Go Away (#TheWattys2015)

Chapter 25: Attacked by a Demon Moose

The next day at school I was falling asleep in math class when I heard a loud whisper coming from the desk in front of me. Zacks desk. I groaned and looked up at him lazily. He smiled and snapped his fingers in my face. I blinked a few times, narrowing my eyes at him in annoyance. He was smiling about something. I heard the teachers distant voice talking about some experience she had. Apparently it was one of those moments when she started talking about herself and expected us to be interested in something from her so called "adventurous experiences". Zack held out a piece of paper to me and I placed my hand under my desk so that he could give it to me unnoticed by the teacher. I opened the note and smiled at his clearly rushed handwriting. The note said:

Want to go to the park with me after school? Y'know to help get your mind off of everything for a bit.

I could feel Tasha hovering over my shoulder. I smiled and wrote:
Yeah that sounds awesome :)
I cleared my throat and he turned around, quickly taking the note back. From behind him I could see the corners of his lips curve upward into a wide smile and my face grew hot.
"Ahem," I heard from next to me. I looked over at Tasha tapping her foot impatiently and crossing her arms. "Am I invited?" I smiled and shook my head.
"Not this time." She frowned and sunk low into her chair.
"I'll go with you tomorrow okay?" She mumbled something and I leaned closer to hear. "Okaaay...," she grumbled. I smiled and patted her on the head and she tried to bite my hand. I giggled and placed my head back onto my desk, watching as the clock ticked slowly. Then: DING. DING. DING. Class was over. Kids hurriedly shoved their stuff into their bags and ran out. Zack waited for me and watched as I chucked my pencil case into my bag and slung it over my shoulder. Tasha looked at me then at Zack and nodded back at me with understanding. She jumped her eyebrows up and down at us before quickly running out of the classroom. I smiled and shook my head and walked out with Zack once she left. "Soo," he said awkwardly.
"So," I said back. "Where do you wanna meet up?" He thought about this for a second and I admired the adorable way his eyebrows seemed to automatically arch downwards whenever he thought about something.
"Well, if we're going to the park the closest way would be from the back of the school so yeah. Meet me at the back." I nodded and smiled.
"Sounds good." We stood there awkwardly next to a classroom door. My next class. "Uh Zack. This is my class." He looked up at the door and rubbed the back of his neck, clearly attempting to look casual.
"Oh. Yeah. It is. Uh, need any help carrying anything?" My arm was burning and doing something as simple as holding my binder against it hurt. But I just said:
"No. Thank you," and walked towards the door to my class.
"Remember. Back of the school. After school." Zack said. I laughed. He was being so awkward.
"Yeah Zack. I got it." He smiled and waved at me as I opened the door. I returned the gesture and walked in, lazily collapsing into my chair. Just four more hours to go, I told myself. Four more hours.

