The afternoon sun was casting its unobstructed rays our way when we left the bowling alley. Overall, the mood of our group was cheery as Laura and Jacob were in good spirits after having their bowling itch scratched. I was impressed at how well they handled losing, considering how close it ended up being. This is especially true in comparison to Zoey, who essentially threatened me when she could taste the bitterness of her own defeat. I understood that it might have been a little frustrating to play such a great game and lose anyway just because your teammate wasn’t pulling his weight. I’ve had experiences like that myself when playing Dota, after all. But this wasn’t a game of Dota where I was forced to play with a bunch of strangers. It was just supposed to be a friendly date activity, right?

“So how was the tour last week anyway?” Jacob asked. “Laura told me you two had a lot of fun.”

“Yes,” Zoey said. “She was a fantastic host. Really, I’m almost entirely sold at this point. I’m thinking of studying political science here then pivoting to a law degree at Harvard.”

“Harvard? Do you have offers already?”

“No, but I’ll get in,” she said, looking my way.

No doubt, she was planning on having me use my powers to worm her way into Harvard of all places. I could only offer an empty smile in response.

“Must be daunting to have such an ambitious girlfriend, huh Tristan?” Jacob said, smiling playfully.

“Oh, not at all. I love her for who she is, every part of her.”

I looked down at the ground as I said it. As much as I was disillusioned by Zoey and who she was, the truth is, I wished that I could have just enjoyed it as I was presenting it to them. She said it herself: we were dating now. The chance to enjoy a weekend with her like this should have been an unforgettable, life-changing experience. My head should be in the clouds, and my heart should be jumping for joy at every romantic moment we shared. But my anger at what she had done with Gwen still hadn’t subsided.

“Hey, it’s my church.” The three of us stopped as Laura turned to face the large building on our right. “Do you all mind if I went in to pray for a little while?”

The girl had asked us with the same unreadable expression she always wore, leading me to wonder just how serious she was about it.

“Go ahead,” Jacob said. “The three of us can chat while you do that.”

She nodded. “Sorry about that, I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

She hurried through the small gates up front before stopping to turn back to face us. After offering us a short wave, she retreated behind the grand oak doors of the towering, white church. For whatever reason, that religious building I ordinarily wouldn’t have cast even a second glance at before had placed me in a state of awe. Churches to me felt like a bastion of architecture from the olden days in a town that was slowly becoming increasingly modernized. This antiquated church and its iconic spire, standing tall just a few minutes away from the campus that ushered Deer Valley into the future, was like the last stronghold standing against the constantly creeping urbanization of this city.

“You seem pretty interested in heading in too,” Zoey said to me.

“Huh? Oh, uh-”

“It’s alright. You can go in. I’ll just have Jacob keep me company outside.”

It seemed like she wanted some one-on-one time to try to determine whether or not he would be a threat to Laura. Though, whatever that could have meant I had no clue. Lawrence getting this involved in his sister’s romantic affairs seemed like a bit much to me.

“Is that fine with you?” I asked Jacob.

“I don’t see why not,” he said with a smile, shoving his hands in his pockets.

I nodded at the both of them and headed towards the church. The wafting scent of burning wax candles filled my nostrils as I took in my surroundings. The inside was filled with wooden benches where large congregations of worshippers were expected to be seated. The dim chandelier light that was spread throughout the nave was like a holy blessing sprinkling down on this place of worship. The stained-glass windows, while gorgeous, did not help to lighten the dim mood on the inside of the church. I felt like a foreign invader inside of this sacred place. I was a stowaway on a ship. A fraud. What did I know about God or worship? Why was I even here?

Then I heard the singing.

An angelic voice, as smooth and soft as fresh linen sheets. It was like smooth honey was being poured directly into my ears. If it weren’t for the fact that the words were of praised aimed at God, I would have thought that I was being serenaded.

I turned to the source of the sound and caught some movement in my peripheral vision. There, I found Laura standing at a bench in the right column facing the altar. Her song was just winding down, but I wished that it wouldn’t end. For just a moment, I felt like I had been transported to another world. Once she was done, I started towards her but almost tripped on the cushion near the floor of a bench. The sound of the resistance of the wood gave her turn to face me with the usual, nonchalant look on her face. But once she saw me, she gave me a small wave to come over to sit with her.

“Uh, hey. You’re really good at singing.”

I offered her an empty compliment due to my nerves and found myself waddling over to her, before we both took a seat at the bench.

“Are you Catholic too?” she asked suddenly.

