Forbidden Love: Fate (Zac and Ivy Trilogy Book 1) (17 page)

I turn to him, say my thank you, and am
about to pick up the bottle when he gets to it first. He twists the
cap, places a blue straw into it, and hands it back to me.

My heart quivers. I can’t do anything much
but take the drink from his hand and start sipping it. It’s cool on
my throat, soothing it tremendously.

“Better?” he asks, his face somewhat close
to mine.

“Yes. Thank you,” I croak out in reply and
turn away.

My heart is pounding in my chest. There’s
silence all around. Zac doesn’t speak any further. He just sits
there beside me. I don’t know what to say either. All I can do is
continue to sip the apple juice, making a slurping sound as the
juice is drawn up the straw into my throat.

Ever so gently, though, I feel a hand grasp
mine. A gentle grip at first, and then it grows firmer until our
hands are fully grasping each other. I look at the hand entwined in
mine. I look at the person linking his hand to mine.

His face is composed; his eyes are staring
off at the far corner of the restaurant, as if admiring the
painting of Angkor Watt, the seventh Wonder of the World. But
looking farther, I realize his face isn’t so well composed. There’s
lightness in his eyes and his lips are traced upwards, as if almost
forming a smile, a hidden smile he doesn’t want me to see.

The longer I let his hand hold mine, the
wider that smile becomes, until he’s fully grinning like a dork. I
smile as well and turn away to look at the beautiful
chandeliers.

We sit like this for some time, both of us
staring in our respective directions, shyly refusing to look at
each other but relishing the fact that our hands are still
connected. As passersby come and go, they can’t hide the smiles on
their faces. They must think we’re two young people in love.

I want to retract my hand when this thought
comes to mind, but Zac seems to sense my withdrawal. He holds on to
my hand even tighter. In the end, I let him hold my hand until the
waitress comes and gives us our takeaway.

Standing up, we both walk back to the
hospital in silence again, but our hands are still holding on to
each other. I also hold Moon’s sandwich, whereas Zac holds the bag
of Cambodian takeaway.

Since I can’t bear this oppressive silence
any longer, I ask, “What did you buy?”

Zac’s face lights up the minute I ask this.
He turns to me and grins. “It took you long to talk.”

I stare at him in confusion.
What does he
mean by that?

Zac smiles and says, “I didn’t want to start
a conversation, thinking you might need some time to compose
yourself, but now it looks like you’re fine again.”

I smile back at him. “I’m fine now, Zac.
Really, I’m stronger than this. But I think it’s because I’m
hungry. That’s all.” I feign an excuse for my behavior.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll like what I bought,”
he tells me. “Satay, fried noodles, and Cambodian pancakes. They’re
all healthy and yummy.”

“I’ve never had Cambodian food before,” I
say back. In fact, I should have told him that I’ve never even been
inside a restaurant. That experience was the first.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll love it.”

True to his words, I do love Cambodian food.
I dig in like there’s no tomorrow, my hunger consuming me like a
crazy animal as I leap into the food again and again until Zac pats
my back and tells me to slow down.

“No one is going to steal your food. I’ve
bought enough to feed everyone.” He chuckles.

After this, I eat more slowly. Moon laughs
too, seeing the way I eat like I’ve been hungry for centuries. I
smile back, happy she’s back to her usual self.

After dinner, unfortunately, visiting hours
are over. Zac drives Gigi and me back home. Clare stays behind to
look after Moon.

On the journey home, Gigi sits in the back
seat while I’m sitting in the front next to Zac. It’s early May,
but when seven o’clock hits, the sky gets dark. Zac has to turn on
his headlights to see. I stare at the streetlamps that pass us like
streaking stars. It’s so beautiful, though. There’s silence inside
the car, but this time, it doesn’t scare me. Instead, I rest my
head and close my eyes, relishing this comfortable silence.

Some twenty minutes later, we arrive home.
Gigi thanks Zac and goes inside. I’m still standing outside,
shivering in the cold night air. I don’t know why I don’t want to
go back inside the house yet. I think inside me, I want to thank
Zac first. So I keep hovering around, standing outside the car
until he appears on my side. When he sees me shivering, he says
urgently, “You should go inside the house, Ivy. It’s warmer.”

