The Bad Boy's Sleeping Beauty

Chapter 26

The house was a pigsty. I stared at the pizza boxes, Chinese takeout boxes and the scattered glasses that stood on the coffee table, floor and even on bookshelves. I knew I needed to clean the place but I didn't have the energy to.

I hadn't been to school all week ever since Jess told the entire school about my father. I felt so humiliated and I just didn't have the stomach to return to school and act like nothing happened. Everyone would point and stare and I didn't want that much attention on me.

I had also contemplated visiting my father, but I always seemed to shoot down the idea before it brewed into anything more and after the incident with Jess I blamed my humiliation on him. He had caused everything.

The Thatcher house--I had reverted back to its original label, because calling it Zayne's house just seemed too personal and overwhelming--stood empty and desolate across the street. No one mowed the lawn anymore on weekends and his curtains never let a wink of sunlight peek into his room.

Everywhere seemed empty and...grey. The clearing seemed to lack life and everything seemed to slowly die. It was as if their source of life was the boy I never noticed, the misunderstood, judged boy.

I reflected a lot on how my life used to be without Zayne and I realized that everything seemed like a fuzzy, distant dream, déjà vu if you'd like to call it. It was weird. I noticed that when a person felt the sense of déjà vu they'd try to change the events to make that eerie feeling disappear. I couldn't seem to shake that off. My life now, without Zayne, was somehow similar to my life before Zayne and I hated the empty feeling I could actually decipher now.

Everyone had seemed to let me bask in my ruin and I wasn't sure if my friends would ever try to retrieve me from it and then after a week I was certain this would be my life, until Zoë showed up on my doorstep.

"Girl, you look like a mess," she said, disapprovingly.

I just nodded and motioned for her to come inside. I knew Zoë would lecture me on the state of my home, but I didn't care. I didn't care about anything anymore. I was just done with everything.

"Please tell me you're about to clean this up," she pleaded.

I smiled sweetly at her. "I am about to clean this up."

She rolled her eyes and started picking up empty glasses and placing them in the kitchen. I plopped down on the couch and watched her bustle about.

"So, a group of us are going to the beach to hang out, you're coming," she said.

I groaned. "I really don't feel like coming. I think I'll just lay in the litter a little while longer." I sprawled myself on the couch.

Zoë didn't think my gesture was funny and pulled me up. "It wasn't a question."

I rolled my eyes and walked to the window where I could see the Thatcher house. I wondered where he was and if he was okay and if he was grieving, if he was sad. I just wanted the best for him in his life.

Zoë placed her hand on my shoulder. "I know you miss him, but you can't sulk your life away."

My eyes began to well up with tears but I refused to let them escape. I was done crying. I deserved a little bit of happiness, even if it was just a minuscule bit of happiness.