Too Close for Comfort

Summer: Day 43

Summer: Day 43

Mack's POV:

I spent all morning pacing back and forth, the plane ticket in my hand. All afternoon was wasted with me driving around the block, the ticket still not leaving my fingertips. Minutes, seconds, hours ticking by without a final decision made. I couldn't get the thought of potentially changing everything out of my mind. It was a complicated thought I simply couldn't turn over in my head, something that made me overthink more than usual. Something I couldn't even fathom nor comprehend.

When I think about my life, it's very plain, very boring, and very simple. Everything up until this summer was predictable. I had a best friend who was there for me, a mom who was always gone, and a dad who was an abusive drunk. But I had none of that now; Kylar had a new social life and girlfriend, I left my mother to her whore-like ways, and my father was now in prison. So going to LA wouldn't necessarily change everything.

But in some ways it would. I wouldn't have the nostalgia of driving past a certain street and thinking, 'Remember that time I...' or 'When I was little we...' There would be none of that. I'd be walking the busy streets of unfamiliar places in a crowded city.

However, maybe that's what I needed. The thrill, excitement, uncertainty. After all, that's all this summer's been. Hope, heartbreak, heaven, and hell. Zachariah showed me life. Real life—going out with friends, finding love, taking risks, breaking rules. I rode the ride of a long summer, while Zachariah tested the lines of close proximity and complicated chemistry. The result? We were a match made in hell, but we brought each other back to heaven.

They say that, in life, you only fall in real love once. And you know you've found that true love when, even after years, months, or weeks, you eventually find your way back to that person. My whole life I'd been waiting around with what I thought were quote-on-quote unrealistic expectations. And I mean, sure, I've been brainwashed by all those romcoms and teenage love stories, but even still, I believed in that true love. Love that was pure, real, and genuine. But even though it took a long time to get here, I found it—captured that kind of love.

So that's what I was contemplating, whether or not I was ready to give it up.

I wouldn't be letting go if I didn't get on the plane, I'd simply be letting my life pan out in the way it would've if Zachariah never came home this summer. How it'd be had he not asked me to be his fake girlfriend, had we not gotten close again, had I not let him in.

I think it's quite interesting how, once in a blue moon, things change in life. I call them unexpected plot twists. Sometimes you're unsure whether or not their unexpectedness is gonna be good for you, but in the end, those moments are what shape you; they're what define you. Zachariah Lane Montgomery wasn't an unexpected plot twist, he's always been the center of attention. However, what happened to us is what caught me off guard. And being completely honest, it's something not even the fictional of all fiction books could describe.

Because here I was, a small town girl in a big and diverse world, living a real-life fantasy with a Prince Charming of my own.

Things may have been bumpy, and the road might have a few potholes in the ground, but it adds to the abstract and beautiful story of us. The story of me and Zachariah.

So when thinking about Zachariah leaving, it made me more than emotional—because of everything we'd been through in such a short amount of time; forty-three days to be exact. It was like saying hello and goodbye, each one a welcome and salutation, never knowing if it'd be the last. Because with Zachariah, I never knew, never thought he'd just stick around. He was always changing. But this summer I feel like I really understood him, everything about him.