Press Play: A Connor Franta Story

Chapter Thirteen

Walking home the sun beating down on my face, I felt a new sort of comfort. Quitting my job at the Cheesecake Factory was sort of liberating. I was finally cutting all of the strings that attached me to LA. I knew that this was a very important step in moving on from this chapter of my life and moving forward literally. I had found out all of the information I could about Seattle and realized that it was probably the perfect place to start over. I had enough saved to get into a new apartment and rent a trailer with enough left over to cover expenses until I got a new job. Also Seattle was home to a few other publishing agencies that I could try to apply to while staying there. And this time I wouldn't let myself get attached to anyone.

I was making my way up the stairs to find a group of people outside my door. Part of me wanted to turn and walk away but I slowly kept walking. The group turned to face me, I recognized them almost immediately; Jc, Ricky, and Kian.

"Well hello there!" Kian yelled. Shit, I thought, why can't these people leave me be!

"Zoey, can we please have a mature conversation with you?" Ricky spoke in such an inviting tone, I couldn't say no.

"Sure, come inside." I shook my head, heading inside, throwing my purse to the ground and kicking off my shoes before plopping down on the sofa.

"Look Zoey, I'm sorry if I made you like uncomfortable the other day but I really just had to see what was up." Jc said taking a seat next to me.

"Yeah, we had to know if you were as a mess as Connor was, still is!" Ricky said glancing around the room. "Shoot girl, Kian and I sat at the Cheesecake Factory for like three hours that day, waiting for you!"

"We did! I had two pieces of the cake of cheese!" Kian hollered before sitting down awkwardly.

"Guys, I hate to break it to you but I told Jc the same thing I am about to tell y'all now. It's not happening!"

Ricky cut me off, "Ummm Zoey, did you hear about the site and the cause news as of last night?"

"I would prefer not to tallk about that please." I said quietly, slowing rising and stepping into the kitchen. I needed a drink before I got choked up.

"Because you're so happy and full of joy!" Kian screamed.

"Umm what?" I said taking a gulp of the glass bottle of iced coffee in my hand.

"Dude yesterday the site hit it!" Jc said with a smile.

"Hit what?"

"You really have no idea do you?" Ricky was interrupted by a knock at the door and shrieks, I knew it was Savannah. I swung open the door to see her jumping up and down flashing her computer screen at me.

"Zoe!!! You did it!" she screamed running inside, she stopped when she saw the three boys in my living room. "Oh. My. God."

"Hey?" Kian said waving.

"Holy freaking shit!" she turned facing me, "How do you do this? How do you meet this people?! And more importantly why don't you introduce them to me?"

"Guys this is Savannah my neighbor," I said confused.

"Hi nice to meet you," Ricky said laughing.

"Hi!" she shrieked.

"So what's up?" I said trying to bring the attention back to the situation at hand.

"Oh gosh I almost forgot! Zoey you hit it! You raised enough money! The park is saved!" She shoved the computer in my face and sure enough, there was a photo on the screen of the document showing that the amusement park was purchased by Connor this morning. It was officially official.

"Shit." I stood staring in shock, I was extremely overwhelmed by the amount of information I was taking in at the moment. "Look guys, back in the real world, I hate to break it to everyone but I'm moving, I have a trailer scheduled for tomorrow morning, my bedroom is full of boxes, my apartment is up for a new tenant as we speak!"

"What?" Savannah said looking as if she would cry. "Where are you going?"

"Seattle. A fresh start. It's what I need."

"You could have fucking told me. What were you going to do? Just leave and never mention anything to me!" Savannah stormed out, flipping me off on the way out.

"Well talk about awkward!" Kian laughed. The boys all stood at once and headed out the door one by one. Ricky turned to face me, looking me directly in the eyes.

"Zoey, look I understand the whole wanting a fresh start and to have something new to look forward to. But you can't run away from everything, sometimes you have to show the world your strength and just live through it."

"This chapters over for me Ricky, I have to move on."

"Okay so move on, just not literally. If you do this anytime something bothers you then you'll never live anywhere long enough to have friends, experiences, or memories."

"Maybe that's the plan," I said looking down.

"Well, all I know is that since you've stopped talking to Connor everything has changed. He misses you and deeply cares about you. Heck girl, he bought an amusement park in a state he doesn't even live in, just in hopes to make you happy!"

"Yeah well nobody asked him to do that and I never said that I needed anyone to make me happy."

"Ok, but sometimes you realize that someone elses happiness is your happiness, that doing something completely selfless for the person you care about means more than anything in the world."

"Well Ricky, it's just not in the cards. I shouldn't have gotten him attached anyways."

"Ok, I just hope that you're moving because you need to not because you think that moving will correct every error in your life." and with that Ricky closed the door behind him.