Toxic

Toxic: Chapter #44 | Karaoke Fate

Zach's Past 

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⚠️Warning: ⚠️

This chapter contains mentions of a drunk character, a car accident and a cliffhanger after the accident. Take care!

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Now that I had a safe haven I could seek out whenever I needed to, I had a renewed sense of safety and with Jayden in jail for a couple weeks, I went about my classes like normal. This year my friend group had set up study sessions, especially for those of us who were in the same classes.

Giana became fascinated with my Film Appreciation & History class. I didn't blame her one bit. Every other class period we would go to the theater to watch a movie that had been discussed in class. When we watched Singing in the Rain, I immediately went back to campus afterwards and bought it online. When we watched Memento, I had to remember how to breathe normally because it was extremely intense but the way the movie was made had me in awe. The way the movie was produced had us all silent throughout the entire movie, we were so immersed in the story. It was done in reverse chronology and would shift back and forth between black and white and color. I ordered that one as well. Seeing Giana so interested in the course made me excited to see her afterwards and tell her all about it. I knew she would probably end up taking it the next semester.

Everything was going swimmingly, and I was thriving even more than I had the year before. Mrs. Morrison made Giana and I home cooked meals at least three times a week and, after every meal, we would clean up, wash the dishes, store the leftovers and make our way to the living room. It was a ritual now for us to watch at least two to three episodes of Ghost Whisperer before Giana and I headed back to campus. I loved the food, the show, I loved Mrs. Morrison, I loved the way I could just relax and be myself and of course, I loved my girlfriend. I felt at home there in a way I had only ever felt at my home in Kansas if not more so. I know that feeling at home there at Mrs. Morrison's house was exactly what they had hoped I would feel.

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It was around the middle of October when we all got invitations to a party that a senior was holding at his house. I was adamantly against going, house parties apparently a trigger for me though I wasn't surprised so much as angry that Jayden had stolen that from me too. Giana helped me talk it out and we explained with few details to my friend group. I had expected them to still go, and Giana and I were prepared to have a small party with just the two of us but to my surprise, though it shouldn't have been surprising, my friends decided that they would stay on campus. We all agreed to have our own Halloween party at the dorm.

We each gathered our favorite candies, sodas, ordered pizza, bought snacks and picked out various games to play. We even decided to do costumes, though of course, that was a given. You can't have Halloween or a Halloween party without costumes. I was nervous about what to wear but Giana took me into the city, and we picked out something that made me both excited and perhaps a bit turned on though I hoped that wasn't obvious. I was still getting used to my body reacting in such a way that it had long since stopped doing after the first time Jayden and I had sex.

Anyway, Giana hadn't known for sure whether or not we would do costumes, but she ordered two options just in case. When we got to the Halloween store, she went up to the counter and gave the cashier her name. "Hello."

"Hey there," the cashier, whose name tag said Ashley, replied.

"I have a pick up for Giana Morrison."

The store clerk might have seemed like she was giving Giana her full focus, but she had been eyeing me since we approached the counter. However, that wasn't something I was aware of until right before we left the store. Giana absolutely noticed and she got super protective of me. She knew I didn't like being ogled like a piece of meat and since I was her boyfriend, she didn't like people looking at me that way. I didn't mind her protectiveness nor her light possessiveness. I felt the same way about her.