The drive to Zoey’s house took about 6 minutes on its own. My dad and I stopped at a gas station on the way to grab some ice for the cooler, which added an extra 5 minutes to the trip. It was pleasantly surprising to learn how close by she lived, but I suppose that it didn’t really matter until today. In any case, I wasn’t entirely sure what she had planned for it, but I decided that for the time being, it would be better to trust her and follow her instructions.
The disappearing messages she sent me had given explicit details for our meetup today. First, I was to bring a cooler filled with ice to the address she had sent me. Then, I’d go through the yard on the right end of the building and hide it on the inside of the large shrub near the corner of the house. Only then should I circle back and ring the doorbell.
The task itself wasn’t difficult. The only painful part was battling my fear of getting caught sneaking around someone’s backyard. Explaining myself out of that kind of situation with a cooler full of ice would be impossible for someone like me. Though, I’m sure Zoey herself could do it.
In any event, after managing to complete the tasks without anyone noticing, I finally made my way to her doorstep. The house didn’t seem all that much different than mine. It was two stories high and had a neutral gray paint job. On the driveway behind me were two parked vehicles. Zoey’s red 2013 Camry, which I had seen many times at school this year, and an ancient Toyota SUV that I didn’t recognize. I decided that it must have belonged to one of her parents and paid it no mind.
After giving the place a second look now that I was calmer, I refocused my gaze on the doorbell before me. It was quite cold outside, so there was no point in delaying it any longer. I had done everything as Zoey had instructed, and it was time to finally set foot into that uncharted territory. I’m sure that no other guy had gotten this far with her before. If they only knew about this, I’m certain that they’d be green with envy. Thinking that, I steeled myself and finally pressed down on the doorbell.
My heartbeat quickened, and I ended up gulping nervously.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m comin’.”
The muffled voice of an older woman seeped out from the cracks in the door as the sound of footsteps slowly approached from the other side. There was a part of me that had held onto the hopes that it would be Zoey herself answering the door, but it looked like that wasn’t happening. After all, I figured it would be bad for her to have a guy over. Isn’t the assumption that something sexual would happen if we went up to her room? Wouldn’t I get mistaken for her boyfriend or something?
While those tumultuous thoughts raced through my head, the sound of the doorknob rattling shook me out of my spell, and the door finally squeaked open.
“What’re you selling, hun?”
As expected, a middle-aged woman with brown hair hanging down the sides of her face leaned out onto the door frame. The dark bags under her eyes did little to distract me from the slightly peeved expression she wore, as if I were doing nothing but wasting her precious time. Judging by the fact that she was still dressed in fancy office clothes, I could assume that she hadn’t been at home for that long and wanted nothing more than to just unwind.
“Selling…? No uhm, I got invited over by Zoey.”
“Zoey…?”
The woman sized me up immediately upon hearing her name. She was clearly making some kind of judgment about me, but I couldn’t tell what kind of conclusion she was coming to. To be honest, it kind of creeped me out.
“Zoey!! Your boyfriend’s here!” she yelled it out after she was done inspecting me. My face burned up the moment she uttered the word “boyfriend.” Of course I had expected something like that to happen. This was why I was praying for Zoey to answer the door herself in the first place. But expecting something and witnessing it are two completely different things.
After a few moments, I heard the slow pattering of footsteps coming down the staircase in front of the door, and her figure finally came into view. She was still drying her face with a towel that had been hanging around her shoulders. If I had to guess, she too had only just arrived home after her club activities. She appeared to have just gotten out of the shower.
“Hey Tristan. You’re right on time.”
I couldn’t utter a word in response. Of course, I’d seen her in homely clothes before in that dream, but I hadn’t felt anything because, being in Zoey’s body, it was difficult for her to feel any sort of physical attraction to herself. But even without that, the view before me was on a completely different level.
Zoey was wearing a white tank top that clung tightly to her chest area, highlighting the shape of her breasts more clearly than I’d ever seen them before. On her hips were what appeared to be a pair of red shorts that barely peeked out from under the length of that shirt, giving off the sensory illusion that she was wearing absolutely nothing. The sight of Zoey wearing so little to cover her lower half out in the open like that was such a sensual experience that I caught myself sweating bullets in the chilly autumn weather.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
For a moment, I almost wondered if she were trying to seduce me, but I decided against that thought since it would lead to my immense disappointment if it weren’t the case. All I could do was avert my gaze nervously.
