ZOE’S POV
The next day, I was a bit hesitant to go to the high school has I had no idea what was going to happen. My peaceful life was definitely going go get chaotic with Caroline’s arrival back to the town after these long 2 years. With that I really wondered whether the peace I had been drowned in was just the peace felt before the storm of after the storm???
Whatever it was the one thing that I really felt bad for was the fact that Zack was her boyfriend. She couldn’t be blamed for that choice as it was a perfect one but the whole blame of losing such a golden egg was completely hers. Now that she had never changed and showed him her real face it was my time to protect him from her wicked eyes. Because only I knew to which level, she could stoop to gain what she had eyes and if she didn’t get that, she wouldn’t leave it alone without destroying its existence!!!
That whole day there was not a single trace of her after she met me in the morning and I wondered if her arrival was a hallucination or so. And I was wrong because during our arts period, I stormed into the class giving me a mini heart attack and came the moment which I was worried of. I had got to know about my connection with Caroline and that too of Jake's which meant for the first time from the past 2 years, I had to narrate that tragic chapters of my life to the man who needed to know it.
I was already overwhelmed with the emotions he couldn’t control after he got to know his dad’s stories and it really fascinated me to know that he had never asked his dad about it nor had his father told him anything in the 18 years of his life. Such a strange family his was!!
But luck didn’t leave me alone this time because I had Mike with me. With his support there was nothing I could hide from Zack nor I wanted to hide anything. However, Mike didn’t have the same opinion. He didn’t wanted me to go through the disastrous days of my life once again and he tried his best to stop me. And me being me, too the initiative to reopen the whole story in front of him and our mini war turned into a group confession where the 3 of us confessed our parts and situations and it all began with Zack.
As thought, Caroline had beautifully hid her town life from me and Mike was fascinated knowing I had also fallen in Caroline’s trap. There I began by telling him our friendship story that led to Caroline meeting Jake, which led to her joining athletics that resulted in her growing over obsessed about my friendship with Jake that further led to her misunderstanding us and finally everything ended by Jake going to the university and Caroline fucking up my life.
I was flabbergasted hearing Caroline story reacted the way anyone would have done. But he was not like everyone else right, and more than Caroline’s hideousness what affected his mood was Jake’s story that was much more relatable for him. He couldn’t accept the fact that Jake decided to end his life!!!
Mike was also down after the long talk and all 3 of us had lost our senses for the day and were sunk in a bad vibe that left us depressed. There was nothing that could change the inner struggles we were having and most importantly for Zack. His wounds were still fresh while I had overcome my demons a very long time ago. So, I knew how exactly he felt.
He just left us there and went straight to the tree house to get some alone time and I desperately wanted to help him for which, I followed him and once he reached the treehouse and blew up, I lend him my shoulders to cry on.
When you are really broken and can’t find anything that you desperately need to keep yourself alive, all you have to do is ask and that’s what none of us do. We all just curl into a corner and cry our heart out until we are done with existence and decides the worst for our already fucked life and that decision makes us have nothing neither it helps in nothing else other than gaining the loser tag that we never wished we ever got.
I had already lost a soul to Caroline’s craziness and there was no way I was letting her destroy another also.
What I needed the most was, some time. Time to heal himself, time to redeem himself, time to gather his lost self. And he saw me as a pillar to his support to share his heart with. If that was what he wanted from me, I was more than ready to be by his side and help him through it. At least, I can have a satisfaction that my life was worth something!!!
After a long time, I got fine and we returned to our homes. Mike was eagerly waiting for me with a pleasant smile but todays was different.
“What happened to you?” I asked him the reason and he hugged me like a teddy bear.
“You did amazing" he complimented my bravery today and I giggled at his gestures.
“Dad, after 2 long years I saw her speak freely about her past and that too Zack " out of nowhere, that name popped up and he used his teasing tone to it. As usual, dad was quick to grasp the meaning out of it and raised his brows naughtily at me.
