Nap Time

Chapter 4- Home

"Click"
         The door to Zoe's house creaked open as she tried to jiggle her key from the lock. When she finally got in, her bed seemed to call her from her room upstairs with a siren song, promising her a warm place to rest her head and sleep until summer. Zoe  trudged up the stairs and into her room, which was still as much of a mess as before. She flopped down on the bed, landing face first on a pile of notes
"OW FUCK!"
       Zoe yelled and jumped up. She walked over to her mirror and saw a thin red line on her cheek where blood was starting to bubble up above the skin. "Mother fuckin...paper cut...stupid school..." Zoe muttered as she plastered a bandaid on her cheek, which made her look even dorkier than her freckles made her look already, in her opinion. She walked back to her bed, pushed all of the loose papers onto the floor, and then flopped back down again. She let out a sigh into the plush comforter when her rear end started vibrating, interrupting her first moment of peace that day. Zoe reached her phone out of her pocket to see every teenagers worst nightmare: her mother was calling her. Frantically she pushed call and whipped the phone up to her ear.
"Hi, mom!"
"Hi honey, how did exams go?"
"Okay, I guess,"
"Okay! Well, just checking in, be home soon! Love you!"
" love you too mom."
          Zoe ended the call. She went to put away her phone, but saw that she had a new message, so she pulled it back out and shuffled into a more comfortable position on her bed.

Mil: Wassup beeotch?
Zoe smirked and typed her reply.
Zoe: Trying to forget the horrors that went on today.
Mil: Ikr, I swear it's a legalized form of torture.
Zoe: Lol omg Mil you are so weird
Mil: I do my best. Mom home yet? You still have to ask her about tonight.
Zoe: yeah, I don't think I can come over tonight. Sorry, but I think mom has plans to take me out or something.
Mil: okay, square. JK lol have fun
Zoe: thanks, I will.

        She clicked off her phone and flopped back onto the bed. She took a deep breath, and then sat up and looked around her room. Aside from cleaning it, she had absolutely nothing to do. I can read a book, but I don't have anything good, she thought. Her eyes skimmed across the many cheap romance paperbacks she had picked up from airports and garage sales over the years. Each story was the same. Girl meets boy, girl falls in love, boy loves someone else, boy's heart gets broken, boy meets girl, boy falls in love, they both confess their feelings, they live happily ever after. The end. That's not how love has worked for me, she thought.
In her mind, she went back to eighth grade, the day she met Jason Kruzinski. Jason was your average tween boy; he wore Axe by the bucketful, played soccer and hockey inside and outside of school, and, all of the girls were crazy about him. Zoe, with her bright pink braces and team Edward shirts, was one of them. They had english and science class together, and Zoe always sat in the front, eager to learn, while Jason sat in the back, making paper airplanes and talking to his friends. The entire year, Zoe silently admired Jason. She would smile and wave every time she saw him, and even if he didn't wave back, her entire face turned red once he passed. She would write her name and Jason's in hearts with arrows through them in her notebooks. She even practiced writing her signature with his last name. This continued for the whole school year, until June.
           Everyone had gotten their yearbooks, and we're running around frantically trying to get as many people to sign them as possible. Zoe had signed some and gotten some signatures and sweet messages, but what she really wanted was for Jason to sign. Nervously, she walked up to him, and asked him to sign. He nodded and held out his in return. Zoe was ecstatic, and wrote a heartfelt message about how she felt about him. When she was satisfied, she signed her name with a heart and handed the yearbook back, anxious to see what the love of her life had written for her. She excitedly flipped through the pages to the back, and scanned for his signature, amid 'have a great summer!'s and smiley faces, she read Jason's message to her.

          Ew.
                Jason

       Zoe winced at the memory. She had felt like her entire world shattered and crumbled in front of her, but, she was in grade eight, and things were way too exaggerated by her tween mind. It was fun to laugh at now, but Zoe could still feel the tears running down her cheeks as he walked away to get more signatures for his yearbook. She stared up at her ceiling and sighed. Would she ever find a guy? Everyone else seems to be able to, even Millie has had a boyfriend or two before, she thought. Maybe she was just not supposed to find love...