Last Chapter
Zach lost track of how many timed he'd call her "Gallagher Girl" and she'd turn around with a hopeful look in her ever-changing eyes or how she would flirt and give hints, subtly begging him to close the distance between them and seal it off with a kiss.
Every time he was perfectly aware with what she was thinking, but didn't do it.
He always ran away in that cocky, cryptic yet cowardly way of his.
And after every encounter, he'd stay awake that night, knowing something was bothering him, knowing it had to do with Cammie, but not knowing why.
Oh you can call Zach stupid. Just this once though.
He was stupid not to realize that emotion peeking through when he first saw her in D.C.
Why his pulsed races unusually or stomach flipped unnaturally every time she smiled at him, or glared at him….or merely just looked at him.
But then again, you couldn't really blame Zachary Goode either. He doesn't exactly know what "love" is.
Yes he knows the good ol' "true love's first kiss" thing and all the other fairytale bullshit, but knowing reality, it's just that. Bullshit.
In realty, couples swear to "love, cherish and honor" but in the end, they cheat and lie, fight and scream, leave and cry and sometimes, they get to the point where they kill.
Zach suspects that's what happened to his father. Actually, his 99.9% sure that's what happened.
Catherine has a habit of killing off people who piss her off.
Zach never been loved before. All he ever had in his life was remorse, pain, agony and more pain.
Sure there once was a time where he longed for someone to hold him, to stroke his hair, to kiss him goodnight, to feel that affection.
Zach didn't want that anymore.
His fairytale was over before it even got a chance to sprout. Happily Ever Afters were dead along with his sentimental soul.
He wanted to be alone and cold and standoffish the rest of his miserable life. Heck, he'd rather die as a man with a houseful of cats than an old man with a wife.
He didn't know how to love. How to care for someone and open up to them, being vulnerable and laying himself bare. He shuddered to even think about it. He never wants to learn how.
But then Cammie Morgan just had to come in his life and change that.
She came in and broke down his carefully built walls, slowly brick by brick and that terrified him like nothing he'd ever known.
She wasn't supposed to be here, doing this. It goes against every bone in his body.
Zach didn't know how to handle it. Fighting five highly trained assassins? Easy.
Practicing military exercises? Not a cinch.
But a small sixteen year old girl going deeper in your mind than you could've ever dreamed about? Run for your freaking life Goode.
Zach could hardly believe it. The Fearless, Made-Of-Steel Zachary TooGoode was scared.
It was a foreign feeling; no matter how cocky that sounds, and he didn't want to get use to it.
But he had a feeling that staying with Cammie Morgan will do just that.
So he did the reasonable thing. He pushed her away, but she kept coming back.
It frustrated him and angered him. He even wished she was never even born so this wouldn't be happening now.
But since that wasn't a possibility, he tried ever thing imaginable to hurt her.
He lied, he cheated, he practically took over her thrown at Gallagher.
He was ignorant and arrogant, mean and cruel, doing everything he could to scar her so she was too weak to strike back.
To hurt in order to not get hurt himself.
To stop these foreign emotions that was starting to pit in his stomach.
None of then worked. Except one.
Cammie finally got the message and backed off. For a few days, she wouldn't even look at him.
It appalled him and frustrated the little hypocrite under that calm mask.
And then, a few days later the horrifying news broke.
That Cammie Morgan and Josh Abrams had become "The Hottest New Couple At Gallagher." **Barf**
Zach didn't know what to do. At first it was tolerable since he steered clear of they're way, always taking a different, more dirty and smelly routes to class.
Like a solitary shadow, a lone wolf forced to take the isolated, introverted path.
Of course Zach was used to that. Being the Freak. The Loner. The Outcast.
It was protocol. Come in quietly, fly under the radar, get in and out each day with as little interaction as possible.
But as usual, Cammie Morgan just has to ruin everything.
Zach felt drawn to her, like a magnetic force he had no choice to be attracted to. Especially ever since she started dating Jimmy.
Zach would spend the whole COW class just staring at the back of her head.
He would watch with amazement as her long, delicate fingers do beautiful calligraphy.
God knows how many explosions he caused at the lad because he was too distracted by how endearing she looked when she was concentrating hard.
Everyday Zach would feel worse and worse when he see's Cammie and Josh hold hands and sometimes even kiss.
He didn't know why or what he was feeling, but it was gut-wrenching horrible and he wanted it to stop.
But it never did.
The feeling just grew and grew until he felt like he was going to burst and go "cray-cray" (A.N. Lame I know, but my friend says it all the time and it's rubbing off on me).
Thank god Zach was trained to keep his mouth shut and expression cool under all circumstances.
Please R&R! The story will get better I promise! A twist you never even would've imagined ;)
Plain Is Prettiest!
( According To Zach Goode and I )