Chapter 193 - In My Arms
Zac’s POV
Zac arrived twelve minutes late to AP Chemistry.
Mr. Callahan stopped speaking when the classroom door opened, and every student turned toward him. Roxie looked up immediately, but Zac kept his attention on the teacher as he entered.
"Nice of you to join us, Prescott."
"My alarm didn’t go off."
Mr. Callahan glanced at the split in Zac’s lower lip. "Your alarm hit you too?"
Several students laughed. Zac touched the cut with his tongue, feeling where it had opened again while he brushed his teeth that morning.
"Rough morning."
"Take a seat. You can explain chemical equilibrium after you catch up."
Zac walked past his usual desk and chose an empty seat in the back. He felt Roxie watching him the entire way. The swelling had gone down overnight, but the split remained dark near the corner of his mouth. Hiding it would have required covering half his face, which would have attracted more attention.
He opened his notebook and copied the equation from the board. His phone vibrated inside his pocket before he finished the first line.
Zac waited until Mr. Callahan faced the projector before checking the screen beneath the desk.
Roxie: What happened to your mouth?
He glanced toward her. She faced the board, but her pencil had stopped above her notebook.
Zac: Nothing.
Her answer arrived immediately.
Roxie: That is not nothing. I’m sorry.
The apology irritated him. She had already decided the injury was her fault. He could picture her replaying the moment she handed him his jacket and told him to go home. If he gave her the truth, she would add his father’s punch to everything she already blamed herself for.
Zac typed harder than necessary.
Zac: It’s okay. Not your fault. Never.
Roxie read the message, and some of the tension left her shoulders. She still kept her attention on the front of the classroom.
Mr. Callahan turned from the projector. "Prescott. What happens when the concentration of a reactant increases?"
Zac looked at the equation and answered. Mr. Callahan seemed disappointed when he got it right, then continued the lesson without finding another reason to call on him.
Zac felt Roxie’s attention several more times during class. He wanted to look at her, but the argument from the night before remained too close. He remembered her saying she had no idea whether she wanted to go to Tennessee. He remembered leaving without kissing her and sitting in his truck while she asked whether he had entered the house.
They still needed to talk. Zac had no idea how to begin without restarting the same fight in the middle of chemistry.
When the bell rang, he stayed at his desk while the rest of the class moved into the hallway. Roxie slowed near the doorway. Her shoes remained at the edge of his vision for several seconds, but Zac kept his eyes on his notebook until she finally left.
He hated that she had waited. He would have hated it more if she had walked out without stopping.
At lunch, Zac sat with Mason, Dylan, and Kyle near the center of the cafeteria. Roxie sat across the room with Karen and Angela.
Nobody at either table knew Zac and Roxie had spent the previous night arguing about Tennessee after rolling around on her living room floor.
Calling it nearly having sex felt generous. They still had their clothes on. Most of them, anyway.
His pants tightened when he remembered Roxie beneath him with her uniform pushed up and her legs around his waist. The image had joined the argument, the punch, and Mia’s questions as another reason he had barely slept.
Zac opened his drink while Mason complained about a video game. He tried to follow the story until he felt Roxie staring again.
When he looked across the cafeteria, she was watching his mouth. Karen said something beside her, but Roxie failed to respond.
Zac took out his phone.
Zac: If you don’t stop staring, everyone is going to know.
Roxie looked down when her phone vibrated. Her expression tightened as she read the message.
Roxie: Sorry.
She placed the phone beside her tray and never looked at him again. She spoke to Angela, stole something from Karen’s plate, and received a slap on the wrist. A few seconds later, all three girls laughed about something Zac could not hear.
He had asked Roxie to stop staring. He still disliked how easily she obeyed.
Mason waved a hand in front of him. "You listening?"
"Yeah."
"What did I say?"
"That you’re still a noob."
Mason stared at him. "I said I carried the entire team."
"Same topic."
Kyle leaned across the table and studied Zac’s mouth. "What happened there?"
