All in G♥️ode time

Chapter 12

Once Zach put his hand to the back of my neck I knew that this was the moment I had waited eight years for. The moment when I knew that he was alive and he was real again. As I leant in, I could feel how close Zach was to me. I was so aware that he was there. What I wasn't aware of, was the object hurtling towards the back of my head. As soon as I heard the word duck I dove to the blanket like my life depended on it, because sometimes in this business it does. Zach on the other hand wasn't so quick and ended up with a frisbee to the forehead. The expression on Zach's face was a mixture of shock and anger towards the person who had just ruined our potential 'moment' as he grabbed the frisbee and threw it in the direction it came from. By this point I was rolling around the picnic blanket laughing at Zach's expression and what had just happened when he turned his glare to me. I froze, laying there on the ground, in such an open position and studied Zach. His face had the same structure from when we were younger, except now it had the addition of some stubble in the form of a 5 o'clock shadow. His hair was a darker colour now but still in the same style as when we were teenagers with waves that could sink a ship and his eyes. His green eyes could never change. Zach was always afraid of me looking into his eyes and seeing Catherine but that can never happen as I just get lost in them. No thoughts can process in my mind when I am looking into his eyes. They are my weakness. His eyes were getting closer and closer to me and I hadn't understood why until I could feel his breath on my face. I was on my back on the blanket, Zach was propped up on one elbow with this other arm sliding around my waist, and his eyes right above my own, staring back just as intently. I looked down at our position and back to Zach's face, but his eyes never left mine. He leant down but stopped just millimetres from my lips and my breathing hitched. He smirked at the effect he has on me but I let him because everything then was perfect, even if I was motionless, lying underneath him.  

In that moment, I was greedy. I wanted more and Zach was taking too long, so I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down to me. Our lips crashed and it was like nothing had ever changed between us. Zach crashed down and lifted me on top of him so I was straddling his waist. We felt like teenagers again, we felt invincible. When I finally pulled back for air I looked at Zach. He had the biggest smirk on his face that I had ever seen and I couldn't help but smirk back because I had caused that. We were Gallagher Girl and Blackthorne Boy and nothing could changed that. Our eyes locked again, however, before our lips could meet I heard a loud bang from behind me and realised that Bex was still following us. Now, not so covertly because she had just fallen from a tree.

"Bloody branch can't even hold a 30 something year old!" Bex is one of those women who refuse to reveal their own age as they don't like the idea of it changing. In Bex's eyes, she is forever young.

"True or false, Bex, Liz and Macey are following us?" for an agent, Zach is kind of slow sometimes and has a bad habit for stating the obvious. "Maybe, just maybe, there is some other British person in the park Zach. I feel like you're being a little stereotypical right now." Okay, so I tried to lie through my teeth but desperate times call for desperate measures. I thought Zach might actually believe me until he pointed over my shoulder to the 3 girls at the base of a tree 30 metres from us. Liz and Macey were distracted trying to see if Bex was okay and Bex was fighting them off telling the girls that she was okay. I looked at Zach with a raised eyebrow and he smirked back at me, it was like we were having a conversation without any words.

"Run now while they're distracted." And so we did. We took off down the road and headed towards the school. Back through the tunnels where Zach had found me a few nights ago and up through to a secret room on the top floor of the mansion. I remember this room from the old school. Joe and Zach had just got home from a mission. Joe was hurt and Zach blamed himself, he was so angry. I made sure that most of the secret rooms were built back into the school, for future generations to find just like I had. However, now instead of a beanbag chair, there is a small chair that folds into a bed because I would spend a lot of time up here. Zach sat in the chair and pulled me onto his lap. I rested my head on his shoulder and that was how we stayed for hours. Just us talking and catching up, no secrets, nothing kept from each other, we answered everything we the other asked and I fell asleep at some point. I woke up with the chair folded out and Zach's arm around my waist. At that point in time everything was perfect.

*

Mom had decided that today was a good day for a Cov Ops training exercise so Joe, Zach, Bex, Macey, Liz, Preston, Grant, Jonas, myself and the sophomore class were all sitting in the Gallagher Academy vans driving towards Roseville Square to work on brush passes like we did on our exchange. This time, however, it was students versus veterans and the prize of insane bragging rights.  

"Okay, James, you're the first student, you are against Mrs Anderson, no offense Liz but she is on the research track James so time to shine." "Yes sir!" Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Liz casually walk past Grant and rub her hands together after, "So, Mr Solomon I believe I am owed an apology after that research track remark," I could see an evil glint in her eye because she knew she was right, she may have went to research but Liz had mastered everything in the book which didn't involve too much physical contact. "I must admit, I am impressed, well done Mrs Anderson. First point to the veterans."

The game continued for a while and by this stage it was 8 to 1, we lost a point because Bex was supposed to give the coin to Zach but Grant surprised her with a kiss and she dropped the coin. Baxter is a competitive girl so she was less than impressed when she lost the point. We took a break and had an hour to get lunch. The students walked around and got to know each other, whereas I was hungry and wanted a burger, so we went to all headed to a little café. Mace and Preston were no where to be seen so we thought that maybe they had decided they wanted to be alone and ordered without them. "So what do you suppose them two are doing anyways," Grant whispered with a raised eyebrow. Bex slapped his shoulder and scolded him saying they're adults and can do what they want but Liz went bright red and the boys all high fived for Preston. Boys will be boys. Bex kept staring at me and tipping her head towards Zach, whom was sitting on the same bench as me, right at the other side of Mr Joseph Solomon himself. Typical stepfather move Joe. We all sat talking for a while and ate our food, then talked some more when I noticed someone running to the café. It was Macy and she looked so scared, I didn't want to hear what she was going to say but I walked to her to try and calm her down so she could tell us what's wrong. She lifted her head and I noticed a cut on her lip and a black eye starting to form. "Macey, what happened?" We all stared, waiting for reply we didn't want to hear.

"Someone took him. They took Preston."