Jessica's Fate

Chapter 31

We finished the dance as the song ended and I stretched up to kiss him, arms still around his neck. "Nice." I murmured, lightly biting his lower lip before I settled back down on my feet.

He grinned at me. "Very nice." He agreed. "Ready to leave then, Beautiful?"

"I am." I said. "I'm so ready for pancakes." I teased.

"Well, we have to be taken there by our very Russian driver." He pointed out.

"I'll be sure to mention you've been a perfect gentleman."

"Thanks for that." He laughed.

I turned, taking one of his hands and holding it over my shoulder as we wound our way carefully off of the dance floor. We were stopped by the Hoppers before we could make it to the exit. "Jessica." Mrs. Hopper smiled at me. "Leaving for the night?"

"We are." I nodded. "It's been a nice dance though." I said.

"It's been a nice evening." Mr. Hopper nodded as well. "You look lovely, Jessica."

"Thank you. The two of you make a nice-looking couple." I said.

Mrs. Hopper laughed. "Thank you dear. We'll see you in class on Monday. It was very nice to meet you, Zack."

He nodded slightly. "Nice to meet you too. Jessica had very nice things to say about your classes that she's taken with the two of you." He said politely.

Again. Seriously. I've never witnessed any 18-year-old with nicer manners when meeting adults. Outside of Victor and Owen. Those two have always had the nicest of manners in my brother's family. Not that any of the others are impolite. They're just the two that have always been the top of polite society.

I mean, Victor even used to have very polite tea party conversations with me.

My heart fluttered with something as I studied him interacting with my teachers.

My stomach flooded with those pesky butterflies that I've been dealing with for the past 6 weeks.

My best friends were those darned butterflies.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple. I'd missed the end of his conversations with the Hoppers and I pasted on a smile and waved slightly as they moved away. "Okay there?" his voice sounded directly in my ear and his breath caressed my ear and made me shiver.

"Yes." I managed to say without missing a step as we headed towards the entrance and out to where our car was supposedly waiting. I bit back what I thought I was feeling and smiled up at him. "Just caught in a few thoughts about you. I didn't mean to miss the last part of the conversation, I was just really focused on my thoughts."

His lazy grin shot a jolt straight down my spine.

Good Lord, he was gorgeous when he smiled like that at me.

"Thoughts about me, hmm. That's intriguing." He said, kissing my temple. "I texted our driver..." He said, raising his head to scan the drive. "There." He said, nodding to where the limo was pulling up and he guided me in that direction.

Our driver was out of the car, opening the door for us. "Haf good time, da?" he asked me, his dark eyes studying me.

"Yes. I had a wonderful time. He was very attentive to my every need." I said.

"Good. No need to put ass in slink."

"In a sling." Zack corrected him.

"Same." Was said with a grunt and a scowl.

I giggled and got into the car. "Thank you." I called out, moving over a bit as Zack got into the car next to me and I heard another grunt as the door closed.

Zack rolled his eyes slightly and leaned in, kissing me on the neck, in the hollow behind my ear. "I had one of my guys drop my car off at the diner. I can drive you home after, even though I know it's not very far." He murmured.

"That would be nice." I said softly.

"Where now?"

"Bob's diner, please. It's not far from where you picked me up at." I said.

"Am aware of location. Safe to leave you there?" His eyes flashed up to look in the rear-view mirror.

"Oh yes, I work there and one of the owners and his girlfriend are going to be meeting us there and it will be open for us when we get there." I said.

He nodded slightly and focused on the road as he drove us away from Middleton Farm.

I snuggled back into the comfort of Zack's arms, one hand held in his, fingers laced together with his. "So." I looked up at him. "I ran into one of my former friends in the bathroom." His fingers tightened around mine.

"I was wondering what was taking so long. What did she have to say?"

I wrinkled my nose, frowning as I recalled my conversation with Shelby. "That she's the one that told Buffy that I was a scholarship student... 6 years ago or so and that's the reason that the bombshell was dropped that I was on scholarship and I lost all my friends including her. Because she wanted to be part of the mean girls group." My voice hardened and I swore softly under my breath. "She ended up not being part of them because after she ditched me, she couldn't get anything new on me and then she really didn't want to do the drugs that Buffy and her crowd do. But she didn't apologize for it at that point either so what the hell was the point of telling me tonight?" I felt myself vibrate with anger.

He kissed my shoulder. "Maybe she just needed a chance to come clean."

"Maybe. I told her to not talk to me ever again and she said to message her on facebook if I changed my mind." I huffed a sigh. "Like I need her in my life at this point. I'm going to be so glad to be done with school in a couple weeks." His hand rubbed a circle on my shoulder as he rubbed a circle on the back of the hand he was holding, both actions meant to sooth my ruffled feathers.

"It was probably just her last chance." He said. "I mean, she had to have known that you would react like this. It would have been better for her to tell you she was sorry right after it happened and she realized the other group wasn't where she wanted to be either. But it's hard to do that. It's hard to tell someone that you screwed them over."

I nodded. "I guess." I mumbled.

"Think about it. Would you have actually been able to be friends with her again?" he asked, kissing my temple again.

"I don't know." I admitted. "I just know that now... it's been so long and I didn't have any friends at school that it's pointless to entertain the idea of still being friends. Maybe I would have wanted her as a friend back then. I was in the middle of a stretch with no friends at all so it may have been welcomed. It was just after that, the next school year that my brother and his friends met Sang." I shrugged. "She filled in a big gap for me outside of school. I know that they can't imagine life without her and neither can I."

"She sounds like a very nice person. I'm glad to get to spend a bit more time with her and Luke tonight." His tone was light but I glanced up and he had a skeptical look on his face.

"What?"

"I guess I don't understand. Is she dating Luke or your brother?"

I pursed my lips and weighed my options carefully. "Is it wrong to plead the 5th and promise that if I ask the two of them tonight if they're okay with you asking that question and they say yes, you can ask it? And if you don't want to ask them, I can just check if they're okay with me answering? It's just more of a, it's their story to tell and not mine so I don't want to speak out of turn if they'd rather I not answer you."

"I can accept that answer." Zack nodded. "That's fine. You will let me know or they'll probably tell me I can ask the question later." He smiled and tilted my chin up slightly to kiss me.

Words were unnecessary for the rest of the drive to Bob's Diner.