Zac drank from his bottle. "Later."
Kyle’s eyes narrowed, but he returned to his food.
Across the cafeteria, Roxie stood with Karen and Angela. She carried her tray away without looking toward Zac once.
The irritation inside his chest sharpened. He had created the distance between them, and now he was annoyed because she respected it.
After the final bell, Zac waited beside his locker while students moved toward the exits. He took out his phone before he could decide whether messaging Roxie would improve anything.
Zac: I’m going to Kyle’s for a bit.
Her answer arrived while he closed his locker.
Roxie: Are you avoiding me?
Zac stared at the question.
Part of him wanted to wait at the cemetery until her practice ended. They could sit beside Margaret and finish the argument from the night before, though Zac had no idea what finishing it would require.
Another part wanted a few hours where nobody expected an answer about Tennessee, his father, or the future.
Zac: You have practice. I’ll wait at the cemetery later.
Her reply took longer this time.
Roxie: No need. I’m going to work today.
She had missed several shifts, so returning to the grill made sense. It still felt like she had found her own reason to avoid him.
Zac: Okay.
The message remained unread when he left school.
Kyle’s parents were out of town, which meant people began arriving at his house before anyone officially called it a party. By six, music filled the first floor. By seven, cars covered both sides of the street.
Zac stayed in the kitchen with Mason, Dylan, and Kyle while students moved through the house carrying cups and bottles. He had already finished two drinks when Kyle pushed another toward him.
Mason looked at Zac’s mouth. "That was your dad."
It was not a question.
Zac took the cup. "Yeah."
Kyle stopped opening a bottle. "He punched you?"
"Looks that way."
"You hit him back?" Mason asked.
"No."
All three of them stared at him.
Dylan lifted his cup. "Look at Prescott discovering self control."
Zac grinned. "I’m trying the golden boy thing. Maybe they’ll leave me alone."
Mason laughed. "You’d have to act like one for more than ten minutes."
"That sounds exhausting."
Kyle leaned against the counter, still watching the cut. "You should’ve moved."
"I was busy laughing."
"At him?"
"Apparently he didn’t enjoy it."
Dylan shook his head. "I told you staying at Roxie’s for two nights without telling them was asking for trouble."
"You also told me to go home."
"And look what happened. I was right twice."
"You’re wrong often enough that this must feel special."
"It does."
Kyle poured himself a drink, then looked at Zac again. "You really didn’t hit him?"
"Mia was upstairs."
The jokes stopped for a moment.
Mason reached for another bottle. "So you saved the family brawl for another day."
"Exactly."
A group entered the kitchen before anyone could continue. Two girls searched through the refrigerator while a guy Zac vaguely recognized complained that Kyle had no decent beer.
Kyle told them to leave the bottles alone. One of the girls took one anyway.
"That cost more than your shoes," Kyle said.
She looked down at her feet. "These were on sale."
"Put it back."
She walked out with the bottle.
Kyle stared after her. "I hate everyone in this house."
"You invited them," Mason said.
"I invited six people."
Dylan looked toward the crowded living room. "Those six reproduced."
Zac drank again. The alcohol dulled the sting in his lip and pushed the previous night farther away.
Mason waited until the kitchen cleared before asking, "Did you tell Roxie about Tennessee?"
Zac looked at him over the rim of his cup. "Yeah."
Dylan grinned. "How long before she kicked you out?"
"She was already kicking me out."
"That efficient?"
"The argument started with my family."
"And you brought up Tennessee?" Kyle asked.
"It came up."
Mason looked at him. "You told her during a fight?"
"I know when I told her."
Dylan took a drink. "Smart."
"Shut up."
"Did you tell her about all the stuff you checked?" Mason asked.
Kyle glanced between them. "What stuff?"
Dylan pointed at Zac with his cup. "Housing, jobs, schools."
Kyle stared at him. "For Roxie?"
"I was checking what was there."
"You made her a plan?"
