Note: HI GUYS! Sorry to make you all wait for the next chapter! I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves because I know I am! ^^ Anyways, want to know what happens next after Zell and Selphie's little 'accident' in the girls' bathroom. Hah hah! Well, here's Zell to explain to you! ^^ And hey I am almost at the end of the chapter! Hope to hit at least two hundred reviews or hopefully a lot more! XD Oh, if you're wondering, this story is actually now a spring month instead of the winter, because it already passed right? ^^ So that means the dance will not be a SPRING dance… Well anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 32 – Feel With You
The afternoon sunshine was brighter than usual and warmer. The streets were empty, except for the occasional kids that ran back and forth from their front yard and back yard. The older ones were still back in school, studying, making their grades a lot better, but Zell, he was heading straight home, eager to change into some dry pants after what happened to him and Selphie in the girls' bathroom. He never intended to go that far with their 'exploration' but thinking about it made him anticipate for more. Just thinking about Selphie and the way she looked at him with her begging, green eyes drove him crazy to the point of wanting to take her into his arms and drag her to bed, but he knew better than that. Teen pregnancy was not a smart way to go. Besides, if Selphie did get pregnant, her brother would definitely hunt him down like a predator stalking his prey. Zell would have to worry about sleeping with one eye open in case a shadow the shape of Garrett would start hovering above him as he slept in his bed.
That thought made the blond shudder as he turned a corner and walked down the deserted sidewalk towards home. He shuffled for his keys in his pockets and gently took them into the palm of his hands once he made it to the front yard and across the concrete steps. Zell sighed, glancing down at the right side of his pants where the water of the toilet had soaked him through. He was relieved that Ms. Fisher didn't ask what happened when he appeared along with Selphie, fifteen minutes after class started, holding up his pants as if afraid that the water might soak the floor. She just dismissed him quickly when he asked to go home and change his wet pants. All the students were curious of course, even the great Seifer Almasy, the one who never cared about anyone, except maybe for himself and Quistis, was giving him a questioning look. Of course, Zell ignored that because he was too busy worrying about the girl who had witnessed the whole thing.
Zell took a deep breath and inserted the house key through the keyhole of the front door, twisted it and reached for the doorknob to open it wide. He didn't have time to dodge a pair of shoes that were laying so close at the very front that anyone could have tripped when Zell felt his body go forward. He managed to step his other foot forward so he wouldn't completely fall flat on his face on the floor. "What the-?" he spoke, glancing down at a pair of size five loafers. He knew it wasn't his Aunt's since she was a size seven not a size five, although there is no reason for anyone to ask him why he notices these things.
"Is that you, Zell?" his Aunt's soft voice came from the kitchen.
"Yeah," the young blond replied, still staring curiously at the shoes in front of him. "Hey, Aunt Vanessa, is someone here? I don't think these are your shoes, are they?"
"Why don't you come to the kitchen and find out?"
The blond gave his Aunt's shadow a strange look and decided to do as he was told. Zell walked to the kitchen and was indeed right about having a visitor. The moment he stepped into the kitchen, the visitor turned around to reveal herself to him. He was quite surprised really when the visitor was actually Kent's mother, Naomi Marshall. "Mrs. Marshall!" he gasped in surprise. "What brings you here?"
Naomi stood up and picked up something from the seat next to her. It was a large box, filled with…something. "I wanted to give you this." She glanced at it quickly, then back at Zell with a smile. "I just thought Kent would want you to have this. I found this in his room today when I was going through his stuff. It was in his closet, way at the very back." The older woman approached him and handed him the box. Zell thought it would be very light since Naomi was carrying it easily, but as soon as she dropped it in his arms, he was surprised when it suddenly weighed his arms down, forcing him to stumble a little bit until he found his footing to keep himself steady.
The blond looked at it for a moment, until he looked up curiously at Kent's mother. "What-? What is it?"
Naomi kept the smile on her face, but deep down, Zell knew she was still very sad with her loss. "It's Kent's collection of his superhero comic books, like X-Men, Spider man, etc."
Zell was taken aback. "Really?" He dropped the box gently on the ground and opened it eagerly. Indeed, it was his collection of comic books and most of them were the ones he always asked Kent about reading one day. Kent always forgets to bring it with him to school and the blond never had a chance to read any of them. "But…I can't take these," the blond said, shaking his head. He closed the flaps over the box and picked it back up in his arms and moved to hand them over to Naomi. "They belong to you. You're his mother."
Naomi shook her head. "I wouldn't know what to do with those anyway. I would end up selling them or throwing them away since I have no use for them. Besides, I'm sure Kent wouldn't mind giving them to you."
"Th-thank you," Zell said quietly.
The older woman nodded. "No problem. I knew you would like them. When he wrote to me, he told me how you loved comic books and he mentioned to me once that he always forgets to bring them to you so you can read them."
