After a year and a half of trying to move on from the what-ifs, the tides have pulled Alexandra Rivera and Zachariah Kim back together again.
*****
In the h...
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When I woke for what seemed like the hundredth time since Zachariah and I went to see the movie, I was still in his bed. My hand trailed over the wrinkled sheets but came up empty. At some point in the night, I had woken up to notice he had fallen asleep next to me, careful to keep a respectable amount of distance between us. I'd expected to still see him there in the morning but he must have gotten up to make breakfast or something.
As soon as I stopped fidgeting and laid back to collect my thoughts, the faintest noise crept into focus. From the sound of it, I realized there were more people in the house. My initial reaction was that maybe his roommates had come home, but as I listened to the hushed whispers, I recognized them.
I wasn't a child that needed protection, but I hung back and mentally cursed myself for it. As discreetly as possible, I tiptoed across the bedroom floor and avoided the creaky floorboards. Once I made it to the door, I leaned as far into the doorway as I could without drawing any attention to myself.
"You should have called me earlier and told me she was here," Emmie scolded in that way that always made my ears feel like they were being scratched from the inside. "If shit's happening at home, I need to know."
"I could tell she wanted to be left alone so I brought her here to crash," Zachariah replied. "If she wanted to call you, she would have."
"Guys," Jem interrupted. "This isn't the time."
"Finding out about it this morning isn't some kind of insult," he snarked, determined to prove he was right as I knew Emmie would be, even though there was no right or wrong.
Emmie let out a groan. "She's my best friend, Zach. You should have told me."
"Why are you making this about you?" He raised his voice.
I itched to go out there and tell them both to stop, but my feet froze in place as I rattled my brain, trying to make sense of how last night led to this morning.
"You're here now. Just be here for her, are you serious with this?"
Jem must have inserted herself into the battlefield that had become Emmie and Zachariah's relationship because the tension in the air seemed to dissipate when she spoke again, this time with much more conviction.
"Whatever you two are dealing with is irrelevant. Emmie, it doesn't matter if no one called last night. What matters is that we're here now. Can you two give it a rest for once?"
Emmie replied, "I'll go check on her."
Before she made it to the bedroom, I rushed back to bed and jumped on it, hoping it didn't make too loud of a sound. With a lot of effort, I managed to slow my breathing to a comfortable pace as if I'd been asleep.
Emmie didn't sidestep for anyone, so the floor creaked in all the right places as she walked over to me. I waited until the mattress sank beneath her weight and felt a warm hand brush down the side of my face.
