Beyond the Brick Wall

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

*Tom Carstairs*

        After I dropped Zoey off at her house, I hugged my jacket closer to myself and walked down the chilly street alone. I felt the cars zoom past me as I trudged my way to the brick wall; I noticed Zoey kept glancing at it when we were walking together. There's just something 'bout that wall… the way she keeps looking at it.

        I started running as it appeared in my sight. I saw my breath fogging up the air in front of my face as my eyes scanned the wall curiously.

        Finding out why she acted that way was the hard part. There were too much vandalisms that some were already starting to disappear under the layer of spray-paint.

Z + E

        It was written inside a large heart. My eyebrows furrowed, a tugging feeling forming in my chest. Why do I feel this way? Dammit, Tom, there are a lot of Z's in town. Big chance that that's not Zoey.

        I sighed, my breath fogging up again, and started walking away. If I found something more like that, the tugging feeling would get worse.

        I started walking back to my house, wondering what the heck that tugging feeling was about.

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*Xavier Smith*

        I knocked on the front door of Tom's house and no reply came again. Not again. People just don't like being home when I decide to visit them don't they?

        "Hello?!" I shouted, giving up on knocking.

        "Hey."

        I spun around and saw Tom, raising an eyebrow at me from the steps of his porch.

        "Hey Tommy," I said, giving the guy a man hug.

        "Wait," he unlocked his front door. "My parents aren't home at the moment," he explained, "sorry for the wait." He hung his jacket on the coat hanger and I proceeded to do the same. I sat on his living room couch as he went in his kitchen, probably getting a snack.

        "Tom?" No reply. "Tom," I said again. Still no reply. "TOM!" I shouted at him.

        "What?" he asked irritably, glaring at me. He was clutching the Lays bag so hard that I heard the chips inside crunch. No replying, that look on his face, snappy attitude… I know my cousin too well.

        "Little Tommy's got a girlfriend!" I said in a singsong voice teasingly. His cheeks burned red for a moment.

        "She's not my girlfriend."

        "You said she, so obviously it's about a girl," I said matter-of-factly.

        He cursed silently and rolled his eyes, times like these were really rare. "Shut up." He sat on the opposite couch, not giving me any food.

        I snickered. "Is she hot? Are the both of you dating but not exactly together? If she's not your girlfriend what is she then?" I asked, an amused smirk on my face. I wasn't really the type to ask those kinds of questions, but I would ask them for the purpose of annoying my favorite cousin.

        "You're sick. She's going with me to the reunion, get to know her there," he grunted, suddenly focused on a chip in the bowl.

        "Why can't you just tell me?" I asked, forcing myself to sound like a little girl.