The Roommate | zdh ✓

Five

EDITED 7.10.2020
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Zach's p.o.v

"Hello, mother." I give a small grin, knowing she hates it when she's called Mother. Why is she here in the first place? This is a nightmare.

"Just let me in, Zach." Pushing aside the door, my mother walks into the apartment. She starts to glance around the room, and stops her eyes at a familiar photo of Ben and I on the wall.

"I see Ben is still putting up with you." She smiles, and lifts her chin a bit. "I'm surprised him and all your friends haven't left you yet."

I look down at my feet, suddenly wordless. She knows how to put me down.

She sighs loud. "So, I heard you got expelled."

I snapped my eyes up at her. This won't end well.

"Uh, yeah I did. It wasn't my fault. Just a misunderstanding." I had to lie to save my life.

Her eyebrows raise. "I'm sure it wasn't your fault, knowing you."

I can sense her sarcasm from a mile away. Then her next words startle me, "That's why I spoke to the dean, one on one. I eventually got you a three day suspension. You owe me big time."

Her tone scares me. I only can think of the worst–how else did she convince the dean to unexpell me? She is rotten like that.

"Um thanks, mom." I hate calling her mom.

As soon as she takes one last glance around the room, her heals lead out the door. No goodbye, no hug, or kiss on the cheek, everything she would normally give Ben. Why? 'Cause I'm not him. I'm not her golden child who never misbehaves.

Ben walks up the apartment stairs, and I see him down the hall. I wonder if he ran into our mother.

"Hey, Zach. Did I just see mom going down the elevator?" Ben walks past me, and heads to the kitchen. I follow him and sit at one of the stools.

"Yeah, it was. I got expelled today, and she came by to tell me she fixed it." I give Ben a look, knowing he'd catch on. He did.

"Oh, I see." Ben takes a glass out of the cupboards and turns on the faucet. "How'd that go? Did you guys fight?"

I watched him take a sip of his water, and then place it back down on the counter.

"No, surprisingly." I ended the conversation there. I didn't want to talk about her anymore.

Ben later said he was going to go out with some friends, and left. I decided that I wanted to go to my room and call some of my old friends.

I sit on my bed, and take out my phone from my front pocket. As I scroll through my contacts, I wonder who I should call. After about five minutes, I call one of my closes friends from high school: Jack Avery.

He answers after a few rings. "Yo, Zach! How's life, buddy?"

I talk with Jack for about an hour. He is one of the few guys who know how to make me laugh. He also knows what my mother is like, and I even tell him everything that happened today.

"Dude, you're Zach Herron. The most toughest guy I know. Don't let her get to you." Jack says.

In high school, Jack would always save me from detention, and stop me from beating up kids in the halls. Sometimes I'd hate him for it, but I knew he did it because he cared. We haven't seen each other in months. I miss him, along with three other guys who I constantly hung out with–we were a team.

Our group at school was pretty known. It consisted of Jack, Jonah, Corbyn, Daniel and of course, myself. I was more of the rebel in the group, but they didn't care. We'd hang out everyday after school. Sometimes we'd go watch football games, other times we'd just go to each other's home and play video games. I had the most fun with them. It was sad to see us split our own ways after high school, but I guess that's part of growing up.

I talk to Jack for a while longer about random things, and then we call it a night. I'm pretty tired, considering it was 1am.

As I'm getting ready, I hear my phone ring. I walk over to my bedside table, and answer the phone.

"ZACH, PLEASE HELP!" Everly shouted into the phone, and I can hear the panic in her voice.

"Everly?! What's wrong?" I start to get worried. She isn't answering me. My palms became sweaty, and my face became pale as I heard her next few words, followed by her small grasps and whimpers.

"It's Ben. There's been a fight."

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Well, how was that?
It's kind of a short read but I really wanted to give you guys another chapter. I know some of you love this book and it means the world to me! Thanks for the reads and votes! I'll be sure to get another chapter as soon as I can :)
--Izzy