Love, Zed

30. Sprinkle of Extra

Aria

"Arlette." Zed nods at the red hair. Oh, that's her name on her planet? She walks up to him with a big smile. I say 'to him' because she ignores me like I'm some bug. The black-haired girl beside her trails her friend, arms crossed, looking pissed off.

"What is this, Zed? You dump your friends so easily?" Arlette says in a mock hurt tone and slaps across Zed's chest. Her bright pink nails shine menacingly. Zed smiles light-lipped. He's not very excited to see them.

"I've been busy." He puts in.

"Shush. Liar. You walk right past us in the hallways." She pouts flipping her bangs. "Doesn't he, Sanjana?" She turns her head to her friend behind her.

The girl- Sanjana lifts her eyes to glare at Zed and stays silent.

"Whatever." Arlette puts up her palm smiling brightly. "You can make it up to us. I'm having a pool party. Tomorrow is the night and you got to be there, Zed. There's no pool party without you." She winks at him giving him a dirty look. I want to crawl her eyes out.

"I won't be able to make it," Zed says firmly and I feel his arm sliding on my body, finally resting across my waist.

Arlette and Sanjana shift their eyes on me for the first time. They can't even conceal their hatred. Sanjana leans over to whisper something in Arlette's ears. They grin.

"Hey, Aria, right?" Arlette smiles at me, then at Zed. "Bring her with you."

"We got plans. I'm sorry." Zed shakes his head. Arlette looks at me venomously. I smirk not looking at her.

"Just think about it, okay?" She walks closer to Zed and touches his bicep. "We are your friends too, Zed. You totally deserted us after what happened with Sam. We wish her dead. I want you to know that I'm here whenever you want to talk. Just give me a call, okay?" She smiles softly at him.

With a final challenging grin at me, they leave.

"Did they run away from Circus?" I laugh and turn to look at Zed. He looks vexed and already has his cig out and popped in his mouth.

"Is something wrong?" I ask him. "Are they trouble?"

"Nah. Nothing for you to worry about." He utters with his lips clamped on the cig. He lights it and sucks in deeply. This is not normal.

He looks up at me and throws the cig down and crushes it. "Come on, let's go inside." He takes my hand. I start walking with him.

"If you wanna go to this party thing, you can totally go, you know," I tell him. He doesn't need to put brakes on his life because of me.

"I'm done with my share of pool parties, trust me." He huffs.

"It sounds kinda fun," I admit.

"Really?" He scrunches his nose and looks at me surprised.

"What? I've never been to something like this." I shrug.

"You wanna hit it?" He asks still sounding astounded.

"Not I. You should go, though. Logan would be there too, I suppose? Don't ditch your friends." The last thing I want is for him to get entirely anti-social. I've seen how he is with Logan. I wish he had more friends like him.

"Hell no, I'm not going, Aria. I want to spend some time with you." He says and grabs my hand lightly. Something starts building in my chest.

"Who's Sam?"

Zed's hold on my hand loosens. "My ex-girlfriend." There's something in his voice that forces me to stare at him.

"Really."