I practically busted the door down getting out of my last class and running to the back of the school. I shouted a quick "See you later!" to Tasha and kept running. When I reached the corner hands grabbed me around my waist and pulled me further behind the school. I screamed and the person placed their hand over my mouth. "Shhh, it's Zack chill out." He put me down and his hands slipped away from my waist. I turned to face him, trying to look angry even though I could still feel his hands on my waist and I was fighting the giggles rising up in my throat.
"You scared me half to death!"
He chuckled.
"Remind you of old times?" I recalled the first day of school when he had grabbed me and dragged me into an empty classroom and I blushed like crazy. "Whatever lets go." He laughed and playfully shoved me. I shoved him back and giggled. He smiled at me and grabbed me around my legs, slinging me over his shoulder. I screamed and laughed as he ran across the street with me and down the empty road. He spun me around and set me back down on my feet once we were two blocks away from the park. I gripped onto his shirt and steadied myself. He held onto my arms.
"You okay there?" I nodded and started skipping towards the park.
"Race you there!" I shouted over my shoulder and I broke into a full sprint. He sprinted after me and started to catch up. I ran faster and bolted into the park, jumping onto a swing. Zack plopped down in the swing next to me and panted loudly trying to catch his breath. "I win!" I cheered. He shook his head.
"You had a huge head start."
"No I didn't."
"Yup. You did."
"Noooo."
"Yeeees."
"Nooooope."
"Yeeeeep."
"Nooo-" I stopped when he came over and started tickling me. I laughed while trying to push him away. He slipped behind me and pulled my swing back. I swung forward and kicked my legs up high. I felt Zacks gentle touch on my back as he started pushing me forward.
"Weeeee!!" I yelled as I swung higher and higher. Zack laughed and started swinging beside me. After four minutes of swinging I jumped off and ran towards the playground. I heard Zacks foot steps behind me and I climbed up a ladder and ran towards the giant purple slide. I sat down on it and jumped slightly when Zacks legs sprouted from behind me and I felt his body press against my back as he hugged me around my stomach. I giggled and I could feel him smiling against my shoulder.
"Ready?" he asked.
"YA!" He pushed us off and we went sliding down together. I cheered and raised my hands in the air as if we were on a roller coaster (even though we were probably only going about 1 mph). Zack chuckled and I laughed with glee and jumped off when we reached the bottom. "That was AWESOME!" I shouted. Zack laughed and jumped off, his lips curved upward in a lopsided smile. "Can we go again?" I asked. He smiled at me and ran a hand through his hair.
"Sure. But first, I want to go on that." He pointed to the large wheel thingy and I shook my head remembering when my mom would spin me around like crazy on those things. Zack laughed. "Come on. I won't push you too hard." I stayed where I was.
"I think I'll pass." It made me sick just looking at it. I could already feeling my insides turning. Zack walked up next to me and nudged me with his shoulder. "C'moooon. Please?" I rolled my eyes.
"Fine. One time." He cheered and ran towards it placing his hand on one of the metal bars, waiting for me to sit down. I sat down in the middle and held tightly into the bars. He smiled at my panicked face.
"Don't worry. I won't push you that hard. Okay?" I nodded.
"Promise?" He winked at me.
"Promise." He pushed the bar gently and I went spinning around slowly at a gentle pace.
I smiled as the breeze lightly brushed my face. "Little faster?" Zack asked. I nodded slowly and he pushed the bar harder. I looked up at the blue sky as the clouds mixed in with it and became a large swirl of white and blue. I felt a little dizzy so I closed my eyes. "You doing okay?" I heard Zack ask. I nodded surprised that I was actually enjoying this. A lot. I loosened up my grip on the metal bar near me.
"Faster!" He pushed even harder and I went spinning like crazy. I cheered and laughed yelling "Stop" when I started getting extremely dizzy. Zack slowly stopped me and I practically fell off of the wheel. I stumbled like a drunk person and tripped a few times. "That was fuuuun!" I slurred lazily. Zack laughed and sat down on the wheel thingy and gripped onto one of the bars. "Now you push me."
I smiled at him and gripped onto a bar with both of my hands. I ran around in circles over and over again until I couldn't keep up with the wheel. Zack shouted with joy and laughed and I plopped down on the ground and watched him spin. It made me dizzy, but it was worth it. He was so happy. I smiled. He leaped off and landed next to me when the wheel slowed down. His head swayed from side to side as he tried to shake off the dizzy feeling. He ended up falling over on me. I fell onto my back and giggled as he laid down on my stomach and laughed along with me. "The world is spinning," he mumbled. I looked up at the clouds still spinning before my eyes.
"The world is always spinning,"
I answered. He turned his head in my direction and poked my nose.
"Smarty pants." I giggled and he smiled at me. We lay there together for a while, waiting for the sky to stop spinning and enjoying each others company. It was nice. Then Zack broke the silence. "Hey um, I know this is probably a bad time to bring it up but, uh, could we talk about that thing that chased us now?" I felt my heart stop for a second then I sighed and sat up. I guess I owed him and explanation. He lifted his head off of me and sat up in front of me.
"Sure," I mumbled. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
"Starting with...?"
"Where did it even come from?" I sighed.
"I don't know."
"When did you first see it?"
"I was walking home and I took a shortcut through the woods. It got mad and attacked me."
Zack played around with a wood chip in his hand for moment then went back to asking questions.
"How'd you escape?"
"Stabbed it in the eye with a pencil." He stared at me in shock and I blushed and looked away from him.
"You what!? That's so cool!" I blushed even harder and he held out his fist for a fist bump. I giggled and bumped my fist against his. "Okay next question. Um, have you figured out how to kill it?" I shook my head.
"Tasha and I had an idea but it's too dangerous to try."
"What idea?" I explained Tasha's idea to him that involved the flares and stabbing its eyes and Zack nodded. "I'll help." I looked up at him.
"Zack you're not going to help. We're not going after that thing it's too dangerous." That was true, but I wanted to kill it with every bit of energy I had. But I remembered what it had said. It wanted Zack. I couldn't bring him into this.
"Daija," he said suddenly. "Did that...that thing put you in the hospital all of those times?" I nodded slowly. "Then I'm killing it. Don't bother arguing." I opened my mouth to argue then I stopped myself. Instead I said:
"What happened to your dad?" Zack looked at me in shock.
"Wh-what?"
"Your dad. What happened to him?" He went back to playing with a wood chip.
"He disappeared one night and never came back. Why?" I sighed. "Just curious."
"Daija you said you weren't pushing me away. You said you trusted me."
"I'm not and I do."
"Then tell me everything! Stop lying. I know you asked that for a reason. What are you not telling me?" His voice started rising and he was growing angrier by the second. I grabbed his hand and stared into his eyes.
"I'll tell you everything okay. Is that what you want? You want to know everything?" He nodded vigorously and I continued. "Okay well I'll tell you then. But you have to chill out and save your comments till the end and don't freak out." He nodded and I let go of his hand. He scooted closer to me and leaned forward with his chin resting on his hands, staring at me intently. Then I told him everything. Crystal, the monsters demand, how I suspected the monster was his dad, everything except me getting teased by Casey. When I was done his mouth was hanging open. I blinked away some tears that had built up in my eyes when I mentioned Crystal. It made me remember what happened with Casey. What he did next was unexpected. He hugged me. I sat there in shock and he pulled away from me after a while and grabbed my hand.
"You wanted to go on the slide again didn't you?" I nodded slowly and he pulled me towards the slide.