He didn't know what else to say. He was definitely touched that Kent would think of him so much about the comic books. Before he could stop himself, Zell found himself in tears. Aunt Vanessa was definitely alert about this and she was afraid that a trigger of his memory of his parents' death led to this type of sudden sadness, but Naomi got to him first before he burst into fits of weeps. She wrapped his arms around him like a mother would and patted him on his head, having to go on tip toes to reach his height. Vanessa watched this scene, reminding her of the time her sister did the exact same thing to Zell when he cried over his scraped knee. "It's all right Zell," Naomi whispered in his ear, resisting the urge to cry with him. "There is no need to cry. You need to be strong for the both of us. We need to be strong for Kent. He wouldn't want us to cry over him. You know how he gets when people get mushy around him."
Zell laughed into her shoulders and lifted up his head to look down at her, giving her the smile Naomi was looking for. The blond wiped his tears away and nodded. "You're right."
Naomi nodded, satisfied and smiled as well. "Well, I better get going. I have so many things to do at home." She released Zell with her arms and turned around to face Vanessa. "It was nice meeting you, Vanessa."
Vanessa smiled. "It was nice meeting you too, Naomi. I hope to see you again. If you want to chat, you can always come visit us here."
The dark haired woman did a double take on Zell before turning around and putting her shoes on. Zell and Vanessa watched her leave before the blond picked up the box full of comics from the floor and proceeded to go up the stairs. "I'm going to put this in my room and change my pants."
The older woman nodded. "All right. You might want to wash you face off, Zell. If Selphie sees you looking like that, she'd be very worried about you."
The blond agreed. "Yeah, you're right I should do that too." He adjusted the box in his arms and continued upstairs to his room where he put the box down on the floor and searched for a new pair of pants to wear to school from his closet. When he found only one pair left, he reminded himself mentally to do laundry as soon as he gets off from school. The last pair was kahki, so he knew now he REALLY had to be careful about staining them during school today or else he won't have a pair left. He hated doing laundry, especially if his Aunt did it for him. He was sixteen for goodness sakes and turning seventeen in a couple of days just after the dance wasn't going to be easy. He would have to endure other responsibilities.
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Second period had ended quickly than she imagined it would be. She figured Zell would come to second period, but she guessed that he was probably tied down of having to do laundry because he didn't have anymore pants left to wear. Selphie glanced down at the food on her plate that was left untouched ever since she went to buy it from the counter and looked around to see if Zell had arrived yet. Quistis was sitting awfully quiet in front of her, but right now, she was too busy worrying about where Zell had gone off to.
"Hey, sorry I'm late! There were some things I had to take care of," a familiar voice came. Selphie looked up and gave a smile when she was staring right into Zell's blue eyes. And just as she expected, he was carrying a tray full of hot dogs, something that she was always used to him doing every lunch. He sat down beside her and quickly began munching them down as if he hasn't eaten them for a long time. She stared at him for a moment, until she heard Jacque's familiar voice around the area. Selphie didn't care much, but ended up listening to their conversation anyway. There were times when his words would just fade in and out of her thoughts, because she would just keep staring at Zell as he ate his…SIX HOT DOGS!?
"Thank," Selphie suddenly heard Quistis mumble from her almost closed mouth. There was a pause, which caused Selphie to look up at the blond girl who stopped what she was eating and stare at the flowers in her hands. "You got me….lilies…How-?"
The brunette turned her head at Jacque, who just grinned like a total idiot. She didn't know that Jacque was now seated beside the blond. Personally, Selphie thought Quistis was better off with Seifer. "I had my sources." To Selphie's relief, he stood up after he said this, and then added, "Well, I better get going. I will see you soon my little flower!" She was not happy though when Jacque made a move by kissing the back of Quistis' hand. She's very suspicious about people like him. There was just something about him that she didn't like. Selphie was about to say something when she heard Zell start coughing.
"ZELL! How many times do I have to tell to stop eating your hot dogs so fast!? GEEZ!" Selphie slapped her hand against Zell's back, him coughing up hot dog debris towards Quistis. He didn't even apologize when their blond friend warned him about coughing the hot dog pieces towards her. After a while, Zell had stopped coughing, taking a deep breath before Selphie finally had a chance to calm her nerves.
"Aren't you a bit curious?" Zell suddenly asked, surprising Selphie from her thoughts. The brunette looked at him questioningly, but her blond boyfriend just kept her eyes curiously on Quistis with her shoulders suddenly tense. Selphie was going to ask the same question too.
"About what? About how he knew that lilies were my favorite?"
Zell and Selphie nodded.
"I don't need to be suspicious of him. He's just a nice guy, that's all."
