The Kids Don't Stand A Chance

“Alright,” Zack said, and I could hear him shuffling around. “I’ll be up in a few hours.”

“Wait, what?” I asked incredulously. I mean, I know I asked Zack to come up now, but I didn’t really mean this very minute. I meant it more like ‘come up as soon as you can, but give me enough time to make myself and my room presentable’.

“I’m coming up now,” he explained, and I could hear a hint of excitement in his voice. “I just have to find my keys…” Zack’s voice trailed off towards the end, and I could hear more movement on the phone.

“I – I,” I stuttered, jumping up from off my bed and surveying the room. Jade was away visiting her family for weekend, yet our room was still disgusting. I prided myself on being a relatively clean, but Jade, well, she was a pig. And I guess her lack of interest in cleaning rubbed off on me a bit. “Zack, my room’s a mess,” I muttered. I could hear him laugh.

“Do you remember what you told me when you first saw my room?”

“No…?” I muttered, picking up a thong with the tips of my fingers that Jade had discarded. This was disgusting.

“’It’s your room, keep it the way it is,’” he quoted kindly.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t keep the smile off my lips. “If it was just my room, I might take my own advice. But I don’t think you want to see Jade’s underwear lying around.”

Zack chuckled. “Well, when you put it that way, maybe you should clean up. I don’t think Jack would be too thrilled if I saw any of Jade’s… things. Anyways, I’m going to start driving. I’ll be up later tonight, okay?”

“Alright,” I responded, shoving a pile of Jade’s clothes into her dresser with a huff. “Drive safely.”

“Will do,” answered Zack, and I could hear the revving of a car engine. Oh gosh, he was really coming up. This was really happening. I didn’t know what we were going to do, (Would we just sit and talk in my room? Or would Zack want to do something else?) but all I knew was this: Zack had a girlfriend, and my feelings for him were anything but platonic. “I’ll see you in a bit, Ave,” he said, and I reciprocated the goodbye.

My stomach flipped, however, when I heard him call me my old nickname.

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After suddenly flopping back on my bed, I sighed in relief. Nearly two and a half hours later, our room was finally clean. Not to mention I had taken a steaming hot shower in the communal bathroom, and felt more than presentable. But I wasn’t about to sit down for too long, and I immediately stood up and took the towel off from around my hair. My blonde locks fell down my shoulders in went pieces, but I didn’t have time to dry it completely. I suppose the best thing about my hair was that it dried straight, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

Nevertheless, I began looking through my things for a pair of jeans, and then through Jade’s for one of her shirts that I loved. When I was pleased with my appearance, I made my way out to the parking lot where Zack and I planned to meet. I needed my student ID to get him into the building, anyways.

I wrapped my arms around myself as I briskly walked down the path to the parking lot. I guess I didn’t consider the fact that it was now nearly eleven at night, cold as anything, and I was wearing skinny jeans and a t-shirt.

Not one of my better ideas.

Sighing as I sat down on the hood of a random car, I flipped open my phone. Zack hadn’t called or texted since I sent him directions. I prayed with all my might that he wasn’t lost, because sitting in the lot in the middle of the night by myself was enough to make even me (self-professed fearless) a bit nervous.

Fifteen minutes later (and feeling as though I was seconds away to coming down with hypothermia) a car pulled into the dead lot. I stood up immediately, not recognizing the car. I clasped my hands behind my back and watched with great interest as the lights in the car went off and the door opened. My heart stopped for a moment as I waited for the figure to become visible – I decided that it was either Zack, or a rapist. At this point, I couldn’t tell.

“Ave?” A voice rang out, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Christ, Ava, it’s like forty degrees out, and you’re in a t-shirt.”

I shrugged, but approached him slowly. I wanted to hug him, but I wasn’t sure if I could. “It’s not that cold out,” I muttered, forcing a small smile. Zack rolled his eyes and shrugged off his hoodie.

“Here, put this on before you freeze.” I stared at the sweatshirt for a moment, before taking it from his hands gingerly. With great care I pushed my arms through the sleeves, and I was instantly hit with the scent of shampoo and cologne that I recognized from high school.

I couldn’t help it. After looking at Zack’s face for a second, I instantaneously wrapped my arms around his middle, closing any gap that was previously between us. I was worried about Zack’s reaction, but when I felt Zack’s arm snake around my waist, I knew it didn’t matter at all. “C’mon,” I mumbled against Zack’s chest, and while I began to drop my arms from Zack, his remained tight around my torso. “My room’s in the south dorm.”

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“It’s big,” commented Zack as he inspected all the photos I had hung up over my desk. He turned back towards me where I was sitting with my legs hugged to my chest on my bed. “Your room, I mean,” he clarified with a smile. “A lot of the colleges I looked at had really small rooms.”

“It’s really just this dorm,” I told him. “Our first year, Jade and I were in the smallest dorm on campus. Now that we’re seniors, we get first pick of dorms.” He grinned, before coming towards me and sitting down on the other end of my bed. “So how long are you guys in New England for?” I asked, unable to look him in the eye incase the answer was one I didn’t like.

