Rewrite The Stars

Chapter 15

In those ten remaining days, Zach and I never had a romantic dinner in candle light and never spent a fancy night at Broadway. But we had a picnic at Central Park, tried to chase the pigeons down the Empire State Building, and spent another night at the Times Square, as awake as the City That Never Sleeps.

    The next morning when I woke up, I went through my phone before getting out of bed. I saw that I had a message from Zach at 11:59 p.m.,

    By the time you read this, you're probably eighteen. Welcome to the legal world (;

      I smiled and finally got up, taking a quick shower before starting my daily ballet practice routine. But not an hour had passed that a grey cloud of sadness surrounded my mind.

    I remembered how every year on my birthday my dad used to play me a tape of eight-year-old me, dancing to the main song of The Swan Lake's cartoon in my little ballet shoes, not being able to spin once without falling down.

    My eyes quickly got filled with tears. I missed him so much. And I missed my mom. For a second I actually considered calling them just to hear their voices. But I fought against it with everything I had and tried to take my mind off it.

    But it was hard.

    It was around seven o'clock and I was sitting in the room with Lauren that we heard a knock on the door. Opening it, I saw Zach on the other side, a purely-wrapped present in his hand.

    “Oh, you didn't have to.” I said, kissing his cheek after he handed me the present.

    “Oh, look! It's Nun Walter!” said Lauren when Zach walked in.

    “Nah, I quit the church.” He said. “Father was not happy.”

    Lauren laughed before looking at me, “What do you got there, Zoe?”

    “Open it.” Said Zach and I quickly did.

    “You lucky b***h!” Lauren squealed when I took the present out of it. It was a black leotard and also pink tights; the perfection and exact thing I needed for my ballet audition.

    “Thank you, Zach–”

    “–There's one other thing in there.”

    So without any further moment of delay, I fished into the box and took out a pair of ballet shoes.

    “I really needed new ones! Thanks!” I put them down and brought Zach into a bone-crushing hug.

    But the moment was over and completely ruined when we heard Lauren talking to herself, muttering, “Zochi... Zachee... Zoech...”

    “What on earth are you doing?” I asked.

    “Trying to find you guys a good ship-name!” she said with excitement. “I still haven't found any. Your names suck together! One of you has to change their name.”

    I rolled my eyes, ignoring that i***t, and turning to face Zach again. “Ready to go?”

    “Ready to go.” He agreed and gave me a pleasant smile.

    And by that, I wore my coat and we made our way over the door, but were quickly stopped by Lauren, “Oi! While you're out there, why don't you do something good with your lives and find me a boyfriend?” She joked.

    I looked back at her. “Why don't you do it yourself?” waiting for her answer, I was ready to slap her.

    “Because I want to date someone cuter than me. But sadly,” she pouted before saying, “I'm the cutest.” She winked.

    “The devil has taken you over.”

    “Thank you.” She smiled sweetly.

    “That wasn't a compliment.”

    “It was for me.” She shrugged.

    “You're an idiot.” I narrowed my eyes at her.

    “I love you too.” She blew me a kiss and I just shook my head and exited the room with Zach.

    “I swear, you and Lauren would've made a better couple.” I said as we made our way toward Zach's car. “Mr. Weird and Mrs. weirder.”

    “I don't think so.” He shook his head. “I don't think I match her standards of cuteness.” I laughed at that. “You're better for me.”

    “Well, I think I'm too normal for your world.” I joked, but Zach took it serious and said,

    “Normalness leads to sadness, sadness leads to madness, and madness is not normal. So at the end of the day, nobody's normal.” He said. “Besides, I think we make a better match; Mr. Weird and Mrs. Crazy.”

    “I'm not crazy.” I argued teasingly as we got in the car.

    “Oh, honey, but you are. You're in my world now. And you have to be crazy to live in it.” He said. “No one else would've lasted this long with me by being normal.”