Her Compound

Chapter 23

The next couple days were slow and almost agonizing. The silence between Zack and Alex during the time we spent in the training room together seemed to speak volumes. We would always keep to our own sides, and Zack only ever talked to Alex if it was absolutely necessary.

I could tell it bugged Zack greatly, but I made sure to give him the space that he needed and wait for him to come to me.

My breaths came in heavily as I punched the bag once more and then stood there trying to get my breathing back under control. I looked down at my fists to see all the different coloured bruises planted across my knuckles before looking back up and at Willow who let go of the punching bag.

"You need to take a break?" she asked me. "I could go now if you want."

I nodded, unable to get any words out, and glanced over at Zack who had his arms crossed as he watched Alex teaching his own teens how to throw the knives. I then turned away and passed Willow as we switched; her turn to punch the bag while I held onto it.

After a few punches, Willow turned to peek at Zack before she looked back at me and straightened back up, dropping her hands.

"What's happening with you and Zack?"

I stood up straight, like she had, but continued to hold onto the bag. "What do you mean?"

"You two don't really talk that much."

I shrugged. "He just seems so busy with the whole Alex thing and I want to give him some space."

I then cocked my head to the side with a small smile playing on my lips as I motioned with my eyes to Matteo who was a few punching bags down from us with another boy.

"Are you going to tell me about you and Matteo?"

She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment before rolling her eyes and bringing her hands up to her face. "C'mon, let's get back to work. I don't want Zack coming over here and scolding us for just standing around."

My smile grew as I got back into a better stance and held onto the bag, making sure it didn't move that much when she connected her fist with it.

I'm pretty sure the whole compound knew that she and Matteo were together. I mean, they wouldn't exactly hide anything, but it was funny when Willow would deny all of it.

"I think you should talk to him," Willow said after our shower before heading to dinner.

Zack, just yesterday, had finally given everyone in our group free rein over the right side of our current floor. We just had to be in bed before curfew and arrive on time for our training.

I pulled my shirt down and looked over at her. "What?"

"Zack," she replied while combing through her short hair. "I think you should just talk to him."

My teeth attacked the inside of my cheek as I picked up my hair brush and yanked through the tangled mess. Once I was done and able to brush my hair without it stopping, I put my hair up into a quick bun and looked at Willow again.

"Fine," I said to her as I threw my brush back into my basket. "But I'll talk to him after we eat."

After dropping off our baskets, we walked to the cafeteria, the walk being very quiet. My insides twisted into a knot as we walked into the busy room, Willow at my side, and I immediately scanned the table, but finding no sign of Zack anywhere.

Perhaps he was busy? Maybe his mother needed him with something?

After grabbing some spaghetti and a bottle of water, Willow and I both walked over to Matteo and sat down with him: Willow beside him and I across from the two of them.

Matteo looked up from his plate with a mouthful of pasta still in his mouth and raised one of his eyebrows as he stared at me. "Where's Zack?"

"Maybe finish before speaking," Willow said, looking up at him with slight disgust and an eye roll.

Matteo chuckled and playfully bumped his shoulder against her own before swallowing his food and looking back at me.

"Where's Zack?" he asked again while taking a sip of his water. "He's usually here way before any of us arrive."

I looked towards the door to the cafeteria hoping to see him enter, but when I realized he wasn't going to come, I looked at Matteo and shrugged.

"I don't know. I thought he was going to be here as well."

"Maybe he somehow knew you were going to talk to him, so that's why he's not showing up," Willow said jokingly.

I shook my head with a short laugh and shoved a forkful of the warm saucy noodles into my mouth. I could feel the confusion radiating out of Matteo and looked up.

"You're going to finally talk to him?" he asked, astonished. "You, Zoe, are going to push all your fears aside and talk to the big scary man?"

I watched Willow elbow him and I laughed while nodding my head. "Yeah, well," my smile faltered ever so slightly as I glanced at the door, "as long as he shows up."

We all went back to eating our food before it got cold. My eyes kept traveling to the door every once in a while, hoping to see Zack walk into the cafeteria. But after a while without any sign of him, I gave up and eventually turned my attention to my empty plate, losing myself to the conversations around the room that all melded together in harmony.