She Had Me At Bonjour

Krysha

“Zack?” I peeked through the door to his room to see him sitting on his bed. I followed him in here shortly after he left the pool. So far, everyone was a little too tipsy to even notice our absences.

“Come in.” I opened the door all the way and closed it behind me, taking a seat next to Zack.

“I-I’m really sorry for n-not believing you. About M-Marcus.” I choked over his name. “I was s-stupid for not seeing a-anything wrong.”

“You weren’t stupid. No one saw this coming but Kara, Rian, and I, who all knew. Don’t beat yourself up about it, really.”

And I’m s-sorry for ever being a b-bitch to you. And anything e-else that may have h-happened. I r-really am sorry.” I put my head down and stared at my hands, folded neatly in my lap.

“Serious Krysha, it’s okay. It’s all behind us now, and Marcus is out of our lives.”

I groaned and looked up at him, my eyes watering a bit. “Why are you so freaking nice? What I did to you was like running over your cat bad, and you’re forgiving me like all I did was take a French fry from your plate.”

“But we’re not eating French fries, are we?” He smiled and I glared at him. His smile faded and he was serious again.

“If you think I’m nice, spend a day ruining Rian’s life. He’s too nice.” I laughed dryly and nodded.

“True, but stop getting off topic. Why are you so nice to me when all I’ve been is a bitch?”

Zack

She has been a bitch, so why am I forgiving her so easily? She didn’t believe me about Marcus, she’s been rude to Juliana and to me, she broke my heart, she’s been seriously bipolar, she- wait a second.

She broke my heart?

She broke my heart. Did this mean that I… loved Krysha? My heartbeat sped up at the thought of me loving Krysha. Even after everything she’s done, one look from her mysterious brown eyes sent butterflies on a rampage in my stomach. I looked up at her confused face and the butterflies came back. Even with stupid faces she looks gorgeous.

Someone slap me because I sound like a girl.

Should I tell her the real reason why I forgave her so easily? Or should I lie and just go along with her conclusion?

The little devil and angel Zack were firing arguments in my ears like World War 2. It was so confusing; I couldn’t listen to both sides at the same time but I had no time to listen to both sides. I decided in letting Cree’s decision-making skills choose for me.

Tick Tack Toe. You’re a hoe. And you have a pe-nis!

Truth.

“Zack?” Krysha’s quiet voice rang through my ears, distracting my thoughts. I sighed and looked straight at her. If I’m going to do this, I might as well do it right.

“Krysh, the reason why I’m ‘so nice’ to you” I put air quotes around so nice, “is because, well, I think I’m in l-“

“COME ON YOU PARTY POOPERS! GET OUT OF HERE AND GO HAVE FUUUUUUN!” Juliana burst through the door, a half empty beer bottle in her raised hand. I groaned and got up, asking Krysha to go back outside. She nodded and shuffled out of my room, closing the door. Juliana stood in her same spot, her arms crossed. She looked as sober as someone could be and narrowed her eyes at me.

“The fuck is wrong with you?!” She screeched. Alcohol sloshed around in the bottle as she swung her arm, almost hitting the wall.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Lion. I was listening to your conversation through the door when I saw Krysha follow you inside.”

“So? What’s so wrong about that?”

“Zack, you almost told her that you loved her! Are you insane?! Wait, don’t answer that. You are insane! Why the hell would you tell her that?”

“Because it’s true, Tuesday! I do love her!” She sighed and shook her head, pointing to my bed. I sat down and she stood in front of me, her arms crossed again.

“You don’t love her. Well, that’s not true. You love her, you’re just not in love with her.”

“And how would you know?”

“I know you, Zack. I’ve been your best friend since high school. You have that same look in your eye when you looked at Ella Sanchez as when you look at Krysha. And you were not love with Ella. You were infatuated with her. You liked the idea of being in love with her, but you’re not. I hate when people throw around ‘I love you’ like it’s fucking herpes!”

“But I was in love with Ella Sanchez.”

“You dated her for half of junior year, and she cheated on you.”

“One-sided love?”

She sighed, put her hand on her temple. “No. Look, you love playing bass and guitar, right?” I nodded. “I see the way your eye glitters when you play. The way you look when you play. That’s love. You don’t have that same look when you’re around Krysha, or when you were with Ella.”

“So you’re saying I’m in love with playing bass?”

She looked up at me, an annoyed expression on her face. “Whatever, I tried helping you realize, but that’s obviously not doing anything.” She walked out of my room and back outside. I stayed where I was and thought about what she said. Was I really just infatuated with Krysha? I knew Juliana was partly right; I did love her, but was I in love with her?

“Yo, Zack. You okay?” I turned to the door to see Rian, looking mostly sober. I nodded and he smiled.

“Come back out and stop thinking so hard. It smells like something’s burning in here.” I flipped him off, laughing and getting off my bed. When I got back outside, Jack was digging around in the storage bin out back. He brought out a big brown box and set up whatever was in it with much difficulty. No one knew what he was doing when he connected the machine to a TV that they must have moved outside.

“KARAOKE!” Kara jumped up and squealed, running over to Jack and the machine. She looked through the CDs with Cree over her shoulder. She pointed to one CD and Kara nodded, giggling and putting the CD in the karaoke machine. She grabbed a microphone and before the music started, made a short speech.

“Okay okay okay. I’m, I’m like, far from shober. But this song is dedidicated to my loooooooove, Rian!”

Toxic by Britney Spears started blaring through the speakers, Kara singing along at most of the appropriate times. She wasn’t the best singer, drunk or sober either.

When the song ended, Kara collapsed into a fit of laughter, clutching her stomach and dropping the microphone. Rian walked up to her, his cheeks pink, and picked her up, whispering in her ear and dragging her to the fire pit.

After Alex, being drunk as all hell; probably to live with that fact that Cree’s not single, went up, I zoned out.

“Zack?” I looked up to see Krysha standing in front of me. She put a lock of hair behind her ear and wrapped her arms around herself.

“What were you gonna say before Juliana interrupted?” I felt my stomach tighten at the mention of it. Juliana threw my brain into a rampage, so I wasn’t going with my original plan, that’s for sure.

“Uh, I wanted to say that…. If you don’t want me being so nice, I could stop? I don’t really know why I’m so nice to you. It’s not a bad thing, is it?” Lying. Through. My. Teeth.

“No, it’s not. Just curious. Thanks for being honest Zack.” She smiled and walked back over to Angela, who was currently trying to put her leg behind her head and failing miserably.