Run Away

Chapter 26

"Kendall, Kendall! Wake up!"
I moaned as my eyes slowly started to open. All I could see was a blur of green and red.
"Lily what time is it?"
"6:30 am."
I moaned again. "Why are you up so early? Why don't you just sleep in or something?"
"Because it's Friday."
"Yeah so?"
"I have school on Fridays."
"Oh right. Sorry I forgot." I slowly sat up, and saw Lily was fully dressed. "Why do you want me up?"
"Because I want to see you before I go to school."
A smile appeared on my face. It felt nice to know someone actually cared about me. Someone other than Zack.
"Come on let's go have breakfast."
She walked over to the side of my bed and pulled me off. I walked slowly behind her as I was still half asleep. I honestly don't know how I managed to get up this early before, and work on the chores.
I hadn't really been paying attention as I was deep in thought. A loud bang disturbed my thoughts, followed by; "Zack get up! It's 6:40am."
We had walked down the hall to Zack's room, and Lily was now trying to wake him up.
She kept banging on the door. "Zack get up!"
"Here let me try." Lily stepped aside letting me walk up to the door. I banged on the door, and yelled; "Zack get up, breakfast is ready! Unless you don't want anything to eat."
Within seconds Zack's door flew open. He stepped outside, and started walking down the steps. "Come on slow pokes let's go eat!"
"Race you there!" I yelled after him.
I ran down the steps, lightly pushing Zack to the side to let me through, and slow him down a bit. He managed to recover quickly and caught up to me. We were running side by side, lightly pushing each other all the way to the kitchen.
"Beat you!" I said out of breath when I stopped at the counter.
"No I did!"
"Why don't you two just say it was a tie?" Lily was standing right behind us, looking a bit annoyed.
"I agree with Lily." Mr. Cook said as he passed us into the dinning room. "All though, I think Kendall did beat you just by a little bit Zack."
A huge smile appeared on my face. "Ha!"
Zack stuck his tongue out at me.
"Come on now, let's go eat." Mrs. Cook announced.
Mrs. Cook, Lily, Zack and I left the kitchen, and met Mr. Cook in the dinning room. Zack and I still had smiles on our faces when we sat down. Mrs. Cook passed out pancakes, while Mr. Cook was passing out the maple syrup. We ate in silence until we all had finished eating.
"So your father and I were thinking about doing something this weekend. Together. As a family."
"Like what?" Lily asked.
"I don't know, something we'd all like to do."
"How about bowling?" Zack suggested. "I don't know about Kendall, but us four like bowling."
"What do you think Kendall? Would you like to go bowling?" Mr. Cook asked.
"I've never been before, but it seems like fun."
Lily stared at me. "You've never been bowling?" She sounded really shocked, as if bowling was a part of everyone's daily routine.
I shook my head. "Never. My parents didn't let me leave the house."
"Well bowling it is then." Mrs. Cook announced.
"Lily we need to go, you're going to be late for school." Mr. Cook said to her sounding rushed. I just noticed he left the table, he must've left when Lily was in shock I'd never been bowling.
"Already? What time is it?" She spun around in her chair to face Mr. Cook.
"It's 7:20 am, and didn't you say you need to be in early today?"
"I totally forgot," She jumped off her chair. "Mrs. Wood was going to help me with my math before class starts." Lily ran out of the dinning room, and came back a minute later with shoes, and her backpack on. "Bye Zack, bye Kendall. See you later."
She gave one last wave, and took off.
"I'll do the dishes while you two get dressed, then if you want we can get your bedrooms set up."
"Okay thanks mom."
"Yeah thanks Mrs. Cook."
Zack and I left to go upstairs leaving Mrs. Cook to do the dishes.
"So how many bedrooms are in this house?" I asked when we were half- way up the steps.
"Five, so you'll probably be able to chose which one you want."
"Okay cool."
We waved good bye, and walked our separate ways to our rooms. I threw on a baggy sweat shirt, with dark blue jeans. I put my hair up into a perfect high ponytail, and brushed my teeth. Once I was done I met Mrs. Cook and Zack in the kitchen.
"Okay Kendall so as you may or may not know, there are 5 bedrooms in this house. Currently 3 of them are in use, so we'll let you chose between the two that are left." Mrs. Cook explained.
"Okay thanks."
She gave me a smile, and continued talking. "Alright why don't we go on upstairs. Zack I want you to pack up all of your things. When your dad comes home, he'll pack up your bed." He nodded, and left for upstairs. Mrs. Cook turned to me, and said; "Now Kendall, I want you to follow me, and I'll show you the two rooms you can choose from."
"Okay."
