Chapter 7 Zoey

Zoey stood on the front porch of CJ's house, waiting, hesitating, thinking.

Her life had gone upside down ever since that night, now CJ barely talked to her, they would see occasionally and she would wave but always, always he would turn the other way as if no one was there, she left a letter in his locker everyday, letters riddled with apologies and she would watch as he read them, with tears at the corners of his eyes but he would trash them and move on with his day. Had he moved on?, was their friendship over?

was there nothing she could do to right her wrongs?

Zoey stood and watched the door and eventually made the effort to ring the doorbell.

She heard footsteps coming her way and the door opened.

Zoey looked up to see Mr Johnson, CJ's father, he stood there tall and proud with broad shoulders, just like CJ's, he looked at her with his clear blue eyes and smiled.

"Zoey, what a pleasant surprise, come in please, I'll go get Carlos"

Zoey gave a weak smile, went inside and sat down on the couch.

She heard Mr Johnson's voice call CJ, and minutes later CJ came down wearing a sweatshirt and shorts, upon seeing Zoey, he clenched his teeth and stood in front of her, arms crossed.

" What do you want"said CJ.

"Just came to check on you"

She looked at his arms crossed on his chest.

"I see you've healed"

CJ scoffed and looked her dead in the eye.

"Not entirely"

Zoey knew what he meant.

"CJ I'm so sorry for what I did, I thought I was protecting you"

"By lying to me, by trying to make everything look like it was okay"

"It wasn't supposed to happen like that, it..."

"It what Zoey, you have no decent explanation, no excuse, you lied to me, you stabbed me in the back"

"It was never my intention to hurt you"

"I know it wasn't but I got hurt, you know what I can't understand, why did you act and pretend the whole time, no wonder you seemed to be the only one that knew Lucious was gonna be back."

"I wanted you to meet him, we agreed that he'd tell you before the dance"

"Look how that turned out for you"

There was a weird kind of tension, something completely new in the relationship they had shared for years and Zoey didn't like it.

"Then why ?" asked CJ.

"Why what ?"

"Why did you look at me like that during the dance, when you saw Lucious, you held my hand for a little bit longer, you looked me in the eye and the only emotion I could read was worry"

"That's because I was worried about you"

"Worried about me, or worried about yourself, were you worried that I was gonna get hurt, or were you worried that he would expose you, expose your little act"

"I wasn't acting"

"Right, you were pretending, newsflash, pretending and acting are the same thing"

His tone was so cold, Zoey could see that he was still hurting, he was deep in heartbreak and she was at the center of it all.

"CJ I.."

"You didn't answer my question, were you worried about me or about yourself"

Zoey fell silent, it was one of those questions that left you confused and speechless, those questions that you couldn't readily answer no matter how hard you tried or how long it took, apparently CJ couldn't wait any longer.

"Zoey I love you and I always will, but until you answer that question, I don't think we should be friends anymore"

Zoey held her breath for a second before nodding and standing.

"Well I guess I should take my leave then"

CJ walked towards the door and opened it.

Zoey moved with great difficulty, holding back tears as she went passed the door frame.

She turned around and saw CJ holding the door, his hair shielding the expression in his eyes.

"Goodbye Zoey"

She didn't have time to reply before the door was shut in her face.

She simply exhaled and left his front porch, making her way down the street towards her house, all the while keeping her cool, she wasn't about to be the crying girl on the street.

She finally got home, found the door locked and opened it with her key.

Grateful that she was alone and that everyone had gone out she finally let go of her restraints as she crumpled to the floor, the tears flowed swiftly down her cheeks and she grabbed her head, the only thing she could do to keep from banging it on the wall in anger, sadness and frustration.

In her sadness she replayed her and CJ's conversation over and over in her mind.

"Worried about me or worried about yourself"

Even now she still couldn't answer the question, she couldn't deny that she was worried that CJ would find out, that she had indeed known all this while, that she was even the one that told Lucious to let CJ down easy.

But why had she pretended, she could still see the look of surprise on CJ's face when he found out.

"You knew about this ?"

The scene just couldn't leave her mind, she kept the secret too well, was too discreet, she made CJ look like a complete fool and she knew it.

"Zoey I love you and I always will, but until you answer that question, I don't think we should be friends anymore"

That statement broke her the most, he'd sounded so resolute and firm, no wavering in his tone, it had scared her as much as it had saddened her, what had she done, she turned her best friend into an ice cold monster.

And then the last thing he said.

"Goodbye Zoey"

It sounded less like a formal way of saying farewell and more like a way of saying until we meet again.

He sounded like the girl in front of him wasn't the Zoey he'd come to know, like she was an alien, someone he couldn't recognize, someone he was meeting for the first time.

Zoey got up from the floor and headed upstairs in case her mom came back, she wasn't in the mood to answer any questions, especially since it might jeopardize CJ's secret.

She stood in front of her bathroom mirror staring at herself.

Her afro curls were in a mess, her face was ashy and pale and tear streaks lined her cheeks.

She almost didn't recognize the person looking back at her.

This wasn't her and she finally had a glimpse of what CJ might be seeing whenever he looked at her.

She needed to make things better, she'd asked Micheal for advice and he'd said to go talk it out but that clearly didn't work, she would have talked to Hilda but she hadn't uttered a word to her since the dance.

Her mind immediately went to two people and they were both the last people she wanted to talk to.

The first was Lucious, he might have been the whole reason for this debacle but he'd dated CJ, he'd been with CJ, hell, he'd even loved CJ, he might know what to do.

The next person was Zander, the new kid who had miraculously captured CJ's trust and friendship in a matter if days.

Zoey remembered thier first interaction, it wasn't a pleasant memory but now she was desperate, she was willing to do anything, absolutely anything to get back CJ's trust and friendship.