“Huh? Oh, no. I just felt like checking the church out…”

“Oh, you’re like Zoey then?” she asked.

Like Zoey? Did she mean a non-believer?

“I guess so, but…”

“But?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been having doubts about it lately.”

She turned away to look forward to the altar. I wasn’t sure if she was really thinking or if she was just trying to be considerate of how vague my response was.

“Tell me about your doubts, Tristan,” she said finally.

“Uhm, are you sure? I…”

“I’m sure. You can tell me.”

If she was saying as much that confidently, then I saw no reason not to. After all, I knew that she wasn’t the type of person to use things like that against others. But still, was opening up about myself that easy?

“So, about that thing I told you guys about earlier… about the forest.”

“With Zoey?”

I nodded. What I was about to say next wouldn’t have come easily to me ordinarily, but in hindsight, I recognized that there were two things easing me forward. One was that I had already recounted some of this stuff with my psychiatrist, Dr. Santana, so I had broken the seal on being open about it already. The second was that, having hacked Laura before, my respect and trust for her was at a much higher level than it would have been had it been our true first outing together.

“I’ve kinda been anxious about death ever since that day,,” I said. ”I’ve uh, I’ve had trouble sleeping. I have panic attacks almost every night. My body jolting awake from adrenaline every time I feel myself falling asleep. I’m scared of dying. Like, really scared. I’m scared of going through that tunnel again and just, you know, that being the end of my life.”

“Why?”

“Why? What do you mean why? Do you want to die or something?”

I thought I saw a smile tug at her lips, but it must have been my imagination. Laura Young doesn’t smile, after all.

“That’s not what I mean. Are you scared because you’ll have regrets, or are you feeling guilty about something? I think a lot of people, especially older people, are surprisingly fine with dying after a while. They’ve lived their lives already, had all the fun and excitement they could scrounge out of it, and so they end up waiting for their time to finally come to an end after a while. The people who fear death are usually people who still want something from life. I guess what I’m asking is, what do you want from life?”

It was a question I wasn’t prepared to answer. Up until that point, my head was filled with thoughts of nothing but getting through the school week, Dota 2, and a future with Zoey as my partner. With everything that was thrust on me with Dream Paralysis, I had no idea what I’d truly wanted from my life anymore.

“I don’t think I deserve to want anything more from life,” I said.

“Well, that’s dark.”

“Sorry.”

“No, just… why?” she asked. “Did you do something?”

“I have a lot to feel guilty over. I guess I’m a sinner,” I said.

“We’re all sinners, Tristan.”

“Not like me, though. These past few weeks have been… no. I’ve been a monster. A demon.”

Her eyes didn’t just examine me once I’d uttered those words, they were eating me alive. It was the most Zoey-like thing I’d seen her do. What did this girl, who was two years older than myself, who had much more experience with spirituality than I did, see that I didn’t?

“Tristan, why are you carrying those heavy sins on your own?”

“Why? I don’t…”

“You’re just one person. You don’t need to suffer by your lonesome.”

“But… I can’t talk about it with anyone.”

“You can. I’m right here, and I’m willing to listen. The question you should be asking is, do you actually want to talk about it?”

“I… I don’t know if I can.”

She turned away and thought for a moment, then turned back to face me.

“Here, stand up.” She stood up, and I followed behind her. The two of us went to the large wooden structure, like a decorated box twice the size of a portable bathroom, seated near the end of the church. There were two entrances to this box, each covered by a purple piece of drapery that hung down like a curtain. “Step inside, I’ll hear you out.”

Somehow, it felt a little sacrilegious to listen to her instruction.

“Uh, is this allowed?”

“Never mind if it’s allowed. Go inside. Take a seat.”

She was the expert on the rules of the church, so I didn’t see the need to question her. I walked through the drape of the confessional and took a seat at the chair. Before me was a grate of gold that was connected to the other side of the box.

“Okay, you can speak,” she said.

“Uhm…” The atmosphere inside of the box was eerie. Peering through the grate, I couldn’t exactly see her too clearly on the other side, so it was almost as if I was alone in this wooden box. I supposed that in that sense, talking to her might have been easier than if I were staring at her face to face, but… “I don’t know…”

“Tristan, there’s something that’s bothering you. I could see it the second I saw you sitting at that bench with Zoey. Now, I’m not a priest. I can’t hear your confession and ask the Lord to forgive you, but I can at least help you get whatever is bothering you off your chest.”

