Wrong Number • Zach Clayton

•17•

Heather's P.O.V.

-//-One Week Later-\\-

For the past week me and Zach didn't really talk. He would call me a few times a day but I never answered. It was more like I was throwing him away. I was just pushing him away and hurting him. I've kept myself locked up in my room and I hoped my mom assumed it was because my my dad.

But today, today I was going to suck it up, I was going to call Zach and try to fix things and stop hurting him, he didn't deserve someone treating him like this, especially me after what all he's done for me. I was done crying about my life, I was going to tell him everything, I was going to keep him out of the dark. I just hoped he could handle all of it. The second I called him he picked up.

"I don't understand." He was walking around in some store and all I could see was him and occasionally his friends heads. I had never really seen his friends because they were never there when we talked.

"Don't understand what?" I asked, hoping he would hear me over the loud music and talking of his friends.

"Why you've kept me in the dark this past week, its been such a long week."

"He's been watching his phone constantly, and not paying attention to us." One of his friends said loud enough for me to hear. It looked like they were paying because they stopped walking and were all looking in the same direction and I heard another voice. Not wanting to be rude I waited till they were on the move to talk again.

"I just wanted to tell you a few things about what has happened in the past few years." His eyes got big from eagerness then he got in the car. He was the one driving so he gave his phone to his friend that was in the passenger seat.

"Guys, we're gonna go home, okay?" Zach said towards his friends.

"What?! No!" They both disagreed.

"I have been waiting a week for her to call me back, I'll get my mom to make y'all food."

"Can't y'all sort out your mess later?" The one holding his phone said. How did they know? And what all did they know?

"No," I butted in, catching his attention, making him look at me. I received wide eyes.

"Wow Zach, you said she was pretty but you never said she was that pretty."

"Don't say that!" He raised his voice and slapped his friends shoulder.

"Why not?" He rubbed his shoulder.

"Just don't," His friend shrugged.

When they got home Zach went upstairs and his friends stayed downstairs.

"What did I do?" He asked as soon as he walked in his room.

"What do you mean?"

"What did I do to make you mad at me to the point you wouldn't talk to me for a week." I really hurt him. "Is it about what I said at the airport?"

"I'm not mad." I said quietly.

"Then why wouldn't you talk to me?"

"Because I was upset."

"What? Why?" There was worry in his voice.

"Because you left." I said too quietly for him to hear. He rubbed his hands up his face and tugged on his hair.

"There's nothing I could have done to prevent that." He sighed and looked back up at his phone frustrated.

"I know, I'm sorry for not talking to you."

"Oh, there's no need to apologize, you didn't mean it." He waved his hand.

"Yeah, but I hurt you." I lowered my head.

"That doesn't matter now, I want to talk about your dad and how you're feeling." He quickly changed the subject.

"So have y'all solved all of your problems yet? Is her arm okay?" His friends barged in and I hung up because I didn't like him telling his friends stuff like that about me that have personal reasons to them and I didn't know what all he had told them. I didn't want to go down that road so I'm taking a couple hour long detour. But my detour was cut short when Zach realized I wasn't on the phone and texted me.

-//- Between Zach and Heather -\\-

What happened

Your friends came barging in asking questions about me

What's so wrong about that

They were asking about stuff they shouldn't know

Can we please talk about this over the phone

No because I dont know if your friends will hear or not

They won't but I don't tell them anything

Then how do they know about our "problems" and my arm

Because that's as much I tell them

Please let me call you

No

But he called me anyway and I figured I would answer.

"Zach, I don't want to talk," I said in an annoyed tone.

"They aren't here and they ask what's wrong with me when all I can do is just stare at my phone and hope that you even try to make an effort to communicate with me, when I would just constantly hold my phone waiting for it to ring, when I would call you but you didn't answer so I just kept calling. They would tell me to stop, that it wasn't worth it but I would yell at them then start crying. I was so worried, I didn't know if you had done anything or if anything happened to you and it was really overwhelming. I would just tell everyone that me and you were just going through something and that it would be okay and we watch all the footage on my camera together and your arm was in it at the airport and they asked and i told them you tripped going down the stairs and fell on your arm." He said really fast trying to stay as calm as he could as his chest heaved afterwards.

"You filmed that?" I asked in disbelief.

"I heard you call my name and I knew something good was going to happen, I had to." His breathing was more consistent now.

"So they really don't know?" I felt bad for getting mad at him.

"They really don't know." He shook his head.

"I don't deserve you." I looked at him with a straight face.

"Don't tell yourself that, it's not true.

"I didn't want to drag you into my terrible past and all that stuff that happened with my dad, I didn't want anyone to know, and just the things he said I wasn't expecting it and that's really the main reason I wouldn't talk to you because I was afraid of what you thought about me and that you would want to talk about it when it would end with me sobbing and I didn't want to so the only way I knew to avoid that was to cut off communication until I was ready and make sure it didn't come up, you didn't deserve me treating you like that and hurting you, I was being selfish." I explained.

"No no no no no if you needed the time you should have taken it and I'm glad you did I just wish you would have texted me or something so that I would have known you were okay."

"I know and I'm sorry for that," I apologized. "Can I see the airport footage?" I asked him knowing he would show it to me so that I could smile. Needless to say, I went to sleep happy.