Chapter 14: Shock.

Chapter 14: Shock.

I'm currently at Hannah's house and we're both in her bedroom, looking at dresses we could probably wear to prom, in Teen Vogue.

"So, you're trying to tell me that it just sorta happened?" I ask Hannah and she nods her head. I'm confronting her about her recent affair with Chad.

"It just kinda happened? Hannah, you hate him. Like that's horrible." I tell her, bluntly.

"See, this is why we don't get along. You're so condescending." She tells me.

"How is, me telling you that your boyfriend is a manwhore, condescending?" I ask her.

"Nope. Hell no, I'm not doing this." She says, standing up from the sofa she was seated on.

"Doing what?" I ask her, shrugging.

"This." She says, pointing in between the two of us.

"I just want you to make good choices." I tell her.

"And I am." She says, folding her arms.

"Look, being a teenager is stressful enough, I just want to have fun and not be scrutinized for who I date. I just want to be a teenage girl. I want to get my heartbroken. I want to cry with a bucket of ice cream by my side. I just want to experience it all. And you always cock blocking isn't helping." She adds.

"Okay." Is all I say, as I flip through the magazine on my lap.

***

"I can't believe he said that." Sasha says, touching Hannah's hair.

"I know right? Chad's a piece of work." Hannah replies, smiling at her.

"You're still coming tonight right?" Sasha asks Hannah.

What's happening tonight? I sure know that I wasn't invited.

"Yeah girl." Hannah tells her.

"What's happening tonight?" I ask them, leaning on my locker.

"Oh, I'm having a sleepover. Friends only." Sasha says, giving me a nasty stare.

"Oh, I thought it was something important." I tell her, as I start to walk away.

"Well, it's important to me." Sasha says, behind me.

I don't reply I just keep on walking.

First, Hannah started dating Chad, now she's friends with Sasha, his ex-girlfriend. This is so out of character, even for her.

I walk to my science class and I see that I am the first one to arrive.

I sit down at the front and I set my notes on my desk.

"Early bird huh." A voice says. A voice I recognize to be Zachary's.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him.

"I'm a student of this class." He replies.

I don't respond, I just doodle on my notes.

"Pretty flowers." Zachary says beside me.

"Why are you here?" I ask him.

"You already asked me that." He says smirking.

"I meant, why are you here so early and sitting beside me?" I ask him, folding my arms.

"The other seats were taken." He says, staring at me.

"By who? Ghosts." I say, looking at him.

"And, don't you have a bad boy reputation to uphold?" I ask him again.

"I've turned a new leaf." He says, placing his chin in the middle of his palms.

"Yeah right. And I'm a homeless person." I reply, rolling my eyes at him.

"I'm sorry." He blurts, out of nowhere.

"For what?" I ask, dumbfounded.

"For being an ass, for leaving you." He says, touching my arm.

That gesture alone sends chills down my spine.

I'm not over him.

I thought I was.

"Look Zachary, I-" I try to talk but he kisses me.

"You have to stop doing that." I tell him, breaking the kiss.

"What? I can't get enough of you." He says shamelessly.

"You're a kiss-ass." I tell him.

"Just for you, milady." He says, bowing his head in his seat.

Students troop into the classroom, and I adjust myself in my seat.

The teacher comes in and I prepare myself for a boring lesson.

***

"So, orange or burgundy?" Zachary asks me, holding two tuxedos in his hands.

I am at Zachary's house helping him pick out a tuxedo for his cousin's wedding.

"First, why do you have an orange tux?" I ask him.

Orange is such a weird color.

I'm one to talk, I have like countless orange shirts.

"Orange is the new black." He tells me and I just stare at him in amusement.

"And also for emergencies." He adds, smiling at me.

"Emergencies like what? Do you wear it when you go find Nemo?" I ask him.

His smile turns into a scowl immediately.

"That's the worst joke I have ever heard." He says, looking horrified.

"It was well thought out." I reply, in my defense.

"No, it wasn't." He says, placing the tuxedos on the chair beside him.

Zachary walks over to the chair I am seated on and picks me up.

"What are you doing?" I scream in shock.

"Nothing." He says, slinging me over his shoulder effortlessly.

He is very strong. I know that because with the way I've been eating cake, I'm definitely up a few pounds. He walks out of the room with me on his shoulder. He stops walking when we get to the pool.

"Zachary, don't you dare." I warn him.

If this boy throws me into the pool, I swear to God I'll-

I am dunked into the ice-cold pool before I can even complete my thoughts.

I swim back to the top of the pool, since the speed at which he dropped me, plummeted me to the bottom of the pool.

I'm so getting revenge.

"How's the water, huh?" Zachary asks me, with a smile on his face.

"Why don't you see for yourself." I reply.

He gets the message and tries to run away but I grab his leg.

"Going somewhere?" I ask him before I drag him into the pool.

"What the fuck, Val?" He says, and I just burst out laughing.

"How's the water, huh?" I ask him, with a mischievous grin on my face.

Zachary splashes me with a wave of water.

"You're gonna pay." I tell him, with a scowl on my face.

I splash him like three times in a row, and he squeals like a little girl.

We spend like ten minutes in the pool splashing one another while yelling curse words at ourselves.

We finally retire to Zachary's bedroom, where we are snuggled up by the fireplace, with towels wrapped around our bodies.

"This is nice." I tell Zachary, who is smiling at me.

"What?" I ask him.

"You're beautiful." He tells me, cupping my chin in his hands before he plants a kiss on my lips.

The towels are the first things that come off our bodies. I get on Zachary, straddling him. He slips his tongue into my mouth, begging for dominance. I give it to him and a groan escapes from his lips as a knock is heard from the door.