“Yeah but… you don’t know me. Why would you even want to hear me out?”

She blinked. “’Why?” Because it’s the right thing to do, obviously.”

And then, I suddenly remembered. Not remembered as I had all day, but I truly remembered. Laura Young was that kind of person. When she was a senior at Deer Valley High, I recalled her checking in on Lance when he was really upset over what I now understand to be his breakup with Naomi. He chased her off as he usually did with strangers, hurling foul and uncouth statements her way that would turn anyone away from him. But the fact that she showed so much concern for a stranger, and one that was as rambunctious as Lance at that, had made a lasting impression on me. No one ever had a bad thing to say about her. It was all praise for how kind and caring she was towards other people. She’s almost exactly the kind of person Zoey’s pretending to be. And if that were the case, wouldn’t telling be okay?

“I spiked Ben’s drink with melatonin supplements at the homecoming game.”

I blurted the words out without thinking. There was no turning back. She now knew the truth. If she wanted to, she could easily ruin my life by telling her brother, or Benjamin, or the principal, or anyone else she wanted to. But I trusted her. If she’s the girl Zoey is pretending to be, then maybe I should be okay with talking to her about this.

“Go on,” she said.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“I spiked his drink because I thought he’d steal Zoey from me if he won the homecoming game. The two of them made a bet on it, so I... no, I didn’t spike it myself. I had someone else do it. Someone who could get close to him without arousing any suspicion. It’s a terrible thing but… I just couldn’t stand the thought of Zoey being held by another person. Those feelings were like, it was like I was a different person. But was I really? Stupid, right? Why am I using reasoning like that to excuse the bad things I do? Even if I was angry or, or influenced, at the end of the day, it was my own actions that caused them to lose the game. It was my own actions that ruined Benjamin’s dreams of playing college ball. Was he a jerk? Yeah, but… Did I really have to do that to him? That’s the awful part about all of this. My terrible actions are making me feel sorry for someone who spent an entire week trying to wrong me and make me miserable over a girl who said herself that she would never love me. It’s so fucking bullshit!”

I covered my mouth. I didn’t mean to swear inside of the church, but the words just spilled out with my frustrations.

“No, it’s fine. Keep going.”

I took a deep breath, staring down at my feet, then continued.

“The worst part is that I now finally see the real Zoey. I finally see her for the cold, callous, loveless monster that she is. The kind of person that can only talk to other people by bending and, and manipulating them to her will. Get this, right? That person I blackmailed into spiking Ben’s drink? The real reason she did it was because she was in love with him just like I was in love with Zoey. She couldn’t stand the idea that he would end up with someone else. We were alike. So alike that we ended up getting close after that. She understood the, like, the desperation that led to me blackmailing her into doing something so terrible, and she even forgave me for it. And, a week later, I forgave her for offering me up to Ben to get back in his good graces.

“We understood each other, and I started to think that, that I’d finally made a new friend. Things were going so great, and I started to feel less lonely in my acceptance of Zoey’s strange behavior. And yet, Zoey made me betray her. She knew that she, that Gwen was allergic to bees, and she locked her into a room and told me to release them from the jar just to scare her. This past week, all I’ve done was think about how much better I could have handled it. I could have just not done it. I’m a guy, I could have stayed away from Zoey and had Gwen run away. I could have removed it from the room. There were so many better things to do, and I…”

“Do you think it’s fair to use hindsight to beat yourself up over something like that?”

“Hah, just watch me.” My hands were shaking. I felt the regret tensing up in my face. “I did it because Zoey told me to. That’s all there was to it. She didn’t want me to be friends with Gwen, so she made me do something that messed up to her so that she’d hate me. And that’s the girl I’ve been in love with all this time. Zoey fucking Brahm.”

There was silence on the other side of the confessional. Was she pondering what to say, or was she waiting for me to continue? Or maybe she was just in shock? Either way, the eerie silence was too much for me to bear.

“Am I too sinful?” I asked finally.

“Oh, that’s a good one.” A good one? Did she think it was a joke? Just what did I say that was so funny, exactly? “Tristan, I already told you. Everyone sins. You need to think of it like falling over. Treat the wound, learn from your mistake, and you’ll be fine. No one’s perfect.”

“Yeah but what I did is like, really fucking bad Laura. I doubt you’ve ever sinned like that before.”

“Maybe not quite like that. But I sin all the time too.”

“Yeah, but it’s probably small stuff like… eating a piece of someone’s candy or telling a little white lie.”

