I'll Never Let Go, Chapter 7I'll Never Let Go, Chapter 7
Zac began his Spanish worksheet. This was his first time taking a language, and his grades were there to prove it. It was now a day before Winter Break, and he was finishing a week of finals where the pressure was on at every second of the day. But at least they got out at 11:25 every day.
He glanced at the minute hand on the clock, urging it to move. Of course, it didn't. He just couldn't seem to focus, which was usually the case in Spanish.
His eyes drifted around the room, resting on Cory, where they stayed until she looked around and smiled at him. He then slouched over in his seat and rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes, only to be poked in the back by his teacher, Mr. McAllen.
"Mr. Hanson? Are we awake?" asked Mr. McAllen.
"Yes, we are." Zac said, disrespectively.
"Do you want a referral, Mr. Hanson?" Mr. McAllen replyed.
"No." Zac answered.
"Then do your work. You haven't even put your name on your paper!" Mr McAllen yelled, stalking off.
The bell rang a few minutes later, signalling the end of the day. Zac rushed out of the room and caught up with Cory in the hall.
"Cory!" Zac yelled.
"What?" she turned around, waiting for him.
"Well, I tried paging you last night, and you didn't call me back." Zac said.
"Well, maybe I had stuff to do." Cory said with a gleam in her eye.
"What were you doing?" Zac asked.
"None of your business." Cory said
"Oh, come on Cory! I tell you stuff like this." Zac pleaded.
"Oh, no you don't." Cory said.
"You weren't with Micheal, were you?" Zac questioned. Cory and Micheal had been going out for almost a month.
"I'll never tell." Cory said, not meanly, but not flirty, either.
"You were. What were you doing that was so important that you couldn't call me?" asked Zac.
"Well, if I was with Micheal, which I'm not admitting to, I was doing something too personal to tell you about." Cory said. She looked up, seeing Micheal and running up to him with Zac at her heels.
Micheal glared at Zac. They had not been getting along since Cory and Micheal had began going out. Zac just thought that he was jealous because Zac was so close. He supposed that it was because Micheal felt that he was a threat.
"Cory, call me, okay?" Zac asked, knowing that he wasn't welcome at all.
"Yeah, whatever." she said as he walked off.
In the parking lot, he saw Emma, a friend from English, walking to her car, which, like Zac's, was parked at the very end of the parking lot. He caught up with her.
"Hello!" Zac said, pulling himself out of the bad mood he was getting into.
"Hi. Oh, you are just the person I wanted to see." she said, smiling.
"What about?" asked Zac.
"Well, there is this rumor that your best friend Corynne and Micheal kind of, you know, flew with the birds and the bees, if you get my drift." she said, her eyes gleaming.
"Oh, do you know who started it?" Zac asked.
"Micheal told me, but that's not the point. Is it true?" she asked, reaching for her keys as they aproached their cars.
"I don't know. And I don't care. That's Cory's business if she wants to go fuck the entire student body." Zac replied, and, after unlocking his car, he got in, slammed the door, and revved the engine.
is driving home was reckless, but Zac didn't care. He ran up to his room, finding his punching bag and hitting it with all of his might. Why did Cory have to do that? She was putting her popularity at risk, as well as risking her life.
He heard the phone ring out in the hall, but stayed on his bed and closed his eyes.
"Zac. Phone." Ike said as he entered Zac's room.
"Who is it?" aske Zac.
"Well, you'll just have to find out, won't you?" Ike suggusted.
Zac glared at him. "Here." he reached for the phone.
Ike handed it to him. "Hello?" he asked.
"Hi, Zac." Cory said into the phone softly.
"Oh, it's you." Zac said.
"Gee, are you mad or something?" Cory asked innocently.
"Well, asside from the fact that you are going around screwing everyone in school, I'm just fine and dandy." Zac said. He used all of his strength just to refrain from adding 'but me'.
"You know what Zac?" she asked.
"What?" Zac asked.
"If I was in the room with you, I would have just slapped you. But since I'm not, I'm going to do this-" the line went dead.
He knew that it was rude to say that, but the anger and rage that were in his soul outweighed his love and lust at the moment. He had probably just lost the best friend he ever had, but all he could think about was Micheal and her and- eww, well maybe not quite picturing it, but you know what I'm getting at.
Ike entered the room, a grim look on his face.
"What is it?" asked Zac.
"Mom and Dad are, well, they're kicking me out." Ike said, sitting down on the floor.
"What?! Why?" Zac jumped off of his bed and started pacing around the room.
"They said that it was time I left the home, now that I'm 21." he answered.
"Oh, geez, not you too! Tay leaves and then you and..." Zac's face cringed up as he tried to suppress the tears.
"You know, I would be really touched if you were about to cry over my having to move, but for some reason, I know that that's not it." Ike said.
Zac looked over at Ike from his boombox, where he was trying to put a CD in. "It's Cory." he said, as if it were an explanation in itself.
"What about her? Is she sick?" Ike questioned.
"No. Her and... Micheal are- lets just say- intimate with eachother." he said in dusgust.
"So? Many couples are, um, intimate, with eachother. Look at Tay and Laura, or me and Kathryn." Ike said.
"You and Kathryn? Since when?" aske Zac.
"Since- hey! That's not the point! The point is is that couples do that kind of stuff with eachother." Ike said.
"Yeah, but after they've been going out for not even a month?" asked Zac.
"Well, I don't know. I know some friends at college that sleep with a girl and never see her again." Ike told him. "Besides, why do you care so much anyways?"
"Well, I care about her. She is my friend. I mean, I just don't know how to describe our friendship. She just isn't the same anymore. Something changed about her." Zac said, a small grin on his lips.
"You mean that you suddenly realized that Cory was a girl?" asked Ike.
"Yeah. I guess so. And right as I did, her and Micheal hooked up. But now, after she did that, I don't know. The Cory I used to know would never do that." Zac said.
"Or maybe she would have, but you always just tthought that it would be you, not Micheal." Ike said.
"No, I don't know. I guess so, but not quite. It's like-"
"It's like she liked you forever, and when she finally got over you, you went all crazy for her." Ike interupted.
"Cory used to like me?" asked Zac.
"Wasn't it obvious? She was always talking about you when we saw her, she was always home when you called, always there when we came home from a tour." Ike said.
"Why didn't I notice sooner?" Zac asked.
"I don't-"
"It was a hypothetical question, Ike. Don't answer." Zac said.
"Right. Well, I'll talk to you later when you are over this new surprise about Cory. Later." Ike walked out the door.
