked up at her nervously.

What could possibly be so bad that it made my mother cry?

“Darling, you’re fathers died.” She stuttered, another wave of tears falling down her face. I ran outside and sat on the porch, refusing to believe any of it. Eventually the officers left and numerous times my mother tried to get me go back in but I ignored her. Eventually Kevin, who lived across the road, saw me.

“Charlotte? Are you okay?” He asked, coming on to my porch and sitting next to me. I couldn’t even answer him; tears were flowing freely from my eyes now.

“My dads dead.” I sobbed; he looked at me sadly, brushing hair out of my eyes as I cried harder.

“Oh Charlotte, I’m so sorry.” He said, brushing the tears away from my cheeks before pulling me into a hug as I cried onto his shoulder, the truth finally setting in.

Present day.

I was sobbing my heart out now after I finished recalling the story to Zack. Recognition and guilt were clear across his face now as he stumbled to try and get any words out.

“You didn’t stand me up for Kevin?” He asked finally, I shook my head,

“I wanted to be there, I promise!” I cried.

“I can’t believe you’re dad died and I didn’t know about it, is that why you moved?” He asked, I could almost see all the jigsaw pieces falling into place in his mind.

“We didn’t tell anyone, my mom felt too much of a failure, she didn’t want to admit her husband had killed himself.” I rambled before sitting down on the wet, muddy grass, I couldn’t handle standing anymore. Zacks eyes widened at the new information.

“He killed himself?” He asked, sitting next to me. I just nodded.

“And you know what the worst thing is?” I asked, not expecting an answer. “When we told my brother he laughed. He actually laughed; he said he was glad that my dad had done what he’d told him to do. Ben told my dad he wanted him to die and he did. It’s all his fault!” I cried, burying my face into my knees. I’d never gone into this much detail with anyone before, but he deserved to know, what had happened had hurt him too in some way.

“Why.. Why didn’t you remember me though, Charlotte?” He asked, there was no trace of anger on his face now. It was all sadness, guilt and sympathy.

“I don’t know, I never ever think about back then, it’s too hard, I just repressed everything. I’m sorry for hurting you, but I swear I didn’t purposely forget about you.” I replied, the tears steadying slightly now as I looked at him. I was quite surprised to see tears on his face too.

“I’m so sorry.” He whispered. “I’m sorry for everything I’ve put you through the past few months. I should’ve just asked you about it instead of resenting you for it. I can’t believe I’ve spent all these years hating you when it was never your fault.” I just shook my head,

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, you never would have guessed, how would you have, I’m just glad everything’s out now, I always felt so guilty for standing you up, I wanted to come to your house and apologize and explain myself but my mom refused. She said we were starting a new start and I wasn’t to let anyone know.” I sniffed. He nodded.

“It’s okay, I completely understand.” I smiled slightly in response before my teeth started chattering. He took his jacket off and placed it around my shoulders without another word.

“Thanks.” I muttered. We sat in silence for about 10 minutes, it wasn’t uncomfortable though. We both clearly just had a lot to think about.

“Where are your shoes?” He laughed slightly, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

“I think I left them somewhere when I ran after you.. I’m not sure where.” I laughed myself. He got up and walked back in the direction I’d ran from, I pulled his jacket around me tighter, resisting the urge to inhale his scent. Zack came back moments later holding my shoes that were now a dark brown colour instead of the old pale pink. He dropped them in front of me and I smiled gratefully at him as he took his seat next to me again.

“I wonder how different life would have turned out if all the stuff that night hadn’t of happened.” Zack spoke softly. I also thought about that, life would defiantly have been different.

“Well, I doubt we’d be sat here after a huge argument, covered in mud.” I replied, looking down at my ruined dress and sighing. “And I doubt id have ever even joined Idiotic Idols, it was my dads death that spurred me on.”

“And what would the world be with out Idiotic Idols!” Zack joked, “You guys truly are amazing. I know I’ve never told you that.” I beamed at the compliment and thanked him quietly. I was surprised when he shuffled closer, putting his arm around me and pulling me into his side. This time, I inhaled his scent of cologne and faded cigarettes. It relaxed me entirely as I wrapped my arm around his waist too.

“Let’s never get as dramatic as that again, okay?” He said jokingly. I rolled my eyes.

“That is never going to happen; I think we just attract drama.” I replied, liking how his chest bounced with laughter against my cheek.

“I think you’re right.” He replied as we separated from the hug.

“But, can we please stop all the hatred, and just put all the past behind us, it happened ten years ago, it should stay ten years ago.” I pleaded slightly, looking into his eyes, which were bouncing with happiness. This surprised me; I’d never had him look at me with anything but anger before. It felt weird, I wasn’t sure if it was good weird or bad weird. I settled on different, it felt different.

“I agree. Let bygones be bygones yeah?” I giggled as he said this and nodded before extending my hand out to him.

“Friends?” I offered causing him to grin and take my hand in his and shake it.

“Friends.” I felt the massive weight lift off my shoulders; finally this tour can start being all fun. I knew it was going to be a massive change going from hating each other to friends but I was willing to go through it all. I knew me and Zack could be really good friends, I’d always knew this and at least now we could actually be able to test the theory. He smiled at me, obviously thinking the same thing and I smiled back.

Trying to ignore the butterflies that had erupted in my stomach.