"Yeah, a nice guy who stalks you…" Selphie elbowed him in the arm and gave him a warning look, which almost caused Zell to drop his hot dog in the process. The brunette was amazed at how much hot dog he had eaten after five minutes or less even…he had already eaten three out of the six hot dogs he purchased.
"Look, I am only going to the dance with him, not dating him. Jacque is being sweet to me so if you can't take that, then I guess I'll just go with him to a separate car!" This led to Quistis standing up and leaving Selphie and Zell alone. The brunette rubbed the top of her nose irritably and glared at Zell, nudging him once again in the arms.
"Why did you have to open you have to open your big mouth, Zell?" she said, still keeping her glaring look at her blond and insensitive boyfriend. Well, he wasn't COMPLETELY insensitive. Naïve maybe, but not insensitive.
Zell did not reply for a while until he finished his last hot dog from the tray. When he did, he grabbed Selphie's half cup of orange left in the cup and took a sip of it. "I don't get it…she's a smart girl, yet she's easily fallen for his trap!"
Selphie couldn't argue with that. Zell was right after all. Quistis was indeed falling into Jacque's little trap in which only her friends would know about. She shrugged and sighed, lifting up her elbow and allowing her chin to rest on her upward palm. "Well, what else can we do? It's her decision…if she wants to go with him, and then let her do it. It's none of our business."
The blond whipped his head at her. "None of our business? But you're her friend! Don't you care about how she'll get hurt once Jacque dumps something mean on her?"
"Of course I care!" Selphie lifted up her head and looked at Zell angrily. "I just…I just thought…Well, it's just none of our business. If he DOES do anything funny at all, I'm going to make sure that he'll get punished for it!"
"Atta girl!" the blond replied, ruffling Selphie's hair.
"HEY!" Selphie winced, removing Zell's hand from the top of her head. "Don't touch my hair! It's very sensitive you know!" she added, putting the strands of hair back into place.
"I wish I could say the same thing to mine," Zell replied, looking up at his own blond hair with its usual style. "It's weird how it always stands up and never falls down. It's like I was MEANT to have this type of hairstyle."
Selphie scrunched up her nose and touched the tip of his long hair with her fingers. "Awww, it's all right! I like your hair! It's really cute!"
Zell looked at her, giving him that usual cute face she always does when she's in her regular happy mood. "And you're cute too!" He pinched her nose, followed by kissing the tip of it before throwing the empty drink cup inside the garbage can beside him. "SCORE!" he bellowed, grinning proudly at himself.
"Hey, Zell?" Selphie suddenly felt subconscious about this question she has been asking in her mind for these last few hours now. But she knows she has no reason to be since this was Zell…her boyfriend and she can trust him. "I wanted to ask you something, but I wasn't sure how to ask you."
The blond shifted himself so he was now facing Selphie and gave her a curious look. "What is it?" He looked down at her fingers, fidgeting with one another, but Zell placed one hand over them to stop her from being nervous. "Hey, you don't need to be nervous to ask anything around me."
Selphie sighed. "I know, but…OH! You'll hate me for this…I know we already talked about this before…"
"Oh." Zell knew where she was getting at, as he removed his hands, which caused Selphie to look up in worry. "So you mean about….THAT."
"Oohhhh I KNEW you were going to act weird about this!" She stomped one foot and looked away, blushing, feeling embarrassed for bringing the whole subject up. This is what she was afraid of.
The blond raised his hands, waving them frantically. "Hey! HEY! Come on! You don't have to be mad. I didn't mean it like that! I was just surprised that you would suddenly talk about that. I mean…We agreed that-!" He paused when he felt Selphie's hands go around both of his.
"I know…But…" She looked away shyly. "But…Hey can we talk about this after school? I'm not really comfortable talking about this with people walking by." She glanced around her, making sure no one heard that and luckily for her, no one did.
Zell squeezed her hand back and smiled. "Of course."
Selphie smiled back.
Their moment of silence was interrupted when the end of the lunch bell suddenly rang, startling the two. Zell and Selphie stood up at the same time and left the cafeteria, along with the students heading for their classes. They met Quistis along the hallway, but she would just turn away and didn't even bother to talk with them. Selphie seemed bothered by this, because she stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked down in shame. Zell grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly, telling her that there was nothing to worry about. Selphie nodded and looked at him with a smile.
They separated at the end of the hall to go their different ways to their classes.
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He looked so peaceful sleeping underneath the afternoon spring sunshine. He was taking a little rest beneath their school tree situated at the front of the school, a perfect place to shade him away from the sunlight that could cause skin cancer. Zell had his arms behind him, supporting his head against the body of the tree, while his feet were propped up on top of the cement that surrounded the large tree and the soil that kept it growing all these years. She sat down at the edge, just so she could watch him sleep.