“Tristan?”
“H-huh? Oh, hey.”
“Do you like, wanna come in? It’s really cold.” I could see signs of goosebumps beginning to form on her arms. It would be bad for me to force her to keep enduring in an outfit like that.
“Oh, yeah. Right. Thanks.”
I stepped into the building. The heating sheared the cold of the outside cleanly from my body. It was a relief to finally be greeted by the warmth after lugging that icebox around outside for all that time. Once she closed the door behind me, I took a moment to look around.
To my right was the kitchen area which had been quite neatly attended to as far as I could tell, with what one would expect from a modern kitchen. Before me was the staircase that Zoey just came from, and to my left was the woman who answered the door, laying down watching the television. She noticed me come in, then turned back to face the TV. “Make sure you wear a condom, hun. Zoey’s gonna have to find someone else to leech off of if she gets knocked up.”
My face was so red that you probably could have mistaken me for a tomato. I had known this woman for all but two minutes and she was already this good at embarrassing me. I turned back to face Zoey, who was smiling brilliantly as if the woman hadn’t said anything at all. Somehow, her indifference to the comment helped calm me down.
“Shoes.”
“Huh?”
“Your shoes,” Zoey repeated.
I looked down, and I noticed a lineup of shoes right next to the door. It seemed like the members of Zoey’s household took their shoes off at the door.
“Ah, right,” I said, before sliding my sneakers off my feet and neatly setting them aside next to the others.
“You better wear that condom, hun. If she catches anything I’m not paying for her treatment either, you know,” the woman continued. It was just one thing after the other with her. It was extremely unsettling.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Ignoring the pestering coming from the TV room, Zoey grabbed my hand and led me up the staircase. Her grasp felt good. It was a familiar softness that served to remind me how easy it is to forget everything else that’s going on in the world when I’m with her.
Law said that love doesn’t exist. But I was starting to feel sorry for him if he truly couldn’t appreciate small moments like these with the person you have these special feelings for.
After climbing up the stairs, we entered a hallway that splintered to the left and right, similarly to the downstairs section of the house.
“Did you bring the cooler?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s hidden outside. My dad got some really good ice so it should last a while.”
She didn’t respond. Rather, she simply walked down the hall to the left. I took a moment to marvel at the fancy abstract paintings on the walls. Zoey’s family seemed to have an extremely peculiar taste in art, but I didn’t hate it. After a moment, we finally arrived at what I assumed to be the door to her room.
“Is this it?” I asked.
“Yeah, it is. Mind giving me a second before I let you in?”
“Oh-”
Before I could offer up a full response, she opened the door and slipped into her room without giving me a second look. I had been left standing out in the hallway of the second floor, staring blankly at the closed door to her room. The suddenness of it reminded me of how she had abruptly hung up on me earlier in the day. It began dawning upon me what a cold person Zoey might be. It certainly wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. After all, she hadn’t dated anyone for the entirety of high school until yesterday. Perhaps that was the reason for it. But of course, I couldn’t help but wonder why she acted like that.
“Woof!” I heard the sound of light scampering coming from the end of the hallway that I hadn’t visited yet, and there, I found a small Terrier rushing over towards me. It was carrying itself with an excitement that quite honestly was exhausting to look at.
No, that’s not true at all.
It was cute.
Way too cute.
The dog barked energetically as it finally approached me, then pawed at my leg with an ecstatic joy that matched its expression.
“Woof! Woof!”
“There, there,” I said, reaching down to pat the dog’s head gently.
I thought that it must’ve been the dog that was on Zoey’s phone. I remembered its brown coat quite well. I thought they matched since Zoey’s own hair was a somewhat similar shade of brown.
“Sorry for the wait,” Zoey said as she opened the door. My eyes followed the sound of her voice to find that, rather than the shorts she had greeted me with earlier, she was now wearing a pair of gray sweatpants. A wave of disappointment washed over me.
“Oh my god, Mao! Hey Mao!”
Flashing her thousand-watt smile as a greeting, she reached down and grabbed the dog, who graciously leapt into her arms. She then headed back into the room.
As ashamed as I am to admit it, I was looking forward to sneaking looks at Zoey’s lower half that evening. But unfortunately, such a dream had been hopelessly crushed right before my eyes by those wretched sweatpants. With a dejected look and tears streaming down my face, I reluctantly followed her into the room.