A/N... Alrighty. Gah, it's been ages, you guys. Life happened, I guess. Anyways. Here's the very tiny beginning of what will be a very long song fic (but probably not the longest of stories). This is probably one of the shortest if not the shortest of the chapters, but you gotta start somewhere right? XD Without further ado...
"Time and time I've thought through it all, how we laughed and loved..."
The corner of his mouth tugged down agitatedly as he watched his target hug a girlfriend goodbye across the green of Central Park. He'd seen them do it before. That and much more, unfortunately; he had been tailing the guy for two weeks, and the target liked to have time with this young lady. And the seven other young ladies that he also snuck around with.
It disgusted Zach—how the man could so easily jump from one girl to another and not get discovered for the scumbag he was. If he hadn't already had a big red target painted on his forehead for other reasons, Zach would have already taken the matter of the douche into his own hands.
There were many things that Zach couldn't handle those days, and men who abused the privilege of a serious girlfriend were near, if not at the top, of that list.
His fists clenched together as the target kissed the girl, and if he hadn't known better, Zach would have believed that the target did it on purpose—looking like that Jimmy guy and finding an array of girlfriends with the same build, hair, and skin color as Cammie.
But Zach did know better, and when the guy whispered something to the girl that made her laugh, instead of smiling at the couple's antics, he just frowned more deeply. The girl's laugh wasn't like Cammie's. He found himself to be both very relieved and very troubled by this.
Relief in knowing that it wasn't Cammie, even though he could feel that it wasn't in the first place, but misery because he knew he would never see her again. Well, not if he had anything to do with it.
It was bittersweet, thinking of her laugh. It's not that he didn't do it often; he thought of her all the time, yet somehow this time it was different.
Zach knew it would have never worked out. He told himself that every time he started thinking of her again. Every time he started playing their time together through his head.
From the beginning, he knew it was a bad idea. They were from two completely different places, and they were headed to places even farther away from each other.
Watching the target's girlfriend laugh, he realized that he and Cammie had never laughed together like that. Not truly.
They had laughed, but they hadn't been and never would have been carefree. They had laughed, but it was always short-lived. Always clouded by the Circle and tragedy and worry. They had loved, but only as people who have much more important things to occupy their minds could love.
'That's why. That's why it wouldn't have worked,' he shook his head, mad that he'd let himself get distracted. 'She's a spy and I'm a murderer. We don't have time to love.' He picked up the pace to catch up to the target, who'd walked a ways away while he was caught up in his thoughts.
That was why. They distracted each other. She distracted him. All the time. It made him sloppy, even two years later.
He didn't regret her, but he hated her for distracting him. The hate disguised the love well. He knew that one day she would get him killed.
He didn't know if he even minded even more.
So there ya go. I'll do my best to update ASAP because I know this was really short, but I leave for NFL Nationals in Birmingham today (whoop whoop! Anyone else going?) and it's going to be a lonnnggggg busy week. Haha.
Thanks for reading! Please review, even though it was short. Opinions are greatly appreciated.
~Inez
DISCLAIMER- I do not, nor will I ever own the Gallagher Girls series. In the event of me finally convincing Ally to trade me the rights for pop and unlimited Panera, I'll let you know. Until then this will be my only disclaimer because things won't change. Also, I regret to inform you that I did not write "Love's To Blame." The lovely Australian Smallbone brothers of for King&Country did.