“Nope, it’s way worse than that.”

“I somehow doubt it, but sure. Let’s hear it.”

“I kissed Zoey last week.”

I blinked twice as a blank smile curled at my lips. “You what?”

“It’s funny. I hadn’t kissed anyone before last week. I told Jacob that we should save all that stuff for marriage because of my values, which probably won’t happen until we’re both graduated with stable jobs. But Zoey somehow managed to push me into going against those same values in a single day. I was just curious, I suppose, and she took advantage of that. But still, a sin’s a sin.”

While I half-listened to her explanation, I found myself trying to reconcile the contradiction within myself. If it were Ben confessing something like that to me, I’d be blinded with anger and envy right now. But because it was Laura, because it was another attractive woman saying as much, somehow, I managed to stay completely calm.

“You don’t resent her for it?” I asked.

“Not right now, no. I liked it, really. You two have probably kissed a lot so you know what I’m talking about.” And suddenly, that anger and envy that had been so absent initially was welling up slowly inside of me. “If kissing Jacob is even half as good as that was, then I’d like to hurry up and get married right away, you know? But… while I don’t resent her for it, I do kinda regret doing it. I regret betraying my faith, and I regret betraying Jacob. But even if I regret it, there’s no point in projecting anger out towards Zoey, and there’s no point in beating myself up over it. All I can do now is try to make things right with the person I’ve wronged.”

Her remorse, coupled with her willingness to take responsibility allowed me to calm myself down again. I’d apparently been clenching my fists tightly, because there was a tension in my fingers when I calmed down. It made me realize that I hadn’t truly taken responsibility for what I’d done to Gwen. Was I just placing all of the blame on Zoey this entire time?

“Have… have you told him yet?”

“I will, after this date. I came here today to pray for the strength to do it. To be honest, I expect that he’ll leave me over it. It’s already been difficult for him to abstain until marriage as is. I wouldn’t blame him if that was the decision he came to. But, I really don’t want him to.”

“I see…”

“What about you?” Laura asked. “You already seem disillusioned with her. Are you going to break up with her now that you’ve heard this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Sounds like you have some soul searching to do.”

“Well, it’s just… complicated.”

She knew too much about Dream Paralysis. Like it or not, our fates are inexplicably tied. And with how little she cares about my or anyone else’s feelings, she’s probably going to do everything in her power to keep me in line with her now that my feelings for her are dwindling.

“It would be nice if I could change her,” I said. “For the better.”

It might have been naive. Surely, someone like that can’t be changed that easily. It’s more likely that she’d burn my life to the ground before anything resembling change happens to her. And yet, it’s my only choice until high school’s over and I can avoid her forever.

“If you change her, and you manage to live that life you imagined with her, do you think you’d be able to die without regrets?”

Die without regrets? To be honest, I still don’t believe that it’s possible. Everyone has at least some regrets.

“After everything that’s happened, I don’t think I can live a life together with her anymore. I don’t love her anymore. But I might give some thought to trying to help her out.”

There was no response. I sat in silence with the weight of my words on my shoulders. Now that I’d said it out loud, it felt like I had finally accepted it. My love for Zoey Brahm was over. With this date, our romance would disappear with the wind. The feelings in my chest were raging uncomfortably, but I decided that I’d have to sort them when I finally returned home.

“Hey, let’s go Tristan. We need to head back outside.”

“Huh?”

The voice came from outside the curtains. I cast them aside and found her standing there looking down at her phone, almost as if she didn’t just have a completely vulnerable heart-to-heart with me. Just what did the confessional do to her? Either way, I decided to follow her lead and made my way out of the box.

“Before we leave, uh…” I said.

“Yeah?”

“I’d like to try praying.”

“Praying?”

“Y-yeah, like… to God. How do I do it?”

“How?” She pondered for a moment. “I dunno. Kneel at a bench, clasp your hands together, close your eyes, then talk to God.”

“Talk to Him?”

“Yeah. Tell Him how you feel, express your gratitude, ask for favors. Everyone’s relationship with God is different, so how you talk to Him is up to you. I mean, whether He grants you anything is up to Him, but there’s no harm in asking.”

“Uh, okay…”

I made my way to a bench and placed my knees on the cushion at my feet. Praying to God. When she put it like that, I probably have prayed to God before. In fact, I pray to him every night. Wasn’t I technically always asking some higher power to grant me some kind of future with Zoey? All I’ve ever wanted is to be someone important to her, just as she was important to me. And while that prayer had been granted, I’m starting to wish that I’d spent those wishes on something else. I wish I never got to meet the real Zoey. I wish I could have just kept on admiring her from afar. But instead, we’ve arrived here, at the future where I’m important to her, and now I can’t escape from her grasp.

