This Could Be Us

Prologue

"Wow, we still have so much work left to do on this history project," I pointed out to Zach, who was laying on the floor of my bedroom and staring at the ceiling.

It was the middle of April. Zach and I, both awful in history, decided to pair up for the final history project in our 20th Century history class. It was pretty clear to the both of us that we needed to get a good grade on this project to prevent us from failing the course and having to take it again as juniors. We had been at it for a week already, and barely accomplished anything. I decided that we needed to take advantage of this three day weekend to crack down and get some progress going.

I looked over at Zach, who was oddly silent and still staring at the ceiling.

"Zachary Matthews!" I yelled, grabbing a pillow from my bed and throwing at his face.

"What?!" He said in shock. Clearly his mind was off in space and the pillow he took to the face brought him back to planet Earth. 

"What is up with you? You've been acting weird ever since we left school," I commented.

Zach pushed himself up into a sitting position, still his mind seemed to be far off. For a couple of moments he sat there silent, and I didn't push for him to speak. I knew that he had something to say, but whatever it was, he wasn't quite sure how to say it.

Finally after a few more minutes of silence, he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. I looked at him curiously. I hadn't seen Zach this out of it since his mom and dad told them they were getting a divorce a couple years back.

"Kate asked me out today," he finally spoke.

I felt my jaw drop almost instantly at his words. Kate Reeves was one of the most popular girls in the 10th grade and hung out with a lot of the juniors and seniors. Zach and I weren't unpopular by any means, but we kept to ourselves for the most part. We had a small group of friends we hung around with from time to time, but we definitely did our best to stay away from all the attention the popular crowd seemed to get. So the fact that Kate even knew who Zach was came as a complete shock to me.

"Have you guys even spoken before?" I asked.

He sighed again. "So I might have forgotten to mention to you, but she gave me her number about a month ago."

"What the hell Zach?!" I shouted. "How did you forget to tell me something like that?"

He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "I knew you'd totally freak out. I wasn't sure that it was even going to come to anything."

"Clearly it has!"

"Yeah.." he mumbled.

"What other secrets haven't you told me?" I inquired. I was in complete disbelief. Zach and I have been best friends since the first grade, when he moved in next door. There wasn't anything that we hid from each other throughout our entire friendship. At least that's what I thought, until today.

"Can I ask you something? Hypothetically?" He asked. I could sense a bit of anxiousness in his voice.

"Uh yeah?" I answered, confused as to where this was headed.

"Have you ever thought about us being together?"

"We're together all the time, Zach." I said sarcastically.

"Aria, you know what I mean. Have you ever thought of us being more than just friends?" He asked again. The stern look on his face told me that he was in no way joking.

"Uh, I mean..." I started, but got lost in my own thoughts. To be honest, I've thought about being more than just friends with Zach quite frequently. Okay, so it flooded my thoughts constantly. I have actually had feelings for him ever since last year. Well, actually I'm pretty sure I've liked him since way before that, but I didn't actually discover said feelings until last year.