Sorry, I Love You.

2.20

Teddy wasn't as scared of walking to school in the morning as he used to be. Word had spread that him and Zoe were living together and, after people heard the news and started paying more attention, they also realized that Carmen was living there as well. Nobody had actually seen her or even knew she had kids but, they had seen a car leave Zoe's house at the same time that Teddy and Zoe were leaving for school one morning. Of course, there was a lot more staring and whispering, especially now that he was covered in bruises and cuts again, but Teddy and Zoe were both used to being stared at so, it didn't effect them too much.

"I got new stickers." Zoe whispered to Teddy as she flipped open her thick, daily planner.

"I'm sorry?" Teddy asked after setting his backpack down beside his desk and looking to the seat next to him, where Zoe was sat.

"I got new stickers." She repeated.

After pulling the sheet of stickers out of the back of her planner, she held them up for Teddy to look at them. It was a collection of chibi-style cartoon puppies with their tongues out, hearts on their cheeks, or tails wagging. Teddy had seen Zoe put stickers in her planner before, to mark when a day had passed, so he vaguely understood what she was showing him. The only part that confused him was the fact that Zoe, a teenager with a full, professional career, would be giddy over puppy stickers.

"They're puppies." Zoe beamed with joy as she used a long, pastel pink fingernail to point to the stickers.

"Yes, I see that." Teddy chuckled and shook his head before he returned to his bag.

While he was busy bent over and digging in his bag, Zoe pulled a Doberman puppy sticker off of the sheet and stuck it to the front of Teddy's notebook. Very wuickly, before he noticed, she used her glitter pen to write "-Z" under it. With a proud smile, Zoe capped her pen and watched as Teddy sat up straight with a textbook and study guide in hand. Before he could set those down on his desk, the Doberman sticker caught his eye and he sarcastically sighed in exhaustion at the sight of it.

"Don't start sticking your cutesy puppy shit all over my stuff, Zoe." Teddy light-heartedly scolded as he switched out his textbook for the notebook and began picking at it to peel the sticker off.

"Why? It is too girly for you, Teddy?" Zoe mocked.

"No, nuh-uh! Don't push that stupid, toxic masculinity, sexist bullshit on me. I ain't say nothing about it being girly." Teddy retorted.

"Then, don't take it off." Zoe slapped her hand down on the sticker to reapply the ear of the Doberman that Teddy managed to peel off.

Teddy defeatedly sighed and looked up at Zoe with a straight, serious expression, which she responded to with a bright, obnoxious smile. He rolled his eyes at her and pushed her hand off of his notebook. Teddy didn't mess with the puppy sticker this time as he flipped open his notebook to a new, fresh page. Meanwhile, the bell for class to start rang loud in the air and signaled for the teacher to get up and count the heads of their students for attendance.

"When did you become so stubborn, by the way? Are you still holding an ill-placed grudge?" Teddy whispered to Zoe as everyone got settle and prepared to listen to today's lesson.

"No grudges." Zoe meet Teddy's stare with a sly smirk with far too much meaning behind it for Teddy to decipher so quickly. "I just stopped trying to make you like me. I don't have to be sweet and innocent anymore."

Teddy's eyes narrowed but, he still managed a smirk as he studied Zoe. "Haven't you learned I don't like sweet and innocent? What are you going to do if this works?"

Zoe's smirk fell flat but her eyes never strayed from Teddy's. She was surprised by his response. After all this time, she hadn't really considered being anything but sweet and innocent because that's all she'd ever been. It made sense that, that wasn't what Teddy wanted so, why had she never considered that? How had that thought never came to mind? If Teddy didn't want sweet and innocent, what exactly did he want? Did she have to be stubborn about everything? Wouldn't that get annoying?