Summary: Zac and Evie have a sleepover. Carly, Cam, and David couldn't make it so it's just the two of them. Their crush and liking each other goes back much farther than when they were 15 (and 12 per 'Wishful Thinking'). I was thinking of cute things for Zevie from when they were kids and this one came to me [another one that was while I was at work. . . oops?]
Word Count: 2409
Seven:
Zac and Evie really wished their other friends could have made it for the sleepover they were having at Evie's on Friday, but they all had other things to do that weekend. Zac and Evie had been disappointed but they knew they'd still have a good time even if it was just the two of them.
After school on Friday, Zac and Evie walked home together since they lived on the same block. Evie's mum was home from work and greeted the two as they entered the house to drop Evie's stuff off. Once they had stopped at Evie's house, they were going over to go over to Zac's house to get his sleeping bag, pillows, extra clothes, and swimsuit.
Evie's mum offered them a snack before they left and said she'd walk with them over to Zac's place. After eating, Zac, Evie, and her mum headed over to Zac's. His parents weren't home yet and would be getting back late which was the main reason he'd be staying at Evie's for the night.
Zac had all his stuff ready in his room he only needed help carrying it over to Evie's house. He had a duffle bag with his change of clothes, swimsuit, and towel in it, his sleeping bag rolled up neatly, and a pillow. He took the bag and put his pillow under his arm while Evie volunteered to carry the sleeping bag.
"Have you two got it all?" Evie's mum, Sarah, asked, looking down at them.
"Yup," Zac replied. Evie nodded.
"All right," she laughed as they started back towards the house after making sure they had locked the door at Zac's.
When they got back to the McLaren's house, Zac and Evie raced each other to her room where they carefully laid Zac's sleeping bag out on the floor with his pillow positioned just right. They put Zac's bag of clothes next to Evie's dresser.
"Do you want to go for a swim?" Evie asked. "Or maybe we could play in the sprinkler. I think dad still has it set up in the backyard."
"Either's fine with me. I'll go wait in the hall while you change and then you can wait for me while I change?" Zac suggested.
Evie nodded in agreement and Zac started out of the room. Evie closed the door and went to get her swimsuit from where it hung in her bathroom to dry. She got changed quickly so Zac could change too. They were heading out towards the backyard a few minutes later with their towels under their arms.
"Where do you two think you're going?" Evie's mum's voice spoke from the kitchen.
"To play in the sprinkler," Evie spoke.
"Not now. Your dad's going to be home soon and dinner's almost ready. Maybe after we eat, but not right now. You should go at least put something on over your swimsuits for now, okay?"
"Okay," the seven year olds reluctantly agreed. They headed back to Evie's room where they each put a T-shirt on over their swimsuit before returning to the living room. Evie's dad, Doug, was just getting home.
"Daddy!" Evie exclaimed, running into her father's arms.
"Hey sweetheart," he spoke, catching her as she ran to him and hoisting her onto his hip. He gave her forehead a kiss. "How was school?"
"Good," she replied. "We played outside lots today. We got an extra recess."
"How come?"
"Our art teacher was sick today and they didn't have a sub for the day."
"Ahh," Doug spoke, setting his daughter down. "How are you today, Zac?" he asked, going over to his daughter's friend and ruffling his hair playfully.
"I'm good," Zac smiled, reaching up to try and fix his hair even though there really was no use in it.
"Dinner's ready!" Sarah called from the kitchen.
Zac and Evie went to help get the table set while Doug and Sarah got the last of what they'd need for dinner out including drinks. They sat down to dinner together a few minutes later. "So I'm going to guess by your attire that you two are hoping to go swimming at some point in the near feature?" Doug asked as they ate. Evie and Zac nodded. "How about after we finish eating and taking care of the dishes from dinner, I go out to the pool with you?"
"Yes!" Zac and Evie cheered.