I followed Mrs. Cook upstairs, and once we passed Zack's room she started talking to me again. "So Kendall, how long have you known Zack?"
"A few months I guess. I don't know, I sort of lost track of time."
She nodded. "Right of course." She stopped and spoke again. "Well this is the one room, it's currently empty. Now there's the other room which is being used as a guest room/ office. Would you like to see it?"
I stepped into the room. It was a decent size, with a closet and a bathroom. "No this is perfect actually."
"Are you sure? It's really no big deal if you want to see the room-"
"I'm sure, thank you."
Mrs. Cook clapped her hands together. "Well then, why don't we start setting it up for?"
***
"I'm home!" I heard Lily yell.
"What time is it?" I asked Zack. He was helping me finish up my room, as his was already done.
"Almost three a clock, why?"
"No reason." I straightened the pillow, and turned to Zack. "We should go see Lily."
"Good idea."
We walked downstairs to find Lily sitting at the dinning room table.
"What are you doing?" I asked. She had a snack out, and was busy writing something.
"Homework." She replied.
I sat down on her right, and Zack sat on her left side. "Ah yes, the joys of homework. That's one thing I most definitely did not miss."
"Yeah but you'll get lot's soon." Lily nudged him in the side. "What's even the point of homework when you go to school all day?"
"Come on now Lily, teachers can't let you enjoy your evening without loads of homework."
Zack and I chuckled, while Lily sighed. "Whatever, I just need to get this done, so can you leave me alone please."
"Sure thing." Zack stood up.
"Just let us know when you're done." I added in before I stood up.
We left the room, and started walking back up the stairs.
"What do you want to do now?" Zack asked.
"I need to go finish my room."
"Kay, I'll help."
We entered my new room. "Thanks."
***
It wasn't until dinner Zack and I left the room.
"Glad that's done." I sighed in relief when we were walking down to the kitchen.
"Yeah, me too."
We entered the dinning room where Mr. and Mrs. Cook and Lily were sitting waiting for us. We sat down, and began to eat our hamburgers.
"So how's the room coming along?" Mrs. Cook asked.
"It's good, we're almost done actually."
"We're? Who's we?" Mr. Cook asked.
"Zack and I."
"Of course how could I not guess that."
"What do you mean?" Zack looked up at his dad.
"Isn't it obvious? You two are like two peas in a pod, you two are inseparable."
I was blushing, and could feel my face become hotter. I had never realized we spent that much time together even though it was so obvious.
"Why does it matter?" Zack asked.
"It doesn't. Look why don't we just eat."
For the rest of the meal we were all silent, except at the end when Mr. Cook looked up at Zack. "Hey Zack do you mind helping me with dishes?"
"But-"
"Zack, please help your father."
"Uh okay."
I watched Mr. Cook and Zack leave.
"And Kendall, can you help me with something upstairs?"
"Um, okay."
I followed Mrs. Cook up to my new room. When I entered she closed the door.
"Kendall I need to ask you something."
"Uh okay, what is it?"
She took a deep breath. "Now I did you to answer me honestly."
"Of course."
My heart was pounding, what does she want to know? Why won't she just spit it out?
"What do you think of Zack?"
"I think he's a great person-"
"That's not what I meant," My palms were sweaty. I had a feeling I knew what she was going to ask now. A question I was purposely trying to avoid. "Let me rephrase the question. Do you like Zack, and not just as a friend - or a person."
I swallowed. There it was, the question I wanted to avoid. "We're just friends, really good friends, that's all."
"Kendall it's okay to be more than just friends."
"I know, and I'm telling the truth. We're just really close friends, we're practically brother and sister."
Mrs. Cook sighed. "Okay you can say whatever you want, but I see the way you look at eachother. You two are supposed to be more than friends, you two just don't want to admit it." She opened the door, letting me leave. I walked to the end of the hall where I saw Zack. I let Mrs. Cook walk down the stairs before I spoke.
"Did Mr. Cook talk to you about anything?" I whispered once Mrs. Cook was out of earshot.
"Nothing really. Did Mrs. Cook ask you anything?"
"No, nothing really."
I crossed my arms, and Zack just nodded. We both knew that the Nothing was more than that. We just didn't want to say so, as well, it would make things extremely awkward.
"Well I'm going to my room."
"Yeah, me too."
We left eachother. Even though we didn't have to talk about it, it became awkward. I closed my door, and leaned against it. Why do Mr. and Mrs. Cook care about whether Zack and I love eachother? Why does it matter? I thought. I sighed as I had no answer. I shook away the thought. We were nothing more than close friends, and we knew that. I changed into my pyjamas and laid on my bed for quite a few hours until I fell asleep.