"Ain't nobody got time for 'dat!" My thoughts about waiting to update on Saturday. 

Zoey Willow Hunter

        "HOW's France treating you?” I said, pouring the pancake mix into a pan. It makes a sizzling noise and I place the phone in my hands rather than leaning by my shoulder and neck.

“Great! Just great, actually. The Eiffel tower is beautiful, Zoey,” said Harry Walters, his voice sounding far away.

He continued to tell me all about Paris and its French people. He told me about their pastries and how good they were, about how rude some of the people were, about the Louvre museum and how breathtaking it was to stand with his wife, Beatrice, on the highest floor in the Eiffel tower.

“How’s your new mail bud?”

I looked at the bandage on my hand and huffed. “Horrible. Just horrible, actually.”

“What happened? I got time.”

“No, you don’t. You told me a few seconds ago that Bea is waiting for you to come with her for dinner.”

He sighed. “Just tell me fast. Like when you have gossip and you’re telling me.”

“Fine. He’s an, excuse my swearing, an asshole. He is insensitive, rude and a plain old jerk. I hate him with every fiber in my body.”

“Zoey!”

“I said excuse my swearing!” I exclaimed.

“Talk to Julie Sanders about getting a new mail buddy, then.”

“I can’t. He’ll go to prison if he gets fired, I don’t want to be known as the merciless girl around here,” I said, struggling to flip the pancake in the air.

Normally, I am the best cook in this house. But talking on my cracked phone and doing something else at the same time had never been one of my biggest qualities. The pancake ended up flying high in the air and as I tried to catch it, it fell on my face.

“Zoey? Are you alive? Did you die?” shouted Walters.

I mumbled a series of curses as the pancake slid from my face onto the pan. Wiping my face with a towel, I continued talking to Walters.

“I’m here, I’m fine. Pancake flip gone wrong.”

“Good. Now, what are you going to do about the MAC?”

As I read in one of my favorite books, Tame, holy shit on toast.

The MAC stood for Mail Appreciation Convention, which happened every year. Ever since helping Walters became a regular thing, at about seven years old, I went with him every year. It was in the end of August, it lasted 4 days.

Either I’d have to go alone this year, or with he-who-will-not-be-named. No, not Voldemort. I meant the other he-devil.

“Can’t you come back in time?” I pleaded, knowing this was a lost cause.

I could see Walters shaking his head at me. “Sorry, hun, I’m retired. Plus, the Europe thing doesn’t end until September or even more. I don’t know.”

“Do I have to go with he-devil?”

“Mhm, he is your partner now. By convention rules, he has to go.”

“I won’t tell him about it. ‘Kay, bye Walters. Love you!” I hung up right after I heard him mumble back a goodbye.

I missed the old mailman so much.

“LADIES! BREAKFAST!” I screamed, loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear but I knew that this would barely even wake up Skye, who slept like a bear in hibernation.

“PANCAKES?” shouted Julia, rushing down the stairs in her Hello Kitty pajamas. I pointed to the plate of pancakes on the table and grinned.

The table was filled with everyone’s favorite: my Sunday pancakes. Orange juice for Julia, strawberry for Skye, milk for me and coffee for Mom were ready on the table.

Mom went down the stairs slowly, rubbing her eyes. She scratched the back of her head and yawned. She was obviously exhausted after what happened last night. After he-devil left, James stayed for an hour more and they talked over wine. Wine in Mom’s system after a long day of work made her very tired and sleepy.

“Sunday pancakes?” She said, sitting on a chair. Julia was already stuffing her tiny face with food.

“Yep, good morning!” I said, too cheerfully, even for me.

Truth was, ever since last night, I had decided to get a fresh page and forget about Oliver and Xandra, even though I still mentally growled at the thought of her. He didn’t deserve me.

Honestly, he-devil’s words hit a soft spot and I regretted answering him with horrible comebacks. What kind of boy would have such an effect on me and make my comebacks disappear in front of my enemy?

“You okay? You’re wearing the sun on your face,” said Skye, who was in her ugliest PJ’s. Her blonde hair was up in the messiest bun I’d ever seen and yesterday’s mascara was all over her face.

“I’m okay,” I wasn’t sure if I was convincing her or myself. “I’m fine.”

I sat down as well, taking a bite of my famous pancakes. As usual, it was delicious and absolutely amazing.

