The Girl Hiding In The Shadows

Chapter 27

Zachary's POV

"Why did you come?" Rachel asked as we both settled down on the bean bag chair.

"I called you countless of times and you simply texted me a 'I'm fine'?! How is that fine?" I reasoned with her. Girls. Their 'I'm fine' and 'I'm okay' are all lies. They are neither fine nor okay. Knowing this truth, I rushed here as fast as I could.

"Zach, I am really okay. Just that I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone." Rachel reached down as she played with the hem of her shirt, rolling the fabric between her fingers.

I reached over to cover Rachel's hands with mine. Rachel looked up with her sad gray eyes and that made my heart squeezed painfully. I have no clue why Rachel's hurting and I would rather the one hurting was me.

"What's wrong, Rachel? Your mum told me that you've been locking yourself in here for the whole day." I asked softly and I felt Rachel's hands beneath me started to slip away.

"Rachel. You can tell me anything, that's what a boyfriend do right? To be here for their girlfriend whenever they need a listening ear?" I pressed and heard Rachel let out a defeated sigh.

"Yeah, you're right. Ella and I met this morning. She wasn't too happy with the fact that we're together now. E-Ella told me that she's disappointed in me for doing this to her. All of us knew about her crush on you and yet, I still agreed to be your girlfriend." Rachel choked back her tears as she was explaining to me.

I knew this was going to happen after I uploaded our photo on Instagram. So far no one commented anything bad on Rachel or us. In fact it was the exact opposite, everyone was congratulating us and gave us their best wishes.

Oh wait a minute.

"Rachel, you are not having second thoughts about us right?" The fear in my voice was evident and I couldn't hide it.

Rachel's eyes soften as she said, "Of course not, silly. I am sad that Ella have those kind of thoughts about me."

I let out a breath of relief and smirked at Rachel, knowing that she disliked it. Rachel laughed lightly, I took the moment to survey Rachel's tear stained face. Rachel doesn't have those pretty long eye lashes or a very straight nose. No one is perfect, but in my eyes, Rachel is the most beautiful girl I've ever met.

What I did next, certainly wasn't planned, but I couldn't resist. I cupped Rachel's face in between my hands and leant down, giving her a light kiss on the lips. I felt Rachel stiffened and I quickly moved back before Rachel could react.

There was a moment of awkward silence and Rachel just stared at me in shock.

"Zach, did we just...?" Rachel trailed off and her cheeks turned a shade darker.

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously as I am still unsure how Rachel would say. "Kissed? Yeah. We did."

After saying that, it was silence again. Minutes went by, as we focused our attention on the floor.

"Wow." Rachel suddenly spoke up when I thought I would go crazy with the amount of silence that was between us.

"Zach, oh my. I.. I really didn't expect that."

"Rachel, hey. Honestly, I didn't even planned that. But, it's a nice feeling to get used to right?" I gave Rachel a playful wink to lighten the mood.

Rachel merely rolled her eyes and both of us let out a laugh. Totally destroying the weird atmosphere that was surrounding us before.

While holding onto Rachel's delicate hands, I told her, "Rach, no matter what's going to happen between the three of us, just remember to believe in me. I will never let go of your hands, as I have mentioned before when I taught you swimming. We will get through this together."

I bent over to kiss Rachel on her forehead and both of us embraced in a much needed hug.
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Ella's POV

"Ella, are you serious about not speaking to Rachel ever again?" Nicole casually asked me while flipping through the fashion magazine.

Helen was fighting some virtual bad guy on the computer but I knew she's paying attention to what I am going to say later.

"Yup. Do I look like I'm joking?"

"Why, Ella? Is this your way of punishing her?" This time it was Helen who voiced out her question.

"Punishing Rachel? I am not that evil, it's just the price of betraying me." I was starting to feel irritated by all their lame questions.

"Dating Zachary, is a betrayal to you?"

"Yes. I also hope you both wouldn't talk to her too. Rachel should have expected this when she made her decision." I announced to the girls and they swiftly lifted their heads to give me an incredulous look.

"Wait. What? Ella! You're going too far here!" Helen was the first one to speak after she registered what I just told them.

"This is nothing, compared to what Rachel have done to me. Why on earth are you both defending her anyways?!" I asked as it finally dawned on me.

"We're just stating the facts, Ella." Helen mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.

"I don't care what facts you are referring to, but Rachel deserves whatever treatment we gave her!"

Frustated at how unsupportive my friends are towards this issue, I threw the book that I was holding, angrily at the table.

"Rachel." I hissed menacingly, my tone leaking with venom.

"She must have bewitched you all to believe that she's oh so innocent and pitiful. However, no, I'm the only sane one here. I can see through her tricks, evil tricks. You both cannot be as naive as Zach! I am going to make him realised who Rachel truly is. Zach is just temporarily confused of who he really likes. One day, he will wake up and know that I'm the only one for him." With that, I strolled out of my room to get myself something to eat.

"Ella.." Nicole trailed off as she followed me out, making me stop and turn to face her.

"If you're going to help Rachel polish up her already tarnished image, then save it." I said to Nicole before she could even say a word.

Nicole's face soften as she hooked her arms with mine to pull me along.

"Hey, don't get us wrong here. What we're doing is to make sure both of you won't do anything you'll regret." Nicole replied as the both of us stepped into the kitchen.

"Why would I regret doing this? Rachel's should be the one regretting." I refuted and heard Nicole let out an exaggerated sigh.

One hand on my hip, the other on the kitchen table. I asked, "Nicole, you'll be supporting me right?"

"Of course I will." Nicole gave me a small smile and I felt relieved immediately.

"Oh and Nicole?" I heard a hmm and took it as a cue to continue.

"Please promise me you wouldn't contact Rachel until she realises her mistake?"

Nicole nodded stiffly, I am fully aware that she didn't like the idea. However, who cares?

"Thanks, Nicole. I knew I could count on you." I grinned at Nicole gratefully.

Author's note :
Hello! Hmm.. I hope you guys managed to see my update! What do you guys think of this chapter? Hehe! Thanks for reading, which you know means a lot to me! :') Don't forget to vote/comment/share my story, if you like it! ♥