𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐭 || 𝐙𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐧 [𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝]

10- Unsure

Hayden, 18 years & 7 months old

I slept soundly on the plane. The white noise of the sky drowned out my thoughts and nervousness about Zach. But when the plane finally landed three hours later, my blood rushed again.

Zach said he'd pick my family and me up at the airport but I wasn't sure he really would. Whatever, we were adults, except for Caleb, we can figure out how to leave an airport.

Except for Zach did show up. We knew he showed up. The whole airport knew he showed up. There were tons of fans standing and screaming his name, I could tell exactly where he was. The area was so crowded, my small family of four couldn't leave the building without passing the mass group of screaming fourteen-year-old girls.

"Can we go another way?" I asked. I really didn't want to run into Zach. Not here. Not in front of a bunch of people with cameras and the internet. I don't know what I was thinking, coming to California to see the person who hasn't cared about me in so long. Why did I do this to myself?

"But isn't Zach supposed to meet us here?" Mom pretended like there wasn't a huge crowd of people screaming Zach's name next to her.

"Yes but—"

Suddenly the noise from all the people dialed down to what it normally should be. A few seconds later a tall boy with dark brown hair that was now fluffy instead of tall and cropped and the same chocolate brown eyes walked up to me.

"Hayden?" The boy said.

I was so in shock it's like the whole world stopped. Just a few years ago a little boy with a high pitched voice and a cheeky smile would stand in front of me and hold my hand. Now he's grown up with tattoos engraved in his skin, earrings, silver chains wrapped around his neck and bold eyes. This is the same person who was my best friend since I was born.

"Zach," I choked. He looked so different. He acted differently. I wanted to hug him after so long but that's not what happened.

"It's nice to see you again," he smiled and stuck out his hand for me to grab.

"You too," I said, my voice shaky.

My whole family and I gave Zach awkward hello's. I was scared that all the girls around Zach were now taking pictures and videos of me. My anxiety just about skyrocketed but I somehow kept it under control. When we were done with our greetings, Zach escorted us out of the airport.

"I can take you to your hotel," Zach offered. I hoped my mom would say no but instead, she said the opposite.

"That would be wonderful, thank you." We all stuffed our suitcases into our rental car and got the car situated. Before I climbed in my seat, Mom stopped me. "Hayden, would you like to go with Zach? He won't have to drive alone and you two can catch up."

I nervously smiled and my breathing hitched. For some reason, I was afraid of Zach and it made me anxious. This is the exact thing I didn't want happening, being alone with him. But I did come all the way here just to do that. So I agreed to go with him, taking my single foot out of the car. I grabbed my bag out of my seat and joined Zach.

"I'll see you later, Sweet Tart," Dad waved goodbye.

Zach and I walked aways to his car. At this point, we were joint at the hip like we used to be. But this time it was different. We didn't talk until he started driving to the hotel.

"Hayden, I'm sorry," he started. "I'm so glad you came out here to see me. I thought you'd be mad after all this time but I'm so happy you're not."

Him putting words into my mouth made me angry. He thought he knew my emotions but he was wrong.

"I'm still mad at you," I urged. "I've been mad since you left for Impact and never decided to tell me that you were leaving to join a boyband. I'm mad that after three years you didn't bother to send me a single text to say that you were alright. Or called me to tell me you didn't want to be my friend anymore. Breaking off our friendship is better than ghosting it. So no, I'm not happy that you asked me here. I came to get answers from you. Answers to why you suddenly didn't want to talk to me anymore. And if I get those answers, maybe a friendship will come along with it."

Ranting those words lifted a huge boulder off my chest. I've been holding in those words for three years and I finally got to say them. I left Zach speechless.

"I'm really sorry," he whispered. "But this is partly your fault too. You could have reached out to me as well."

"Don't blame this on me. I did text you, and call you, and told your mom to text you for me for months after you left. You never answered. You really did get caught up in the fame."

Zach's face hardened. He was red with anger and was furious. "Don't play that card," he spoke, dead serious.

"Those are your words, not mine."

We didn't speak until we got to the hotel. And even then, we didn't speak to each other.

:::

a/n: another day of double updating 😌