Because of that Night (Book 2)

Chapter 50: Zooey

Zooey let out a loud "whoop!" as Michael signed the document in front of him and shook hands with the gentlemen on either side of him. Mr. Cooper beamed with pride as he watched his son shake the hands of his future baseball coach, and Zooey nudged Lila, sharing in the excitement of it all. And it was exciting, it was probably one of the most exciting events Zooey had ever been a part of in that crummy, little town. With that one signature, Michael was signed on to be playing division one college baseball. People in Borne didn't get chances like that, Zooey knew that well, seeing as it was the only thing Lila, Michael, or anyone seemed to be able to mention ever since he had made his choice on schools.

But it also was true. They just didn't. Borne wasn't some big, division one high school with tons of opportunities, competition, and financial stability. It did well on its own, but it certainly didn't excel. If you wanted to get into the best schools, you had to either be brilliant, rich, or unbelievably talented. Sometimes, most of the time, you couldn't just be one, but all three. Luckily for the Coopers, Michael was talented and smart enough to get by while Hunter had his brilliance in order to succeed in a place like MIT. But even despite that, colleges like MIT were expensive, and Zooey knew the schools she was looking at weren't all that cheap either.

Her father had assured her that they would figure it out, but on more than one occasion lately, Zooey had woken up late at night to those quiet conversations she used to constantly fall victim to back when her parents were still together in that small apartment. This time though, she could only hear one side of it. Her mother's "s" sounds would hiss through the phone as she spoke.

Expensive.

Loans.

Out of state costs.

Zooey tended to feel an unfairness with her parents' fighting most of the time, but she always felt guilty anyways. This time was different. Zooey was the reason for the fighting. She was causing the stress and the late-night phone calls when both her parents had assumed she was either asleep or at least out of ear shot. She had already heard back from some of her schools after applying early action. She had gotten into a school she had applied to in Chicago, and she could still feel the elation springing through her body the moment that large envelope came in the mail addressed to her.

She didn't know what it was about the area that interested her so much. Perhaps it was the bustling city that was so different from her little coastal home, or the far more ample public transportation and far larger environment to meet new people, different people. Or maybe it was just that it wasn't Borne, it wasn't even near Borne, and it got her far away from this place she seemed to have been wanting to get away from for her entire life. But as second semester of their senior spring was soon to begin, Zooey realized that getting far away from this place wasn't all positive. It meant getting farther away from Lila, from Hunter, Michael, and Callie.

It meant being farther away from Seth.

Zooey hadn't expected to start dating someone this late into high school. When Hunter has rejected her and Seth had moved on to dating Stephanie, she just assumed it wasn't in the cards for her to have a boyfriend while in high school. It wasn't that she ever grew to be okay with that. Even though she could be a good sport when hanging out with Lila and Michael prior to her and Seth being together, she couldn't deny the looming loneliness she had watching two of her closest friends being happy together when she didn't have something like that too. It felt like she was missing out on something, some experience you were supposed to have in high school. Being alone was hard, but she was beginning to think that figuring out what would happen after graduation with Seth would making a bout of loneliness and envy seem like nothing.

And she loved Seth. She had never felt this way before with anyone. It was like she never got sick of being around him. She loved being able to cheer him on at his soccer games on nights the girl's and boy's teams had differing schedules. She loved being able to kiss him as much as she wanted to before he dropped her back off at her mother's apartment. She loved the way he always smelled of Chester's coffee shop, or the way she could so easily comb her hands through his soft, dark locks of hair. She loved him in the silences when they would work on homework together. She loved him in every which way.