Haley Dailey [Suite Life]

Chapter 7 - Nice Going, Zack

Zack was wrong. He was totally wrong. She knew when people were genuine, and Chris was genuine. Why would Zack accuse him of playing her, though? He wouldn't do that intentionally. It had to be a misunderstanding. She really hoped and prayed that it was just a misunderstanding.

The next day after school, Haley walked onto the Sky Deck. She needed to talk to Zack and straighten things out. She didn't have the nerve to at school since Chris was glued to her side, and since she didn't see Zack at school, anyway. She knew that her new boyfriend wasn't working the smoothie counter, so she was here for a different reason. She looked around and saw Zack at the smoothie counter, busy throwing orange slices, bananas and strawberries into a blender. She would let him know that he just misunderstood everything.

Zack turned on the blender, waited, then when the smoothie was finished, he poured the contents of the blender into a cup and handed the cup to a middle-aged man in khaki shorts and a vacation shirt with palm trees all over it. Zack looked away from the man, and his gaze landed on her. She absent-mindedly ran a hand through her straight hair. London let her keep that straightener since she had like five others. Zack never stopped looking at her as she walked up to the counter. "Hi, Zack," she greeted him when she came up to it.

"Hey, Haley," he said, smirking. "Can I get you anything?"

"No, um..." How would she start this conversation? And why did he have to look so gosh-darn hot at the moment?! "So, I didn't see you at school today."

"Yeah... didn't want to go."

"Are you not feeling well?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "No, just didn't want to go."

She nodded, knowing that he skipped school for the heck of it sometimes. That didn't bug her, but saddened her because she didn't get to see him every day. "Okay, um... I guess I wanted to talk to you about something."

He leaned against the counter and folded his arms over it, his gaze intent on hers. Those hazel eyes held her captive. "Really? What about?"

"Well... I talked to Chris, and I told him what you said, but he said that he didn't know what I was talking about."

Zack features turned grim. "He said that, did he? Well, he was lying. I know what I heard... and saw."

He really was serious about this. "The girl you saw could have been talking to someone else."

"I know she was talking about you since you and Chris were on a study date, and I saw you writing. It was a history report, right?"

She didn't want to believe that this was true. She refused to. "Maybe it was a coincidence. He wasn't talking about me."

"I told you, he was," he said with fierce surety. "What other hideous girl could he have been talking about?" Hurt suddenly pricked her chest and entered her features. Zack's eyes widened. "Oh, no, wait, I didn't mean that."

"Yes, you did."

"No, Haley..."

Her throat tightened and she said as her vision blurred, "Just leave me alone, Zack. I thought you were different, but apparently, you're the same as everybody else."

She walked away from him, tears burning her eyes and falling down her zit-covered cheeks. She was wrong about Zack, and so was Bailey who said that he had a good heart. He was just trying make her over because he knew she was hideous and didn't want to see her grotesque face, hair and body.

He lied about Chris as well. He was just trying to hurt her more.

~ ~ ~

He was such an idiot! Why the heck did he let that slip out?! He was just so desperate for her to believe him that he let his honest opinion about her appearance escape his lips.