𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐭 || 𝐙𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐧 [𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝]

3- Can't Forget

Hayden, 14 years old

Today my best friend leaves to go in the Impact tour. I'm so happy that he's following his dreams to become a musician but I'm sad he'll be leaving for a year. Livy and I put on a going-away-party for him yesterday. We all celebrated him and all was happy. But today he leaves and everyone is sad.

"Don't forget about me when you're famous," I laughed in Zach's driveway as his dad was packing up the car for the airport. Tears were spilling from my eyes. Zach and I had stuck by each other for as long as we could remember. A year doesn't seem so long but its the longest we've gone without seeing each other.

"I can't forget about you, Hayden. You're my best friend." He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close.

"Promise?" I asked.

"I promise."

A part of me remembered the pact that we made when we were six. I remembered his promise to me that we would always be friends. I always remembered our pact every time he made a promise to me. Something in me told me that he thought of it too.

But now I know his promises were lies.

Hayden, 14 years and 6 months old

It's been six months since Zach left. We talked a lot the first month he was away. We missed each other a lot. Then the next month, he slowly stopped answering my calls and texts. The only way I knew he was okay was by talking to his mom, Myta, and still, he didn't mention me.

Livy and I started drifting away too. She was still my friend but we weren't as close as we were when Zach was here. She made some new friends once Zach left and I was just a close second to everyone else she knew.

We still hung out together but we stopped doing the things we usually did. Like ride our bikes to school every morning or hang out after school to do homework. Now she just texts me the homework answers. I started feeling alone once it got to a certain point. I missed Zach but couldn't talk to him and I missed Livy but she became too popular for me. No one else wanted to be my friend. I had no one in my corner.

Until I was fifteen. It was my first year of high school and my first big high school dance. Homecoming.

It was time that people were asking each other out for the special night. I wanted to ask Zach to see if he wanted to go as friends, but with his new "career" and touring all the time, I wasn't sure if he was going to be home or even would respond to my request.

I always thought it would be Zach that would do the responding to my homecoming proposal, but instead it ended up being me to another boy. Cole Lewis.

Cole Lewis came up to my locker one day and held out a bouquet of flowers to me. He asked me to be his homecoming date.

I would have said yes immediately, but I was too struck by the fact that I had no friends and knew almost nobody and yet this person wanted me to be his homecoming date. And that Zach warned me about him and told me to stay away.

Zach didn't like me with most boys. Yeah, I had a few crushes growing up but Zach was always overprotective and pushed them away from me. He told me Cole was the worst of all the boys in my class. Even at seven years old. He warned me to stay away from Cole. And me being clueless about any type of person, I listened to him.

But Cole was cute, standing there holding a bunch of white and purple flowers in his hands. He didn't look all that bad like Zach said he would. So I accepted his homecoming invitation.

Cole ended up being my first boyfriend for the next three years.

Zach moved out to Los Angeles and joined a boyband Why Don't We. Now he's famous all over the world. He never told me he moved away. He comes home on holidays to be with his family but he never wants to talk to me. I don't know why.

:::

a/n: update from six flags ✌🏻