"What took you so long?" Startled, Selphie jumped at the sound of his voice and watched as Zell sat up and rubbed his eyes slowly. After a while, his tired eyes managed to open completely, focused and looking at Selphie's child-like, apologetic face. "I've been waiting for almost an hour." He glanced at his watch and nodded. "Yes, for almost an hour!"
Selphie grinned nervously. "Sorry, but Mr. Clive wanted me to stay longer so he could go over my English homework for next week….He's really giving us a lot these days!" She sighed and smiled. "But at least I'm here, right?"
Zell could never resist that smile of hers. It was quite contagious. "Yeah, I guess," he mumbled. "So, do you have time to talk to me about THAT then?"
The brunette nodded, shifting herself closer to him. She patted his feet so it wasn't in the way and Zell automatically slid them off the concrete and down on the floor, so he was now facing the front doors of the school. He felt her moving a lot closer and felt her taking his hand in hers. "It's called sex, Zell," she whispered.
The blond blushed and turned away. "Yeah, yeah," he said.
Selphie giggled. "Anyway, I was thinking. What if…what if we do it after the dance?"
This type of request alerted Zell immediately, his head swerving back to his right to look at Selphie to see if she was serious. To his horror, she was serious. "You want to do it…after the dance?"
The brunette shrugged. "Yeah."
"You mean do it AFTER the dance? It? As in….sex? You mean have sex after the dance?"
Selphie stared at him and nodded a couple of times. "YES, that's what I'm saying."
"Woah….are you serious?" Zell removed his hand from hers and stood up, stuffing his hands now in his pockets nervously. "Are you seriously serious?" He stopped a few steps, his back to her, his face all beet red.
Selphie stood up as well, nodding her head. "Yes, I'm SERIOUSLY serious! I mean…" She approached him and wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his back. "I want to know what it feels like to be WITH you Zell. People have talked about how great sex was and I want to experience it myself."
"But…" he gulped. "We're only sixteen."
"Yeah and?"
Zell turned around, wrapping his arms around her waist now. "We're still too young for sex. Haven't you learned anything from the sex education they gave us during class?"
Selphie seemed like she wasn't phased out about this, which meant she was VERY serious about this decision of hers. "They never said anything about how OLD you have to be to be doing sex."
"That's not the point Selphie. The point is you could get pregnant, which means we would have to work hard to support the child which means…" The blond sighed and turned away.
Selphie stepped away from him and frowned. "Stop it! You're acting like Garrett, Zell. It's creeping me out you know. I hate this. This is twice you've rejected me with the idea!"
"And twice I keep telling you we're not ready!" Zell spat back, clenching his fists at his sides.
"Maybe YOU'RE the one who's not ready!" With that said, she turned and stomped off down the street back to her house.
Zell sighed and sat down on the front steps. He was an idiot, he knew that. He was scared that if they ever have sex, then that means their whole 'perfect' world would disappear. What if he blows it and Selphie would end up dumping him the next day and not bother with him anymore? Worse, what if Selphie is the one who's good at it blows him off and sleep with the next guy…no…Selphie wasn't like that.
But…why was he so afraid? He was a man! He wasn't supposed to be afraid of things like these. If a girl offered her whole heart him, her whole soul, he wouldn't be turning her down! He should be accepting it! Besides….since it was Selphie's idea, she probably planned things ahead already.
"Dammit!" he hissed to himself. Zell quickly stood and ran to where Selphie disappeared to. If he was lucky, she'd still be crossing 8th street so he could catch up to her. Fortunately, he noticed her just halfway down the cross street, tears in her eyes. He hit himself mentally for making her cry. He hated it when she cried no matter how small the argument was or big for that matter. "Selphie!" he called.
Selphie glanced over her shoulder and noticed Zell running to her, but she just turned away and began to walk fast. "Leave me alone, Zell! If you don't want to be with me, why don't you just go on and say it!?"
Zell grabbed her arm by the time they made it to the other side and forced her to turn around. "Of course I want to be with you! I didn't say I didn't want to be with you! I guess…" He let go of her and stuffed his hands in his pockets once more.
The brunette wiped her tears away and looked at him curiously.
"I guess I was just scared that if I'm not good at it, then you'd dump me for someone else…I know, I know stupid reason!" He looked at her, but the moment he did, he found her shaking her head in disbelief.
Selphie approached him and placed a hand on his cheek. "No, it's not a stupid reason. You have every right to be afraid. I'm scared that you'd do the same too. Besides, who do you think I am? I'm not like that! It would be my first time too you know."
"And who do you think I am?"
"I guess we're both in the same level then. I'm sorry, Zell, I was just going overboard with this whole thing." She looked down shamefully and closed her eyes.
Zell shook his head and grabbed her hand. "You shouldn't be the one who's sorry. I should be the one sorry for turning you down."
"What?" She jerked her head up at him. "What are you saying?"
Zell nodded. "I want to know what it feels like to be WITH you too. So…I guess what I'm saying is…Yes…let's do it after the dance."
