DUSK TILL DAWN

10

eyes talk

"You wanna talk about it?" Zach asked, watching as Neve messed with the packet they were given in class. She looked at him once before shaking her head and looking back down at the work.

"It's probably better not to," She answered honestly.

Zach thought for a moment before finally scooting closer. This caused his knee to brush against Neve's thigh, the action sending shockwaves through her body. She struggled to find any words to say to the boy, feeling anxious under his touch.

He reached his hand out, grabbing the ends of Neve's hair gently. He continuously sent glances her way, making sure he would notice if she was uncomfortable, but she never showed any signs indicating she was. She just sat there with wide eyes as he twirled her hair around his finger, seemingly mesmerized by something so small.

"Y-you know we should probably get to work, we don't have much time." Neve finally spoke, pulling herself back.

She was getting lost in her time with Zach, and she knew this. At this rate, they wouldn't get any work finished by the time Zach had to leave, which meant this 'study date' would kind of be pointless.

"Can I be honest with you?" Zach asked as he pulled away, respecting the fact that she wasn't accepting of his touch. He grabbed his backpack from the floor, unzipping it to gather his belongings.

"About what?" Neve couldn't help but ask.

"I don't think it's just your Aunt stopping you from being so... open to friendship and other things." He shrugged, grabbing a pencil. "I'll respect it either way, you know, but I just feel like it's not just her stopping whatever this is."

Neve wanted to ask what he meant by 'whatever this is', but Neve being Neve - ignored it. She instead shifted her position on the couch, putting her back against the side of it. "I don't know what you're talking about," She finally said.

"You're... hesitant on a lot of things." Zach answered, "You know, like you're- you're afraid to get too close despite what your Aunt says. I know you're like- super good at reading people and all, but I can be too, I think. I think you're just afraid to do what you want to do. You can trust me, you know? Anything you tell me stays between us, you don't have to be afraid I'm going to run and tell anyone. I'm not like that."

"How do I know that?" Neve softly asked, "Just because you say that I can trust you doesn't mean that I can."

"I know," Zach spoke easily. "That's the thing about trust though, right? I mean if you just listen to every little thing your Aunt says, you're never going to get to experience your own things. She might stop you from making the best friends you could have or- or experiencing things that are normal for a teenager to experience."

"Sometimes our pasts prevent us from being able to be normal," Neve softly spoke. "People betray us at such young ages that all we learn to do is to never trust again, to just keep running as if that's the only thing we can do. Because truthfully, sometimes it is."

She was giving out way more information than she was supposed to, she knew that. But at the same time, there was no way that Zach was going to be able to guess and understand what she was really meaning. Betrayal comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes, as far as he's concerned she could mean a friend stole a boyfriend or someone lied to her. The fewer smaller details, the less he knew. This was Neve's way of being able to actually open up to someone who wasn't Chris or a measly therapist without telling people too much. It was very broad what she said, so she didn't think it would be a bad thing.