lovely | zion kuwonu

winter formal

"good morning princess" austin yelled at ryan as she walked towards his car.

"you're too cheery for a monday morning" ryan groaned slumping into her seat.

"didn't you hear? i asked emily to winter formal and she said yes!" he smiled big.

"congrats aussie"

"aussie?"

"oh so you guys can give me nicknames but i can't?" ryan complained.

"no i just wasn't expecting it" austin laughed.

by the time they arrived at school the parking lot was nearly filled. austin walked ryan over to the rest of the boys before leaving to go find emily.

"hi ryan" zion waved from his seat.

ryan simply gave him a smile before taking a seat next to nick.

"how was your weekend?" nick whispered.

"zion left a note on my door saturday" ryan replied.

"what did it say?" nick almost yelled making the entire table turn and warning a head smack from ryan.

the bell rang which made everyone leave to their classes.

"i'll tell you during lunch" ryan told nick.

"oh no you're telling me now" the boy laughed as he chased after her.

"nicholas go to class i'll show you later" ryan couldn't help her laughter.

nick finally nodded his head and gave ryan a hug before dropping her off in english.

zion was already seated and too busy reading a book to notice her walk in.

"you should have waited to walk with me" ryan poked him.

"sorry, you looked too busy entertained with nick" zion scoffed as he continued to read his book.

ryan sulked in her seat confused about zion's attitude. he had basically told her that he had feelings and gave her a gift but now he was acting like a total— well asshole.

_______

ryan sat in yearbook scrolling through the pages to proof read. since she had gotten there halfway through the year there wasn't anymore assignments she could do. so the prick of an editor, thomas had her going through the entire yearbook pages to proof read before sending them in. but for now she has found herself listening to the conversation going on at the table next to her.

"did you hear madison beer got asked to formal by jack gilinsky" a girl asked her friends.

"we all saw that one coming" the other one said.

"yeah but did you hear that arielle is planning on asking zion?"

"wait she's going to ask him?"

"yeah she said she's done playing games. he went over to her house on saturday night and they did you know what, so she said fuck it. she's asking him today" she pursed her lips together.

saturday night? was this before or after he had left her the note. did he even mean anything he had said?

her thoughts were cut by the bell ringing. it was now lunch and ryan felt like the world was dragging her along. she walked into the quad to see all of the boys at their table, except for zion.

here goes nothing.

"yo ry! come here and tell these boys how great our date was on saturday" nick laughed.

"can i ask you guys about someone?" ryan asked.

the boys all nodded their head in confusion but went along with it.

"who is arielle?"

"fuck" edwin whispered.

"why are you curious about arielle?" brandon asked.

"some girls in yearbook were talking about how she's going to ask zion to formal"

"zion hasn't talked to her since the beginning of the school year, why would she ask him to formal?" nick said.

"because he went over to her house on saturday night" ryan pursed her lips.

the boys went quite. they didn't know what to say. they hadn't known what zion was thinking for the past month.

"why y'all so quite?" zion said walking up, throwing his bag on the table.

"hey ryan let's go get some food inside" austin said pulling her away.

the moment austin was far enough from the table brandon smacked zion's chest.

"what the fuck was that for?" zion groaned.

"why did you go see arielle on saturday?" edwin questioned.

"bro why the fuck you all up in my business? i'm grown enough to make my own decisions"

"then stop stringing ryan along" nick said.

"says the one that took her on a date"

"dude, we spent all night talking about you. she kept asking questions about you and what you like and what your aspirations are" nick told zion. "and you should have seen her face this morning when she told me about the note you left her on her door"

"just for her to find out arielle is asking you to formal today" edwin pursed his lips.

"i never told arielle i'd take her to formal" zion cleared up.

"yeah, that's why i said she's asking you" edwin said.

"by the end of the day" brandon added.

"i was planning on asking ryan though" zion sighed.

"well i don't think ryan is gonna wanna go considering she already knows you went to arielle's" nick said.

"you assholes told her?"

"z, she's the one that told us" edwin confessed as austin walked back with ryan.

ryan sat in between brandon and nick and took nibbles at her food.

"ryan, can i talk to you?" zion asked breaking the long silence that has filled the table.

it's as is if the time gods were watching over ryan because the bell rang at the exact moment zion finished his sentence.

"maybe after school" ryan rolled her eyes before standing up from the table.

she made her way to class fighting the urge to break down and cry. all she had to do was make it another 53 minutes and she could run home from all this.

just 53 more minutes.

________

authors note

it's heating up wow