“Where are we going?” I ask, very nervous.

“We are going to a restaurant and ordering just about everything. We’ll start with finding your favorite food.” He grins at me from the driver’s seat of his cherry red Mustang.

I glance at Zack from behind my sunglasses and admire him. Windows down, his brown hair whips behind him. His black Ray Ban Wayfarers keep me from seeing his sparkling eyes. His muscles are begging to be released from his shirt and his left arm’s sleeve tattoos is peeking out from his long-sleeved shirt. He glances at me, catching me staring and throws me an award-winning smile.

“What?” He asks.

“Nothing. I’m just seeing if you’re one of the things I like.” I joke with him.

“Am I?” His eyebrows wiggle.

“Haven’t decided yet. We’ll see how things go.” I giggle.

He chuckles deeply and continues driving for a few minutes before pulling into a diner. We exit the car and Zack holds the diner door open for me. Before we know it, we are seated with a menu in hand.

“Pick whatever you want. I’ll pick what I want and you can try everything. Whatever we don’t eat you can take home.” He smiles as he takes his sunglasses off.

I take mine off as well and glance through the menu. When the waitress comes back, we are ready to order.

“I would like macaroni and cheese, chicken tenders with a side of French fries, a bacon cheeseburger cooked medium well, and a ceaser salad.” I smile at her and hand her the menu.

She writes down everything and says, “I’ll be right back with your food.”

“Wait.” Zack grabs her arm. “You didn’t take my order.” He throws a devilish grin my way.

We bust out laughing and the waitress looks astounded. “So that was just your order?”

“She’s trying new things.” Zack explains.

The waitress nods and begins to take Zack’s order.

“Grilled cheese, Philly cheesesteak sandwich, fried shrimp, and rice and black beans. You don’t have to bring everything at the same time. Whatever is finished first works fine.”

The waitress nods and runs off before we can order anything else.

“So. Let’s find out your favorite color.” Zack smiles. “Do you like darker colors, more neon, or softer colors?”

“Softer.” I answer immediately.

“Do you like any pinks?” He inquires.

“No, I don’t like pinks. Or purple really.” I think for a moment. “I do like blue though.”

Zack pulls out his phone and begins to Google the color blue. “Pick one.” He hands me his phone.

I scroll through my options and find the exact one that makes me smile. “That one.”

He clicks on the picture. “Alrighty missy, your favorite color is sea-foam blue.”

“What’s yours?” I ask him happily.

“Funny question, I’m colorblind.” He grins. “But I like blue. It’s one of the few colors I can actually see.”

I nod my head, sipping my Coke for the first time. I grimace. “I don’t like Coke.”

Zack chuckles and switches our drinks. “Try this.”

I sip it and smile. The cold, bubbly drink makes its way down my throat. “This is good.”

“Root beer.” He grins.

The waitress comes out with a grilled cheese and Philly cheese steak sandwich. She places them in front of us and scurries back to the kitchen.

I take the grilled cheese and take a small bite. I chew for a few moments, letting the different tastes affect my mouth. I smile, approving of it. I switch with Zack, and try his sandwich. Immediately, I grimace and swallow it down forcefully. I chase it down with root beer and hand it back to him.

“Yuck.” I stick my tongue out.

“Grilled cheese it is then.” He nods, switching our sandwiches back.

I nibble on mine slowly, making sure to save room for the rest of the foods.

The waitress comes back out with macaroni and cheese, the ceaser salad, and black beans and rice. I put them all through the taste test and discover I like them all. Finally, the burger, shrimp, and chicken tenders all come out. She takes the other foods we ordered and places them in take out boxes. The burger and chicken tenders I like. Shrimp, not so much. I finish my last bite of food and look at Zack who is grinning at me.

“What?” I stop, immediately self conscious.

“This is fun.” He shrugs.

I smile back and lean back in my chair, stuffed to the max.

“Thank you so much for all of this. I really don’t know how I can repay you.” I say as he signs the bill.

“The day is not over yet silly.” He winks. “Lots more to do.”

I smile and help him carry all of the take out boxes to his car. He begins to drive back towards my house. He puts some music on the radio and I listen closely, seeing how I feel about it. The first song finishes and Zack looks at me.

“Final verdict?” He asks.

“Not bad.” I nod. “It was quite nice actually.”

“John Mayer.” He nods.

We listen to him the entire car ride home until we get to the house. We carry the boxes into my kitchen and put them in the fridge.

“Go change into your pajamas.” He orders.

“Don’t tell me what to do.” I call as I walk to my bedroom.

He laughs and I shut my door. Quickly, I grab a pair of red sweatpants and a white tank top. I slip them on and put my hair into a ponytail. I grab a pair of my biggest black sweatpants and bring them out into the living room.

“If I’m in my pajamas, you have to change too.” I call out into the empty living room.

Zack comes strolling out of the kitchen ands sees the sweatpants I have and a grin splits his face. “Fair enough. We are going to CVS by the way. I thought you would have SOME sorts of ice creams. You literally have nothing good.” He laughs.

I roll my eyes and let him go get changed. I go back to my room and find a jacket and my pair of Uggs. As I slip on the last boot, I hear Zack singing softly to himself from the bathroom.

If you believe that everything’s alright,
You won’t be all alone tonight
And I’d be blessed by the light of your company,
Slowly lifting me to somewhere new

His voice is one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard. The singing stops and seconds later, he is walking out of the bathroom door. He walks towards me in my room.

“You have an extra tank top?” He asks smiling at me.