I smile, hearing the trace of concern in his
voice.

“I’m fine.” I smile up at him. Our eyes
catch each other’s, and for that small split second, everything
else is forgotten.

Inside my head, I’m still pondering on ways
to thank this guy for saving our family throughout this event.
Should I buy him a gift, maybe a new shirt for the one I destroyed?
In the end, I settle for a simple thank you, maybe followed by a
gift at a later date.

“Thank you for everything today. I really
appreciate your help,” I say, breaking our eye contact first. I’m
about to turn and go into the house when he catches my hand. I
stand still, my heart pounding erratically again.

“Ivy,” he whispers softly.

I turn to face Zac. He has a determined look
on his face. I look up at him, willing him to speak further. He
just grips my hand tighter, as if begging me to understand what he
meant by that pressure on my hand. I still don’t understand what he
means, so I quietly ask, “What is it?”

“If… if… it’s all right, could you,
maybe…?”

I wait for him to continue, let him take the
time to compose himself. Seeing him take a deep breath, I brace
myself of what’s about to come next.

“Can I maybe be your boyfriend?” he lets it
out all in one breath.

I gasp, staring at him in shock.

Boyfriend! Does he want to be my
boyfriend?

As if sensing I might refuse, he quickly
corrects his mistake. “What I mean is friend, to be your friend. A
friend that just so happens to be a boy, like me. So a… boy…
friend.”

My heart slows. I look at him again, feeling
all kinds of trepidation running through me. Then I look at his
hand that is currently holding on to mine.

All throughout today, that hand has been
holding mine, giving me support throughout all of my emotional
downpour. Then my thought shifts to Dillon. If Zac were anything
like Dillon, he wouldn’t waste his time on my family like this. He
wouldn’t waste his breath calling an ambulance and taking Gigi to
the hospital. Zac is a genuine person, so very different from
Dillon. He really invested a lot of his time with my family. Zac
truly is an exceptionally friend, a friend who supports his friend
when I need him. So I smile and finally give him my answer

“If my family sees you as a friend, then I
don’t mind you as a friend either.”

Zac grins from ear to ear and grasps my
hands within his. “God, I love your family,” he says without losing
that smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school, friend.”

I watch him leave, my heart smiling warmly
at the sight, like a little kid who’s been rewarded with his
favourite candy.

Yes, see you tomorrow at school… friend.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ZAC

A Sick Fool in Love

I stand with Elsa in my hand, staring at
Ivy. She has her head turned away from me. A twitch of a smile
plays at the corners of my lips. Ivy looks pissed off. She has on
one of those grouchy masks again. I can’t help but chuckle into the
microphone. But then all eyes immediately turn to me.

Gee. I didn’t mean to chuckle for everyone
to hear me like that. But that did catch Ivy’s attention and now
she has her face directed at me.

Finally. Let’s get the show started.

I continue to stare at Ivy and then wink at
her. She doesn’t acknowledge my wink. Instead, it’s actually Mandy
who’s screaming her head off.

What is with Mandy screaming like that?

I shake my head and ignore Mandy, turning my
attention to Ivy instead. Then I wink at her again.

“Oh, Zac’s winking at me again,” Mandy
shouts out.

The wink is not for you,
Mandy,
I grumble inside my head.

Ivy just looks even more annoyed. I shake my
head and turn to my band mates
.
Forget about my winking
game. It isn’t working. I’ll just explain to her with the song I’ve
composed instead.

I guess she’s still pissed with me. I
shouldn’t blame her, though. I kind of told her a little lie. Okay,
well, it’s a big lie, then. I told her she should wait for me after
class and then I’d take her home. I told her to meet me at the
school auditorium because I had to get Elsa from my locker, which
is near the auditorium.

Well, what a surprise it was for her when
she thought that I would pick her up there. Instead of seeing me
with Elsa all alone waiting for her, she sees me onstage with my
band and a bunch of girls screeching their heads off.

