"I don't know where you're going but do you got room for one more trouble soul?" Fall Out Boy

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Zoey Willow Hunter

Two weeks later.

When my friends and I had decided that Nico should be included in our activities since he was our friend now, we didn’t consider his thoughts on that. Being our friend meant that if we were going somewhere, you were going with us, no matter what. We also liked to plan things at the last minute, so we were used to going to each other’s houses in the early morning to drag a certain person to go out with us.

One hour ago, Joel called me and announced the idea of everyone going to downtown Ottawa for the day. It was Saturday morning, nearing 8 am.

This meant that if we left Silvercrest in an hour, we’d come back just after the sun went down. Joel took care of most of the guys, meaning Amir, James and Oliver. I biked to Diana and Lucy’s houses.

“Hi Mrs. Carpena,” I said politely.

“ZOEY!” she cried out, throwing her arms around me.

Lucy’s mom probably loved me the most of her daughter’s friends, if that wasn’t obvious enough.

“Can I steal Lucy for the day?”

Mrs. Carpena put a hand on her chin pensively, and then waved me off, “Of course, I’m tired of her anyway.”

“Great,” I said, running to Lucy’s room.

The girl was sprawled on her bed like a starfish, her hair everywhere. Her mouth was slightly open and if you looked closely, you could see a bit of drool. I stifled a laugh and went as close as possible to her ear.

“LUCY!” I screamed.

My best friend jumped like a cat being electrocuted. She looked around in panic and her expression changed form worried to murderous in seconds when she saw me.

“How many times did I tell you not to interrupt me in my sleep?” She said calmly, wiping her mouth.

“A thousand,” I said, “get dressed. We’re spending the day at downtown.”

She went under the covers again, grumbling curse words in Spanish and English.

“We’re meeting up in front of the mail house in an hour,” I said, leaving already.

In the space of fifteen minutes, Diana Jones was up on her feet chasing me around her own house. Her red hair was standing on her head and if her eyes could produce fire, ashes would have been in my place. She grabbed my jean jacket, catching up to me.

“You bitch! You don’t wake me up when I’m dreaming about being on a date with Harry Styles!” she glowered, panting for breath. The thing about Diana was that she was obsessed with more than five bands. She was an official fan girl, to the point where her birthday presents mainly consisted of band shirts.

“I’m sorry I cut your dreams about that curly singer!” I said, trying not to laugh, “We’re going downtown. Meet you at the mail house.”

I ran towards the front door and fleeted from my own best friend’s house. No one wanted to mess with Diana, especially when she was sleeping.

Feeling my phone ringing, I picked up.

“Z, I got the guys,” said Joel, sounding breathless.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, James tried to beat me up when I woke him up. Amir threw a book at me. Fred and Aaron spilled water on me. Oliver punched me in the stomach.”

I let out a light laugh, “You got it worse than me. Diana was close to beating me up too.”

“Really? She feisty,” he exclaimed, putting emphasis on the word feisty.

“Yeah. Is everyone going?”

“The guys are all coming.”

At the thought of that, a British boy popped in my head. He was probably going to be the most fun to mess with.

“What about Nico?”

“Right. I got it.”

“Nah,” I said, feeling a sense of mischievousness in me, “I’ll wake him up.”

Biking to Nico’s house should have taken me at least ten minutes, but I was so excited I arrived there in 5. I knocked on the door politely three times, waiting for his dad to open the door.

When he did, I had my biggest polite smile on. Nico was the newest between all of us, so his parent probably wasn’t used to any of us barging in and waking up his son.

“Hello, sir,” I said.

Mr. Forrest smiled at me, “hi Zoey. Is something wrong?”

“No, no. It’s just that my friends and I are going out for the day and we wanted Nico to join us.”

“Oh!” His face lit up, “but Nico is still asleep.”

Not for long.

“Would you mind if I woke him up?” I said.

“Not at all,” he laughed. The door opened completely and I entered their house.

It was simple home, with all the necessities. There were two couches, a television and a small coffee table. From what I could see, the kitchen was very messy.

I climbed upstairs and looked around to find Nico’s room. It was the first one I saw. The walls of the room had posters of motorcycles and cars. A typical boy’s room, yet it wasn’t as dirty as I had expected it to be. Everything was in place.

The sleeping figure in the room was completely under the covers. I could hear snoring and deep breathing. Grinning like a Cheshire cat, I approached the bed and put my head close to the messy hair peeping out of the covers.

