Mary Mae and the Boys

Chapter 7

Mary's mood had done a complete 180 by the end of the night. Gilbert had made her so happy with his meaningful conversations, romantic kisses, and all the funny jokes he unknowingly cracked.

After they watched the movie, they headed to any place of Mary's choosing to which she of course decided to go to a fast-food place to prevent Gil from spending too much money on her. He complied and was happy that she was happy.

By the time she'd gotten home, she was no longer thinking of what Zach had said to her. It was almost midnight again; time always seemed to just run out so quickly when she was with Gilbert. They had kissed goodbye in front of her porch as he walked back to his car and waved goodnight.

Her hormones were raging as she was blushing madly when she entered her house. Her mom wasn't home yet; her nurse shift didn't end until the following morning at 8am and it took her about an hour to drive home. She'd be too exhausted and then she'd have to do the same thing a day later.

Mary Mae cleaned any messes she saw around the house and went up to her room. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was fast asleep, a smile on her face and Gilbert on her mind.

•••

"Hey!" Zachary waved as he waited outside her house. It was Wednesday morning of their first week of junior year and so much had happened already, "we missed you last night. The movie was amazing."

"Hi." Mary Mae said, entering his car. She wished her mom were home, but she knew she wouldn't get to see her until after school today and even then, she'd probably need to be asleep in order to function for her next outrageous number of hours of a shift. She wished she had someone to talk to about the entire Zachary ordeal.

"So, where's Mama Mars?" Zach asked, heading toward the school at an unreasonably slow speed.

"Work." Mary Mae responded swiftly, aware of how this might come off to Zach. Zach was never the over-thinking friend so she doubted he would read too much into it.

"So, do you have any plans today?" He asked, trying to make conversation.

"Zach, can we, uh, drive in silence please. At least for a little while."

He nodded, finally understanding as he kept his mouth shut until he parked. Before she could exit, he reached for her arm. The second his hand made contact with her arm, shivers slayed across her entire body. His strong jaw and defined muscles flexed upon impact as she felt like they'd been transported to outer space all alone.

"Mary, I don't regret what I said yesterday, but if we can ignore it for now so things can get back to normal, I would appreciate that. Things have been so weird lately Mary Mae, just a little bit of normalcy is all I ask for."

"Zach." She muttered, choosing her battles wisely before blurting out what needed to be said. "I can't just ignore your emotions like that. It's not who I am. I think I'll just need a little bit of space for a while to think."

"Do you... do you still want me to drive you to school?" His voice was embroidered with sadness as his fingers released her arm.

"School would be a fifteen minute walk from my house, I can manage."

Or have Gilbert pick you up. Zach thought angrily as he wished he could insist on being her ride for life.

"Mary Mae, please don't..." the sadness in his eyes was also apparent in his voice as it cracked midway through his sentence, "please don't push me away, you've been my best friend my whole life, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

For some reason, Gilbert's best-friend story popped into her mind as she reached for Zach's hand.

"Zach, I'm not ending our friendship or anything extreme like that; I just need some time to think for a little bit. I'll text you." She said, grinning widely.