Sorry, I Love You.

1.08

"Oh my god! She lives!" Vanessa yelled at the sight of Zoe walking down the hallway. Zoe flashed a perky smile and picked up her pace when Vanessa came running to her. Wrapping her arms around Zoe, Vanessa jutted out her bottom lip in a pout. "I missed you! When did you get back?"

Zoe threw her arms around Vanessa as the others congealed into one mob in the hallway. "I got back after lunch."

"Of course, you did. You couldn't come back in the morning when we actually have class together." Vanessa whined.

"Awhh.." Zoe held Vanessa's head against her shoulder as Vanessa squeezed her. "I'm back now, Van."

"Why did you disappear without saying anything, Zo? We thought you got sick of us already." Fisher threw his arm around Zoe's shoulder, shooing Vanessa out of his way by lazily slapping her in the face.

Zoe snorted a laugh and let go of Vanessa so she could escape. She turned to Fisher to see a goofy smirk on his face. "I didn't get sick of you guys. They moved the date of the release event so I had to just jump on a plane and go." Not a lie.

Fisher was suddenly pushed out of the way and replaced by Chuck, who shot an evil glare at his friend. With his hands crossed over his chest, his expression softened as he looked to Zoe. Because Chuck pushed Fisher into Michael, Zoe watched the two push each other around while simultaneously apologizing to those they bumped into. Since school was over, everyone was funneling out of the building so the hallways were extra congested with students.

"Who do you hang out with when you travel?" Chuck asked.

"I knew a couple people that showed up to the event but when it's work, I'm usually too busy to hang out." Zoe shrugged.

"That was work?" Zoe's eyes fell on Jennie and noticed her expression was just as sour as her tone. "Going to France so people can take pictures of you in expensive clothing is work?"

The air grew tense as everyone exchanged awkward glances. Zoe looked to everyone around her, not at all surprised that they were all avoiding eye contact with her. With Jennie staring at her with that hard, sour expression, Zoe forced a smile and shrugged.

"It can be fun, I'm not gonna lie." Zoe spoke positively.

Everyone's eyes returned Zoe, shocked by her sweet response. Jennie was usually the problematic one and more often than not, she caused arguments. Zoe though, had no interest in conflict. She didn't even like when people didn't like her. Maybe, if she was nice to Jennie when Jennie was being crude, that would earn her some friendship points.

Just like always, by the devils will, it seemed, Teddy stepped into Zoe's path. Because the hallways were so packed, he didn't really have much of a choice. He was kind of just shoved trough the crowd as everyone tried to leave now that class was over.

Teddy didn't look back and Zoe didn't get to catch of glimpse of his face due to his hood over his head but they both recognized each other's presence. Zoe instantly felt a bit anxious. Maybe it was butterflies or maybe she just felt awkward being around the only person who had ever seen her at her worse while she was with those she tried her best to impress.

"You know, you're part of a team now. If you're gonna disappear all of a sudden, you have to tell us." Jennie blurted rudely, gaining Zoe's attention again.

Zoe picked up that she was talking about the cheer squad. Zoe held a serious face and nodded to please Jennie and tell her she was listening and absorbing her words. Or more like, threats. Zoe may try to be the nice one and it may come off as naive but she wasn't oblivious. She also didn't want to entertain rudeness by throwing it back at her. That may be what Jennie wants by Zoe was better than that.