Sophia

Chapter twenty one

Sophia

It's only a couple of days until the hearing and I haven't left Zach's side in over a week. I could tell he's been nervous. He hasn't taken his hands off of me once.

I'm not complaining at all.

I would do anything to take his pain and worry away. He's my best friend. I think as the last few months have proven, he's my reason for going on.

He was supposed to go and meet his dads lawyer but he decided to call him and stay in bed instead. He's on edge all the time. That dream royally messed him up.

He refuses to leave me alone for more than five minutes. He sits like a cat outside of the bathroom door. I haven't asked for a moment alone, nor do I plan to. He feels like I'm safe when I'm with him, and he isn't wrong. No one talks to me unless I want them to when we are out in public. And I've learned that I can have my moments alone at night while he's asleep and then we just sleep ninety percent of the day anyways.

Life is nearly too perfect for us to be us, but God knows that starting on Tuesday, all hell breaks loose on our lives. Because one of two things can happen:

One; Zach's dad gets out of jail permanently and then he just bothers us for the rest of our god forsaken lives.

Two; he stays in jail until he's given this opportunity again in however many years and Zach has to go through all this shit again.

I'm honestly hoping it'll be option two because in five years, Zach and I will be far away from this city and he wont be able to contact Zach ever again.  But neither are ideal.

In a perfect world, Zach's dad would be in prison for the rest of his awful life and Zach and I would never have to deal with him. But in a perfect world, Zach's dad never would've been an abusive alcoholic, his mom would still be here, we could all be living the perfect cookie cutter life's, and, in however many years, Zach's mother, my mother and I would be planning for the wedding at the perfect venue with the perfect people and everything would be perfect.

But this is real life.

In real life, I'm talking Zach off of the ledge of a panic attack on the daily and instead of preparing for our wedding, we're preparing for one of the worst things Zach will have to do in this half of his life.

"Hey Zach," I said, to which he hummed for me to continue. "When all this is over, let's get married. And have a cat then a stupid kid and be better parents than ours ever were. Ok?" I said, containing my laughter. His eyebrows raised up and he looked into my eyes.

"Is this you proposing to me? Because if so, then I'm going to need a ring before I can say yes." He said, laughing with me.

"No but I'm serious. Let's get married and have a family and prove everyone who told us we weren't good enough wrong. 'Cause, I mean, if our parents taught us anything, it's how not to parent." I said, pretending to be serious.

"Ok how about this." He said, sitting up in the bed. "We flip a coin after the hearing. Heads, we get married after graduation and leave this crazy-ass place and be together in a new place. Tales, we do all of that, but have to wait until after college. Deal?" He said, sticking out his pinkie, waiting for me to reciprocate, which I did.