I clasped my hands.

Dear God,

I only want one thing more than anything in the world right now. I want to know if Gwen is okay. I want to talk to her again, to know that she doesn’t resent me for what I did. There’s been a black hole in my stomach ever since it happened. I’ve been sleeping worse than ever before.

I don’t need much, just any sign that she’s going to be okay. She was the only friend I’ve made at school since Lance and Naomi, and I genuinely enjoyed the short time that I spent with her.

I don’t know if You’re real, but I’m trying this on the off chance that You are. I don’t know if I have a real relationship with You as of right now, and I wasn’t raised as a Christian. But if You are real, then I’m grateful that You led me to her on my journey of life so far.

Amen.

I stood up and looked over at Laura, who seemed to have been eyeing me the entire time.

“How do you feel?” she asked.

“I don’t know, like I’m hoping that there’s going to be lots of gifts underneath the Christmas tree tomorrow.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” she said.

“Did I do it wrong then?”

“Not really, but you’ll get better at it if you keep trying.”

“I see…”

I wasn’t sure if she was even a real Christian. She was so nonchalant about everything, from entering the confessional and the way she made me pray, that I started second-guessing her. But the one thing I couldn’t second-guess was that she was a good person. The idea of a Christian in my head is a dogmatist who quotes bible passages in conversation and constantly tries to indoctrinate the people around themselves to turn their souls over to Jesus. And while she wasn’t like that, she was so selfless and caring that I couldn’t help but wonder if this was what all Christians were like. Maybe the snobby, self-righteous version of a Christian in my head was just a construct of my imagination? Regardless of what the truth of it was, I did have a newfound appreciation for Christians after speaking with her today. That holiness I felt when I’d hacked her last week was genuine.

As the two of us made our way towards the exit, heading back to our own partners, I couldn’t help but be angry at Zoey for trying to taint someone so sanctimonious with her filthy hands. I was angry, but more so overcome with sorrow for Laura and Jacob both. I didn’t know him, but I’m sure that he was better than whatever Zoey had planned for her by kissing her last week.

“So uh, is Jacob a good boyfriend?” I asked.

“A good boyfriend? What do you mean?”

“Like, I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know what makes a good boyfriend.”

“Hmm. Well, he makes me happy. He’s a huge romantic too. He’s really good at the small things that a lot of people miss.

“The small things?”

“Yeah. For example, he always asks about some small detail that I talked to him about the last time we spoke. It feels like he’s really paying attention to me. Jacob is so good at things like that.”

“Right…”

“Was that what you meant?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think so. That’s good to hear.”

“By the way, I feel weird asking this, but…”

“But?”

“Are you friends with Larry?”

“Larry?” I pondered for a moment. “Uh, you mean Lawrence? I guess… we started talking recently. I don’t know if we’re friends yet, though.”

“Oh, that’s perfect then. Do you think you could keep an eye on him for me?”

“Keep an eye on him… how?”

I was suddenly getting the feeling that both siblings were obsessed with the other.

“Well, we haven’t been close lately, and I’m a little worried that he’s falling in with the wrong crowd. I get that he’s taking basketball seriously, but I’ve heard… rumors about him.”

She must have been talking about his sexual escapades. No doubt, if she was even remotely connected to the school then she must’ve heard something about it.

“Uh, I can ask him about it if that’s what you’re interested in. Those rumors aren’t exactly a secret.”

“Really? That’d mean a lot. Here, give me your number.”

Once we went through the double doors and found ourselves on the foyer, she handed me her phone and I input my number into the new contact page that she’d had open. Once she took it back, she examined the phone and furrowed her brows.

“See, this is what I mean by romantic. You’re supposed to add a cute emoji next to your name.”

“Oh, really? Like a heart?”

“No, not like a heart silly. That’s too obvious. Like a sun emoji or something.”

“Okay, here. Give it to me.”

I took the phone back and readjusted the name, then handed the phone back to her. She looked down at the phone and immediately nodded.

“Okay yeah, this is good. Nice job.”

I added a bowling emote to immortalize my historic performance today. Now I’ll be associated with being carried by Zoey forever. Speaking of Zoey, I looked over at the two of them since they’d been waiting at the gate for a while. They didn’t look to be very talkative from where I was standing, as they were both staring down at their phones. I imagine that either it hadn’t gone well or their business was done.