"Really?" Selphie couldn't believe her ears. She wrapped her arms around him and took him in for a warm embrace. "Now I'm kind of nervous…"
"Don't worry, we'll both learn." He closed his eyes and tightened his arms around her. He was imagining what it would be like to really 'feel' her inside.
GoodGurl: DUN DUN DUN! SO it's been confirmed that Zell and Selphie WILL have sex after the dance, but will they pull through it? BWUAHAH! More surprises and twists coming up for these two! ^^ Stay tuned!
Chapter 32 – Feel With You
The afternoon sunshine was brighter than usual and warmer. The streets were empty, except for the occasional kids that ran back and forth from their front yard and back yard. The older ones were still back in school, studying, making their grades a lot better, but Zell, he was heading straight home, eager to change into some dry pants after what happened to him and Selphie in the girls' bathroom. He never intended to go that far with their 'exploration' but thinking about it made him anticipate for more. Just thinking about Selphie and the way she looked at him with her begging, green eyes drove him crazy to the point of wanting to take her into his arms and drag her to bed, but he knew better than that. Teen pregnancy was not a smart way to go. Besides, if Selphie did get pregnant, her brother would definitely hunt him down like a predator stalking his prey. Zell would have to worry about sleeping with one eye open in case a shadow the shape of Garrett would start hovering above him as he slept in his bed.
That thought made the blond shudder as he turned a corner and walked down the deserted sidewalk towards home. He shuffled for his keys in his pockets and gently took them into the palm of his hands once he made it to the front yard and across the concrete steps. Zell sighed, glancing down at the right side of his pants where the water of the toilet had soaked him through. He was relieved that Ms. Fisher didn't ask what happened when he appeared along with Selphie, fifteen minutes after class started, holding up his pants as if afraid that the water might soak the floor. She just dismissed him quickly when he asked to go home and change his wet pants. All the students were curious of course, even the great Seifer Almasy, the one who never cared about anyone, except maybe for himself and Quistis, was giving him a questioning look. Of course, Zell ignored that because he was too busy worrying about the girl who had witnessed the whole thing.
Zell took a deep breath and inserted the house key through the keyhole of the front door, twisted it and reached for the doorknob to open it wide. He didn't have time to dodge a pair of shoes that were laying so close at the very front that anyone could have tripped when Zell felt his body go forward. He managed to step his other foot forward so he wouldn't completely fall flat on his face on the floor. "What the-?" he spoke, glancing down at a pair of size five loafers. He knew it wasn't his Aunt's since she was a size seven not a size five, although there is no reason for anyone to ask him why he notices these things.
"Is that you, Zell?" his Aunt's soft voice came from the kitchen.
"Yeah," the young blond replied, still staring curiously at the shoes in front of him. "Hey, Aunt Vanessa, is someone here? I don't think these are your shoes, are they?"
"Why don't you come to the kitchen and find out?"
The blond gave his Aunt's shadow a strange look and decided to do as he was told. Zell walked to the kitchen and was indeed right about having a visitor. The moment he stepped into the kitchen, the visitor turned around to reveal herself to him. He was quite surprised really when the visitor was actually Kent's mother, Naomi Marshall. "Mrs. Marshall!" he gasped in surprise. "What brings you here?"
Naomi stood up and picked up something from the seat next to her. It was a large box, filled with…something. "I wanted to give you this." She glanced at it quickly, then back at Zell with a smile. "I just thought Kent would want you to have this. I found this in his room today when I was going through his stuff. It was in his closet, way at the very back." The older woman approached him and handed him the box. Zell thought it would be very light since Naomi was carrying it easily, but as soon as she dropped it in his arms, he was surprised when it suddenly weighed his arms down, forcing him to stumble a little bit until he found his footing to keep himself steady.
The blond looked at it for a moment, until he looked up curiously at Kent's mother. "What-? What is it?"
Naomi kept the smile on her face, but deep down, Zell knew she was still very sad with her loss. "It's Kent's collection of his superhero comic books, like X-Men, Spider man, etc."
Zell was taken aback. "Really?" He dropped the box gently on the ground and opened it eagerly. Indeed, it was his collection of comic books and most of them were the ones he always asked Kent about reading one day. Kent always forgets to bring it with him to school and the blond never had a chance to read any of them. "But…I can't take these," the blond said, shaking his head. He closed the flaps over the box and picked it back up in his arms and moved to hand them over to Naomi. "They belong to you. You're his mother."
Naomi shook her head. "I wouldn't know what to do with those anyway. I would end up selling them or throwing them away since I have no use for them. Besides, I'm sure Kent wouldn't mind giving them to you."
"Th-thank you," Zell said quietly.
The older woman nodded. "No problem. I knew you would like them. When he wrote to me, he told me how you loved comic books and he mentioned to me once that he always forgets to bring them to you so you can read them."
