𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 ~ 𝒛𝒅𝒉

Chapter Twenty-Six: There's no place I'd rather be than here

Nervously I take a shaky breath, my heart pounding in my chest. There's still one last thing I have to fix, one last person to talk to, and that's Jonah. Zach and I are now waiting to meet him, and I'm afraid if he's gonna stay behind for much longer, I will lose my mind.

Of course Zach notices my nerves. He notices everything. "Hey, it's okay." He puts his hands on my shoulders to look at me. "I'm here."

The tightness in my shoulders start loosening from his soft touch. "Yeah. I just have no clue how he's gonna react to what I'm gonna tell him."

Zach casually shrugs, like what we've been doing for the past weeks is nothing. "We'll see. It'll be alright."

"I hope so." I still don't feel comfortable about this.

And again, Zach notices. "Look at me." His hand softly cupped my cheek. "It will. Why would he not wanna end this revenge thing?"

I breathe out, trying to exhale all the tension from my body. "I guess so."

"You got this. Just be honest, apologise, and it'll be alright." The corners of his mouth curled up, slowly leaning in and placing a soft kiss on my lips. Now I can't hold back my smile as well.

Then I hear somebody behind us clearing his throat. We break our kiss and quickly turn around, and there's Jonah.

He has crossed his arms, a deep frown between his eyebrows. "You wanted to meet?"

"Yeah." I sent Jonah a DM to see if we could talk. I couldn't sent him a text, because I of course still have his phone. Which is the first thing I need to fix.

"Firstly, I need to give you something back." I reach for his phone in my pocket, and give it to him. "This belongs to you."

With furrowed brows he takes the phone from me, clearly suspicious. I don't blame him, after everything.

"I'm sorry I took it. I'm sorry for a lot of things, and that's one of them," I start, uncomfortably shifting around. "I shouldn't have stolen it from you. That was incredibly wrong."

I take a deep breath, trying to build confidence. But then I feel Zach's hand on my shoulder, giving me the support I was looking for. I got this.

"I'm sorry for how I played with your feelings. I shouldn't have just assumed you knew I wanted to keep it casual, and communicated. But I didn't, and I completely understand why you were so mad. I really should've handled things differently."

"Yeah, definitely," he scoffed, but his eyes then get a softer look. "But I shouldn't have made that account, and invaded your privacy," he continued with a lower voice.

"And then I shouldn't have started this whole crazy revenge thing."

"Definitely. I mean, those tires? Man, that was a big one," he said but laughed with it. "But I understand why you did it."

"Yeah, sorry about that." I softly smile. "I will totally pay for the damage."

He shakes his head. "No, it's okay. I think I kinda deserved it after completely ruining every single bit of privacy you had."

I stay quiet for a moment, thinking. "You know, I think we both did a lot of things wrong, and hurt each other. But I'm tired of this whole fight, Jonah. I really am."

"That goes for me too."

"Once upon a time we were friends. I'm not asking to go back to that, because maybe too much has happened to do that, but we could maybe hold, you know, a truce?" I carefully suggest.

A small smile appears on his lips. "That sounds great for me. So no more phone stealing and tire wrecking? Can I finally sleep well again?" he teased.

I laugh. "Definitely."

Then Jonah got serious again, now looking at Zach, who's still standing behind me. "I think I owe you an apology as well, Herron. I'm sorry for, you know, getting with your girl. That was nasty."

I turn around to see Zach's reaction. "Yeah, it was, but it's okay, dude. It wasn't meant to be anyway. I found something much greater now." He smiled at me, staring into my eyes, as my heart starts glowing again. I don't think this feeling, the feeling I get when he looks at me, will ever leave. I still get it every time our eyes find each other.

Jonah smiled and stayed quiet for a moment. I can see his eyes wandering to my shoulders, where both of Each's hands are laying on. I see something flickering in his gaze, but I don't know what it is. Maybe jealousy? Or desire?

His sudden voice makes me jump from my thoughts. "You're good for her." He turned to zach. "You changed something about her. I can't tell what, but you did."

"Her is standing right here," I say indignant.

Both of the guys laugh. "Yeah, I probably gave her more sass than she already had and needed," Zach joked, but then softly smiled. "I'm just trying to make her happy. That's all."

"Well, that seems to be working." A corner of his mouth lifted. "I gotta go now. I guess I'll see both of you around." And with those words he left, and another chapter was closed.

"I told you it was gonna be alright. you nailed it." Zach wrapped his arms around my waist, putting his chin on top of my head.

"Yeah." I place my head against his chest, hearing the beat of his heart. "It went great, thanks to you."

"No, you did this yourself, and I'm so proud of you. You faced your fears and mistakes, and fixed them, by yourself," he whispered, as I could feel the heat of his breath in my neck.

Even though he says otherwise, everything I fixed was for and because of Zach. He changed me, made me a better person. Without him, I wouldn't be where I am today. And there's no place I'd rather be, than here, with Zach by my side.