“I still don’t get what happened to your hand, how is it possible to break a wine glass with your bare hand?” exclaimed Mom, looking more awake now after a few sips of coffee.

A certain jerk face.

“I already told you, Nico said something rude about Walters and I got mad.”

“Mad enough to break a glass?”

“Yes,” I said in a tone that hopefully made her understand that I wanted to stop talking about it.

“I’ll check the bandage later, the blood on it is going to become gross.”

Julia slammed her spoon on the table. “Mom-my! Please don’t talk ‘bout blood, I’m eating!”

Skye and I raised our hands in surrender at the same time, a routine we did together whenever Julia got annoyed by something. Julia was terrified of blood; she even had nightmares of a Niagara Falls that was filled with blood instead of water.

Skye gave me a look, she knew exactly why I’d crushed that glass in my hand. I needed to talk to her, she was there for me last night. I didn’t tell her about Oliver& Backstabber because I didn’t want to cry again.

“I heard about Oliver,” said Skye softly. “Gina told me,” she referred to her best friend and coincidentally the biggest gossiper this town had ever had. Thank God, Gina was leaving to NYU next fall. I didn’t think I’d be able to handle any more of her gossip.

I wanted to punch Skye more than anything right now.

“Yeah, he’s back.” I tried to give her signs from far away to not pursue this conversation in front of Mom, who knew about my crush.

Making a motion of decapitation,I hoped Skye caught on, for her life.

“He and Xandra are together now.”

Damn it.

Mom turned to me with alarm. “What?! The Alexandra? Your best friend?”

“Ex-best friend,” I corrected softly.  “And yeah.”

“Let me just load up my imaginary gun and blow that girl right up! What kind of friend is she to actually freaking steal your crush! She is a horrible horrible girl and if you want I’ll glare at her at church and threaten her.”

Dear Mom, I love you.

“Thank you, Mom. It’s fine though,” I chuckled softly.

“I’m serious,” said Mom, clutching my hand.

“Me too! I shall beat that Alexandra mean girl to a pulp!”

We all turned to Julia with surprised looks. “Where did you learn that kind of vocabulary?”

“I watch TV, duh!” said Julia, shrugging.

At that moment, Mom’s cell phone rang, ruining our little family moment. She quickly picked it up and blushed a bit at the sight of the caller’s name.

“James?”

Nico’s dad.

“No, I haven’t seen him.”

“Okay, I will. Okay, call me if anything happens. In a few hours, if he doesn’t come back, call the police.”

She turned the phone off and turned to me. “Nico hasn’t come home since last night, apparently. He has the car. James is worried.”

“It’s James now, eh?” said Skye, raising an eyebrow.

“Skylar, shut up, will you? His son’s gone.”

“He’s probably just out in the city or something,” I said, shrugging. Since there wasn’t much fun here, Nico probably went in the city and had fun or whatever.

“James wants you to help him,” she saw my expression and widened her eyes to the signature puppy dog eyes, “Please, Zoey. I know you don’t like Nico, but please help. Please? I’ll get you the best ever birthday present.”

I groaned. “The present better be good.”

-

The first place I went to by bike was the mail house. Of course, he wasn’t there. What did I expect, anyway? For him to be sitting on the front porch?

I headed to Mr. Forrest’s house, in hopes of getting clues on places where his son could possibly be. The car was parked out front though, which probably meant that the obnoxious moron would be back by now.

Walking to the front door, I raised my fist to knock and just for the sake of my curiosity, see if he-devil was horrible-looking and drunk.

“What the fuck am I even doing here, Dad?” shouted a voice that seemed fairly familiar to my fellow horrible co-worker.

Now, the proper thing to do would have been to respect the family moment and leave. Who ever said I was any close to being remotely proper?

“Nico, stop! We’re here for a fresh page!” said his dad in a way that indicated that if his son said one more word, he’d get slapped.

“Bloody hell! What fresh page? You flirting with every woman here and letting me be tortured by spending time with a freaking bitch delivering mail every morning?”

Ouch, I rolled my eyes.

“It’s not flirting! I’m just trying to be nice so that when your sorry ass gets in trouble, we have people on my side! Now, I am going to ask again, where were you all night?!”

“I am going to say it again, it’s none of your business.”

“It’s my business! I’m your damn dad, Nicolas! You drove around in my car and you aren't even 18 yet, do you know how much trouble you could have gotten in?” This time his voice boomed throughout the house.

