ZACK’S POV
Getting a new job had boosted my confidence and I was proud of myself to have taken half of my family’s responsibility. What more could have I done to make my dad feel proud of his son??
“Congratulation buddy. So tomorrow onwards, lets rock after high school” Mike high fived me for my very first job ever and I hugged him, feeling too damn lucky.
“Does Caroline know about this?” Mike suddenly asked me and I sighed. I could simply imagine how she would wreak havoc stating how embarrassing it was to have me working in a super market. But who knows what the new version of Caroline would think??
“Nope. Don’t know what her brains would think like" I looked down hopelessly and he patted on my shoulders.
“Maybe she has changed for good" he raised his shoulder in belief and that’s what I too wanted to think.
“Mike, does anyone else know about her???” I skeptically asked him as he was the first person to know the rumors in the high-school.
“Not yet I guess. But who knows when things would get out of hands? Especially when your girlfriend is a social media freak" he commented on how dangerous the situation was and who would ever want to have their high school life turn into a nightmare that too when already my situation is fucked up!!!
“Dude don’t freak me out!!” when I understood that his words had a deeper warning to it, my heart raced up and I gulped down in stress.
“Shall we get a drink. I really thrive for your vodka shots" to ease me out of the stress, he planned a night out and I was more than ready for that. Gosh, I really needed a break!!!
“But I will definitely warn you, don’t mess it up once you go home!! Remember what last time had done to you" before we got on our way, he warned me again and I grinned at the memories of that evening which ended up becoming the biggest mess of my life.
“Shut up” I pushed up away from me and he joyfully swung his hands around me and we excitedly went to the beach shack for a party.
The whole evening, we drank, we danced we played and was intoxicated to hell. No wonder why I ended up back with Caroline, she definitely used the best time to return back to my life. I had begun to think about how I used to have a heavy alcohol toleration in my blood which I had got from dad, but I never imagined that I would ever loose that talent of mine to my fucked-up brains and mind!!!
“You daddy…wach you thinking about??” Mike was too drowned in his drowsiness that he couldn’t even utter words properly and the way he addressed me fired me up.
“Why don’t you drown in the beach than eat my brains" I slanged at him in the same intoxicated state and he laughed like an insane man.
“If I die, who bill loch after you and Choi" he cheered his beer bottle with mine and took another big sip and told me in his baby voice and I was blank on who he was talking about.
“Who’s your Choi? And when did I become your baby, big brother” I lashed at him with my bottle for calling me a baby and he again laughed like he never cared about my lashing. That audacity of his!!
“Who’s the bad boi now" he was so drowned in his evil laughter and God, I really wondered whether he was human or not because how could a man have such a care free attitude???
“You haven’t seen my bad boy face yet Mike. I’m more terror than you know" I breathed and threatened at him and I too felt myself being like a joker. Wow, the drink had really hit my head that I myself didn’t know what I was doing.
“Zack, jokes apart, I really want to thank you for being my buddy" he came into a serious mood and I somehow managed to keep my mind steady to be his support system. I had to at least be useful for now for all the help he had did for me selflessly!!
“Will you kiss me or what?” seeing him take a serious note, I looked at him who’s moist eyes were fixed on me.
“Why would I do that psycho?? Don’t spoil my mood, I don’t really get this feel to become too emotional” he bragged about his own emotion and I really like the way he began to express himself. How could these siblings be so naïve and humble??
“Tell me, what’s in your heart" I put my hands on him and we took a stroll around the beach to give him a much good vibe to open up his heart.
“Do you know how me and my Zoe used to be bullied in the high-school by that fucking popular gang of Noah and Sarah. They had made our lives hell by their constant bullying" out of nowhere, Mike had transformed into a vengeful man who spitted out fire when he was talking about those torturous days of his life and I was appalled hearing that. Did Noah and Sarah’s gang really go off limits??
