Even In Pieces [bxb]

Chapter 16

Everett

"What's that sound?" Zachary asks, confused.

"Jesus Christ. This is the best day of my life!" Vio says. She looks over her shoulder at Zachary with a huge smile and that is the reason why I wanted to bring her here.

"Well okay. Now can you tell me what that was?" Zachary sighs.

"I am gonna go ahead," Vio rolls her eyes at Zachary before running off.

Zachary turns to me. He raises an eyebrow in question. I just shrug at him knowing that he is going to get agitated by that. "C'mon, you'll know soon enough."

We both walk towards the noise. The moment we reach and everything comes into view, I snap my attention towards Zachary. He stops moving, his lips part and for a moment I am not sure if he is breathing. He slowly turns to face me.

"Vio loves cars, she told me how she wants to do automotive designing. She loves the working of it and is obsessed with them. So when I heard about a car show happening here, the first thing I thought was that she would love it and hey, I got to bring you here too, didn't I?" I shrug at him. He is still looking at me like he got amnesia and forgot who or where he was. This is not helping me with my nerves at all, I almost want to turn away from him. Turns out I don't have to, since he turns away first. Guess he didn't like my idea after all. Shit, my chest hurts.

He looks at me again, clearing his throat. "Thank you. I-" he comes closer "It means a lot. Mother doesn't like Vio's obsession with cars or her dreams, so it means a lot to her. Thank you."

My head spins and I feel like I took an excessive amount of oxytocin. I look at Zachary, he is absolutely sincere and smiling. That vulnerable smile I have only gotten glimpses of. I want to feel that against my lips. "What about you? Do you like it?"

Just as I ask that a Ford Bronco speeds past us and people around us scream. Zachary looks around, taking in the scene. The cars lining one after the other with all of their lights on, giving the night brightness. A Tesla model S is starting to get ready to speed past the road across us.

"I don't think anybody will hate this," he grins at me. Typical Zachary. Never going to admit that he likes something to me. If that's how he wants to play it, I guess I can go with it for today.

"Just admit it. You love it."

He shrugs and gives me a smirk. I feel my blood rushing to my heart. All I want right this moment is to grip him by the back of his back and kiss that frustrating smirk away, but I am not going to do that. It would be too easy, I want him to be the one doing it this time. I want him to admit he wants it too.

Crushing my hope, he pulls away and as though he knows what was going in my mind, he smirks wider at me. Just as I am about to scowl at him, something cold press against my neck and I jump to look over my shoulder. Vio holds up a coke towards me with a grin. I narrow my eyes at her and grab the coke out of her hands. She hands another one over to Zachary, keeping one for herself.

We stare at the different cars doing all kinds of stunts around us. When something amazing happens, the crowd screams, and we scream with them. Soon enough we were completely crazy, jumping up and buying more stuff to eat. All three of us even let a lady paint on our cheek.

Even through all this, I constantly find myself looking at Zachary without even realizing it. More importantly, every time I looked I saw him looking back. It reminds me that law, that two oppositely-charged objects will attract each other. Jesus. Am I getting drunk on coke?

The time gets close to midnight and that's when we decide that we need to drop Vio off at her house. She protests by saying that the show is not yet over, but Zachary firmly tells her that she is not staying till the end because it only ends at two in the morning.