Sorry, I Love You.

2.16

As soon as the cab pulled up to the gate of Zoe's house, she threw open the back passenger door and stumbled out. She had been holding onto the door handle for ten minutes now as she watched the city around her become more and more familiar. She was more than ready to be home.

"Zoe! What the hell are you going to do? Run to school just so you can see your friends?" Kenneth yelled from the other seat in the car.

Zoe gathered her purse and her phone in such a rush that she nearly broke a nail. "Yes! That's exactly what I'm going to do!"

Without letting Kenneth get in another word, Zoe slammed the door of the cab shut and ran off as fast as she could. Class was over in literally three minutes so, if she ran, she could make it to the school before the bell rung. Zoe had been doing a lot of working out recently since her mother was making her train in self defense so, she could surprisingly handle the run. It also helped that she wasn't wearing heels today and the road from Zoe's house to the school was mostly downhill.

Just as Zoe made it to the crosswalk in front of the school, she could hear the loud bell inside the building chime. The buses in front of the school were blocking Zoe's view, though, so she had to hurry across the street to get to the school and pass the buses and finally see her friends. By the time Zoe squeezed between two giant, yellow buses parked in front of the school, people were already hopping on to buses and heading towards their cars. Luckily, it didn't look like too many people had left the building yet.

"Zoe?" Someone blurted to Zoe's left.

Zoe turned, smiled, and waved excitedly at a girl she talked to only a few times in one of her classes. It felt so good to be back in a place where she knew so many people and actually liked most of them.

"Oh shit! Zoe's back!" Another person yelled. This time Zoe turned towards the buses behind her and saw a few senior boys hanging out of the windows of the bus to wave at her. "Being in L.A. sure did you good, Zo! Still looking hot as hell!"

"Thank you, boys!" Zoe laughed as she waved back at them.

"Zoe!" Vanessa yelled once she escaped the building, her pace instantly picking up at the sight of her best friend.

"Oh my god! Van!" Zoe screamed right back as she rushed forward.

Zoe and Vanessa collided in a tight hug in the middle of their fleeing classmates. Zoe nearly cried as she absorbed every bit of warmth and comfort that her best friend had to offer. Right behind her were her other friends as well. Chuck didn't hesitate to pull Zoe into another tight hug and offer his jacket, since she had shedded hers in the cab a few minutes ago. Zoe politely refused, though, and greeted a few of her other close friends. She was warmed up enough from running to school all the way from her house and getting endless warm hugs.

"How was it? How did everything go? None of us were even able to get a response from you. All we saw was your Instagram." Vanessa anxiously asked, her and everybody else's eyes glued to Zoe.

"It was all great! Really, really fun!" Zoe reflexively responded. It wasn't great or fun and some parts were actually worse than past years but, Zoe was just too excited to see everyone to even think of all the bad stuff. "I missed you guys so much! It was driving me crazy! I'm so glad to be home again!"

"What about your boyfriend? I bet you're going to miss spending all your time with him if you're stuck here." Jennie begrudgingly spoke up from the outskirts of the small pack that had formed around Zoe.

Everyone awkwardly glanced between Jennie and Zoe since they were thinking the same thing but didn't know how to voice their thoughts. Zoe looked very obviously confused but most people just chalked up her expression to being nervous over the fact that she just got called out for a secret she was keeping. She genuinely didn't know what that meant, though. There was nobody that Zoe was spending all of her time with while she was away and, how would they even know if she did have someone?