The Girl Who Never Smiles | ✔️

Chapter 44

Monday quickly rolled around and I oddly felt grateful to go to school. I had to come back home on Sunday and my mother was furious with me because father decided to go and stay at a hotel instead of the house because he was not wanted.

I needed to get out the house and school is the perfect excuse. Today is colder than most days because we are inching into winter. The streets are no longer decorated with the beautiful leaves on the tall trees, but now bare branches on boring trees. The only reason people are not wearing jackets like Eskimos is because our town is usually warm all year round, including the winter. Winter just gets slightly chilly, so I decided a long sleeved black top tucked into a camel colored corduroy skirt would fit the weather perfectly. And of course, converses to top it all off. Oh, and don't forget my 'I' necklace displayed on my chest that Issac got me.

"We need a car." Zoe complains as we board the bus.

"You are right. Ask dad. Maybe he will be good for something." I say bitterly. We sit down in our regular seat on the bus and the bus drives off and towards school.

Zoe sighs and looks outside the window and zones out. This what Zoe is doing is when she gets on a broomstick and flies off to her own world, locking herself in that world and it takes a good slap to snap her out. She has all right to be like this. She has to sleep under the same roof that her father who abandoned her, us 8 years ago is staying at. It must be hard for her. I couldn't do it, so I booked a hotel, but she is there. I feel bad for her honestly. She must be constantly fighting with herself on whether to give in and cherish the moment while it is here or push him away to avoid getting hurt all over again.

The bus rolls up to the school and Zoe and I exit the bus and walk inside the school.

"I will see you after school, right?" Zoe asks, when we reach to the part of the hallway where we part.

"Yeah definitely." I tell her and walk off to my locker.

I look to my locker and Brett is standing in front of my locker with a bowl in his hand with these brown, sprinkle covered, sticks in it. I walk closer to him and he has a smile on his face.

"What's this?" I ask him when I am standing right in front of him. The jar has a turkey on it. Well they used little kiddie art to make a turkey on it.

"Chocolate covered pretzels. On our..friend date thing on Friday, you had me buy you 2 bags of pretzels which you ate off in 2 hours. And you looovee chocolate and I did tell you, I would get you more for our next...friend date."

"So is this your way of asking me on another friend date Brett?" I ask with a small smile on my face. I take one of the chocolate covered pretzels from the bowl and bite into it.

Heavenly.

Whoever combine pretzels and chocolate was a genius. Crunchy and sweet food is the way to go.

"Yes actually." He says and bites off the other end of my chocolate covered pretzel and begins chewing on it.

"I told you I don't share!" I slap him on his shoulder and finish eating off my treat.

"Neither do I." He winks and takes a choco-pretzel from the jar and eats it.

"Well on your offer for another friend date, my answer is yes."

"If I didn't bring chocolate, would your answer be yes?" He asks with a half smirk on his face.

"Most likely, I would've said no" His face falls and I burst out laughing. "I'm kidding. I probably would've said yes. 60% chance." I reply with a grin on my face.

He starts chuckling and shaking his head.  "So about Friday and our almost-kiss...I'm sorry if I overstepped. You made it clear that you wanted to take things slow, so I apologize for that and-"