Things Change

Part 13

"Uhm what are you doing here?" Zach asked Daniel.

"I was uhm.. going to see if you wanted to see if you wanted to go to the gym." He looked from Zach to me in confusion. His nose looked bruised. I hope it wasn't broken. "But you're obviously busy. What are you doing here?." He rubbed the back of his head and turned his attention towards me.

"We are going to breakfast and then I'm going to take Kat home, but I can go after that if you want." Zach answered for me.

"That's alright. You guys have fun." Daniel scoffed, then he turned and walked away.

"Well, that was weird." Zach said as we watched Daniel leave.

"Yeah.. it was very weird." I agreed.

We got in Zach's car and headed to iHop. I decided I wasn't going to let Daniel Seavey ruin my day. I had to stop letting the men in my life control everything. So what if I found out my feelings for him too late. I'll be okay.. right?

"Hey! You've got your own food. Keep your fork on your side of the table!" Zach teased after I stole a bite of his French toast.

"What? It looked so good. I just couldn't help myself." I laughed. I was right. It was delicious.

"Mhm." Zach chuckled. "So do you want to talk about last night?"

"Not particularly." I looked down at my plate and started playing with my food a little bit.

"Daniel is an idiot. Just so you know. And Nick is well.. he's Nick. He's always had a chip on his shoulder when it came to Daniel. Last night wasn't your fault. Okay?"

"Okay.. I should have ended things with Nick a long time ago and probably not at a party."

"That's true. But at least it's over now." He gave me smile trying to cheer me up.

"You're the best. You know that?" I said and took another bite of his French toast.

"Oh I know." He laughed and shook his head. We talked about our classes and what we were planning on doing after graduation. Zach was only a sophomore. He was the youngest of the group, but he still fit in. We both wanted to move out of our town and travel the world. We didn't know what we wanted to do, but we knew we wanted to make a difference in this world. There is so much negativity, we just wanted to be the reason that someone smiled. After we finished eating Zach drove me home. I offered to change and give him his clothes back before he left, but he told me to keep them and give them back later.

After Zach left I ran up to my room and jumped in my bed. I pulled out my journal and started writing about everything that happened last night. After a few minutes my phone rang.

"Hey Tate!"

"Hey girl. I got your text! What's up?"

"So I texted to tell you I slept with Zach."

"Wait what? How? Why? I'm going to kill him when I see him!" She started yelling and I realized how bad it sounded.

"No Tate! I didn't mean I had sex with him. I just meant I slept in the same bed with him. We were watching a movie and I was falling asleep. He got up to go downstairs and for some reason I asked him to stay."

"Kat.. why would you do that?" She sighed.

"I don't know. I didn't want to be alone. And it was nice to have someone around that wasn't a bunch of drama.."

"Did anything else happen with Zach?" She questioned.

"No. He was the perfect gentleman. He even took me to breakfast. Oh yeah.. I forgot... when we were leaving Zach's house to go get breakfast Daniel was there.."

"Wait. Daniel was at Zach's? Why? Did he see you?" She gasped.

"Oh yeah. He saw me. I was the one who opened the door.  We were walking out the door when he was walking up. I ran straight into him. The worst part is I was in Zach's clothes. So it probably looked bad." I explained.

"Kat! This is perfect!" Tate cheered.

"Huh? What's perfect?" I was so confused.

"Daniel has that blonde girl right?"

"Right? And can we figure out her name so we can stop calling her blonde girl?"

"Yes. Jonah is already in charge of figuring that out. But anyways. Daniel has that girl and now you can have Zach." She said. Again I was so confused. I had no idea who this was supposed to help me.

"Are you drunk? That doesn't even make sense."

"You and Zach don't have to date, but just keep hanging out and spending time together. It will drive Daniel crazy. I guarantee it."

"I couldn't do that to Zach. That's not right." Even if it would help me get to Daniel that wasn't fair. Zach is such a sweet person. I couldn't do that.

"Something tells me Zach wouldn't mind." She sounded so sure.

"You're crazy. I'm going to go take a shower and let you calm down. Call me when you're not completely insane." I laughed and we ended the call.

I grabbed my stuff and headed to the shower. Tate had lost her mind. There was no way. Zach deserved so much better than that. He was definitely real boyfriend material. Not fake boyfriend material.

When I got out I had a text from Zach. "I'm in!"