Paper Love (Book 2)

4. Ten O'clock Surprise

Chapter 4: Ten O'clock Surprise

"Morning." I smiled through the camera on my computer.

"Morning." Coen smiled back. "How's everything?"

"Good." I responded. "Jo actually came a few days ago. Zach and her broke up."

"I heard." He whispered through my computer screen.

"Hows soccer going?"

"Great! We won our last game so were going on to finals." He said in excitement.

"That's awesome!" I celebrated. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Thanks." He played with his bed head as he leaned back onto his head board. "But that means I can't make it back by tomorrow." He said quietly with a sadden gaze in his eyes.

"But tomorrow's Christmas." I responded.

"I know." He sighed.

"Don't they let you take time off?" I questioned.

He shook his head silently. "I'm so sorry." He looked at me as we let science take over until he said, "We have a lot of prep to do to get ready. It's finals!" He said excitedly.

"It's fine." I sort of lied. I was proud of him but at the same time, it kind of sucked that he was never here.

"I know that tone. You're lying." Coen picked out. He knew me too well, sometimes it didn't play in my favor. "Be honest with me please."

"It's fine." I shot back.

"No it's not." He said stubbornly. "Tell me."

"I'm proud of you. But I just miss you that's it."

"I miss you too."

"Well I gotta go, Jo just got up and Taz is meowing for me." I told him.

"Kay. Talk to you later."

"Love you."

"Love you too." The call ended and his face disappeared.

I got out of bed and walked out of my room. "Morning." Jo greeted me.

"Morning." I yawned back.

"How was your talk with Coen?" She asked me as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Good." I nodded my head. I poured myself a mug of coffee after Jo and poured a bowl of cereal and milk. Jo wanted eggs so she made her eggs while I sat on the couch eating my cereal and drinking my coffee.

"That's good." She responded as she flipped her egg.

"Yeah." I responded.

"So what are the plans for Christmas for tomorrow?" Jo asked me.

"Um.." I said as I tried to swallow my bite of cereal. "It's gonna be here. Lola, her family, Lena my friend from work and us two." I said.

"No Coen?" Jo asked confused.

"He has to do a lot of prep. They made it to the finals." I responded.

"That's great but I'm sorry." Jo said sympathetically as she came and joined me at the couch with her breakfast.

"It's all good." I responded.

"You sure?" She asked as she looked over at me.

"Yup. All good." I responded, holding back my tears. I put my dishes in the sink before rushing off into my room to release the tears and get ready for the day.

<3

It was about lunch time so Jo and I made homemade pizza on french bread and put them into the oven to cook.

"They look so good." I moaned as I looked through the glass of the oven.

"Oh. My. God. Yes!" Jo groaned in agreement. "They're almost done!" Jo squealed.

"Yum..." I licked my lips. Jo and I turned on ABC to watch The Middle which was our favorite show to watch together. We were trying to catch up to the current season and watching reruns because all the episodes were really good.

*ding*

We both rushed over to the oven to see the pizzas. They looked so good... I put on some mittens and pulled the tray out of the oven, revealing our pizza on bread. I carefully placed them on two plates and then carried them out to the couch so that Jo and I could eat and watch the show at the same time.

Just as we had finished our delicious lunch and caught up on most of The Middle we put our dishes in the sink and Jo started to wash and stick them into the dishwasher to dry.

<3

It was currently about ten at night. Jo just went to bed and I was putting the rest of the dishes away and playing with Taz. Plus there was still some last minute gifts that I needed to wrap for tomorrow when I heard the doorbell ring. I was kind of skeptical at first because no one usually came to my door and definitely not at this time. I left the dishes that still needed to be put away in the dishwasher and went to see who was at the door. When I opened it there in front of me was Zach.

"Zach?" I asked in disbelief as I rubbed my eyes.

"Hey." He replied.

"What are you doing here?!" I whispered.

"I came to talk to Jo." He whispered back as he took a glance behind me of my apartment.

"Well she's not here." I lied before letting out a yawn.

Zach didn't reply but just gave me an are you sure look.

"You can believe what you want but she's not here." I lied again.

"Come on Fay." He pleaded. In all honesty I started feeling really guilty.

"I'm having present opening at my house tomorrow at ten. You can come by and she may or may not be here." I let out.

"Okay. Thanks." Zach said. "Sorry to bother you. Night." He said quickly before turning around and heading out to the cold snowy city to find a hotel.

As soon as I closed the front door I heard another one open right behind me. "Who was that?" Jo asked tiredly.

"No one." I rambled. "Just a random person. They got the wrong apartment."

"Weird but okay." She rubbed her eyes. "I'm gonna go back to bed now. Night." She yawned as she dragged her feet back into the room.

"Night." I told her as she shut the door behind her and then all of a sudden the guilt started to build up in the pit of my stomach again.

<3
I'm really sorry for forgetting to update yesterday. I've just been really busy with school and sports lately, and with everything being crazy I tend to forget a lot of things. So sorry about the late update.
~Scarlett