Summer Rain

[9] Lila

Ring. Ring. Ring.

"Hey babe" Zach answered cheekily. He always called me babe.

"Look I can't hangout tonight" I said so quickly it was practically one word, "I'm sorry"

I hung up the phone and stared at it, hoping he wouldn't be offended by my abrupt hang up.

Let me explain, a few days ago, Zach asked me if I could hang out Friday, which is today and of course I said yes. I'm free all summer. Why wouldn't I say yes? But I didn't check the date. And I really wish I had.

Because today was the two year anniversary of my father's death.

Everyone has different ways of coping.

My mom was going back to my hometown to visit the grave for the weekend. She had taken Anabelle with her, and of course she wanted to take me too, but I decided to stay here.

I don't really know why. I guess because staring at a headstone doesn't make me feel any better. He's gone. What's in that grave is a body, it isn't him.

So, instead, I was laying in my bed wearing one of his old t-shirts which reached mid-thigh without pants on. I stared blankly at my TV. I didn't cry though.

Suddenly, I heard banging on the door. I crept downstairs to see what was going on. I peeked out the window, and it was Zach.

"Zach" I opened the door, "What are you doing here?"

"I know what today is" He said gently, pulling me into a tight hug. I leaned into him, and he stroked my hair gently.

"How- Who told you?" I asked in shock.

"I figured it out" He shrugged.

"How?" I asked again.

"Lila when you told me what happened to him, you said almost two years ago" He explained softly, "And when you called me, I could just kinda hear it in your voice"

I stared at him intently. I could guarentee that no one else would figure something like that out. Not unless they had experience in this type of thing.

My jaw dropped wide open. I can't believe I didn't see it before. Someone in his family had died. I wanted to ask so badly, but I thought about what Luke had said about Zach and his secrets.

"Lila, what's wrong?" He asked, worried.

"Oh uh nothing" I said, snapping back to reality, "Come in, please"

"I'm not trying to intrude on your time, Lila, I just came by to make sure you were okay" He said nicely.

"I'm the only one home, I could use some company" I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him inside. I brought him up to my room and we sat on my bed.

A weird expression passed over his face, and his ears turned a little red. I'd never seen him look like that before, and it kinda worried me.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Uh nothing you're uh not wearing pants" He said nervously.

I laughed, and looked down. My shirt had risen up on my leg when we sat down, and was now bordering on indecent exposure.

"Look at you, big womanizer blushing over my leg" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"I am not blushing!" He insisted, "And I'm not a womanizer, who told you that?"

"Luke" I shrugged. 

He did. Luke had told me a lot of times that Zach slept around a lot, and that girls fell all over themselves for him. He even used the word womanizer before.

"Typical" He rolled his eyes, "I'm not a womanizer. If I like a girl, I wont go after anyone else. If I'm just looking to do stuff then I make sure the girl feels the same"

"Why would Luke tell me you're a womanizer?" I asked, suddenly wondering why he'd say that about his friend, unless it was actually true. 

"Because he likes you Lila" Zach said in a 'duh' tone, "And he wants to make sure you'll stay far away from me"

I frowned a little bit. I didn't even feel flattered or butterflies or anything, just kinda annoyed that he thinks he has to sell out his best friend to get me to like him. That's not how it works.

"Did he tell you he kissed me?" I asked.

"Yeah" Zach said, eyes turning to ice.

I nodded and turned on a movie. We were pretty quiet through out it, but afterwards I was dying to know what had happened to Zach.

"Zach" I said quietly.

"Yeah babe?" He asked.

"Can I ask you a question that you probably wont like?" I asked nervously.

"Anything" He said sweetly, but I saw the slight worry in his eyes.

"Who died?" I asked in a voice that was practically a whisper.

He barely looked surprised. I guess he expected me to figure it out after he figured out about the anniversary.

"My older brother" He admitted.

"How?" I prompted.

"Lila, it's really fucked up, are you sure you want to hear?" He warned me.

"Yes" I said, taking his hand into mine.

"Okay" He took a deep breath, "My mom's brother, Uncle Jerry, was a drug addict and a sociopath. I didn't know until after, but yeah. One day when I was eight and Steven was fourteen he came by and kidnapped me and my brother, Steven. We didn't know that we were being kidnapped, we just thought we were going for a ride, until he called my parents and demanded ten million dollars or else he'd kill us both. So of course my parents called the cops and everything but my uncle really wanted the money, so he decided that my parents should hear him torturing me, their baby, so they'd give it to him. So he found a baseball bat, and went to hit me with it. Steven jumped in front of me and said that Uncle Jerry should hurt him instead. And Uncle Jerry was so mad that Steven wouldn't move out of in front of me that he took the baseball bat right to his head, with all the force he had. The cops showed up two minutes later, but they couldn't save Steven. We moved after that, to Bridport to get away from the town, like you. So no one here knows except Luke and I wasn't even going to tell him, he walked in on a conversation he wasn't supposed to hear"

I quickly wiped the tear I had let out during that story off my face, but I knew Zach had seen it. Just like when I told him my story, I knew saying how sorry I was wouldn't help. So I gave him the tightest, longest hug ever.

"Zach you're the most amazing person I've ever met" I told him honestly.

"No" He said firmly, "There's nothing amazing about the fact that I practically killed my brother"

"You didn't kill him!" I insisted, "And there's something amazing about the way you smile everyday and make jokes and comfort me and are just all around the best guy I've ever met"

The tension left he shoulders, and he slumped back.

"Let's eat some ice cream" I said suddenly, taking his hand and dragging him downstairs to the freezer, "We need it"

(Author's note- oooooooh intense, no? I looove Zach so much! This storys actually getting close to ending kinda. The last one is [15]!!!)

[Dedication- to the author of Courting Cactus bc I like that story quite a lot]