"I checked things."
Mason started laughing. "Did you make a folder?"
"No."
"Campus map?"
"No."
"Cheer tryouts?" Dylan asked.
Zac flipped him off and reached for the chips.
The boys laughed, then Kyle started complaining that someone had already spilled something on the living room carpet. The conversation moved on without anyone trying to explain Roxie to him.
Zac stayed quiet and drank.
He had spent weeks assuming Roxie would see Tennessee the way he did. It was a way out. It was a future. It was both of them somewhere his parents could no longer control him.
She only needed time to understand that.
At least, that was what he kept telling himself.
A girl squeezed between him and the counter to reach the bottles.
"Sorry," she said, smiling up at him.
Zac stepped aside. She continued looking at him while she poured her drink.
He had no idea who she was.
"Nice lip."
"Thanks."
"Did you win?"
"No."
She laughed as though he had made a joke.
More students crowded into the kitchen, ending the conversation. Zac moved into the living room with Mason and Dylan while Kyle stayed behind to argue with people opening bottles he planned to save.
Someone increased the music. A group started dancing near the couch, forcing everyone else closer to the walls.
People came and went around Zac. Some recognized him from football. Others knew him as the quarterback who lost State by one yard.
A guy slapped his shoulder and asked whether he planned to play next season. A girl asked for a picture.
Zac ignored both questions and finished another drink.
His phone remained inside his pocket.
Roxie was working. He pictured her behind the counter with her apron tied around her waist, washing plates and checking her phone whenever Marco turned away.
She had asked whether he was avoiding her.
Maybe he was.
It was temporary. They would talk after she stopped being angry. She would understand Tennessee made sense, and everything between them would return to normal.
Zac reached for another cup before he could consider how much of that depended on Roxie agreeing with him.
By the time Kyle found him again, Zac had changed drinks twice.
"You’re drunk."
"I’m working on it."
"That wasn’t praise."
Mason sat on the arm of the couch nearby. Dylan had disappeared with a girl from their English class.
Kyle took the cup from Zac.
Zac reached for it, but Kyle held it behind his back.
"Drink water."
"You sound like Coach Hayes."
"Coach Hayes would make you run."
"He isn’t allowed to coach me anymore."
"That explains the decline."
Zac laughed and leaned against the wall.
A girl stumbled into him from the side. He caught her around the waist before she hit the floor.
She laughed and wrapped both arms around his neck.
"There he is."
Zac frowned down at her. "Who?"
"The legend."
"I think you have the wrong person."
She pulled out her phone.
The flash went off before Zac understood she was taking a picture.
He released her and stepped back. "Delete that."
She checked the screen and laughed. "You look hot."
"I look drunk."
"Same thing."
Someone called her name from across the room. She pressed one hand against Zac’s chest before moving away.
"I’m posting it."
Zac reached for her phone, but Kyle caught his arm.
"Leave it."
"I don’t know her."
"Then stop catching random girls."
The girl disappeared into the crowd.
Zac found Dylan near the stairs with a red cup in one hand and a girl beside him.
"Who was that?" Zac asked. "She better not post anything."
Dylan followed his gaze. "No idea."
"Helpful."
Mason held out a bottle of water.
Zac took it but kept watching the crowd. He considered finding the girl, but the house was packed and he had already lost sight of her. Someone shoved past him toward the stairs, and another person called Mason from the living room.
Zac opened the water.
He could look for her later.
The party continued around him. He drank some of the water, forgot why he was holding it, then left it on a table when Mason pulled him toward the living room.
His phone vibrated before he reached for another drink.
For one second, he thought Roxie had finished work.
He pulled it from his pocket.
A screenshot filled the screen.
The picture showed Zac against the wall with the girl’s arms around his neck and his hand around her waist. His split lip and half closed eyes made him look worse.
The caption sat above the photo.
the myth. the legend. in my arms.
Roxie’s message appeared beneath it.
Roxie: Are you having fun?