"𝖳𝖤𝖤𝖭 𝖯𝖠𝖱𝖤𝖭𝖳𝖲" - ᴢᴅʜ

005. i dont know what to do

zach knocked on the door of his parents' house at half past twelve that morning. no one answered.
"zach?" he heard his younger brothers voice call up the driveway.
"Why are you out in the middle of the night?" zach asked him.
"I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk." Ryan replied, hiccuping mid sentence.
"bullshit" zach laughed "your drunk."
"shh," Ryan hissed
"dude were outside. No one can hear you." zach continued laughing at his brother.
"Why are you here? it's so late." Ryan asked
zach paused, not knowing whether to tell his brother or not.
"Uhh, I just -"
both boys paused, seeing a light turn on in the hallway and then hearing the door handle wiggle and the door open.
"Ryan joshua herron, get your ass upstairs now!" his mother hissed
"mom -" he began to protest
"Now!" myta turned to face her other son who still stood in the drive, trying not to laugh at his brother.
"zach, honey," she embraced her oldest son in a hug. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to dad about something. Is he here? please say he's here." zach sighed, not letting go of his mothers hug.
"he's on a work trip zach, what's wrong? you're worrying me." myta pulled away from the hug and invited zach inside.
they both sat down on one of the couches in the living room, and silence fell upon them.
zach was twisting one of the many rigs on his hand, something he often did when he was nervous.
"I-" he hesetated, not knowing how his mother would react to the knews.
myta placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I got a girl pregnant, and I don't know what to do." he mumbled, avoiding her eyes.
"Oh."
there was a long pause, neither zach nor his mom knew what to say.
"Please say something." zach said, his hands shaking.
"I don't know what to say, zach. I didn't even know you were seeing someone."
"I'm not- well, uh, it's complicated." zach stuttered.
"You're being very vague." his mother commented.
"we knew we liked each other, but nothing could happen, we told each other that we weren't allowed to be together."
"What do you mean you weren't allowed?"
"she's corbyns sister."
"Oh honey."
"and if he finds out he'll be so angry, he gets so mad about stuff and he says stupid shit when he's like that, and you know what I'm like when someone says the wrong thing-" zach was rambling at this point, hardly breathing in between sentences.
"and I've been horrible to her. She's been texting me the whole time I've been away, and I've been ignoring her. when she told me I tried to reply, I really did, and I just didn't know what to say."
"Oh, zach." his mother sighed.
"I don't know what to do."
zach honestly felt like he could cry in that moment, feeling completely helpless and out of control.
"Replying to her would be a good start. do you know if the baby is definitely yours?" myta asked.
"Yeah, she's not the type to... sleep around?"
"Hmm, okay." myta paused. "Pass me your phone."
zach reluctantly handed his unlocked phone over to his mother, who began tying up a message.
zach watched over her shoulder.
it was a long message, he could make out that his mom was typing out an apology first, explaining how zach was being immature and stupid before moving on to telling rory that he was there for her no matter what she decided to do.
myta handed the phone back.
"Thank you, mom."
zach hugged her, a stray tear falling from his eye.
"You're welcome, honey. go sleep in your old room for tonight, I don't want you walking around in the dark."
zach knew better than to protest against his mother and obliged, falling asleep almost immediately as soon as his head touched the pillow.