Where Have You Been

Chapter 19

Zoë's POV

I was laying horizontally over my twin bed, my head hanging off the edge. All the blood was rushing to it, clouding my thoughts. Lately though, I hadn’t had much to think about. It had been a week since the “texting fiasco” as Taylor liked to call it, and I prided myself for still not having texted back. I didn’t want to be one of those girls who spends all her time wallowing away in sorrow, and begging for him back.

Normally Taylor, Maggie, Charlotte and I spent our days at the WFBC, the West Florida Beach Club, but today was an exception. The wind was howling outside, and the weatherman was calling for a major thunderstorm tonight. I actually quite enjoy thunderstorms. It gives my mom and I an excuse to stay in, make grilled cheese and tomato soup, and watch old rom-coms all night. We would fall asleep on the couch, waking occasionally to the “pitter-patter” of rain on our wooden beach house. But tonight, it just gave me more time to think about Niall.

Ok, so I was lying earlier. I actually spend a whole lot of time thinking about him. Why had he done that? Why not earlier? Would I have done the same thing? Do I like him? Does he like me? There were a million questions swarming my head. I didn’t really have an outlet for all of my confusion and worry. Taylor and my mom have been voted out of late. Taylor is getting jaded of my “Niall horror stories” as she so nicely puts it, and my mom just wouldn’t understand. Sometimes I sit in my room like this and twist my body into strange yoga positions. Taylor walked in one me doing “happy baby” and commented that: “I must be practicing for Niall”. I think she was just angry. The hot guy who gave Taylor his number was going out with the pretty Dairy Queen counter girl. Both of us were semi-heart broken, and we spent many nights together trying to keep our minds off of the subject.

We used to do that by reading magazines, and giving each other makeovers, but neither were our choice activities at the moment. Magazines were constantly reminding me of Niall and Adrienne’s relationship, and Taylor dreaded makeovers after her potential BF was stolen by the heavily made-up (but nonetheless attractive) counter girl. As my mom put it, we were both “single and ready to mingle” She was too, in fact. It had been 9 years since the death of my father, and about time for her to move on. I had seen her arbitrarily flirt with guys, but she had never connected with anyone special. My whole group was lonely, of late, and our mopey moods were getting me down even more. I decided it was time for a change.

“Hey, Tay?” I asked through the crackling phone line. (The rain was messing up our connection).

“Yes, Zoe?” She sighed, as if ready for an onslaught of Niall-related self-pity.

I was slightly miffed by her agitated response. “Hey…” I whined, “I just thought of something fun we could do!”

Her voice seemed to brighten considerably at the thought, since our days had been pretty idle recently. “Keep talking…”

“I really don’t know about you, but I’m dying for some boy attention”

I could practically hear her glossing her lips as she responded: “No need to say any more, I’m there!” I laughed as I hung up the phone. Just say the word ‘boy’, and you’ll lure Taylor into your reaches before she can think twice. It made her slightly vulnerable in some ways, like, if she was ever captured by a rapist… the though made my stomach jolt, catapulting me back to the night Niall saved me. I gulped down salt that was beginning to form tears in my eyes, and tried to divert my attention towards doing a handstand. (As I was saying, I focused a lot of energy into weird yoga/gymnastics currently).

“Ugh. What are you imitating? A dying tree? Pathetic.” Taylor stood, crossing her arms in the doorway. She got on the floor and easily executed a perfect handstand, staying upright for at least 20 seconds.