I’m glad you decided to finally respond.
Yeah… sorry about that.
No problem. Though I was kind of worried I might have hurt your feelings when I said what I said about you texting me… Figured that’s why you haven’t texted.
So… does that mean you’ve been thinking about me lately?
Welp, that was a bold text if I ever saw one, and it came out rather naturally I might add. I smirk thinking about how Ryen would be so proud of me right now.
I get to the kitchen and pick up where my mom left off, seeing that she’s making pasta and French bread. I can see the oven is ready for the bread to be put in, but it’s still sitting on the counter so while I wait for Zach’s message to come through, I stick the bread pan in the oven and then stir the noodles.
Then my phone chimes.
Yeah, I guess you can say that.
But seriously, you can text me whenever you want. We just really might want to keep it a secret from your brother for a bit.
You keep saying that and I guess that’s fine but I also don’t know why we’d need to keep it a secret if nothing is going on.
I can’t tell if he really wants me to text him or not, I mean he does keep saying that but then he mentions my brother and it confuses me. And hopefully my response warrants an issue for a clear answer. Or at least some kind of clarity as to why he insists we can text but keeps bringing up my brother.
Trust me on this lol
It would be easier to trust you on this if you just told me what this is…
Are you going to Bray’s party this weekend?
Great, he changed the subject. Which means that Ryen’s solution of just flat out asking him isn’t going to be as easy as it sounded.
Idk I thought about going to the movies with Ryen instead.
Well let me know if you change your mind.
I’m about to eat dinner so I’ll talk to you later?
My mind races with thoughts as to why he seems so interested in me going to this party. A party that is taking place at my house, might I add. And why does this conversation seem so weird, and short?
I spend entirely too much time trying to type out a response, but I just type out the first thing that comes to mind and hit send.
Yeah, we can talk later. Text me when you’re free.
Will do. Bye Cadence.
6
Zachariah
The radio blares with a familiar tune; Safe and Sound by Capital Cities echoing from the speakers as Mom and Dad travel down Marilyn Drive in the Mini Van. The weather is a bit foggy and snow flurries have started to descend heavier from the sky since it started this morning. But regardless of the cloudy atmosphere and the cold that creeps in, Sophie is jamming out in the backseat like no one’s business, just as she always does, and Mom is clapping with her as Dad hums along while focusing on the road.
Her dark curls shake around her head in a messy dance as she shimmies her shoulders to the beat underneath the restraintof her seatbelt, strapped into her booster seat. She just turned eight, so she was excited to get to move up to the big kid chair, as she called it the other day.
The car travels down the windy road slowly; my dad cautious of slipping on any potential black ice that might have built up under the light layer of snow. Everything is normal, everything is fine. But then, Sophie’s CD skips, causing the music to annoyingly repeat the same word over and over again.
Safe and sound, sound, sound, sound, sound…
Mom leans over to try and fix it, ejecting it from the built-in CD player before breathing over the surface to create a layer of fog to clean it off. Once she does that, she attempts to stick it back in but it accidentally slips from her hands and it falls over onto Dad’s side, sliding under his feet.
“Dang it, Sorry,” she says, annoyed with herself as she tries to lean over for it.
