Say My Name

Chapter Three

"You seem sad." Zachary stated, my eyes raising into a questioning brow.

"Well yeah, lets try not to state the obvious." I retorted, before getting into the car of the 17 year old boy. I don't know why I was driving off with him, but it felt right, and I needed to get out of this school. To do something to take my mind off of the dreaded class discussion today.

"So.. I had no idea you went to the same school as me." I added, watching Zach turn on his car and drive out of the parking lot.

"Audrey..... This is the only school in our town. Are you just messing with me?"

"Hey, just trying to make small talk." I said, before the car went silent.

"So why didn't you ever text me?" I blurted out, trying not to sound as eager to know than I actually was. Zachary scratched his head, keeping his eyes firmly set on the road.

"Well I mean Addy I had to follow the guy code."

"The guy code?"

"You know, wait three days so you don't seem desperate. Plus, I just met you that day so I didn't want to bother you more than I did the first day we met."

"You didn't bother me Zachary. I just thought you might of forgotten about me or something."

"Oh please. Like anyone could forget about you." He snickered, attempting to look at me for a split second, smiling.

"You have a cute smile." I couldn't help myself from saying, immediately regretting the fact I announced that out loud.

"Awh thanks. I think you have a cute face." He responded, my cheeks turning red. Why am I so attracted to this boy. DEAR LORD WHY IS HE SO CUTE.

"Thanks."

"So Addy...."

"Hm?"

"Why were you sad earlier? You know before I took you and started driving off."

"I don't know, it's not really a big deal. It doesn't really matter." I mumbled.

"Psh. Not a big deal. Doesn't matter. Audrey. If it was enough to make you cry then it matters. Don't try to invalidate your own feelings now. You matter. "

"Wow. Sounding like my boyfriend over here."

"You have a boyfriend?" He asked.

"No but if I did you are what he would sound like." I giggled, starting at the road.

"I can be your boyfriend baby." He teased, shrugging.

"Nuuuu we haven't even hung out yet!" I responded, covering my face with my hands.

"That's why we're about to hang out. I know a place I think you'd like and we just made it. I just thought if I could get your mind off of school, maybe you'd be a little happier today" The boy said proudly, before parking into a small parking lot. I smiled gently, looking out to see where we were. Some part of me wanted to question why he was doing this. Why Zach cared so much about making me feel better. But I liked the feeling of knowing someone cared. That was enough to make me not question. Zachary turned off the car, soon getting out and shutting the door gently. He soon then opened my door, and proceeded to help me out of the car. I got out, walking side by side with him to our destination.

"This place is amazing. It's fancy, and it's the best place you could ever be.... BEHOLD! THE COMIC BOOK SHOP!"

It indeed was a comic book shop. The place was small, almost the size of a small cafe, with large words painted across the top saying 'comic book shop'. I frowned a bit, trying to figure out why he brought me here. I guess he could tell that I was wondering because he continued to speak.

"Shhhhh. Don't look so disappointed yet!" He whined, opening the door for me. I walked into the tiny store only to be greeted by sweet hello's and how are you today's. The comic book shop was indeed impressive. There was hundreds of comics lined up into shelves, and 4 large tables so the nerdy people could play that famous nerd card game. Zachary pulled me to one side of the room, a large smile plastered on his face.

"Okay so you see, there are two main universes. Marvel and DC comics. The DC comics focus more on character development and establishing a mindset where you do not need superpowers to be considered a hero. Marvel however has much more fun characters, where you can feel like you are having a good time, but it's a little less realistic."

"So what's your favorite Universe?" I asked, skimming my eyes through each comic.

"DC for sure. I like the connections I can find through the comics. Here, try skimming through some of them and pick out the ones you think you'd like. Then later on after you read them we could talk about it, I mean only if you want. We don't have to."

"I think that sounds perfect." I cut him off, nodding my head in acceptance. After I was given my directions, I did as followed, skimming through the covers of the short picture like books. Each cover was drawn nicely, either vibrant, happy colors or dark, depressing like colors. I continued to skim over the comics before stopping, a girl catching my eye. She was holding a large mallet type thing, and a devilish smile on her face. I picked up some of the issues, and began to quickly flip through the pages. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty damn good, so I decided that's where I was going to start at. When I finished picking atleast three to start, I found my way back to Zachary. He was so fixated on reading that I could barely get him to pay attention to me. "Zachhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Zacharyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Zachy boo bearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr." I groaned, extending the ending of each word. He finally closed the book, putting it back and grabbing the small pile with him.

"Did you find anything?"

"Yes actually." I responded, showing him the small series.

"Nice, one of my favorites with a strong female lead." He led me to the cashier, taking the comics from my hand and adding it to his pile. After the cashier scanned each one, and told us the price, I attempted to pull out my wallet before Zach stopped me. He frowned.

"Hey hey hey, I got this!" Zachary pulled out his wallet, reaching for money and handed it to the cashier. When he extended his arm there was small, faded lines across his wrist. I did not think twice about it, since it was covered by all his small bracelets. I just assumed that it was the marking left from wearing something tight for too long. He finished paying, smiled at me, and then opened the door, so we could leave.