“Forrest? Forrest? Forrest? Forrest?” I took a breath before continuing and poking his head, “Nico? Nico? Nico? Nico?”

“Beth?” mumbled Nico moving his head the other side, facing me and unconsciously revealing his face. He looked the same as when he slept in my little island.

I frowned and continued prodding his forehead with my finger, “Not Beth. It’s Zoey, your favorite mailgirl. Wake up; it’s wakey-wakey time!” I said in a sing-song voice.

The boy grimaced in his sleep and peered his eyes open wide enough to see me. I waved enthusiastically. He let out an exaggerated groan and turned his head towards the window instead.

“Nico? Nico? Forrest? Forrest?”

He abruptly rose from bed and looked at me again. The covers went down to reveal his chest, which was exposed. It took effort to look at him in the eyes when there was a 6 pack on his body. He raised an eyebrow and smirked just a little.

“What?” He sighed, rubbing his head and making his hair look even worse.

Or better, actually.

“We’re all going out. You have to come with us.”

Just as I thought he was going to blurt out some kind of excuse and we’d end up arguing, he licked his lips, “do I have a choice?”

This made me smile, “nope.”

“Get out of my room then,” he said.

And since I was a big idiot, I said, “why?”

“Because I sleep in boxers. Your eyes are too obvious for your own good, so if your eyes bulge when I’m shirtless, what will you do if I stand up?”

Yes, Zoey, be stupid enough for the guy to notice you checking out. Cue the applause.

“There is nothing to check out,” I said, trying to save some of my dignity.

He stood up and ruined the moment where I was towering over him for once. His eyes bore into mine as he smiled calculatingly. He was too close to me and we both knew it.

I had already seen guys in boxers before, when the girls and I pranked our male friends. None of them, except for Oliver, was as nicely muscled as Nico.

“So you’re fine right now?”

“Boy, you think you’re all that,” I let out a chuckle, “I’ve seen better.”

With that, I turned around and left Nico’s room. Satisfaction tasted almost as delicious as cheesecake and it looked almost as good as Nico did.

-

“IS EVERYONE HERE?” shouted Joel, standing on a chair.

Murmured approvals were heard. Joel scanned us and furrowed his eyebrows.

“Where’s Oliver?”

In hell.

“He went to pick up Xandra,” said Amir, raising his hand as if remembering that.

Collected groans come out from Lucy, Diana and I. Nico lets out a small laugh. James gave me a reassuring look, while the rest stayed oblivious to what was going on. Lucy’s boyfriend, Aaron, patted my head.

“They’ve been fighting,” said Fred to James, adjusting his glasses, “A lot.”

“Really?” I said at the same time as Lucy and Joel.

“Yeah, apparently Oliver doesn’t show her enough attention or something. Plus, she told him she loved him and he didn’t answer.”

Would it be mean to mentally laugh?

At that particular moment, Oliver arrived in front of the house. Xandra came out of his car, her cheeks red of anger. He just seemed tired. Xandra looked around to stand with someone, when she finally settled on Diana.

“Hey,” she said, giving her a smile.

Diana just casually nodded back at her and turned to look at Joel, who was clearing his throat excessively loud to get everyone’s attention.

“We have 3 cars:James’, Nico’s and Oliver’s. Since we are,” he paused to count us, “11 people, we shall divide ourselves in 2 groups of three and one of five.”

When we all started to shuffle around and form our groups, Joel help up a hand, smiling. “I’ll be making the groups.”

“We’re not in school,” cried out James making a grimace to Joel.

“Shut up, James. So, group 1: Oliver, Lucy and Aaron, group 2: James, Fred and Amir, group 3: Nico, Zoey, Xandra, Diana and myself.”

He jumped off the chair and without protest, we all headed towards the specific cars. Joel was not one to be messed with, because he always got his way. I could have protested, but I wouldn’t have won.

Lucy made motion of punching to me. I grinned because I knew she would give Oliver one or two mouthful words. Aaron gave me a thumbs up.

I sat beside Nico without speaking to anyone. Joel and Diana sat in the back, with an empty seat ready for my lovely exbest-friend.

When she didn’t arrive and James’ car left, Joel got out of the car and marched towards Oliver’s car. She was standing beside the front seat, fuming.  

“Yo, chica, get in Nico’s car already,” he said, loudly.

“No, I want to be with my boyfriend.”

I snorted. Nico shook his head at her and Diana, well, her words were PG-18 rated. I looked at her and laughed.

Oliver apparently said something that pissed her off even more. Her next words, however, were completely unexpected.

