Do It Like That

Zoe called her best friend Chevlyn Norris. "I need you."

"Oh baby, oh baby?" Chevlyn asked jokingly.

"Well, that, too. But could you meet me at your place in fifteen minutes?"

"Make it twenty, and you've got yourself a deal."

So Zoe agreed and made her way to Sonic first to get a drink and then made her way through traffic over to Chevlyn's apartment that she shared with a girl named Alise. She was hardly ever there, though, because she had to work two jobs. She didn't seem to have a problem with it, and she thrived on pressure she had once told Zoe.

Chevlyn was pulling in right as she was, and they parked next to each other.

Chevlyn smiled at her friend. "Hey, Zo. What can I do you for?"

Zoe smiled at her wording. "We'll talk about that later."

Chevlyn always greeted her that way. Ever since high school, pretty much. There were a handful of occasions when she didn't, mostly because they were around people who wouldn't appreciate it, such as either set of parents or teachers or some other sophisticatedly old person.

They took the stairs to the second floor, when down to apartment 4C and Chevlyn unlocked the door while Zoe remained silent, trying to figure out how she was going to word her confession.

She couldn't come right out and confess that she slept with Eric's best friend, Shane. That would be too sudden. She had to ease Chevlyn into it. She would start with a hypothetical situation, and then get more specific, and then admit that she might've made the same mistake the hypothetical girl had.

"So? What's wrong?" Chevlyn got right down to business as she sat down on her fuschia futon.

"I slept with Shane." Zoe winced. "Oops. That wasn't supposed to come out that quickly."

Chevlyn frowned at Zoe. "I'm sorry, I must've misheard you. Did you say that you slept with Shane? Or did you say that you swept with Shane? Or wept with Shane?"

Zoe bit her lip. "I know it was a mistake. I don't know how it happened, or what came over me."

"Oh, shit. You did say slept." Chevlyn bit her lip, too. "I don't know what I'm supposed to tell you, Zoe. Everything I could tell you is stuff you already know. It was a mistake, but you have to tell Eric about this mistake. You have to cop to it."

Zoe nodded along with what Chevlyn was saying. "I know I do." She looked down at her hands. "I just don't know how."

"I admit that telling him like you told me might not be good," Chevlyn pointed out. "Have you talked about it with Shane?"

Zoe made a guilty face. "Well, see, we were going to talk about it."

Chevlyn picked up on what was unsaid. "Were?"

Zoe nodded. "We didn't exactly get around to it."

Chevlyn choked. "What do you mean you didn't exactly get around to it? Did you leave immediately after?"

"Well, yes. After the second time."

"THERE WAS MORE THAN ONCE?"

Zoe tried to excuse her actions. "He was great, Chev. Like. So good. I had been so drunk and I still remembered that he was amazing in bed."

Chevlyn just looked at Zoe in amazement. Then she laughed and shook her head. "This isn't going to be easy for you, Zoe."

Zoe scowled. "When has life ever been easy?"

Reality sucked. She preferred the alternative; just dancing.