Safe // (Zach LaFrenière Fan Fic)

FOUR: I Hate That 1%

"I think I'll go with Spider-Man," Emma let out a small laugh as Zach put the other box back. As he pulled out a Spider-Man band-aid, he straightened her knee so that it would stick right."Thank you for this,"

"Don't worry about it," Zach shot her a small smile as he threw away the band-aid wrapper and went to wash his hands. "I don't think you're rude by the way, the question just took me by surprise because I've never really thought about how much I talk or don't talk I guess. Which now that I do think about it, I probably do come off as cold or slightly hostile towards people but yes, I am slightly skeptical about who I trust and that's not a conscious thing or me being picky about my friends; it's just that I've been brought up to be careful I guess."

"It's good to be careful though," Emma absentmindedly started to lightly swing her leg like a little kid would. "It's hard for people not to gossip or spread rumours and still be able to function socially,"

"Exactly," Zach nodded in agreement as he walked over and helped Emma down from the kitchen counter. "Also, half the time I just prefer listening to other people talk, I guess I just like watching people interact with each other and I don't mean that in a creepy way; I do talk but only when I'm certain of what I'm saying. Again, I was brought to be careful. But that doesn't mean I don't want to be your friend, you seem like a trustworthy person and you're one of very few people who can make me laugh properly."

"Well, I feel flattered," Emma grinned as she grabbed her stuff and started to slowly walk back through Zach's house. "Laughing is good, healthy in fact, so I'm glad that you find me humorous. Also I get what you mean about listening to other people talking, being a good listener is an amazing quality to have so don't think that there's anything wrong with it. As you could probably tell, I'm appreciative of people who have good listening skills, especially when I get stuck on a tangent."

Zach continued to smile as Emma took in a breath and continued on,

"This may sound a tad cheesy and odd, considering we've known each other for less than 48 hours, but you've got a lovely voice Zach, so don't be hesitant to express an opinion or anything." Emma stopped walking as they reached his front door, "I mean obviously it's good to think about what you want to say and being careful about who you talk to is probably very clever as well; especially when it comes to the rumour mill. But when you're with us, and I know I'm not really apart of that yet, but when you're with your friends, don't be so worried if you want to say something because you've done so much listening for them that they won't mind listening for you."

Zach stared at Emma slightly astonished by her speech, as she obliviously slung her bag over one shoulder and held her skateboard by the axle of the top wheels. Emma finally met Zach's eyes that almost appeared to be slightly lighter as his face slowly morphed into small grin, "I think you definitely qualify as part of the group."

Zach watched as Emma's face lit up, her small yet seemingly toothy grin reached her eyes which caused the corners of her eyelids to crinkle and for the blue hue of her irises to appear lighter. "Again, thank you for your wonderful medical skills,"

"You're welcome," he chuckled as Emma stepped out of his house and slowly made her way down the path. "Hey, do you want a ride back?"

"I mean only because you're offering," Emma turned back to see Zach shutting the front door and walking over to his car. As she wandered over, Zach pulled open the passenger door and gestured to the seat, "why thank you,"

Zach gave a short bow as he shut Emma in the car and ran around the front to climb in the driver's seat, Emma giggled a little as he fumbled to put his key in the ignition. "You seem a lot more relaxed now than you did early in class,"

"Well I've become more comfortable around you I guess," Emma was the one listening to Zach's short ramble this time around. "Which you shouldn't question because I'm like this around very few people, those few people don't even really include Jason or Adam,"

"Really?" Emma raised her eyebrow slightly, "Wow, I must be special then if you're saying you're more comfortable around me after two days rather than my cousin after four months."

"Don't get me wrong, I trust him completely!" Zach stressed to her as she pushed her hair out of her face, "but we've spoken more in two days than I have with Jason, like casually anyway."

"That's fair I guess," her eyes slowly drifted from the view of the gated houses outside the window, to the soft yet focused expression that had sketched itself onto Zach's face. He could feel her eyes on him but wasn't bothered by it in the way that he would be with pretty much anyone else, if anything Zach actually found it quite comforting. As Emma turned her gaze back onto the houses they were passing, Zach couldn't help but let his gaze fall from the roads to the short yet intriguing human sat beside him.

Quickly securing his eyes back onto his driving, he pondered whether he could actually trust Emma. Zach couldn't really see any reason not to trust her, he trusted her cousin as Jason had helped Zach and the others out of few tricky spots before. For example, back in Jason's first three semesters at DeVere High, he had helped Zach take down a vampire that had gone rogue with bloodlust, he also helped recover a centuries old chalice that held extremely high value to Zach's family and the vampire council and then just before christmas had saved Sienna and everyone else's lives by stopping Tamburo; who was a vampire hunter who went around killing vamps with crossbow bolts. Needless to say, Zach had gained a lot of trust and respect for Jason and if Emma was anything like Jason; which he's pretty sure she probably is. Then Zach would be able to trust her completely as well. He began to wonder if Emma was that much of an open person that you could simply just be able to trust her, which was most likely the case.However, it has only been two days, so it was perhaps too early for character judgements and that was the thing that scared Zach the most. It had only been two days and Zach was always the one to be skeptical and withhold his opinion until he had all the facts and evidence to prove that someone was of a good, honest and trustworthy nature. It had only two days and he already felt the walls that he had built up around him beginning to soften the more he was around her. This certainly didn't mean he would begin trusting everyone who smiled at him, but in terms of trusting Emma, 99% of Zach's brain was telling him she was safe. It was simply that nagging 1% that caused him to doubt everything and sometimes; Zach really despised that single percentage.