“Fine! We’re over, if you feel that way,” she stomped her feet back to Nico’s car and got in, slamming the door hardly.

I winced, because I knew how much Nico cared about his car, or his dad’s car.

“Excuse you, don’t slam my car door. You’re not a fucking princess.”

Her eyes widened, “I’m sorry, then, Rude-pants.”

“Say it like you mean it,” he snapped, turning to look at her, “and we’re not friends, so don’t give me a nickname.”

“I’m sorry,” she cowered at his glare.

“Better.”

Dear Nico Forrest, you are the bomb.

Joel got in, his face twisting at the sight of Xandra beside Diana. My best friend told him to come in form the other side. Diana moved to the middle seat and Joel smiled as he sat beside her.

Obviously, Diana was crushing on him a little.

“Let’s go, Nico!” exclaimed Joel, completely ignoring Xandra’s tears and the silence in the close space of the car.

This car ride was going to last an hour, but I knew that with a grieving Xandra, a feisty Diana, an overly excited Joel and a snappy Nico, it would last a life time.

Nico put on the same CD he put on when I was last in the car. The music blasted in the car and no words were said whatsoever between us. Xandra’s sniffles were occasionally heard and by the clenching of Nico’s fists, I knew it was annoying him.

“If you get any snot in my car, I’ll kick you out,” said Nico, keeping his eyes on Oliver’s car, which he followed for the way.

Meanwhile, Joel was too concentrated to take Diana’s hand. She noticed too because she texted me saying: helppp!!! He wants to hold my hand, should I or nah?

I, of course being a good friend to both of them, replied: of course, you big stupid.

When I looked at them, he was holding her hand and trying not to smile too big. He winked at me. Diana was blushing so hard, I thought her face became the color of her hair.

“Why are you so mean?” hiccupped Xandra to Nico.

“Because from what I’ve heard, you’re far from a good friend. Bad friends automatically mean bad people.”

“Fine!” Xandra leaned her head so that she could see me, “I’m sorry, Zoey. For everything. I’m sorry for stealing Oliver from you and for saying yes when he asked me out.”

I didn’t answer, so she insisted, “Do you forgive me?”

Catching Diana’s eye, she smiled because she knew what I was about to do.

I sneezed.

“Bless you,” said Joel.

I sneezed again, louder.

“Bless you,” said Xandra this time, “Do you forgive me?”

I did the same thing.

“Zoey, are you sick or something?” said Diana innocently.

“No, I’m just allergic to her bullshit.”

Nico smirked.

“Fine, be that way, Zoey,” she huffed, “just so you know, I apologized.”

I shifted in my seat so I could look at her, “listen, Alexandra. When you apologize sincerely and not in a way to prove to Forrest that he’s wrong about you being a bad friend, that’s the day I’ll forgive you. As much as you hate to admit it, you were a horrible friend to me. So no, I don’t accept your lame excuse of an apology.”

Go Zoey, go Zoey, go, go, go Zoey! I mentally cheered in a singing voice.

Nico turned up the volume after that, trying to drown the silence between everyone down. I bobbed my head when I realized it was a 1975 song, Matty Healy's voice was recognizable anywhere.

When we arrived at the Centertown, aka downtown, Ottawa, he parked with the guys in a building’s parking lot.

We all got out; Joel and Diana still holding hands. Oliver looked completely unfazed and the rest just jumped around, ready to have the best day ever.

“Yo, Hunter?”

“Hm?” I said, turning to Nico.

He offered me his fist, “good job handling her.”

“Thanks,” I said, fist-bumping him, “good job yourself.”

“You know, it’s not such a bad thing, being your friend,” he said.

“You called me your friend!” I cried out, “you accept me as your friend! Finally!”

Nico looked around and laughed, “Pipe down, Zorro.”

“We’re back to Zorro?”

He didn’t have a chance to answer because I took his arm and put it around my shoulder. His eyes shined with a feeling I couldn’t place, but he was smiling, so I figured it was good.

“What?” I said, thankful his arm didn’t pull on my hair, “we’re friends now.”

And for the first time, he believed it too.

 -

#zoeyswag

TO ALL THOSE WHO GET OFFENDED BY NICO'S COMMENTS ABOUT CANADIANS: calm down friends, it's the way NICO thinks, not me.

Plus, I'm Canadian, so why would I attack Canadians when I'm one myself?

#zico4life

questions? http://ask.fm/foreversmilin1

looove, yas.