He didn't know what else to say. He was definitely touched that Kent would think of him so much about the comic books. Before he could stop himself, Zell found himself in tears. Aunt Vanessa was definitely alert about this and she was afraid that a trigger of his memory of his parents' death led to this type of sudden sadness, but Naomi got to him first before he burst into fits of weeps. She wrapped his arms around him like a mother would and patted him on his head, having to go on tip toes to reach his height. Vanessa watched this scene, reminding her of the time her sister did the exact same thing to Zell when he cried over his scraped knee. "It's all right Zell," Naomi whispered in his ear, resisting the urge to cry with him. "There is no need to cry. You need to be strong for the both of us. We need to be strong for Kent. He wouldn't want us to cry over him. You know how he gets when people get mushy around him."
Zell laughed into her shoulders and lifted up his head to look down at her, giving her the smile Naomi was looking for. The blond wiped his tears away and nodded. "You're right."
Naomi nodded, satisfied and smiled as well. "Well, I better get going. I have so many things to do at home." She released Zell with her arms and turned around to face Vanessa. "It was nice meeting you, Vanessa."
Vanessa smiled. "It was nice meeting you too, Naomi. I hope to see you again. If you want to chat, you can always come visit us here."
The dark haired woman did a double take on Zell before turning around and putting her shoes on. Zell and Vanessa watched her leave before the blond picked up the box full of comics from the floor and proceeded to go up the stairs. "I'm going to put this in my room and change my pants."
The older woman nodded. "All right. You might want to wash you face off, Zell. If Selphie sees you looking like that, she'd be very worried about you."
The blond agreed. "Yeah, you're right I should do that too." He adjusted the box in his arms and continued upstairs to his room where he put the box down on the floor and searched for a new pair of pants to wear to school from his closet. When he found only one pair left, he reminded himself mentally to do laundry as soon as he gets off from school. The last pair was kahki, so he knew now he REALLY had to be careful about staining them during school today or else he won't have a pair left. He hated doing laundry, especially if his Aunt did it for him. He was sixteen for goodness sakes and turning seventeen in a couple of days just after the dance wasn't going to be easy. He would have to endure other responsibilities.
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Second period had ended quickly than she imagined it would be. She figured Zell would come to second period, but she guessed that he was probably tied down of having to do laundry because he didn't have anymore pants left to wear. Selphie glanced down at the food on her plate that was left untouched ever since she went to buy it from the counter and looked around to see if Zell had arrived yet. Quistis was sitting awfully quiet in front of her, but right now, she was too busy worrying about where Zell had gone off to.
"Hey, sorry I'm late! There were some things I had to take care of," a familiar voice came. Selphie looked up and gave a smile when she was staring right into Zell's blue eyes. And just as she expected, he was carrying a tray full of hot dogs, something that she was always used to him doing every lunch. He sat down beside her and quickly began munching them down as if he hasn't eaten them for a long time. She stared at him for a moment, until she heard Jacque's familiar voice around the area. Selphie didn't care much, but ended up listening to their conversation anyway. There were times when his words would just fade in and out of her thoughts, because she would just keep staring at Zell as he ate his…SIX HOT DOGS!?
"Thank," Selphie suddenly heard Quistis mumble from her almost closed mouth. There was a pause, which caused Selphie to look up at the blond girl who stopped what she was eating and stare at the flowers in her hands. "You got me….lilies…How-?"
The brunette turned her head at Jacque, who just grinned like a total idiot. She didn't know that Jacque was now seated beside the blond. Personally, Selphie thought Quistis was better off with Seifer. "I had my sources." To Selphie's relief, he stood up after he said this, and then added, "Well, I better get going. I will see you soon my little flower!" She was not happy though when Jacque made a move by kissing the back of Quistis' hand. She's very suspicious about people like him. There was just something about him that she didn't like. Selphie was about to say something when she heard Zell start coughing.
"ZELL! How many times do I have to tell to stop eating your hot dogs so fast!? GEEZ!" Selphie slapped her hand against Zell's back, him coughing up hot dog debris towards Quistis. He didn't even apologize when their blond friend warned him about coughing the hot dog pieces towards her. After a while, Zell had stopped coughing, taking a deep breath before Selphie finally had a chance to calm her nerves.
"Aren't you a bit curious?" Zell suddenly asked, surprising Selphie from her thoughts. The brunette looked at him questioningly, but her blond boyfriend just kept her eyes curiously on Quistis with her shoulders suddenly tense. Selphie was going to ask the same question too.
"About what? About how he knew that lilies were my favorite?"
Zell and Selphie nodded.
"I don't need to be suspicious of him. He's just a nice guy, that's all."
