Divergent UNIVERSITY ✅

chapter 43

Chapter 43The next day Zeke wakes and finds that Zia is still sleeping in his arms. At some point in the night he had laid down on the couch. Zia is lying right next to him and his arms are wrapped around her holding her tight. He looks down at the beautiful girl sleeping next to him and wonders about her. She's had a difficult time since her father died, but she has managed to come out of it all a good and unique person with a great future. He feels a connection to her that he never felt with anyone else before.He moves just a little and this movement wakes her. She looks up at him and smiles. Suddenly she bolts upright realizing that she was just basically lying on top of him."Zeke, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to...""What are you sorry for?" Zeke asks her looking confused."I don't want you to think that I'm... I don't know. I don't typically cuddle up like that next to guys that I just met.""Zia, it is fine. We were just sleeping. I guess at some point we just laid down as opposed to sitting up.""I know but..."He puts his finger against her soft lips, "Shhh... It is fine, I promise."She smiles bashfully, "Okay, well I guess I should get up and get going.""Do you have to? I mean we're going to hang out on the beach today. I'm sure one of the girls could give you something to wear.""I can totally dress her," Christina says walking into the living room. "As Marlene says, I have enough clothes to dress all four of us for about two weeks with no problem. I also have a brand new swimsuit that I just bought that you can have.""I don't want to take your things," Zia says."Are you kidding?" Will says from the door way. "She needs someone to take her things, she has too many things and I have to move it all.""Shut up Will!" Christina says glaring at him."I love you though," he says with a fake pout."Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever.""So will you stay?" Zeke asks hopefully."I guess I'm staying," Zia smiles. She's not sure why he wants her to stay so bad, but she hopes that it means that he likes her as much as she likes him.A short time later Marlene and Tris enter the living room. Tris smiles when she sees that Zia is still here. They were always good friends and she knows that Zia is very shy and has a hard time making friends and letting people into her world. It seems though that Zia has made at least one friend in Zeke."Zia, I'm glad you're still here. Will you be hanging out with us for the day?" Tris asks."Yeah, Zeke and Christina convinced me that I should stay."The group spent the next three days hanging out on the beach, watching movies, and playing games. They did almost everything together. Even though Zia went home every night, she always came back the next morning to be with her new friends. Over the days, Zeke starts to think that he might be having feelings for this girl.It has almost been a month since Shauna left and over that month he came to realize that there were so many subtle signs that their relationship was going bad. They didn't spend any time together. She found reasons to argue with him, which is something they never used to do. He found out that she was hanging out with other people, especially other guys and that one of those guys ended up going to Pittsburgh with her.He tried to be angry, and he was angry about the secrets. But he wasn't as upset as he should have been. After talking to Tris and Marlene about it one night, he found that he wasn't that upset because for him the relationship was over. It was time to move on.After that conversation, Zeke decided that he would make a move with Zia when the opportunity arises. The problem was the opportunity never seemed to arise.~oOo~On Friday, while the group was preparing to go to the ball park and play a pick-up softball game, there came a knock on the door. Tris opens the door to see Lynn standing in front of her, bags in hand.Tris pulls her into a hug, "Lynn, it's good to see you.""Hey Tris, how's it going?""Great, come in," she says moving out of the way so Lynn could enter. "Are you back for good?""Yeah, I needed to get as far away from New York as I could. You'd be surprised that in a city of over eight million people, you can still manage to run into people that you don't want to see.""What happened with Kenzie?""She found new friends and a new girlfriend. She cheated on me with some journalist and didn't have the nerve to tell me," Lynn explains with distain dripping from every word. "I felt like she was following me around though because every time I turned around she was there. I mean the odds of running into her with that many people around can't be good. But there she was constantly. I couldn't wait to come home.""It's good to have you here."Zeke walks into the room and sees Lynn standing there. He is reminded about all of the good times with Shauna and a little sadness overcomes him.The door bell rings again and this time when Tris opens the door, Zia is standing there. When Zeke sees her he is filled with mixed feelings.Tris lets Zia in and she smiles at a nervous looking Zeke. She is suddenly filled with nervousness because she doesn't understand why he looks so conflicted. She looks and sees a beautiful girl with extremely short strawberry blond hair standing in the doorway next to Tris. Zia becomes nervous wondering if this is the girlfriend that Tris, Marlene, and Chris had told her about."Hey Zia, how are you. Ready to play some ball?""Huh? Oh, yeah