I thought Ivy was going to turn back and
leave me, but I guess she has to walk home if she doesn’t wait for
me to finish band practice. I already made sure the bus has left.
Well, that would prevent her from leaving.
Aren’t I a cunning
one?

Okay, the only reason I’ve resorted to
tricking her is because I want her to listen to the song I composed
for her.

After taking Ivy home last week, my heart
swelled up like a balloon. Ivy said we could be friends. I thought
this was the perfect opportunity to strike out my cord.

When we’re friends, we can hang out
together. This gives me the perfect opportunity to talk to her and
be close to her without Ivy thinking it’s weird. I can even act
suspicious, like hold her hand without her permission or touch her,
and she won’t even mind. All because of that one single safe word:
friend.

Oh God, I am way over the moon right now.
When I arrived home that day from Ivy’s house last week, I couldn’t
sleep a wink. I stayed up all night to compose this song for
her.

It wasn’t finished then, so I spent every
single night after that composing and playing the song out on Elsa,
testing it to make sure today, when I get to sing to her,
everything would be perfect. I only survived on sleeping the
minimal amount of hours so that I could get by during class without
my head dropping on my desk.

Now it’s all complete. I was so happy this
morning that even when I went to eat breakfast with panda eyes and
Catalina was ringing my ears, lecturing to me that I should be
thinking more about sleeping than spending every single night
composing this song, I was still happy. Nothing can burst my happy
bubble now. Not even seeing Ivy’s grumpy face. I have Ivy in my
clutches now. And I can’t wait to sing this song to her.

I smile at Ivy when I catch her gaze again.
I make sure not to wink at her again, just in case Mandy thinks
it’s for her.

Ivy just glares at me. I smile at her again
and shake my head in a playful manner, to tell her that her bad
mood isn’t affecting me.

I turn to my band mates and, with my usual
signal, ask them if they’re ready. They know my signal and a second
later, I start playing Elsa and then Loki joins in.

Ivy, this song is for you.

It started with one single dare,

That led to one single kiss,

But now my heart is struck by you.

Do you know what’s wrong with me?

Because I can’t eat, can’t sleep.

I think I’m sick

Ivy, can you hear me? It started with that
dare with Kai, and then I kissed you. Now I can’t stop thinking of
you. Do you know why?

It started with algebra,

And a conversation that led into my
dreams,

But now my heart is charmed by you.

Do you know what’s wrong with me?

Because I can’t talk, can’t think.

And I think I’m sick

Yes, Ivy, it also started with algebra. Now
you’ve charmed my heart, and I can’t stop thinking about you. Do
you know what’s wrong with me?

It’s because I love you. I love you, Ivy. I
don’t just have a crush on you. I love you. I want to tell you
this, but I’m scared you might reject me, so this is the only
way.

Forgive me if I make you mad. But I can’t
help but do this. From the way my heart thumps like I’m having
heart palpitations to the way I’m always acting like a fool when
I’m around you. Because I love you, Ivy. I’m a sick fool who’s in
love with you.

I stare at Ivy standing among the crowd of
teenage girls in our school auditorium. She’s the only one standing
stock-still, compared to all the other girls screeching their heads
off, dancing to the tune as they hear me sing.

I want to sing this next part in front of
her, so I walk off the stage and start my journey to the front of
the crowd where Ivy stands.

The girls are going wild when they see me on
the ground floor. They push and shove each other as I make my way
down stage to sing closer to them.

It’s been a good few months since I last
held a microphone in my hand and sang with this much glory. Now
with Ivy standing right in front of me, I put all my love and
energy into each word as I sing to her.

Because I’m in love with you, in love with
you.

I think I fallen, fallen, fallen in love
with you.

Because I love you, I love you.

I think I fallen, fallen, fallen in love
with you.

See my eyes, the love I have for you.

See my eyes, the world I give to you.

I stare at Ivy, half smirking and half
smiling at her. She’s scolding at me. I know because she’s making
that grouchy face again. All the other girls, though, are shoving
each other, trying to get in front of Ivy. Ivy, who isn’t well
prepared for the onslaught of the crowd, ends up tossed to the
side. I follow her as she gets pushed to the edge.