Seafoam //Completed//

Chapter 29

They walked back together, a little awkwardly, through the town. Lulu played with the starfish in her hand, thinking about what she'd just committed to. She couldn't stay with Matty and she couldn't stay with Ava, but was staying with Zac really the right choice? He broke the silence suddenly.

"Why do you go to that lighthouse?"

"How do you even know about the lighthouse?" she countered.

He laughed. "I haven't always been blind. My family used to come to this beach every summer when I was a kid to visit my grandparents. I sort of remember the way."

She nodded hoping he'd elaborate but he remained quiet after that.

"Wait your grandparents! I can't stay with you if your grandparents don't even know me."

He laughed at that. "They won't even noticed you there. They spend most of the day at the ice cream shop and go to sleep at around seven."

"They own the ice cream shop? Seafoam scoops?"

"Yeah. They're always there and they've never once seem Gemma and the one time they saw Selene, she pretended to be there doing a school project with me. Did you ever see them the few times you've been there?"

Now that she thought about it, no, "I guess not."

They were quiet again her thoughts trailing to Selene. "Won't Selene be upset?"

Zac took a minute to answer, shaking his head slightly. "Selene loves to help. I don't think it'll upset her if I'm helping you...but to stay on the safe side, she doesn't necessarily have to know."

Lulu didn't like that. It felt wrong. Although she knew Zac had no feelings for her and that he wasn't inviting her over to his house in that way, it still felt like they were going behind Selene's back. But she didn't say anything. They walked quietly the rest of the way. When they reached his front yard, his phone beeped.

"GPS tells me when I'm home," he explained.

"That's pretty awesome."

"Yeah," he laughed a little nervously.

Lulu felt herself growing hot in the face, despite the cold. The wind was picking up they were both shivering slightly. "Well, I'll be leaving now."

"Will you be okay walking by yourself?" The concern in his voice made her smile.

"I promise I'll be fine, Zac. Oh, just one thing. Maybe we should wait until Monday for me to come over."

"Oh, yeah. That's fine. Umm, any reason in particular?" If it weren't for the dark shadows the porchlight was casting on his face, Lulu would've sworn she saw a little bit of disappointment in his features.

"I just want to give her a day to try and fail to convince me to stay with her. And I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the little stuff Matty..." her heart skipped at the ease of mentioning his name, as if she were about to see him after leaving Zac. "Umm, with the little stuff he managed to recover from my house. Or whatever is left of it."

He nodded slowly, his hands in his pockets. "Okay. So Monday after school, Liam will bring you here and we'll try to figure something out. Or you can ride with Ava, I guess and, yeah we'll figure it out." He laughed nervously and she giggled a little too. It was so weird being so friendly with him, but she liked it.

"Okay. I'll see you Monday then."

"Make sure you call if you need anything tomorrow. Anything at all, Lulu."