Sorry, I Love You.

2.10

(I decided Kenneth is an important character to this story so, now he has an actor to properly portray him. Literally nobody fits my mental image of Kenneth more than Matthew Davis🔝 so he's here now.)

-

Usually, Teddy woke up to the sound of his alarm going off on a normal weekday but, today was different. This Friday morning, Teddy woke up to the sound of his phone ringing with an incoming call. Teddy was slow to wake up at first, stretching out his arms and legs and rolling over in bed before he actually opened his eyes. The sun wasn't up, the birds weren't chirping, and his room was freezing cold. He easily delayed answering his phone until the ringing stopped but, it very quickly began to ring again.

Teddy groaned and grabbed his phone, squinting his eyes when his phone came to life and flashed a bright light in his eyes. Zoe was calling him. Teddy wanted to be surprised but he wasn't. Zoe had tried to call and message him a million times since she left for Los Angelos and he refused to respond. He still hadn't figured out what was best for him. Zoe occasionally had the power to put a smile on his face but, in the same vein, she also had the power to make his life a living hell.

Without hesitation, Teddy pressed the red button to end the call. He didn't feel like chatting this early in the morning. He only had a little less than an hour to get some more sleep before he had to get up for the last day of this semester and the last leg of finals. Teddy was going to go back to sleep, too, before he realized all the missed calls and messages he actually had. They were all from Zoe but, something strange piqued his interest.

It wasn't Zoe at all. It was Carmen.

Teddy sat up, his eyes still squinted and tired expression contorted as he opened his phone to check the messages. He had six missed calls from Zoe and eight text messages from her, or rather, Carmen. Carmen was using Zoe's phone to send him messages. The first message was announcing it was her, his older sister, and stated that she was coming to Ohio. The second said she was boarding a plane and would see him soon. The rest were all Carmen informing Teddy that she was at Zoe's with the babies and would call him until he woke up.

There was no question about getting out of bed now. Teddy threw his blankets off in the blink of an eye and scrambled for some clothes. When he had a pair of sweatpants, sweatshirt, and a hat, he tried to call Zoe's phone as he rushed to leave the house as quickly and quietly as he could. Just as Teddy locked the door behind him, standing in the freezing cold weather in the earliest of mornings, Carmen picked up the phone.

"Finally!" Carmen dramatically groaned on the other end of the phone. "I was about to fall asleep."

"Where are you?" Teddy asked with a rougher voice than even he expected. He shoved his hands and keys in his sweatshirt pocket as he hopped through the snow filling the alleyway to get to the street.

"At Zoe's house. Did you read my texts?"

"I read enough to get out of bed. When did you get here? Why are you here? What did I miss?"

"We got here like a half hour ago. I'll explain everything in the morning. We're busy getting ready for bed. We're all exhausted."

"Well, don't go to sleep yet. I'm on my way over." Teddy anxiously exclaimed as he jogged across the street and up the hill a few feet to get to the gate in front of Zoe's driveway. "I forgot the code to Zoe's gate. Can you let me in?"

"Yeah, hold on." Carmen dropped the phone from her ear to her shoulder as she turned her attention to Kenneth. "Do you know how to let Teddy in? He's at the gate."