I'm ready. Brought my glove and everything.""Oh Zia, this is Lynn. She's one of our friends. She is just returning from New York.""Nice to meet you Lynn," Zia says shaking her hand. "New York? That sounds interesting.""Not as interesting as I'd like it to be. I spent my entire summer either dancing or hiding from my ex girlfriend."'Girlfriend? This can't be the girl that Zeke just broke up with, so what's with the conflicted look on Zeke?' Zia thinks to herself."What kind of dance?" Zia asks."Ballet. I was accepted into the New York Ballet Theatre, but I decided to come home and finish my degree."Zia nods and smiles as Lynn turns her attention to Zeke. "How are you?" she asks him."I'm fine," Zeke says tightly. He's not sure what he's feeling right now. But Lynn can see that. She knows what happened with her sister and she's angry about it because it is exactly what happened with Kenzie."Look Zeke, just because she left you like that doesn't mean that things have to be weird between us. You are still like my big brother. Shauna was stupid and wrong for not breaking up with you when she started to have feelings for someone else.""You know about that?" he asks."Yeah, she moved with him to Pittsburgh. They are planning on getting married," she's not sure if she should have told him that last part or not. But she thinks he has a right to know."Married? Already?""That is what our parents say, but there's no talking to her right now. Look, I just told you because you have the right to know.""Thanks Lynn, but I'm over her.""I'm sure you are. It's been a while. But we're still friends, right?"Zeke smiles at Lynn. "Of course," he says and pulls her into a hug. "It's great to have you back.""I actually have a favor, do you think I could stay at the apartment until we can get back into the sorority house?""Sure," he says with a smile."Great! So are you guys playing softball today?""Yeah, you playing?" Tris asks.Lynn smirks, "No, when did I ever play. I'll watch and make smartass comments about everyone though."Tris and Zeke snicker while Zia tries to figure this girl out. The last couple of minutes have been an emotional rollercoaster with this girl and Zeke. Zia's happy to know that the girlfriend is gone. But although Zeke claims he's over her, she's not sure. She decides here and now that the best course of action so she doesn't get hurt is to focus on a friendship and nothing more.Four walks into the living room from the kitchen, "Breakfast is ready." He turns his attention to Lynn and smiles at her, "What are you doing here?" He's always had a sarcastic relationship with Lynn. She's like the little sister he never really wanted."Oh, I just missed you so much that I had to return from New York to see you."Four smirks and goes up to her and hugs her, "Good to see you Lynn. Nice to know my sarcastic friend is back."She smiles, "Anyway, what's for breakfast? Did you cook?""You know it, you'll have to go and find out."Lynn, Four, and Zeke walk into the dining room. Zia is about to follow when Tris stops her."Zia, I hope you know that he is over her. He's talked to me about it a lot and although he's still pissed about the way things happened, he's happy the relationship is done. He likes you, a lot.""I like him too Tris, but I don't want to just be a rebound relationship for him. Sometimes I think there could be something, and then something like today happens. He can say he's over her, but when he saw Lynn there was something there.""I think that was more worry about what was going to happen with Lynn. She and Zeke have always been close. I think he was just worried about how she was going to act with him."Four comes back into the living room and wraps his arms around Tris, "Zia, I didn't mean to overhear. But I've been friends with Zeke for almost five years. He's never been happier that he is with you. Don't give up on him, okay?" He kisses Tris' cheek, "Come on ladies, let's go eat before Uriah wakes up and there's no food left.""Hey, I heard that," Uriah says from the doorway. "Why is it always about Uriah eating all of the food, or Uriah burning the food, or Uriah making a mess?""Because it's always Uriah doing those things," Will says. "Besides, it's just fun to blame everything on you.""But I'm the one that has to listen to him whine about it," Marlene chimes in from the hall."What is this, pick on Uriah day? You know some day I'm not going to be around for you to pick on like this," he tries to say this angrily but the smirk on his face says something different."Sure you won't," Four says. "You'll always be around somewhere for me to pick on. Besides I'd go find you just to pick on you.""Zia, how about some help here," Uriah pleads."I don't think I can. Yesterday you stole my shoe and played keep away with it with Zeke. I don't think I can defend you now. Maybe I would have before you refused to give me my shoe, but now I think you're just going to have to suffer," she smirks at him.Uriah tries to look mad, he puts a fake scowl on his face and points his finger at them, "Man, you guys aren't right. Some day Uriah isn't going to stand of this..."They all start laughing cutting off whatever he was going to say. Zeke walks into the room and sees everyone laughing. He notices Zia laugh. When she laughs, it lights up her beautiful blue eyes. He gets butterflies when he sees her smile and laugh.He walks up to her and takes her hand. The contact sends chills across Zia's body. "Come on, let's eat," he says quietly to her.