"Yeah, a nice guy who stalks you…" Selphie elbowed him in the arm and gave him a warning look, which almost caused Zell to drop his hot dog in the process. The brunette was amazed at how much hot dog he had eaten after five minutes or less even…he had already eaten three out of the six hot dogs he purchased.
"Look, I am only going to the dance with him, not dating him. Jacque is being sweet to me so if you can't take that, then I guess I'll just go with him to a separate car!" This led to Quistis standing up and leaving Selphie and Zell alone. The brunette rubbed the top of her nose irritably and glared at Zell, nudging him once again in the arms.
"Why did you have to open you have to open your big mouth, Zell?" she said, still keeping her glaring look at her blond and insensitive boyfriend. Well, he wasn't COMPLETELY insensitive. Naïve maybe, but not insensitive.
Zell did not reply for a while until he finished his last hot dog from the tray. When he did, he grabbed Selphie's half cup of orange left in the cup and took a sip of it. "I don't get it…she's a smart girl, yet she's easily fallen for his trap!"
Selphie couldn't argue with that. Zell was right after all. Quistis was indeed falling into Jacque's little trap in which only her friends would know about. She shrugged and sighed, lifting up her elbow and allowing her chin to rest on her upward palm. "Well, what else can we do? It's her decision…if she wants to go with him, and then let her do it. It's none of our business."
The blond whipped his head at her. "None of our business? But you're her friend! Don't you care about how she'll get hurt once Jacque dumps something mean on her?"
"Of course I care!" Selphie lifted up her head and looked at Zell angrily. "I just…I just thought…Well, it's just none of our business. If he DOES do anything funny at all, I'm going to make sure that he'll get punished for it!"
"Atta girl!" the blond replied, ruffling Selphie's hair.
"HEY!" Selphie winced, removing Zell's hand from the top of her head. "Don't touch my hair! It's very sensitive you know!" she added, putting the strands of hair back into place.
"I wish I could say the same thing to mine," Zell replied, looking up at his own blond hair with its usual style. "It's weird how it always stands up and never falls down. It's like I was MEANT to have this type of hairstyle."
Selphie scrunched up her nose and touched the tip of his long hair with her fingers. "Awww, it's all right! I like your hair! It's really cute!"
Zell looked at her, giving him that usual cute face she always does when she's in her regular happy mood. "And you're cute too!" He pinched her nose, followed by kissing the tip of it before throwing the empty drink cup inside the garbage can beside him. "SCORE!" he bellowed, grinning proudly at himself.
"Hey, Zell?" Selphie suddenly felt subconscious about this question she has been asking in her mind for these last few hours now. But she knows she has no reason to be since this was Zell…her boyfriend and she can trust him. "I wanted to ask you something, but I wasn't sure how to ask you."
The blond shifted himself so he was now facing Selphie and gave her a curious look. "What is it?" He looked down at her fingers, fidgeting with one another, but Zell placed one hand over them to stop her from being nervous. "Hey, you don't need to be nervous to ask anything around me."
Selphie sighed. "I know, but…OH! You'll hate me for this…I know we already talked about this before…"
"Oh." Zell knew where she was getting at, as he removed his hands, which caused Selphie to look up in worry. "So you mean about….THAT."
"Oohhhh I KNEW you were going to act weird about this!" She stomped one foot and looked away, blushing, feeling embarrassed for bringing the whole subject up. This is what she was afraid of.
The blond raised his hands, waving them frantically. "Hey! HEY! Come on! You don't have to be mad. I didn't mean it like that! I was just surprised that you would suddenly talk about that. I mean…We agreed that-!" He paused when he felt Selphie's hands go around both of his.
"I know…But…" She looked away shyly. "But…Hey can we talk about this after school? I'm not really comfortable talking about this with people walking by." She glanced around her, making sure no one heard that and luckily for her, no one did.
Zell squeezed her hand back and smiled. "Of course."
Selphie smiled back.
Their moment of silence was interrupted when the end of the lunch bell suddenly rang, startling the two. Zell and Selphie stood up at the same time and left the cafeteria, along with the students heading for their classes. They met Quistis along the hallway, but she would just turn away and didn't even bother to talk with them. Selphie seemed bothered by this, because she stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked down in shame. Zell grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly, telling her that there was nothing to worry about. Selphie nodded and looked at him with a smile.
They separated at the end of the hall to go their different ways to their classes.
**********************
He looked so peaceful sleeping underneath the afternoon spring sunshine. He was taking a little rest beneath their school tree situated at the front of the school, a perfect place to shade him away from the sunlight that could cause skin cancer. Zell had his arms behind him, supporting his head against the body of the tree, while his feet were propped up on top of the cement that surrounded the large tree and the soil that kept it growing all these years. She sat down at the edge, just so she could watch him sleep.