“Shut up Mike. I just feel his pain and that it" I pinched him stomach and he squeaked in pain while mom laughed from the kitchen.
“Who knows, our kids are growing love" she screamed from the kitchen and dad backed her. What a crazy family I was born into??
As usual, I snugged back into my room and sat in the darkness thinking about what all we talked about in the tree house. I smiled thinking how I was able to help him out of that shattered state of his. I wondered how did Caroline become so heartless to do all that to him?? What did she gain after leaving and what did she want to gain by coming back into his life?? I was hell worried about what all she was about to do forward to him in my name!!!
The next morning, I was the first to wake up and also woke up Mike because I wanted to know how Zack was. Mike slanged at me for caring more about Zack than him in the morning itself and I chuckled ag him. How did I ever love this man??
We reached Zack’s house and the first thing I saw was Caroline clinging onto Zack like nothing had happened between them. And around her were her luggage bags that made it seem like she had come to stay in the town. Holy shit!!!
And when Zack saw us, he began to behave like devil had possessed him. She pushed her and her face went pale like dead with shock. Oh boy, this was not an expected reaction from him and there on started a confrontation drama like no other. I went on confronting her double face and whatever answers she gave them didn’t have the power to reach Zack and every time I bashed her, her eyes turned towards me with growing hatred only for me. I know, she had started deeming me as the villain in her story as always and suddenly when Zack dragged me into their matter, it was more than enough to instigate her.
I tried my best to wake her up from the dream world of hers that didn’t include Zack but she, on the other was already planning my death. She further shocked us when she broke the news of her shifting back to the town only for Zack. Zack had no idea what it meant but Mike and I very well knew the disaster that were going to follow and the main victims were me and Zack. Her final words had a real warning and threat to it in such a way that what came to my mind in a gist was Jake's fate.
As thought, back in the high school, Caroline had made her perfect move by joining Sarah’s gang and had already planned to do something that was her very first bad move that made her fall in her own grave.
She forwarded a meme about the three of us deeming herself an innocent souk trapped by the devil me and everyone’s contemptuous look and evil laughter instigated me to leave the room but before I reached the door, Caroline called my name and stopped me.
“Why are you running away after doing so much to me? Aren’t you satisfied with what all you had done in the past?” she asked me in a crying tone to gain the sympathy of other and my heart beat rose.
I took a deep breath and controlled myself from bursting out but I didn’t have an intention to let her question go unanswered. I turned to her and ignored all the other hateful eyes and met hers.
“It was you who overcooked shits in your mind and acted upon the same, it was you who played double games to gain his attention, it was you who left him when you had to stay by his side and support him and it was you who tried to comeback into his life like a shameless bitch. It was then, now and will always you so don’t ever dare to make it me Caroline” I bashed her so that everyone would get to know that not always I kept silence with their shits.
“How dare you blame her Zoe, when it is you who’s trying to come in between them when she tried to patch up with Zack " Sarah took a stand for her ‘new' friend and slanged at me.
“Don’t act like an idiot Sarah. Zack himself had rejected her even before I arrived in the scene. And he’s definitely not an idiot like you to believe her blindly" I answered her confidently and everyone went silent for a moment and then broke into murmurs about the same.
“So, you want the whole Beverly hills to believe that your saint Teresa and she’s the devil" Sarah again hissed at me and I let out a sigh regretting my decision to talk with them. These idiots only spoon fed themselves only what they wanted to believe in!!!
“You guys are impossible idiots" I complimented them for the intelligence they showed on any matter and walked out of the school to the lighthouse to have some moment for myself.
After sometime, I came running to me like a mad man and when he found me, he hugged me tightly numbing me in shock of what he was doing. How was he so damn worried? What had happened because it was a routine for me to bunk classes and come to the lighthouse so why was he so worried??
I consoled him and remembered the meme incident. So, he got to know it was her and now we had to be double cautious because he had broken Caroline’s ego and that meant anytime there was a threat of havoc to wreak that would change our lives forever……