“Oh, it’s a Psyduck.”

I followed Laura’s gaze, and found that she was looking up at the sky. There, I saw a cloud shaped like the Pokemon Psyduck.

“You do that too?” I asked.

“Do that? Call out cloud shapes? Yeah, I love Pokemon. Larry and I grew up playing it together.”

Suddenly, I wished that I had a sibling I could play video games with. But still, what are the odds that Laura played the same game of finding shapes of Pokemon in the clouds that Lance and I did? What are the odds? As I gazed upon her ponderous expression, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was mistaken for hastily choosing Zoey as my soulmate. Not that it mattered, since Laura already had a boyfriend.

“By the way, there’s something else I didn’t tell you about Zoey,” she said.

“What, did you guys do more than just kiss?”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure Jacob would love to hear about that. No, but it happened around the same time. The truth is, I think she’s being stalked.”

“What? That’s a big deal. What happened? Has she called the police?”

“No, and she told me not to. It was some middle-aged guy. He followed her up to my dorm.”

“Middle-aged guy…?”

It was concerning, but honestly it might have been her dad too. I hadn’t heard much about what he was up to, but it’s entirely possible that he’s just trying to involve himself in her life again. It’s unfortunate, but family matters like that probably aren’t our concern.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I said.

“You think so?”

“If it was really bad then she would’ve called the cops, right?”

“Yeah, I guess…”

The two of us stood in silence. I would probably have to ask her about it at some point, but to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered to. Thinking about Zoey just made me upset. Instead, I’d like to focus on thinking about Gwen and possibly making things up to her somehow.

“Can you keep everything I told you today a secret?” I asked her.

“Of course, only… If you don’t mind me asking.”

“What is it?”

She was looking over at Jacob and Zoey, and waved at the two of them.

“If Zoey said that she would never love you, then why did she agree to date you?”

Because of Dream Paralysis, I almost said. The truth is, I could have just come out and told her about it in that moment. I felt free talking to her, more so than I had ever felt when talking to Zoey. But I couldn’t do it. Because for some reason, talking about it would make it feel real, and I wanted nothing more than to pretend that I hadn’t met an evil spirit just two weeks ago.

“I don’t know. All I know is that that’s what she told me. She said that she’s aromantic or something. She has no love in her body. Not for me, her, friends, her parents, anyone.”

Laura paused. “Tristan that…”

“What?”

There was a look of confusion on her face, but whatever was puzzling her never made it’s way out of her mouth. “Nevermind. I’m sorry.”

“Anyway, let’s not keep them waiting anymore. She’ll really chew me out if we don’t get back,” I said, trying to change the topic, but the look on her face was beginning to bother me.

“She must really have you on a leash,” she said finally.

“Yeah, a leash. Man, this is excellent cathedral conversation.”

“He’ll forgive us,” she said as the two of us returned to the gate where Zoey and Jacob were waiting. “Sorry for the delay! Are we ready to go?”

“Sure are,” Jacob responded then wrapped his arm around her for a half hug.

I looked on at them in complete envy of what they had, then turned back to Zoey, who was pouting at me.

“What?” I asked.

She flicked her head in their direction, as silently asking where her hug was.

I looked over at Laura, who seemed to be eyeing me intently. Was she implying that I should engage in one of those small romantic gestures? Even though I told her how I felt about Zoey? Well, it’s not like I was doing it for Zoey’s praise, so there was no reason not to. I did spot a gorgeous flower the size of my palm in a bush next to the gate, so perhaps I could use that. Thinking that, I took a few steps to my right so that it was positioned behind me, then I gave her a hug. It wasn’t a long hug or a passionate one, but it was just enough to communicate to the other two that we were kind of romantic. Unfortunately for me, it was long enough for me to become intoxicated by her usual cinnamon scent.

Once we separated, I picked the flower from behind me and placed it in her hair.

“Wow,” Laura gasped.

Jacob grinned.

It seemed like the two of them were impressed by that romantic gesture of mine. Fortunately for me though, neither of them could see Zoey’s face from where they were standing. There I faced a stoic visage that carried a barely noticeable tinge of anger and disgust for my unnecessary action. This girl, who didn’t have a single good bone in her body, looked like she wanted to toss that little flower of mine into the dirt as if to spit all over the attempt. But that suited me just fine. For the first time today, I felt like I had gotten one on Zoey Brahm.