Distorted -Z.H.

lonely broken people

the next day was a typical monday at the girls' house. except for the fact that instead of logging onto online classes, both of them were busy in booking flights for skylar and planning out corbyn's birthday. oh, and of course, crystal's occasional train of thought led to zach and sometimes skylar's to jonah. every time she thought of zach, her heart made a leap. he wasn't even here, no. but it still did. she was left so confused. why was this happening? did she like him? no, that cannot be. she's still heartbroken. she still remembers markie and their memories together. the real question in her mind was...

can a broken person fall for someone?

meanwhile at the WDW house, the boys were doing things they always do. their manager didn't call them in, and wouldn't call them in for a week now so they had the week off. in their living room, corbyn and jonah were of course playing video games. daniel was on facetime with franny and jack was sleeping, as always, on the couch. zach wasn't in the living room, but in his room. he hadn't left the room since yesterday's incident. 

he kept thinking about what happened. he tried going over the train of events that unfolded so damn quickly. first, kay dragged him to his room, they fought, she screamed, he hit the wall, she left, he cried, crystal came in, she hugged him, she made him feel better, she was the most beautiful person on the planet. NO! that's not where that should lead. he was supposed to go over yesterday's events, not think about crystal. he was dating kay, yes. but was he falling for crystal? he still didn't know. the most prominent question in his head was...

can a broken person fall for someone?

~

crystal's phone rang, with her new ringtone, 'strong' by one direction. she looked up from her laptop to see the name 'pretty boi 💕' come across the screen. she smiled to herself as she picked up the call.

"hey, butterfly," his voice spoke. the same voice that made her want to kiss the life out of him.

"hi pretty boy! wassup?" she asked, trying not to smile so hard.

"nothing, i haven't left my room since yesterday so i decided to get tickets to a movie, wanna come with me?" he asked, hoping she would say yes.

"sure! at what time?"

"um, it's at 6 p.m. also, can i... can i tell you something? i need advice," he said, not sure he if he wanted to disclose the matter so quickly.

"yeah sure! you wanna do it over phone or should we meet up?" she spoke with a worried tone.

"erm, i'd prefer to meet up. i'll pick you up in ten?"

"yeah, sure. but just a warning: i look like a disaster right now," she chuckled.

"ah, butterfly, if only you could look anything but gorgeous," zach spoke through the phone.

"i- um, i'll be ready in five," crystal said, blushing furiously. 

skylar noticed her blushing as she walked into the room. she narrowed her eyes at her, as her text tone blew up. she looked at her phone and 'jo <3' flashed on her screen. 

jo <3

crystal and zach are going to the movies later

theyre also meeting up rn. zachs taking her to a cafe

sky <3

wait what?! yushh my bbys!

just as crystal got ready, putting on jeans and a tie-dye shirt, the doorbell rang. she ran downstairs, in full excitement. skylar shook her head at the girl's childish behavior, while she collected her calm self and opened the door. she expected zach to be his normal, smiling self. except, he wasn't. he was upset. his eyes that brightened the room were dull, his posture slightly slouched. her smile fell as soon as she saw those dull eyes. her excitement died down, when she saw him upset. he gave her a wry smile and signaled for her to follow him.

they made their way to zach's car, and zach didn't make conversation with her. she did not know if she should even start. finally, when it felt like a lifetime of silence, he turned on the radio. 'cheap thrills' by sia came up and crystal smiled at the song, though she didn't sing along. she knew that this was not the time. she lowered the volume of the radio and looked over to zach. 

"what's wrong? did something happen?" she finally decided to ask as they neared their detination.

"uh, yeah, can we talk about this inside?" he asked, signalling to the small cafe as they made their way inside. they got a table in the corner and ordered a cappuccino for crystal and a mocha for him.

"me and... kay and i, we broke up," he finally said, tears threatening to spill down his eyes. crystal was taken aback. when he said that they needed to talk, she thought it was something casual, not about kay and zach breakup. nonetheless, she was happy with the news since she has heard that kay was quite toxic. she didn't know what to say. she wanted to make sure he was okay, tell him it's perfectly fine to cry.

"how have you been doing, since this happened?" she asked with concern laced in her voice.

"i've been feeling like shit. kay and i have dated since my high school days and...  i didn't realize it until the guys told me. but i think she was toxic. and with her screaming at me that day, i just- i told her that we needed to breakup and that our relationship was toxic." tears were flowing down his face at this point. crystal went over to his side and gave him a comforting hug.

"it's gonna be okay, pretty boy. if kay was toxic and you realized that, then this means that you're ready to move on. acceptance is the first step to anything," she said, wiping his tears.

he smiled slowly at her, and they drank their coffee in comfortable silence. he spoke again as they finished their coffee, payed for it and headed out to the car.

"so, you still up for the movie?"

"of course!" she smiled at him.

"you smile so much."

"always," she said, smiling wider.

"you've got a pretty smile," he said, now staring directly at her lips. she blushed, and looked at her feet.

"you've got one too, you just need to smile more," she said giving him a goofy grin. he chuckled at that. how is she even real? she's so perfect, he thought to himself as they got into his car. finally as her apartment arrived, she gave him another huge hug and kissed his head. this caused him to blush furiously. she only then realized that he had not seen her kiss his head yesterday; he was asleep. he watched as she made her way inside and finally decided to drive back to the WDW house.