Doug smiled at their enthusiasm. They were soon finished with dinner. Zac and Evie were quick to help take care of the dishes so they could get in the pool sooner. When they were given the okay by Evie's dad after he had changed into his own swimsuit, they hurried back to Evie's room to get their towels and raced to the pool. They only paused briefly to set their towels down on a chair beside the pool before cannonballing in.
The rest of the evening, the two spent splashing each other and swimming around under the watchful eyes of Evie's parents. Zac and Evie couldn't have been happier just swimming around in the water and splashing each other, or trying to swim across the pool first.
When it came time for them to get to bed, they were disappointed, but looked forward to more the following day. They got ready for bed without much reluctance, knowing they would be able to play again in the morning. It was only a short while later that Evie's parents were bidding the two goodnight. They shut off the light and closed the door partially so that some light from the hall still entered the room.
CHCHCH
Several hours had gone by. Evie lay awake in bed, staring at the dark ceiling. She'd heard her parents go to bed about an hour before but hadn't been able to fall asleep herself. She rolled over again to try and get comfortable but found it didn't help. She sighed deeply,
"You're still awake too?" Zac's voice asked softly from the floor next to her bed.
"Yeah," Evie whispered in reply.
"I felt tired when we got done swimming."
"Me too." Evie paused. "Want to build a blanket fort? Maybe we'll feel tired and be able to sleep after that," she suggested. Evie was able to see Zac give a small nod in reply courtesy of the light coming in from the hall. "I'm going to turn the lamp on," she warned, reaching over to it. A few seconds later, they both shielded their eyes from the sudden light until they adjusted to it.
"Do you have extra blankets we could use?"
"I'll go get some from the hall closet." Evie got out of bed as quietly as she could and crept down the hall to the closet. She opened the door as quietly as she possibly could in hopes of not waking her parents; they'd wonder what she was doing up in the middle of the night when she should have been asleep hours ago. With several blankets and sheets in hand, she tiptoed back to her room where Zac was waiting.
"Where do we want to build it?"
"Off the end of my bed and to the dresser?" Evie suggested.
Zac nodded. Working together, they were able to get a large King sized flat sheet to cover the area. They put the ends on one side on Evie's mattress and used books to keep the sheet in place; they put the other end into the top drawers of her dresser.
They giggled as they laid Zac's sleeping bag out under it and got Evie's from her closet so they could both sleep in their fort. They added one more sheet to function as the back wall of their fort, leaving the front open towards the door.
Zac and Evie took a couple minutes to get comfortable in their sleeping bags after Evie had turned the light off. "Goodnight, Zac."
"Goodnight, Evie." It was soon after telling each other goodnight that the two fell asleep, having worn themselves out the rest of the way while building their sheet fort.
CHCHCH
Around 9 the following morning, Doug and Sarah got up expecting Zac and Evie to already be up and watching TV or playing with some toys. They found the house quiet, something that was unusual and suspicious when the two were together. Doug and Sarah hadn't bothered to look for them in Evie's room when they first got up but headed back there after finding the living room and surrounding area vacant.
What they found in Evie's room wasn't what they had expected. Evie, who was lying to the left on the floor inside their sheet fort, lay on her stomach and had her right hand on the floor between her and Zac's pillows; Zac also lay on his stomach and had his left hand resting over Evie's. Both of their breathing was even and light. Sarah urged her husband to get their camera to take pictures of how the two of them were sleeping. "We can show the pictures at their wedding," Sarah insisted.
"And if they don't get married?" Doug asked.
"Their high school graduation then. Just, shh and get the camera," she shooed him away.
Doug laughed as he left to go get their digital camera from the other room. When he got back, Sarah had opened the door more so they'd be able to get a better picture. Doug took a few before turning the camera off. "Maybe we should let them sleep a little while longer while we get breakfast going," Doug suggested. Sarah nodded in agreement.
Zac and Evie got up a little while later after smelling food. They enjoyed the rest of the morning and the early afternoon together before Zac had to go home.
