The Spill Over

[49] Awake.

Second upload for the day, lovelies, cause I love each and every one of you so much ;;) Song of the chapter- Awake & Alive by Skillet.

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Everything that happened over the week came back to Ashley as violent sobs racked through her body.

Zac held the sobbing girl in his arms as she trembled. "Ash . . ."

She sniffed before pulling away from Zac, as she finally got a hold on herself. "I'm sorry for . . ." she trailed off as she gestured vaguely towards his torso. "C- crying all over your shirt."

"Don't be," Zac said immediately. "It's alright," he whispered, pulling her close again. Seeing her that broken right then, Zac felt pretty upset himself. He wished he could do something to make whatever was upsetting her go away, but sadly, he couldn't. He couldn't bear to see her red, wet eyes and blotchy face. Instead, he yearned to see her smiling again, with the usual sparkle in her eyes.

"What does that note even mean?" she mumbled into his chest.

Zac exhaled loudly. "I don't know. I mean, why would anybody think that we - yeah . . ." he trailed off awkwardly. "And what warnings are they talking about?"

"That . . ." Ashley pulled away and looked up at Zac. She found herself unable to speak under his intense gaze, as his eyes bore into those of hers.

Zac reached forward and wiped a couple of stray tears off Ashley's face. "Do you wanna grab something to eat before we talk about it?" he asked.

"I—"

"You're eating. I'm not hearing any excuse about you not feeling hungry," he said firmly.

Ashley's shoulders sagged. "Alright then."

The four friends decided to skip lunch at school and go to a nearby diner instead because according to Gabriella, Ashley needed some "amazing-comfort-food" as she looked so upset. Also, since the school's food was nothing fun that day, they had no problem in making the decision they did.

Ashley told the trio everything, from A to Z, not leaving out any detail. Needless to say, they were furious.

Zac, Gabriella and Sean wanted to confront Nicole about all the bullshit she had been causing, but refrained from doing so on Ashley's insistance. Seeing how bad the whole issue was upsetting, they decided to not talk about it anymore and instead, just concentrate on their food and silently think about what to do about Nicole.

***

The next evening while most of her classmates were poring over their books, Diana was busy getting ready for a date- her date with Jayden. As she was in the middle of applying mascara to her left eye, her phone started ringing as a peppy song started playing. After dancing about to the song for a couple of moments, Diana realized that she should answer the phone before it stopped ringing. As she rushed towards where her phone was lying across the room, she groaned in pain as she banged her foot into one of the legs of her bed. "Hello?" Diana answered her phone without checking the caller ID as she tried to ease the throbbing pain on her toe.

"Hi, Di," Jayden's bright voice sounded over the phone. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," the brunette said, sounding a tiny bit relieved as she checked her reflection in the mirror. "I just need about five minutes more, though."

"Oh, alright. I'll be there by then," he replied happily over the phone. "Bye."

Diana sighed as she hung up the phone. "Damn, he's one cute guy," she mumbled happily before resuming with getting ready for her date.