Saving His Smile

chapter: iii.

On the first day of her senior year, Grace was in a panic.

During the summer, she had grown used to simply hitting the snooze button on her alarm, rolling over, and going back to sleep, and thus, that's exactly what she had done. It wasn't until twenty minutes into her dozing that she realized that she had not made the most intelligent decision in the world.

She practically shot out of bed, her duvet tossed messily away--half on the bed, half on the ground--snatched her towel off of its hanger, and threw herself into the bathroom. For a brief moment she thought of how lucky it was that her older brother had moved out to live in the dorms at his college this year, but then she was consumed with more important thoughts, like the fact that she had to shower, dress, apply makeup, eat breakfast, and get to school, all in the space of about forty-three minutes. That could have been easier if her school weren't twenty minutes away.

She ignored her pajamas in a heap on the bathroom floor and instead turned to the mirror as soon as she stepped out of the shower. In less than ten seconds she was brushing at her teeth furiously with one hand and awkwardly raking a comb through her hair with the other. When she was satisfied her teeth were clean and her hair mostly untangled, she rushed back into her room, only to see that she had five minutes at best to pull on some clothes, grab a bit of breakfast, and get her butt out the door. The dreaded realization hit her like a blow to the stomach. That left no time to put her makeup on. n

She grimaced at the thought of attending school bare-faced. She had barely left the house without wearing at least foundation and mascara since freshman year. First day back to school of her senior year was definitely not on her top ten list of days to go makeup-less. Didn't even make the top fifty.

After pulling on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a reference to a British TV show, Grace shoved all her things into her bag and hurried down the hallway and into the kitchen.

"Running late?" her dad asked from where he was leaning against the kitchen counter. He was already dressed for work and he held a cup of coffee in his hands.

"Unfortunately," she replied, shoving two pieces of bread into the toaster.

While those heated, she grabbed the peanut butter and jelly out of the refrigerator. Because of time, she force ejected her toast; the complete lack of toastiness made her wonder why she even bothered sticking them in the toaster in the first place. Quickly, she slathered the two spreads on the lukewarm bread and squished them together, subsequently getting a smudge of strawberry jelly on the side of her hand. She licked it off quickly and wiped her hand on the side of her jeans.

"Bye, Daddy!" Grace called over her shoulder as she grabbed the keys to her car and hustled out the door.

The door had slammed shut behind her and she was about halfway down the driveway when the sight of Zachary walking down his own driveway stopped her dead in her tracks.

Mustering every ounce of courage within herself, she opened her mouth and called out to him. "Zachary!"

The boy in question paused, his hand nearly on the door of his car. He stared at Grace for a few seconds, waiting.

She took a few more steps down her driveway, fiddling with her keys in one hand and basically crushing her breakfast sandwich with the other. "I, uh, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to ride to school with me today?" She willed one half of her mouth to move upward into an awkward half-smile. "It'll save gas."

She'd hoped that maybe the use of his old excuse would bring something at least resembling a smile would surface on his face, but there was no change in his facial expression save for his eyebrows slowly creeping up into his hairline.

When he made no move to cross the street, Grace found herself stumbling over her words. "I mean, if you don't want to... That's totally cool." She took a few steps backwards. "I'll just, um, go now..."

She turned away and started to unlock her car. Her hands were shaking, though, and she dropped her keys. Grace swore silently and thought to herself that a newer car that unlocked itself electronically would be a good investment. At this point, she was so late she was past the point of caring. Taking her sweet time, she turned on her heel and bent to retrieve her keys. A much larger, much more masculine hand beat her to them, however, and she could only stand there, stunned, as Zachary carefully dropped the keys into her palm.

"Let's go," he said.

As he began to walk to the other side of the car, Grace could have sworn the corners of his lips were beginning to draw upwards, but when she inconspicuously looked at him from the corner of her eye, there was no change.
•••
Grace drove one-handed and devoured her sandwich in a very unladylike manner. For the first few minutes, she acted dainty in fear that her monstrous eating habits would make Zach dislike her more than he already did, but the audible grumbling a of her stomach made her throw etiquette to the wind, and if her passenger's apathetic expression was anything to go by, he really didn't care.

"Are you not wearing makeup?" Zachary asked about ten minutes into the drive.

Grace felt her cheeks flush and despite the AC blowing full-force on her, she was suddenly uncomfortably warm. "Uh, yeah. I didn't have time, so... Yeah." She shot a quick glance at the blond boy. "Do I really look that bad?"

With his widened brown eyes, Zach somewhat resembled a deer trapped in the headlights of a semi barreling towards it. "What? No, I didn't mean it like that!" He shifted in his seat uncomfortably and kicked his backpack with his foot a few times. "You look fine, as always."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Mmhm."

Grace didn't want them to slip back into silence, so she said the first thing that popped into her mind. "How was your vacation?"

Zach shrugged. "It was okay, I guess. Disney world is totally overrated, though."

It took everything Grace had not to let her jaw drop. "You're kidding."

The boy looked at her quizzically. "No. It really wasn't all that great."

"Don't tell me that," she groaned in reply. "I've always wanted to go to Disney World."

"Oh... In that case, it was the greatest thing ever? Definitely the most magical place on earth?"

"That's better."

Perhaps feeling Grace's same urge to not let conversation die, Zachary opened his mouth again. "So, why the sudden change of heart? You've been refusing to ride with me since the second semester of sophomore year."

"I don't know," Grace replied truthfully, tucking a piece of hair that had been tickling her neck behind her ear. "I just kind of felt like it."

Zach opened and closed his mouth a few times. If he wanted to look like a confused fish, he was definitely succeeding. "Do you think you'll feel like riding with me tomorrow?"

Grace turned and looked at Zach. His expression was no longer apathetic, but worriedly hopeful. In fact, he almost looked like he was going to smile sheepishly. In that moment, Grace decided that she was going to resurrect Zachary Duncan's smile, even if it meant riding with him to school in his pickup truck.

"Yeah, I think I will."