His Sunflower

Chapter 42| Ethan's POV

I sling an arm around Mark's shoulder. "Dude, just go up to her, talk to her."

"Dude, I tried that in art class. She wants nothing to do with us." Mark sighs.

"Did you know about the Kai situation?" If Mark didn't know, they Zoey can't be mad at him.

"I mean, I knew more about her birth dad then she did, but that because I pressed for answers because I was curious why I had a daddy and Zoey didn't."

"But you didn't know about the... thing?"

"No." Mark says immediately. "I never knew."

"Then try to talk to her. She'll come around. I'll even talk to her in Biology, just for you."

Mark, Nolan, Alan, and I have become pretty tight since Zoey shut everyone but Noah out. They excepted me into their little friend group, and we did stupid guy things like going to the gym and shit. Using working out as our coping mechanism. We threw rocks off bridges breaking the frozen lake below, and spit off the roof. Like I said, stupid shit.

"Ok. Thanks man." Mark says slapping my back and walking off.

I go to the AP biology classroom, seeing Zoey sitting on top of her desk, chatting with the teacher, Mr. McCormick, swinging her legs back and forth.

I suppress a grin and gulp down some of my RedBull. I can't sleep anymore, thanks to Zoey, so I live off Advil and RedBull's. I learned from the best after all.

Zoey glances over, then quickly looks away when she sees me.

Ouch. She doesn't even want to look at me.

I sit at the spot next to hers, because she's my acquaintance now, it's what we do.

I pull out my phone, scrolling through Snapchat, seeing all the people I've left on delivered simply because I can't be bothered to snap them back. I frown seeing Zoey still has me blocked. Sighing I close out Snapchat. That was my only reason for opening it in the first place.

I open my texts, seeing Leo texted me, he just sent me a meme. I roll my eyes sending one back.

"Hey Mr. McCormick and Zoey, want to hear a joke?" I ask. Jokes was how I got Zoey, so jokes have to get her back.

"Sure." Mr. McCormick says at the same time Zoey says "No."

Sucks for Zoey.

"Ok, what kind of tea is sometimes hard to swallow?" I ask, remembering the laffy taffy joke I read the other day.

"Reality." Zoey says, looking down at her hands. "What type of laffy taffy joke hits that deep?" She whispers, probably more to herself.

"That's a good one, Ethan." Mr. McCormick says.

Zoey gets off the top of her desk sitting down right as the bell rings and kids start coming in.

I take my pencil, gently poking Zoey's arm to get her attention.

"What?" She asks, giving me an annoyed look.

"I promised Mark I'd talk to you about you talking to him, and the rest of your cousins."

"Ethan, I don't want to." She whispers, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. That seems to have become a habit of hers.

"Zoe, your cousins didn't know about any of if, so there's no real reason to avoid them." I've talked with her cousins, they're all really hurt Zoey's avoiding them. Especially Kaylie and Katlyn.

"It's not that Ethan. If I talk to them, they're going to go to tell their parents, who are going to tell my parents, and I can't talk to my parents yet."