Butterscotch Backstabber

Chapter 19: Double Bubble

Hilary is persistent, I'll give her that. But Zoey is hard-headed, I really did wonder who could hold out the longest. At first, we tried the direct approach, after school we walked together to the bike rack where Zoey was bound to show up eventually.

When she did she eyed me, then Hilary, then our hands interlocked together. I saw her narrow her eyes at me.

"Zoey, I want to apologize for what I did to you." Hilary started.

Zoey unlocked her bike, threw the bike lock at me so I had to let go of Hilary's hand to catch it, then quickly rode away.

Hilary and I sighed.

So then we tried Hilary's idea, which for the record I already felt was a bad idea. We went back to the skating rink and spray-painted in huge letters. Zoey I'm sorry! Tagged by HP. We waited a couple of days but she still continued to ignore us.

So then we tried Wes's idea. Yes, we were desperate enough to try Wes's idea. I approached Zoey, on my own, convinced her to talk to me, then led her to a room where Hilary was waiting.

She immediately tried to bolt once she realized what was happening.

"Zoey please!" I stopped her from running.

"Poppy! No! You know I don't want to talk to her!" she said in distress.

"You can't keep avoiding her forever! We are back together now."

"Then I'll just avoid both of you," she tried to leave.

"I'm sorry!" Hilary screamed.

We both turned to her.

"I am so sorry for what I did to you, please just hear me out."

Zoey looked at me, and I gave her the puppy dog pleading look. Then she sighed and turned to face Hilary, arms crossed and a defiant look on her face.

"I knew poppy had a crush on you, I mean it was kind of obvious. And when you two got into a fight or something and I saw you weren't talking to each other, I knew I had to take a chance. I have been trying to get Poppy's attention for a very long time but nothing worked, because you had her attention. I knew me interacting with you would finally force her to pay attention to me. I'm sorry I led you on and hurt your feelings. I just wanted Poppy to talk to me. What I did to you was awful and inexcusable, I know that now. Please Zoey, please, please, please give me another chance. I just want us to be friends."

"No," Zoey said, just like that.

I cringed.

"I won't give up!" Hilary declared before Zoey could leave.

Zoey stopped.

"I'm not a quitter, just ask Poppy. Every day I am going to make an effort to make this right until you finally forgive me."

"I'll never forgive you." She said, then she left.

I sighed.

Hilary sniffled, and I moved to comfort her.

"That's just Zoey, she's very hard-headed," I say.

"I won't give up!" she said in determination.

Wes and I made a bet on who could last the longest. I got 20 on Hilary, he has 30 on Zoey. I mean it was kind of funny all the creative ways Hilary came up with getting Zoey to forgive her.

She tired the banner thing again.

Zoey took it down and burned it.

Big yikes.