I snap myself out of the trance his singing put me in and dig around one of my drawers. I pull out a white one for him too and toss it his way. He yanks off his shirt in front of me, but facing away. His back muscles flex as he pulls the tank top over his bare torso. I toss him a white hoodie from one of my ex boyfriends and he pulls that on as well.

“Ready?” He asks me.

I nod and we walk out of the house, back to his car.

After about 20 minutes, we are on the way back with our goodies from CVS. We picked up Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food, vanilla, and chocolate ice cream, Sea Salt Caramel Talenti gelato, a box of Hot Tamales, Sugar Babies, Skittles, and Sour Patch Kids. We picked up a two-liter of root beer and a box of assorted chocolate truffles. He’s now trying to help me find out my favorite ice creams, candies, and chocolates. He pays again, and it’s beginning to bother me.

“Zack stop paying please. I really should be paying for this on my own.” I complain.

“No way. You didn’t ask for any of this. Plus, you don’t have to be doing any of this, but you are willing to try a lot of new stuff in one day. Including, getting to know a stranger. What kind of stranger would I be if I didn’t pay?” He shrugs his shoulders.

“A normal one.” I laugh.

He laughs too as we pull into my driveway. We unload the car and put the ice creams in the freezer immediately. I tug my jacket off and Zack pulls his hoodie off.

“We are going to double task.” He grins. “We are going to learn your favorite candies while finding out your favorite movie. Do you have an Xbox360?”

I nod. “In my room. Why?”

“If you don’t have Netflix, I’ll hook mine up and we can watch some movies from there. I already have one in mind you might like.” Zack carries the candies to my bedroom along with two bottles of water from my fridge.

I follow him and he puts the candies on my bed. He sits on the floor with his bottle of water and grabs one of the Xbox controllers. He turns on the console and I make myself comfy in my bed. I glance down at him, realizing he intends on staying on the floor.

“You can come up here you know.” I mumble.

“You sure? I’m fine down here. I don’t want to cross any boundaries.” He blushes.

His blush pierces my heart and sends blood rushing through my veins. “Come up here.” I scoot over and pat the bed next to me.

He makes himself comfortable next to me, making sure not to touch me at all. I smile mentally and open up the Hot Tamales. I pop one in my mouth and chew slowly, savoring the flavor.

“Winner.” I set the box to the side.

Zack cues up a movie called Paranorman. I had heard of it, but never bothered to see it. He opens up the box of Sour Patch kids, takes a handful, and hands me the box.

“Loser.” I say with my face puckered as I swallow a Sour Patch Kid

Throughout the movie, I discover I like all of the candies, except for the Sour Patch Kids. About halfway through the movie, I realize I really like it. The animation is cute and the story line is easy to follow. I glance at Zack who is staring at me.

“Why do you keep staring at me?” I question.

“Your facial expressions are better than the movie.” He replies simply.

We turn back to the TV screen and for some reason, I feel compelled to get closer to him, physically. He is lying against the wall, his body at a slight incline. Carefully, I cuddle up against the side of his body. When he doesn’t wrap his arm around me, I look up at him.

“Is this okay?” I ask.

He smiles at me softly. “I just don’t know if you would feel uncomfortable me wrapping my arm around you or anything.”

I lift his arm and put it around me. “I just really need to be held.”

As soon as the words escape my lips, Zack scoots down and wraps both of his arms around me, pulling me half on top of him. I crawl completely on top of him, wrapping my arms and legs around his body and rest my head in the crook of his neck. His strong arms pull me close and his hands rub my back gently. He pauses the movie and runs his fingers through my hair.

“Is this okay?” He mumbles against my neck.

I nod and burrow closer. I tug at the blankets, motioning for him to tuck us under. He holds me tight as he moves us around, tucking both of our bodies under the blanket.

“Why are you helping me so much?” I mutter. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know you just as well as you know yourself at this point. I don’t know why I stuck around quite honestly. You just seem so…fragile. When I left the first day, I knew it wasn’t going to go well. I was hoping you would call me at some point. You were on my mind after that, every single night on every call I had. Finally, I told myself if I just went to check up on you and you were fine, I would leave it at that and go on my own way. If you needed help, I was going to be there. I could tell Ashley was all you had. I needed to be there for you.” He places a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Can you stay the night?” I ask suddenly.

“Are you sure?” He asks, tucking a finger under my chin and forcing me to meet his gaze.

My heartbeat speeds up as I look into his eyes. I nod. “I need you here. If I stay by myself, I’m just going to be sad. Please, stay here with me.”

His eyes dart down to my lips and back up to my eyes, almost as if he is going to kiss me. His warm orbs bore into mine and his fingertips blaze the surface of my cheeks. All of a sudden, his phone rings from his pair of jeans. We untangle ourselves and he digs around in the pocket. He slides across his Android screen and answers.

“Yeah?” He asks. “Mhhm…Yeah. No I’m fine…I’ll be back tomorrow…A friend’s house…No, you don’t know her…It’s not like that you jackass…Bye.” He hangs up quickly, rolling his eyes.

I look at him questioningly.

“Roommate.” He mutters. “He wanted to know if I was okay.”

I nod and Zack gathers me in his arms again. This time, he lies on his side and pulls my stomach to his. I rest my forehead against his neck and his chin rests on the top of my head. Something about being with Zack feels so right. I feel safer than I ever had before. He makes me feel cared for, and wanted. He fills the void I have been feeling for years. My arm snakes around his back and pulls him closer to me as my eyes slid shut.

“Zack?”

“Mmm?” He responds.

“You are one of the things I like.” I murmur softly.

Notes

I like this chapter :3 Idk. Feedback would be nice people!
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