CHCHCH
Nine:
A couple years later, when Zac and Evie were nine, Sarah lay in a hospital bed. She was slowly losing her battle to cancer and she knew she was in her final days. She had given Evie a teddy bear with a voice recording of her telling her she loved her; she also had multiple replacements she'd given her husband for when one wore out and no longer worked. She'd given her husband a watch with the words, 'All my love, Sarah,' engraved onto the back of it. She'd made sure to get one he could take on dives since that was something they'd loved to do together.
Knowing she was in her final days, she'd asked her husband to bring their first digital camera and the memory card, or pictures from it that they had two years prior. He found the pictures and brought them to her. As she lay in her bed, she flipped through them, trying to find the one she wanted; she pulled it out when she found it. The one she had wanted was from when Zac and Evie were seven and had ended up holding hands while they slept.
"This one's still my favorite," she spoke, tears in her eyes.
Doug nodded in agreement. Over the past two years, they'd taken plenty of pictures of Zac and Evie together. Some were just the two of them while others were with Carly, Cam, and David.
It was only a few short days later that Sarah lost her battle. Zac and Carly stayed the night with Evie for several nights, all of them in sleeping bags on the floor to help her through this when her dad couldn't. The Blakelys and the Morgans did anything and everything they could to help Doug and Evie through the Sarah's death. Doug knew he'd never be able to repay them for what they'd done and for their friendship.
CHCHCH
Twenty-two:
"Do you, Zachary Blakely take Evie McLaren to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and cherish her until death do you part?"
"I do."
"And do you, Evie McLaren, take Zachary Blakely to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and cherish him until death do you part?"
"I do."
"I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
Zac placed his hands on Evie's hips as they moved closer to share a loving kiss. Applause erupted around them. They laughed as they broke apart and headed out past rows of family and friends.
Afterwards, there was a reception.
Doug stood at the front of the reception hall after dinner had been served. He looked out to everyone as he spoke. "These two have been together a lot longer than just the time they were dating. When Evie was six, she told me and my late wife, Sarah, about a boy named Zac that she sat next to in class. They became fast friends and living in the same neighborhood allowed for them to be over at each other's houses almost constantly.
"Sarah somehow knew back then that these two were meant to be together. I can recall one night Zac stayed over very clearly. When Sarah and I got up in the morning, the house was still quiet as they were asleep yet. What we found was this." Doug hit a button on something he held in his hand and a picture was displayed behind him. It was one from when Zac and Evie had held hands while they slept when they were seven. "I remember Sarah saying something to me about saving this picture for their wedding." He looked to Zac and Evie, "Even back then, she knew you two were meant to be. This one was always one of her favorites. Congratulations. I couldn't ask for a better man to marry my daughter."
The room broke into applause after Doug's speech. Zac put his arm around Evie a bit more and pulled her close to give her a kiss on the side of her forehead. He watched as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, biting her lip to keep from crying more. Zac reached up to wipe a stray tear from her cheek. She turned to him, the loving look she gave him speaking volumes more than words would.
"I love you to the moon and back," he whispered in her ear.
"I love you to the moon and back, twice," Evie countered. Zac laughed and leaned in to give Evie a long, slow kiss. The party around them faded into the background and it was just them and no one else in the world.
A/N: So, I'm not gonna lie, writing the bit on Evie's mom, I made myself cry, so if I made you cry, you're not alone. On another note, I think the ending is really cheesy, but I guess it's cute so I hope you liked it, and I'd love to know what you thought of it.
I had meant to update on Thursday night, but I ended up getting sick start Thursday morning and carrying on through Friday. The hope was then to get it updated yesterday, Saturday, but we had a tornado warning (and actual tornadoes) so updating was delayed longer with clean-up. Everyone is fine, there actually haven't even been any injuries reported from the tornado because we had a lot of warning.
In conclusion, sorry about the delay, but I hope you liked this chapter. As always I will try to do requests, though I can't make any promises, I will try my best. Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following.
-CrazyHayniac