Some people just have terrible timing.

"Who's that?" I ask Zachary, breaking our kiss.

"I don't care." He says trying to kiss me again, but I climb off him.

"You have to check." I tell him, as I pick up the towels on the floor.

"Ugh, fine." He groans, standing up from the floor.

He walks over to the door and opens it, wide enough for me to see who is on the other side.

It's Maddison, Zachary's older sister. She's getting her master's degree in Australia that's why she's away so much.

I had no idea that she was back.

"Won't you hug your sister?" She asks Zachary, as she stares at him.

Zachary hugs her, patting her back awkwardly.

"And who do we have here." She says, walking inside the room.

"Hey, Maddy." I say, smiling at her.

Her auburn hair is longer than I remember, and her hazel eyes still have a spark in them. She looks beautiful as always. The knee-length dress she's wearing has a halter neckline and a crystal band at the waist.

"Valarie, goodness gracious. You have grown so tall." Maddy says, pulling me into a warm hug.

"When did you get back from Ravenswood?" She asks as I pull away.

"Like six months ago." I tell her.

"I'm so sorry that I haven't been around. I've been away at school." She tells me.

"No, it's fine. Zachary has been keeping me company." I inform her.

She raises an eyebrow at me and smiles.

"Oh, is that so? You two are back together?" She asks me.

"After everything that happened between you two?" She adds.

"No-" Zachary tries to say behind her, but I cut him off.

"We are. What can I say, it's love." I tell her, staring at Zachary.

He raises an eyebrow at me and I nod.

"Aww, that's so sweet." Maddison says, clapping her hands.

"You should totally stay for dinner." Maddison insists.

My eyes widen in horror at the thought of Mrs. Henderson and I at the same table.

"Um, I really don't want to intrude." I tell her, trying to back out.

"Nonsense. We will be more than happy to have you." She says smiling at me.

"Yeah, you should stay Val." Zachary says, plopping his body on his bed.

"Sure." I tell them.

"Great, I'll go oversee dinner." Maddison says before she leaves the room.

"Come here." Zachary says, gesturing to the empty spot on the bed.

I walk over to the bed and I lay with him. In the comfort of his arms. My head is on his chest, which heaves up and down from his heavy breathing.

***

Silver cutlery clink on white china plates at the dinner table, as I adjust in my seat from Mrs. Henderson's intense stare.

"I can see that we have an unexpected guest." Mrs. Henderson says, her eyes still fixated on me.

"Marcy please." Mr. Henderson says, cutting his chicken. His grip on the knife is so tight, that I can see his veins popping out.

"Mother, how's the company doing?" Maddison says, trying to ease the tension in the room.

"The stocks have never been better. We're almost the second richest company in the whole of Langston." Mrs. Henderson says, smiling at her daughter.

"Wow, that's great. Who's the richest?" Maddison asks her.

"Stone Construction." Mr. Henderson answers.

I stare at him in shock.

This was news to me.

"For real?" I ask him with wide eyes.

"Yes. I thought that you of all people would know this. It's your family's company after all." He says before he takes a sip from the white wine in front of him.

"What do you expect from a girl like this? She's far too ignorant to care. I mean look at her. Marjorie and Vince should have had a son." Mrs. Henderson says and Zachary's father slams his plate on the floor.

"For goodness sake, Marcy." Mr. Henderson says, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"What? This girl is a bad omen. She let our son go through the toughest time of his life because she couldn't love him back." She yells back at him.

My heart sinks in my chest.

Why am I feeling sad right now?

Zachary was the one who left me not the other way round.

I just stare at the plate in front of me.

"She almost died, because of your son." Mr. Henderson tells her.

"Our son, he's our son." Mrs. Henderson says, yelling at him.

This is awkward.

"He most definitely wasn't when he got that girl pregnant." Mr. Henderson blurts out and my eyes shoot up immediately.

What the fuck.

"What?" I ask them.

"I'll retire to my bedroom." Maddison says standing up, her mother gives her a deadly stare and she sits down.

"Zachary?" I say, turning to him.

The vein in his jaw ticks as his fists clench. He stares at his mother with slits in his eyes.

"You should leave." Mrs. Henderson says to me.

You don't have to tell me twice.

I grab my purse from the side of my chair and I stand up. Zachary holds my wrist but I remove it from his hands.

"Gladly." I tell Mrs. Henderson, with a smile on my face.

Before I even get to the front door, tears start streaming down my face.

Zachary is a father or is going to be. I can't wrap my head around this. I feel like I can't breathe. Well, it's not a feeling anymore, because I literally can't breathe.

The air outside is very warm and I am grateful to mother nature for having mercy. I call André and I tell him to pick me up at the Henderson mansion. He tells me that he'll be here in twenty minutes.

Great, I'll have to spend twenty more minutes in hell.

I walk out the big gates and I lean on the fence, waiting for André to arrive. I wipe my eyes with my shirt and I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

This family is poison.

"Valarie." Zachary calls out for me and I duck.

What is he doing?

"C'mon Vee, I know your hiding behind the fence." He says, as his voice carries.

I stand up and I walk through the gates.

Zachary stands in the middle of the pathway staring at me, his hair sticking up in different places.

I feel like someone has just knocked the air out of my lungs.

He starts walking toward me and I feel like making a run for it, but I stand still.

"I can explain." He says, standing in front of me.

Yeah right.

"What's left to explain?" I ask him. "You're a father, Zachary. I can't beat that. I don't know what you want from me, but I cannot give you a baby." I tell him.

"I don't have a child." He says and I groan.

"Enough with the lies, Zachary." I yell.

"She got rid of it." He tells me and I stare at him in shock.

"No." I say in disbelief.