Peripheral Vision | ✓ [NOW PUBLISHED AS HUNTINGTON AVENUE]

Chapter 17

C H A P T E R  S E V E N T E E N

Kelsey's P.O.V.

"What's with you and Zach holding hands all of a sudden?" Ryan asked, eyeing underneath the table. Sure enough, our fingers were still intertwined.

"Because we can," I replied, giving Ryan a sincere smile.

"I wasn't meaning to sound rude," he noted in between two bites of his turkey sandwich. "It's cute."

"That's what I said," Luke cut in from across the table. "But Zach got all hostile on me," he added, sticking out his lower lip in a fake pout.

"I did not!" retorted Zach.

"Did too!"

"Nope!"

"Yeah you did!"

"You two act like a couple of six year olds fighting over a Happy Meal toy or something," Marco stated jokingly from next to Luke. "It's entertaining."

I couldn't help but laugh at his comment, They did act like a couple of six year olds at times.

"Why are you laughing?" asked Zach with a playful tone, turning towards my laughing. "I thought you agreed with me."

"I do," I replied, stiffling my laughter. "That was just funny because it's true."

"Hey!" he retorted a bit loudly, and I could tell by his facial expressions that he was trying not to laugh.

I couldn't hold back my giggles anymore and I burst into a laughing fit. I could feel my face become hot as I quickly realized how awkward I was being, so I stopped, brushing some long strands of my hair away from my eyes.

Suddenly, I felt Zach's hand let go of mine and his arm went around me gently. I looked up at him with widened eyes, a bit surprised by his gesture.

"What are you doing?" I asked. I probably seemed a bit dumb.

"What does it look like?" he responded with a smile. "I'm putting my arm around you."

Then, he paused, his gaze sinking quite a bit as he then added, "Please don't tell me I put my arm around Ryan."

Ryan, who was sitting next to Zach, started laughing uncontrollably, almost choking on his turkey sandwich. His laughter caused the entire table to start laughing as well, including me.

"Thankfully not," Ryan answered between hyperventilations. "If you did, you'd never hear the end of it."

This time, Zach started laughing, and I couldn't help but smile. Honestly, his laugh is one of the cutest things I've ever heard, but I would never admit it to anyone. I was laughing so hard that my chest was hurting. After a moment, I heard a familiar voice that made it all go away.

"What's with all the noise over here?" Jonathan scoffed while walking over to Zach.

"Oh, I don't know," Luke replied, his gaze quickly becoming tense as he stared Jonathan in the eyes. "We're all having a good time without you?"

"Luke, stop it," I hissed underneath my breath.

"What do you want, Jonathan?" Zach sighed as his voice became quiet.

"Nothing."

Just then, he shoved Zach out of his chair, almost taking me with him, but I clung onto the table. Luke sprung out of his seat and yanked Jonathan towards him, giving him a death glare.