“What do you mean Mike? Why were they so hideous to you guys?” I came back to my senses because for me, this was a very crucial thing to aware of!!
“Zoe. My poor Zoe had suffered a lot after Jake’s demise. And those days were such a nightmare for her that the bloody gangs of Beverly hills added to it by tagging her a weirdo because…...” Mike was literally shivering with devastation and despair that his tone reflected those emotions very well.
“Because?” I clenched onto my drink with a ravenous fist as even though I knew how Zoe had turned into a depressed introvert, I never knew that she was bullied by those losers!!
“Because none knew what happened to her and why she had shut herself at home away from the world" he burst in a hurtful cry and shared his despair with me and I felt so emotionally connected to them. I was feeling their pain and I knew how tormenting it would have been for them. But I was confused on why he was telling me all these things which they had already told me.
“Zack, I want to confess something” the intoxication had hit his brains so hard that he had turned into a totally unbelievable messed up man like me and to be honest, that character didn’t suit him at all.
“What? Tell me anything” I let him come into my comfort zone and he again stared at me with a puppy face.
"You know why I came forward and became your friend?” he asked me a very strange question and I blinked my eyes in horror. What did he mean by that??
“Why?” I let him answer that himself and a thankful expression shined in his eyes.
“It was not because you were a new comer. It was because I knew you were a champion athlete just like my Zoe and thought that your arrival would make a difference in her life as I could see both of you having a sane light to shine on each other" he ended up confessing something that shook me to the core. Did he really tell me that he actually befriended me for his sister??
“Mike. You are too much drunk. Let's go home" I felt him getting out of hand and wanted to take him back home but he was adamant in confessing everything to me.
“Nope. Not until I complete” he lashed at me and I gave up trying and let him blurt out everything.
“It was all in my mind but you know what was a miraculous thing that happened? You both actually found each other and your past and present got tangled so disastrously that you both don’t even know how and why it happened” abruptly, the utterly serious and emotional man burst into a heap of laughter and I went crazy being with him.
He was so damn true, there was no way anyone in the town would have imagined me and Zoe being friends and that was a very much unbelievable situation for them. Little did they know what a soul Zoe was. And there was no limit on how much I had to thank these siblings for coming into my depressed life and filling it with temporary joys!!!
“What to do. That’s how our fate was written" I finally interrupted his talk and he again stared at me with wide eyes.
“Absolutely. Who would have ever imagined Caroline coming back into our lives and that too with a big storm of her pregnancy new” Mike again was again over by his serious face and I sat clueless with him!!!
“And who would have known that Caroline would again crush the hopes of my sister who had somehow begun to smile again after you came into her life”
“Whoa, where did that come from?” I was starting to get drowsy in high intoxication and my brains were already dead.
“Dude. You an idiot or what? You had started to make her laugh and smile and above all, she had finally started to come out of her shell because she like you, dumb ass" he blurted it out and I didn’t get to hear that as I was busy with trying to figure out why I was seeing 2 bottles in my hand when I was only holding one. That was the perks of being drunk!!!
“And?” I had no idea what we were talking about nor what I was responding to. I just said something that came to my tongue and he nevertheless continues opening his heart out in front of me.
“And she wanted to save you from getting the same fate of Jake after knowing that Caroline was your ex-girlfriend. She is really into you that she never wanted you to see her with the eyes that everyone else saw her though you never did from the very beginning” saying that he hung his hands around me and we laid on the sand of the beach and the waves of the ocean washed us over with its salty water.
“Soo true. I think Zoe is the right kind of girl I always wanted in my life" I subconsciously blurted out something that came from my heart and let myself sway away in the ocean waves.
This was one of the best nights I ever had in the town because I was with a man who was in the same place I had given to Dash and Will in my life and him opening up to me with that large about of blind trust was something I really valued. But who knew that the drinks we had was so powerful enough to hit our brains so terrifically that we totally forgot about the night and whatever we blurted to each other in the next morning itself???????