ZACK’S POV
{WEEK’S LATER}
High school was becoming really exhausting for me. In literal sense, I was going there because I was forced to go by the women in my life, especially Zoe. She had now became a vital being in my life and if it wasn’t for her motivation, I would had dropped out of this fucking high school long ago itself!!!!
The only thing I liked about the high school even after all this was the presence of Mike. With him, I was able to spend some quality time with. As for Caroline, her new gang of the plastics had already adopted her after knowing her pregnancy news and the whole school saw me as an alien due to that!!!!
Honestly, this shitty school was totally different from my old one. There, every batch of students had a kind of humanity and understanding between them which kept good relations alive in the whole campus. But here, in Beverly hills, everything was quite eerie. I got to understand it more after Caroline had flashed her pregnancy news to the whole town. The students here didn’t have any sorts of feeling, emotions, let go of truthfulness to each other. all they cared about was their status and that’s why the high school was filled with a bunch of mere emotionless people!!!
with my growing popularity as both a tagged champion and a teenage daddy couldn’t adjust even a bit in that place. Hence, most of the time, I used to spend it with Mike and in the gym with coach David. I used to talk to Coach David every day and it was his usual hobby to always try to bring me back to tracks.
“You should be returning back to the track's son. All I see in you is how you’re letting your trauma take over you” he told me in a depressed tone.
“Coach, please don’t depress me more. I’m in no hurry to get back to my old life with what all are happening right now” I replied to him a rejection.
“Is it because you’re worried of getting bullied in Caroline’s name?” with concern, he asked me.
“Dare them come to me, I’ll show them who the bad boy is” I snarled my bad boy attitude at him showing him I wasn’t that weak.
Out of the high school world, I had spent my days with Mike and Zoe, away from all the tantrums of Caroline. And for that, the big risk I had to take was to sneak out from home to meet my buddies at midnight in the beach. Mike was obsessed with his DJ job in the beach shack and me and Zoe spent some quality time together in the lighthouse.
“I never imagined you going so audacious behind the back of Caroline, Zack. I must say, you have some guts” Zoe teased me.
“Stop reminding me of that girl. The more I try to adjust with her, the most she drives me nuts with her antics” I replied to her in a freaked-out tone.
“i know, but do you feel it to be the real her from deep within?” she asked me a question which confused me a lot!!!
“What do you mean?” I asked for clarifications.
“I mean, you have lived with her for some time now right. Have you ever felt it to be her real face or is it something she just lives with? What do you feel?” she asked me more clearly.
“i don’t know Zoe. Back in the city, she was the most innocent soul who was madly in love with me but now, all I see is a shadow of her which craves and yearns for what she fears of losing” I reminisced my life with Caroline and answered.
“At least someone knows her pretty well” Zoe smiled at me appreciating my thoughts on Caroline.
“Is there any way we can change her?” out of curiosity, I asked her.
“Guilt. If she realizes that what she’s doing to you out of possessiveness is immense toxicity, I'm pretty sure that guilt will set her straight. At least what hasn’t changed about her is she cannot tolerate even the tiniest guilt if she realizes it, just like me” she sighed and answered me.
This routine of mine became an addictive habit when I started spending time with Caroline in the morning and then at night with my friend. This was something I loved to do. I and Zoe used to talk a lot in the tree house, spent time in the lighthouse etc., then on the weekends, jut for me, Mike and Zoe suffered Caroline’s presence among us. She used to flaunt her pregnancy like it was her bliss while her overreactions used to make all of us contemplate her. Let alone me, I used to think she got crazy since the whole town came to know about the news. Her actions were so that high!!!!
Mike and I used to do many adventure sports on the beach while Zoe, in a corner of the beach, alone enjoyed seeing us go chaotic. Later the days, we played video games at their house and never for once did Carolien and Zoe try to mend their relation rather than keeping a formal well-wishing one. It did take me a lot of time to do it, still, I had finally started liking the time I had in the town....
Months went by like this since I had shifted to the town and Caroline returned back. The new lifestyle had found a place in my heart and I had somehow adjusted to my new life. With mom’s help, I had also started some small kinds of online freelancing works that did earn me something to help mom survive and along with the grocery store job, we were luckily balanced in our life. Between all these schedules, sleep was a dream for me and the only hours I slept was some 5 hours and as per how my life was going peacefully, that was more than enough for me!!!
One day, mom had some urgent work in the office and to help her make breakfast, I had woken up much earlier than any other day. That became my big mistake because I couldn’t sleep afterwards and so, after mom took off, I decided to go to the high school gym for some time.
I went to the school so early that it was yet to be opened by the janitors. Fatefully, they knew me and so, let me in. I thanked them and went straight to the track field and sat on the tracks. Sun was still tired as it wasn’t shining pretty well. I did expect to get a nostalgic attack from my actions and it happened as exactly like that. In a matter of time, I had a flash of memories I had on tracks and my legs felt like they were yearning for running in the tracks. My legs and blood were begging me for it but my heart and mind were not ready to help me. The very thought gave me a traumatic chill. It was a kind of hysteric feeling that without my dad, I would be a total failure. It's not like I was so damn weak. I did wanted to run and also wanted to overcome his fears but it was just not happening. Unknown to me, Coach David had arrived to take the stock of the equipment's and when he saw me sitting on the tracks, he came to me.
“Son, what happened? Why are you sitting here? Is everything alright?” he asked.
“I don’t know what to do. I want to run but I’m not able to and I miss dad terribly” I whined without crying.
“Do you wish to have a chance?” he sighed and asked me in a curious tone.
Yeah, sure man, I did want it but I didn’t know how I was going to do it!!!1
“Would you like to help me with the training of the athletes for some tournaments? By doing so you would be able to spend some time on tracks and heal your pain” he instantly laid down to me his idea and left me appalled!!!! Was he for real???
“I don’t want you to race. I only want you to train your friends and juniors with the skills, knowledge and experience you got from your dad” he put his hands around my shoulder and told me what exactly he wanted.
“Are you sure you think I'm worthy of this chance?? I mean, I feel myself a total loser and you want me to be back my old self” I asked him skeptically and he laughed.
“I’m damn sure. But only if you agree” he assured me.
“I’ll think about it and let you know” I let my breath out and calmed myself before taking a decision.
For better opinions, in the afternoon, I met Zoe in the cafeteria and talked to her about this chance. Without a second thought, she immediately asked me to go and agree to it and her aura gave me the boost of confidence I was looking for. Damn, this girl was really getting me get used to her miserably, in a good way!!!!
“Seriously?? You're sure about this right?? Are you on any pressure or anything??” coach hastily asked me in disbelief. Yep, it was hard for him to believe it!!!
“Whatever I am doing it is not only for me but also for my dad. I am doing exactly what dad could have done in my place” this time, I was damn sure of what I wanted and was ready to take up the task.
After a very long time in my life, this one decision was the best one I had taken because from the moment Zoe boosted my spirits to accept the offer, it helped me immensely to heal my scars. It felt like I was alive and my spirits were back after a long struggle. From there on, I was at peace from my depression, pains and scars but who knew those were the happiness I got before my fate was ready to make me face another chaos of my life?????