“Not much longer,” he replied somberly. “We’ve been playing a bunch of shows all around Boston and Providence and stuff, so the record company wants us to stay at one hotel for a while and go by bus to each show, instead of staying at a bunch of different hotels.”

“That makes sense,” I added, extending my legs and allowing them to hang off of my bed.

“And after the shows, we get to go back to Maryland for a few weeks, before we have a bunch more on the west coast.”

My head shot up. “You get to go back home?” Zack nodded. “That must be nice.”

“Yeah, it’s really great to see my parents.” The conversation died down a bit, before Zack asked, “Have you gone home recently?”

“No, not for a while,” I answered honestly. “I mean, I talk to my parents on the phone a fair amount, but… I don’t know. We have a wacky relationship.”

“Doesn’t everyone have a wacky relationship with their parents?” Joked Zack, and I chuckled.

“My parents were still pretty pissed that I decided to go to culinary school, even after I got the acceptance letter. They invited me back home for Christmas break in the middle of freshman year, but I was so angry with them that I made up some bullshit excuse. They haven’t asked me to come home since.”

“That’s rough,” he muttered, and I just shrugged.

“I went home last year for my grandpa’s funeral, but it wasn’t like they asked me to come home and spend time with them. My dad called me and was like, ‘Ava, my dad died. The funeral’s next week. You should be there.’ They just kind of expected me to come home.” Zack continued to look at his lap. Feeling the conversation was taking a somber turn, I quickly changed the matter to him. “How about your parents? Are they into the band?”

“Yeah,” Zack responded. “They’re totally into it now.” I could tell there was a hint of guilt in his voice, from what I assumed was now having found out that my parents weren’t that supportive.

“That’s great,” I said happily. Zack finally flashed a smile. We sat in silence for a good five minutes or so, and yeah, parts of it were awkward. But for the most part, it wasn’t too bad. Eventually I shifted my position so I was lying with my head on my pillow, and Zack suddenly lied down next to me.

My hands, which were resting on my stomach, were disrupted when Zack pulled one of my hands up and rested it against his. “What’re you doing?” I inquired quietly after I turned my head to see him better.

“I want to see if your hands grew,” Zack muttered, studying the differences between his large hand and my average one.

“I think your hands are the ones that grew, not mine,” I responded with a quiet laughter. But my chuckling instantly stopped when Zack’s fingers began to run up my arm. His touch left goose bumps along my skin, and he stopped when he reached my elbow.

“Are you chicken?” He asked with a light tone, and though I didn’t quite understand what he meant, I shook my head anyway. He continued running his fingers along the top of my arm, pushing up the sleeve of my t-shirt as far as it would go as he neared my shoulder. “How about now?” I shook my head for the second time, and swallowed the dense ball of nerves forming in my throat. With a single finger, Zack trailed down my collarbone. We stared each other straight in the eye as his finer ran over my breast, and I tried my best not to show how terrified I was. Still, he didn’t stop, and his hand moved on to my stomach. “Now?” He questioned softly as he neared the middle of my stomach.

“No,” I responded calmly, coolly, and softly. His fingers moved so that they were touching the top of my jeans, and he lingered there for a moment, before moving his fingers just under the hem of my pants. I gasped and immediately pushed his hand off. “Stop,” I stated firmly, and Zack looked at me with an amused expression. “Don’t – don’t look at me like that, Zack. You have a girlfriend.”

“I don’t care,” he retorted. “I don’t want anything to do with her.”

“Well I don’t want to be your rebound, then,” I argued, sitting up and crossing my legs. Zack remained in the same lying down position.

“Don’t you get it?” He pleaded, and I stared at him with expressionless eyes. “I want to be with you. Every other girl, they were the rebounds.” My face softened, and as I heard everything I had wanted to hear from Zack since he left me in the record shop, I couldn’t believe it was happening. “I forgive you, Ava,” he whispered, pulling me down so I was lying next to him. “And you know how you can make it up to me?”

“How?” I muttered, his lips slowly attaching themselves to my neck.

“Be with me,” he whispered, his voice ghosting over my lips before they met.

Oh, gosh. Zack was an amazing kisser now.

I pulled away suddenly – something didn’t feel right. “Why do you forgive me now?” I questioned. “You seemed pretty damn pissed at me a few days ago.”

“I’ve just been thinking a lot,” replied Zack, turning over so he was staring at the ceiling. “I was really happy when we were together in high school, and you were lying to me. I figure I’ll be even happier now, when you’re not lying.” Zack’s head snapped in my direction. “You’re not lying about liking me, are you?”

“No!” I exclaimed, rolling on to my side and moving closer to Zack. “Not at all.”

“Good,” he responded, obviously satisfied. “Besides, even though you didn’t like me the way I liked you, I know you liked me a little bit.”

“Oh yeah,” I teased gently. “How?”

Zack grinned at me, pressing a kiss to my lips. “The orgasm you had that night, you can’t fake that.” I chuckled, sitting up and moving so that I was straddling his waist.

“I don’t know…” I mumbled, kissing down his jaw line. “I’m a pretty good liar. I guess you’ll have to… refresh my memory.”

Zack smirked. “I can do that.”