Sorry, I Love You.

2.15

~ Different Houses, Same 4 Walls ~

-

"Where ya been?" Teddy asked, trying his best to sound super casual and not like he was internally panicking.

Just the sound of Teddy's voice forced out all of the horrible thoughts plaguing her mind. It was so warm and low and made her feel so safe and relaxed. That was exactly why she called him. Everything about Teddy put her at ease. She was just comfortable around him. He felt like what she thought a home was suppose to feel like. That was also why she wanted to go back to him so badly. She hadn't felt safe or comfortable or relaxed in weeks. And those soothing feeling seemed to only grow farther from her as the days went by.

"I've been so busy. I'm sorry, it's taken this long for me to call. My mother wouldn't even let me have my phone for awhile since it was causing distractions."

"Sounds like you're not busy anymore."

"Not until morning. We can talk until then." Zoe suggested with a smug smile playing over her features.

Teddy fought his own smile as he rolled his eyes. "You're in a completely different timezone from me, Zo. Are you talking about your morning or mine?"

"Yours. We can talk longer that way. Don't you have a whole bunch of stories to tell me since I've been gone anyways?"

Before Teddy could respond, Zoe's phone began to blow up with text messages and missed calls and social media notifications. Her phone was finally catching up with the fact that it was activated again. Even Teddy could hear it sing and chime over and over again as message after message began to pop up. That was the only reason Teddy actually realized that Zoe called him before she did anything else. She just turned her phone on and called him. No hesitation. Teddy actually felt a bit smug knowing that. Zoe had so much going on in her life but, without skipping a beat, she went to him.

"If you've got people to catch up with, Zo, you don't have to be talking to me." Teddy said, attempting to be polite and modest past the smugness he felt.

"No, I just want to talk to you." Zoe sighed as she silenced her phone and rested it against her ear again.

The smugness festering within Teddy calmed just a bit as he suddenly became worried about the tone in Zoe's voice. She sounded tired or sad or something. Teddy could feel that there was something wrong. Zoe sounded way too mellow and that wasn't usually her style. The only Zoe gave Teddy the reigns to the conversation was when they had to work together in class and Teddy was explaining answers to their work. And even then, Zoe was basically wagging her tail with excitement and ended up interrupting him to gossip.

"Everything alright?" Teddy reluctantly asked.

"Mhm.." Zoe hummed. "I just need you to talk to me."

Teddy awkwardly squirmed in his own skin and stared up at the sky as he tried to think of something. "Wh-What do you want to talk about?"

Zoe was silent for a moment before she decided on where her priorities lied. "How's Carmen and the kids? You guys still staying at the house?"

"Uh.. Yeah! Carmen's like a whole new person here, you know. She's getting enough sleep, making all her own rules, bossing me around nonstop." Zoe softly chuckled at that, which made Teddy crack a smile. "If she knew I was talking to you right now, she'd probably snatch my phone away and rant and rave about how fucking perfect you are. After visiting our mother, she basically wants to adopt you into the family."

Zoe's small smile broadened and her heart warmed as she was reminded of that. She was so busy and distracted, she actually forgot that she had sent all those flowers, and the letter, to Eleanor. It made Zoe happy to know that it made Carmen happy.