Secrets // Zach Herron

A Second Chance // pt. 1

Penelope's POV:

Zach broke his kiss with this girl and finally noticed me. He looked shocked to see me, but even more embarrassed that I caught him. His cheeks turned a bright red as he quickly grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around himself. I knew we weren't together, but this broke my heart.

"What- What is this?" I said staring at the girl.

When she turned to look at me, I finally noticed who it was. Tatianna. She sat in Zach's bed, with a smug look on her face. This hurt, probably more than anything I've ever felt.

"Look at me", Zach said as he cupped my face and stood in front of me, covering up his mistake.

There was nothing stopping my tears from flowing now, I began to cry uncontrollably. I knew that there was nothing Zach could say that would ever fix this, but he tried anyways.

"Penelope, I'm so sorry. I wasn't expecting you to come this morning," he began.

"Oh, so sorry, I should've called first so you could've snuck her out the window", I said sarcastically.

"Penelope when you didn't call me back I... I thought we were officially over. I didn't know that you were-"

"What? Were in love with you?"

Zach's face dropped, I could tell that those were the words he's been wanting to hear, and he knew he messed up badly. Part of me wanted to forgive him and embrace him, but I knew better than that. I did not deserve this treatment and I do not deserve to have my trust broken.

"You- You're in love with me?" Zach mumbled.

"Of course I am! How could I not be?! You were everything to me...", I paused, "but now you mean nothing to me."

I choked my tears down, waiting for him to say something. But he didn't, he just stared at the ground, not wanting to meet my eyes. I scoffed as I threw the roses down at his feet.

"Goodbye Zach", I mumbled before I turned towards the door.

I expected him to stop me, I wanted him to stop me, but he just stood there in shock. My eyes filled with salty tears as I left his room without turning back to look at him. I was met with a big, tight hug as I closed Zach's bedroom door.

"I'm so sorry Penelope, I tried to stop you", Daniel mumbled.

"It's not your fault, you were a good friend", I said as I pulled away.

Daniel smiled and wiped a few of my tears, I tried my best to hide how broken I was inside. He offered to drive me home, but I said I would rather walk, I needed to clear my head. Daniel walked me to the front door as Jonah and Corbyn appeared from the kitchen.

"He loves you Penelope, he's just dumb", Daniel said as he opened the door.

"If he truly loved me, he would fight for me until hell froze over... but he just stood there in silence."

Daniel looked away as I waved goodbye to the boys. I did not know when or if I would ever see them again, but I do know that I did not want to see Zach ever again.

"Call us if you ever need anything", Jonah said.

"Will do. Bye guys", I said as I walked through the front door.

Immediately, I took my heels off and began walking. I waited until I was at least around the corner before I fully collapsed on the pavement. I couldn't hold it in anymore, my heart was breaking and it felt like I was dying. Loud sobs fell out of my mouth, I couldn't control them anymore.

Tears continuously streamed down my cheeks, what am I going to do now? How am I supposed to continue? Zach was my whole world, I did not know what I was supposed to do without him. A little voice in my head told me that it was going to be one hell of an uphill battle, but I would survive.

- - -

The first few days were painful, I did not want to get out of bed. Cameron had to bring me my food and water, he did not ask what happened, but after I came home in tears, he did not need to. I mostly slept through the days and let life pass me by.

It was not until the fifth day when Cameron dragged me out of bed and took me to a buffet that I got to see the blue sky again. He did his best to try and cheer me up, but I did not feel like eating anything.

"Penelope, you have to eat something", Cameron said.

I knew he was right, I lost six pounds in the last few days, but I just did not have the appetite. Nevertheless, I forced myself to eat soup and bread to make Cameron happy and to keep myself alive. Cameron dragged me around town, trying to do activities that would make me happy, but nothing worked. It was if the light was sucked out of my life when Zach broke my heart.

I expected a phone call or two from Zach, but I got nothing. It was if I did not even matter to him, and that hurt even more. Did I mean nothing to him? Was our relationship just a joke? We were over for good this time, I could feel it.

When we got home, I was about to head back up to my room when Cameron told me to stay in the living room. Reluctantly, I stayed, even though my bed was calling me name.

"Cameron! There's a bed upstairs calling my name!" I called out.

"Hold on!" he said from the kitchen. Cameron came back out with an envelope and a big smile on his face.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Listen, I know it's kind of last minute but I don't know how else to cheer you up". Cameron pulled out two plane tickets, "wanna go to Paris with me?"

Under any other circumstance, I would have said no, but I really wanted to escape my pain for a bit and the most logical way to do that is to get out of L.A. Besides, Zach had a concert tomorrow night at a local theater and I did not want to find myself wandering over there.

"Let's do it", I said.

Cameron practically jumped up and down, "perfect! We leave in five hours, so start packing."

I smiled and watched him run upstairs to start packing. "MAYBE WE'LL MEET SOME HOT FRENCH PEOPLE!" he called out.

I laughed and made my way upstairs, a three day Paris trip sounded amazing. A perfect getaway from my problems and Zach. This was going to be the breath of fresh air that I needed.