Placebo Effect: [Zane X Reader]

Two- Paupers Have it Better

I shook myself, pulling myself from the trance seeing Zane again had put me in. I willed my thoughts still as they swam a million miles an hour in my head. "How's your mamma?" I managed to ask as I worked on finishing the transaction. Julie seemed to still, the eyes of his friends wandering to him.

I know I didn't ask anything that wasn't warranted. Zane grew up here. He and I had been best friends when we were little but he often went by Julien instead of Zane because he said he liked it better. We were like siblings, joking and being crazy and wild. I remember one time we had dared each other to see how many crabs we could hold without getting pinched. Like little ninjas, we snuck down into Tortuga and were found hours later with crabs attached to us by our hair and fingers. We had been grounded for weeks after that.

Julie's mama got sick our second day in third grade. It wasn't anything crazy, and everyone had expected her to pull through. Yet, his pop picked up the entire family and moved somewhere up north. I never really got to say goodbye. No one had heard from them in years after they skipped town. Most just imagined that they left to get better treatment for his mama. That much I could understand. What confused me most was how Julie cut every kind communication with me and my family when he went. It was if they dropped off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again. But, in all consideration, something must have worked out because here he stood before me. When you took into account everything that had happened, you wouldn't expect him to ever come back to Sharktooth Crest, huh? Me either.

It was a mystery. Our little town had moved on though, quick. We never usually lost locals. The beaches here are like magnets. Once you get close enough, it's hard to break away. But they did. He did.  Interestingly enough.

My gaze met his and he seemed to shrink underneath my watchful eyes. "My mother died just soon after we left Sharktooth."

I blinked, taken aback. "Really? Everyone held onto the hope that she would get better treatment wherever you guys went." I huffed, setting down my arms on the counter, leaning forward. Julie leaned away. "Speaking of, where did you go?" I asked the question that everyone had been wondering for years and had never gotten any legitimate answer to. Everyone had running theories when it first happened. From going to Ninjago City or a small snowy forest or even to a remote island. Some thought that they just dissapeared. Though, the last one proved false when they were never registered as missing persons.

Green bean leaped into action, pulling Zane and his friends back a bit. "I am so sorry to rush this lovely reunion, but we need to get home soon." He flashed me a quick smile to which I frowned, not believing his charade for a second. Yet, I didn't bother to call him out on it, instead opting to watch them leave.

I waved a gentle goodbye, watching as the mystery boy left once more.

I flung on my flip flops, ready and raring to go. Finally, finally my shift was over after a long grueling day of selling sappy tourists anything and everything. A weight was pulled from my shoulders and I was free. I ran down the stair, practically sliding down them from my crap flip flops. I had worn the poor things out. The poor shoes had been shmooshed under my feet for almost 7 years and I had no plans of retiring them anytime soon. The soles were thinner than a strand of hair, the bottom layer peeling off in chunks but they had seen places, baby. I wasn't going to give that up anytime soon.

I entered the threshold between the stairs and our little garage area where we kept our own surfing gear. My dad was a big advocate for diving and his silver metal tanks lined the walls. He had often taken me when I was little, but now I had been taken more by surfing. Don't get me wrong, being able to breathe underwater and exploring ship wrecks and seeing the coolest sea creatures was amazing to say the least. It just had never struck my fancy as it had my dad's. So, instead I took up surfing. I had been surfing as long as I could walk, forced to do it when I was a child. Then I didn't care for all the falling and flopping and the limp noodle arms you would have after a good paddle. I gave it a few years, and bam I was hooked. Hook, line, sinker, whole fishing pole. I reached for Ol' Reliable, a medium length board. She, yes a she don't judge me, was a peachy color with white flowers and rimmed with a lovely green. I had picked her out one birthday when dad said I could have anything from the shop as my gift. Of course, as a fresh 12 year old, I dove immediately for the flowers. Typical. But, no matter because she had stuck with me all these years.