lovely | zion kuwonu

notebook

the bell rang and ryan nearly ran out. her phone was pulled up to her ear as she called austin urging him to hurry over to his car so she could avoid zion.

"ryan!" he yelled out.

fuck it was too late.

"ryan wait up" zion yelled again.

"sorry, austin really needs me to hurry because he needs to get home soon"

"okay then let me take you home at least" he offered.

a large circle had formed around a car in the parking lot. it didn't take much effort to figure out it was zions.

"what the fuck is going on?" he blurted.

the circle opened and let everyone see the car that was covered in post it notes spelling out a word.

formal?

a tall slim girl now walked towards zion with a box of chocolates in her hand.

"z, will you go to formal with me?" arielle asked.

it's not like ryan didn't have time to prepare for this but it still hurt.

"i should go now" ryan said before beginning to walk away.

"ryan wait" zion yelled out. but it was too late. ryan was already running over to austin car where he waited for her.

"i'm still waiting" arielle whispered.

everyone's eyes were fixated on zion, waiting for a response.

"fine" zion groaned.

everyone began to clap and arielle smiled big. she wrapped her arms around zions neck trying to kiss his lips, but he quickly turned so she only kissed his cheek.

"i have to go but i'll text you later" zion rolled his eyes as he pushed arielle away.

he hopped in his car, sticky notes still attached. slowly they began to come off as he drove. he didn't know where he was driving. his mind was filled with thoughts we didn't wanna be thinking.

"hi dad" zion whispered, kneeling next to his fathers gravestone.

it'd been almost 3 years since zion had come to visit but somewhere between his thoughts and driving, he found himself here.

"mom keeps asking what branch i'm enrolling in after school is done. i don't think i'll ever be able to tell her i don't wanna go in. i wanna do music in LA or something. i just don't want her to be disappointed" he sighed.

"also, i met caleb. like the original caleb," zion laughed. "he moved here with his family. he has a beautiful daughter which i think i actually like. i just fucked up and i don't know if she'll actually wanna try with me. i wouldn't. nothings been easy since you left dad. i know i shouldn't blame you, but i kind of do"

after a bit more ranting, zion felt a bit more relieved. he still didn't wanna go home, so he just drove again.

he didn't know if he should even be here but he was going to try. maybe she'd want to see him. he rung the doorbell and waited.

"kuwonu" mr.anderson answered the door.

"good afternoon sir, is ryan home?" zion asked.

"she actually went over to out with nicholas, did you need something from her?"

"oh no, i just had some questions about the homework from today" zion lied.

"i can grab her notebook from her bag if you'd like to look at it." mr.anderson offered.

"um sure i mean that would probably help" zion gave in trying not to get caught lying.

mr.anderson walked zion into the living room while he went upstairs to get his bag.

"here's her backpack, not sure which notebook it is but maybe you can figure it out" her dad said leaving her bag down by his side.

zion thanked ryan's dad and found himself looking through ryan's bag, even though he didn't really need it.

his eyes fell onto a blue notebook with ryan's handwriting covering the front page.

ryan's journal

everything in him, told zion not to look through it. but it didn't stop him.

the first couple of pages were just doodles. the date at the top showed that it was about 4 months ago.

as he kept scrolling through the pages he stopped at one page. a page that was no longer a doodle. it was a word. well a name per-say.

zion's name.

it was dated from the night that she tutored him. he couldn't believe it.

"did you find what you were looking for?" mr.anderson asked.

"yeah i did thank you" zion smiled, closing the notebook and placing it back in her backpack before saying goodbye.

for some reasons, after he left, all the thoughts he had before were gone. his mind felt free.

________

"is this where you take all your little girl friends" ryan teased.

"no stupid, this is where i go to think. and after that very extravagant formal proposal, i think you need it" nick rolled his eyes.

"i just, i don't get it. he wrote me that note and i thought it was gonna be like the start of something new"

"okay high school musical" nick teased.

"you know what i mean" ryan rolled her eyes.

"zion's very much an unpredictable pick. ever since we've known him, none of us could figure it out. and the faster you accept that, then maybe you'll get over whatever you feel for him" nick said.

"why so harsh?"

"listen, i love zion. he's a good friend, but he's never dated anyone in his life. all he does is string girls along, and at this point i truly just care about your feelings ry"

"thanks nicky" ryan smiled becoming giving nick a hug.

"let's go get some ice cream now before i drop you off" nick said before racing ryan to his car.

________

authors note

can you smell the beef
cooking up???