“Why can’t I just go back? Give me one good reason," argued he-devil.

“Because we’re here to start over!”

“I never wanted to start over! I could have started over damn fine in England over Mom! Don’t you get that?”

There was a silence.

Nico continued. “You made me leave my girlfriend and travel across the world for what? To deal with Mom’s death with me? I don’t want to fuckin’ deal with it with you, then!” He was breathing hard. “You know what happened here Dad? I got treated like shit. I had to deal with drunk girls who can’t deal with their own pathetic sadness and with one of them kissing me! I cheated on Beth, because of you!”

Wait a minute, drunk girls? In the plural tense?

Wait another minute? Beth? A girlfriend.

Holy shit.

I was the reason he cheated on her.  I, in a horrible drunken state, made a guy cheat on his girl friend. I felt like the worst human in the world.

Then again, he HAD been going out on dates every night.

“I’m taking the first plane out of here!” He said.

Then, the most unfortunate series of events happened. The door opened wide open unexpectingly, I was facing a very angry Nicolas Forrest.

“What the fuck?” He looked at me with furious eyes. “You’ve been spying on me?”

“Uh, no?”

“Uh, no?” He imitated, in a squeaky voice. “Get off my front steps, or so help me—”

Something just sort of snapped.

“What are you going to do? Beat me up? After last night, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Even though I was the one at fault here, I put my hands on my hips and stood in front of him with complete confidence.

 “Look, I’m not in the mood for you,” he said, trying to pass. I blocked his way.

“Oh, but I am! You humiliate me, insult me, make me feel like absolute total shit and cause this! You watched me bleed last night.” I pointed to my palm.

“Get out of my way, or I swear I will do something to hurt you.”

“Guess what, Nicolas Forrest? You are scum. You are an asshole and I have never hated anyone more than I’ve hated you. Your girlfriend must have suffered being with you.”

His nose flared. “That’s it,” he said.

He bent down and picked me up on his shoulder.

“RAPE! HELP! GET ME DOWN NICO!” I screamed over and over, hitting his back as hard as I could.

He opened the back seat of his car and threw me in it. Immediately, I reached for the door handle but he locked the car. He used the key no one ever uses to open the front door. He got in and backed out of his dad’s driveway.

“I swear to God, if you say one fucking word, you will regret it.”

“One fucking word,” I said, trying to find an escape of the car without killing myself.

Opening the car door was impossible since the door was locked. Even if it was unlocked, the speed Nico was driving at right now was fast enough to give me serious injuries if I tried to get out.

“Stop and let me out,” I demanded.

“Stop talking, please.”

“Drive slowly.”

“I told you to shut up,” he said through clenched teeth.

“No you didn’t. You asked me to stop talking,” I answered, being stubborn.

He stayed silent and only drove faster. I put on my seat belt and prayed not to die today. I was too young. Thankfully, no kids were out today, it was too early. The roads were clear.

“You do realize this is considered kidnapping, right?” I said, just as we passed the Welcome to Silvercrest! sign.

“Shut up.”

“You do realize I can call the police and report you for kidnapping?”

“Shut up.”

“Do you want me to shut up?”

Muttering a series of uncolorful curses, he said in a low voice that honestly terrified me: “Shut. Up.”

“Can I at least know where we’re going?”

“The airport.”

-

ELLO! Idk at first I was planning for Nico to jsut disappear but this chapter just turned out like this.

Okay, so I have something to say.

A few of you readers got mad at Zoey for having bad comebacks in the previous chapter. You have to understand that she just got her heart broken. Imagine the guy you kissed tells you it meant nothing and he starts going out with your best friend. She was in no state to be faced off by Nico and she wasn't ready to face anyone yet. It's like a bird that just got its wing broken, but another bird challenges it to a race. Exactly. So, yeah. Please just put yourself in her shoes and I promise that the next Zico fights will be much more exciting.

My favorite part was when he picked her up and went all: "That's it." AND when she was answering back in the car even if he was on the point of punching something! What was yours?

Nico is on the side! 

I'll update sooner than you think! 

questions? ask.fm/yasthepotato

other: instagram and twitter= @yasthepotato

ps. IT'S 5:14 IN THE MORNING OKAY AND I'M AWAKE IS THAT NORMAL?

goodnight & goodmorning to all of you, yas.