A Kiss To Change It All - Montgomery de la Cruz

Part 27

The sadness drained through your body rather than rolling over your skin. It traveled through every cell, poisoning the little amount of hope and happiness you had left inside of you before dripping on the cold ground like your tears did for long minutes now.

If you had to describe in one word what your past weeks or months were like, you would use the word tears. To be quite honest, you were rather surprised to see that you some left in your system but they didn't last for a long time, soon your body was shaking, loud hiccups leaving your trembling lips. You didn't realize how loud you were behind the gymnasium bleachers until a hand rested on your shoulder making your head shoot up instantly. "You're killing yourself." No distinguish words could be heard from you, instead you grabbed the basketball player's hand and pulled him down to sit next to you into the rather small space. Zach was comfort at all times.

It was an undeniable fact.

Despite everything that had been going on for the past days, you didn't push Zach away even though you should have. He managed to sit down, head touching the stairs that were hovering above you. He didn't try to know what got you into such state. He didn't say a word. But still, his first thoughts were that Montgomery must have messed with you, hurt you or something. You were still shaking, your trembling hand still firmly holding his. A few minutes and loud sobs later, he finally broke the silence. "Did Monty do..."

"S'not him..." You managed to get out of your mouth in a low and shaky voice.

"Who is it then?"

"(Y/N) wait..."

"Don't bother, Montgomery. Now I know which side you're picking, thank you very much."

He opened his mouth to say something else but you didn't give him the chance to speak that you were out of the locker room, slamming the door behind you. You knew that whoever would come your way at that exact moment will have to deal with the consequences. In fact, as you were storming out, someone grabbed your arm and before the person could even speak, you raised your hand to slap whoever it was but you stopped midway when you saw your best friend. "Woah sweetheart, it's just me... What's got into you?"

"We ... We need to talk, Jeff."

You sat in an empty classroom. It took a lot from you to confess about the whole tapes and Sheri situation. A lie. Another one. This one got ugly. "How could you do this to me, (Y/N)?"

"I wanted to tell you everything but..."

"You fucking promised you won't lie to me anymore (Y/N)!" He was yelling. Pissed, disappointed by what you did. You couldn't blame him.

"I didn't want to, I..."

"Last time you didn't want to as well but I brushed it off because of how happy you were and because it's your life but this, (Y/N), this has to do with me. I almost fucking died in that car accident!" At this point, you couldn't speak. Bringing the accident back formed a huge knot in your throat. Jeff was right, no matter what, you should have told him the truth the moment you knew it. "I don't recognize you anymore. You pick fights, you lie to me... Lord knows what else you do that I don't know about." There you were, no more trust between you and it was all your fault, no one else to blame but you.

The mention of the tapes did the exact effect you were expecting it to do. He shifted uncomfortably, putting as much distance as he could between the of you. By the time you stopped talking, he immediately asked the question you were waiting for. "How do you know about the tapes?"

"Woah that's all you have to say, Zach?" You scoffed, wiping away your tears.

"What she said isn't true."

"Tell me something I haven't heard today." You were about to get up when he handed you a folded paper with his name on it. With a frown, you grabbed it and flipped it to see if there was anything written on the back. "What's this?"

"What Hannah thought I threw away when I didn't." He cleared his throat before he continued. "I kept it. I never meant to hurt her. You know I am not like this, (Y/N)."

"You didn't hurt her as the others did but you still contributed to her destruction." Pausing, you gathered what was left of energy in your body to speak again. "I was surprised to hear your name among all of the others. I mean Justin ain't a surprise, neither is Marcus but you, Zach, you shouldn't have been on those tapes."

"I know and you have no idea how much I feel guilty for this."

His lips brushed yours. You wanted to pull away before it was too late, but you couldn't seem to have any control over your actions, your body and mind stopped working. None of you could think straight. After all, you were two broken hearts comforting each other in a way words could never do. He ran his fingers down your spine, pulling you closer until there was no space left between the two of you and you could feel the beating of his heart against your chest. It was fast. Really fast. But the kiss seemed like it lasted forever. "Zach..."

"I am sorry, (Y/N/N). I am so sorry." He whispered. "I shouldn't..."

"I... I need... I have to go."

You rushed out of the only safe place you found after your heart was shattered into thousand more pieces for the third time today. There was another load of sadness, anger and confusion added to what you could call a pile of dust sitting silently yet painfully inside your chest, reminding that nothing would ever go back to the way it was before. Nothing would bring back the dead or erase the terrible things that happened to the alive. Nothing would clear up the huge mess that everyone was swimming, or should you say drowning in. You walked past your car, decided that abandoning the vehicle on the school's parking lot was a much wiser decision and you walked under the cold breeze at first then came a heavy rain, soaking you to the bone but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore. Not even your phone that was going crazy inside your pocket, calls and texts filling the screen. Your house was empty. 'Thank God' you thought when none of your parents answered your calls when you pushed the front door open. You dragged your drenched body to the bathroom where you didn't bother to strip any of your clothes as you got under the hot shower. You needed it. You needed to wash away was this tensed day brought you. "(Y/N) are you okay sweetie?"

A small smile formed on your lips when your father's reassuring hand rested on yours during dinner. You had been playing with your food, blankly staring at your filled plate. "Yeah, I just had a long day."

"Where's your car?"

"I left it at school. I was too tired to drive."

"Couldn't Jeff drive?"

It felt like a punch in the face hearing his name. "I... Uh we didn't see each other after school, mom. Can I leave please? I have homework for tomorrow."

"Of course (Y/N/N), go."

You almost ran to your room, only finding peace behind the closed door. A door you wished you never had to open again to face the world because you couldn't seem to have any energy or will to do so anymore. You wished that the next day you would wake up and find that everything was just an ugly nightmare. But it wasn't like that. Ever.