(✔) 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙗𝙤𝙮 ↳ (𝔃.𝓭.𝓱)

twelve !

     Everly rang the doorbell to the house that she wished was her own for the second time in two weeks. There were loud resounding footsteps rushing to the door from inside, and a few moments later the front door swung open revealing the smiling lady that Everly recognised as Zach's mother.

     Her smile got wider when she saw Everly standing on her doorstep. "Oh hello! Zach didn't tell me you would be here!" She exclaimed, ushering Everly in. Doesn't Zach ever tell his mom anything? Everly thought.

     They made their way into the house. It was the same as it always was. Bright, filled with loud music and the delicious aroma of something cooking.

     Everly felt another tinge of sadness as she followed Myta through the hallways. All she wanted was to live in a house like this one. A cheerful, happy home.

     "So, working on the project again I see?" Myta said as they passed the living room. Everly noticed that the little girl who was sitting cross legged on the floor, playing with her coloured blocks was alone this time and was not accompanied by Zach.

     Everly nodded in response. She cringed slightly. She was so bad at talking to adults, or even talking to anybody in general, at that. She would just panic and her whole body would seize up because she wouldn't know what to say.

     The pair ascended the staircase. When they reached the second floor landing, Myta said, "Okay, Zach's bedroom is the first one on the left side.". Then, she hurried away, muttering something about "getting Reese".

     Slowly, Everly made her way to the room Myta had pointed out and knocked lightly on the door.

     "Mom, I told you I'm doing homework!" Zach called from inside the room.

     "Oh, um actually it's Everly? I've come to the work on our project," Everly said awkwardly.

     There was a long pause before the door opened with a click. Standing there was Zach, wearing his usual smirk (did this boy ever stop smirking?), a navy blue sweater and grey sweats. "Come in then."

     Everly entered the room carefully, and settled herself on a couch in the corner of Zach's room. She was expecting Zach to sit opposite her on his bed, but to her surprise, he sat down on the other end of the couch.

     There was an uneasy silence. Everly broke it, zipping open her bag. "Okay, so I typed up these notes on the basic idea of our project. It's not much, it's just something to guide us while we do it," She explained, pulling out a thin plastic folder filled with papers and handing it to Zach.

     Everly sat, fussing with the contents of her bag as Zach sat in silence beside her, scanning through the notes his partner had given him. He nodded and set the folder down next to him. "Okay, I get it." Everly was pleased to see that he actually looked like he understood her notes.

     She nodded and rummaged around in her backpack, pulling out a thick stack of textbooks. Zach watched her, eyebrows raised in shock. "Damn, that's a lot."

     "Yeah, I was thinking maybe we could do some research for the project since we have to have a lot of information to back our work up," Everly said quickly, flipping open one of the books and pulling her pencil case out of her backpack.

Catching on, Zach said, "I can use my laptop to do some research." Everly nodded her head, not looking up from her textbook. "Yeah that would be nice." She said distractedly, beginning to jot down notes.

Soon, thick books, pieces of notebook paper and pens littered the couch. The pair sat next to each other, working in silence that was only punctuated by the clicking of pens and turning of pages. Hours had passed without them knowing, their backs bent over their work.

His arms cramping up, Zach looked up from his laptop screen and yawned, stretching his arms behind his head. Everly didn't do so much as look up. Zach looked away from the bright ceiling and turned to Everly.

Strands of her dark brown hair had escaped from her ponytail and were tickling her cheek. Her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as her hand moved furiously across a page in her book and her large round glasses were beginning to slip down her nose. She frowned at something in her notes, scrunching her nose up.

     Zach didn't realise he had been staring, transfixed at Everly for a long time until she finally looked up, and her eyes met his. "Were you staring at me?"

     Zach shook his head, turning his attention back to his computer screen, fighting to keep the blush off his cheeks. "No, of course I wasn't!" He lied through his teeth.

     Everly snorted. "You are such a bad liar, Herron." Zach grinned at her and grabbed a nearby cushion from the couch. He launched it at Everly and it bounced lightly off her head. She gasped and narrowed her eyes at him. She took another cushion and threw it at Zach, hitting him square in the face.

     Zach took the cushion Everly had thrown off his lap where it had fallen and leaned forward to smack her with it but Everly giggled and ducked before he could hit her with it. Laughing, she took her own cushion and aimed it at Zach. The latter tried to dance out of the way but was too slow; the cushion didn't hit him in the face, but hit him hard in the arm.

     Soon, the two of them were doubled over with laughter, throwing cushions at each other. They almost didn't realise that they were having fun with the other person; their arch nemesis.

     They collapsed against the couch, breathless from laughing so hard. "We should probably get back to work," Everly said, pushing up her glasses. Zach shrugged. "Sure."

     They resumed their work in silence, but this time it was a comfortable one that didn't hang so thick in the air. Hours and hours flew by without either of them noticing, and by the time Everly threw down her pen, finishing her work, night had fallen.

     Zach shut his laptop close with a snap. The both of them breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally!" Zach exclaimed.

     "We should probably continue tomorrow to summarise all the information so we can type everything out the way Ms. Ramirez wants us to," Everly said, staring dazedly up at the ceiling. She was dog-tired from all the work she had done.

     Zach nodded in agreement. Thoughts raced through his mind as the both of them sat quietly next to each other, drained of all energy.

     "Everly?"

     "Hmm?" She hummed, her eyes closed.

     "Are we friends?"

     Everly's eyes fluttered open at this unexpected question. There was a long pause. Then, she smiled slightly. "Yeah. If you want us to be."

     "Sure."

     Everly's response had filled Zach with a kind of unexplainable happiness and warmth surged through his chest. He broke into a relieved smile, which Everly didn't see; her eyes were closed again. What she said meant she didn't hate him anymore!

     Meanwhile, despite her calm disposition on the outside, Everly's thoughts were a scattered mess in her mind. She didn't know why she had said that she and Zach were friends, but she didn't regret saying it.

     He wasn't what he appeared to be. He was actually fun to be with, and he was sweet. She couldn't help disagreeing with what everyone said about him. He didn't seem like an asshole when he was away from school, when they were alone. As Everly drifted off to sleep, all she could think of was that maybe people were wrong about him. They were wrong about Zach.