"What took you so long?" Startled, Selphie jumped at the sound of his voice and watched as Zell sat up and rubbed his eyes slowly. After a while, his tired eyes managed to open completely, focused and looking at Selphie's child-like, apologetic face. "I've been waiting for almost an hour." He glanced at his watch and nodded. "Yes, for almost an hour!"
Selphie grinned nervously. "Sorry, but Mr. Clive wanted me to stay longer so he could go over my English homework for next week….He's really giving us a lot these days!" She sighed and smiled. "But at least I'm here, right?"
Zell could never resist that smile of hers. It was quite contagious. "Yeah, I guess," he mumbled. "So, do you have time to talk to me about THAT then?"
The brunette nodded, shifting herself closer to him. She patted his feet so it wasn't in the way and Zell automatically slid them off the concrete and down on the floor, so he was now facing the front doors of the school. He felt her moving a lot closer and felt her taking his hand in hers. "It's called sex, Zell," she whispered.
The blond blushed and turned away. "Yeah, yeah," he said.
Selphie giggled. "Anyway, I was thinking. What if…what if we do it after the dance?"
This type of request alerted Zell immediately, his head swerving back to his right to look at Selphie to see if she was serious. To his horror, she was serious. "You want to do it…after the dance?"
The brunette shrugged. "Yeah."
"You mean do it AFTER the dance? It? As in….sex? You mean have sex after the dance?"
Selphie stared at him and nodded a couple of times. "YES, that's what I'm saying."
"Woah….are you serious?" Zell removed his hand from hers and stood up, stuffing his hands now in his pockets nervously. "Are you seriously serious?" He stopped a few steps, his back to her, his face all beet red.
Selphie stood up as well, nodding her head. "Yes, I'm SERIOUSLY serious! I mean…" She approached him and wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his back. "I want to know what it feels like to be WITH you Zell. People have talked about how great sex was and I want to experience it myself."
"But…" he gulped. "We're only sixteen."
"Yeah and?"
Zell turned around, wrapping his arms around her waist now. "We're still too young for sex. Haven't you learned anything from the sex education they gave us during class?"
Selphie seemed like she wasn't phased out about this, which meant she was VERY serious about this decision of hers. "They never said anything about how OLD you have to be to be doing sex."
"That's not the point Selphie. The point is you could get pregnant, which means we would have to work hard to support the child which means…" The blond sighed and turned away.
Selphie stepped away from him and frowned. "Stop it! You're acting like Garrett, Zell. It's creeping me out you know. I hate this. This is twice you've rejected me with the idea!"
"And twice I keep telling you we're not ready!" Zell spat back, clenching his fists at his sides.
"Maybe YOU'RE the one who's not ready!" With that said, she turned and stomped off down the street back to her house.
Zell sighed and sat down on the front steps. He was an idiot, he knew that. He was scared that if they ever have sex, then that means their whole 'perfect' world would disappear. What if he blows it and Selphie would end up dumping him the next day and not bother with him anymore? Worse, what if Selphie is the one who's good at it blows him off and sleep with the next guy…no…Selphie wasn't like that.
But…why was he so afraid? He was a man! He wasn't supposed to be afraid of things like these. If a girl offered her whole heart him, her whole soul, he wouldn't be turning her down! He should be accepting it! Besides….since it was Selphie's idea, she probably planned things ahead already.
"Dammit!" he hissed to himself. Zell quickly stood and ran to where Selphie disappeared to. If he was lucky, she'd still be crossing 8th street so he could catch up to her. Fortunately, he noticed her just halfway down the cross street, tears in her eyes. He hit himself mentally for making her cry. He hated it when she cried no matter how small the argument was or big for that matter. "Selphie!" he called.
Selphie glanced over her shoulder and noticed Zell running to her, but she just turned away and began to walk fast. "Leave me alone, Zell! If you don't want to be with me, why don't you just go on and say it!?"
Zell grabbed her arm by the time they made it to the other side and forced her to turn around. "Of course I want to be with you! I didn't say I didn't want to be with you! I guess…" He let go of her and stuffed his hands in his pockets once more.
The brunette wiped her tears away and looked at him curiously.
"I guess I was just scared that if I'm not good at it, then you'd dump me for someone else…I know, I know stupid reason!" He looked at her, but the moment he did, he found her shaking her head in disbelief.
Selphie approached him and placed a hand on his cheek. "No, it's not a stupid reason. You have every right to be afraid. I'm scared that you'd do the same too. Besides, who do you think I am? I'm not like that! It would be my first time too you know."
"And who do you think I am?"
"I guess we're both in the same level then. I'm sorry, Zell, I was just going overboard with this whole thing." She looked down shamefully and closed her eyes.
Zell shook his head and grabbed her hand. "You shouldn't be the one who's sorry. I should be the one sorry for turning you down."
"What?" She jerked her head up at him. "What are you saying?"
Zell nodded. "I want to know what it feels like to be WITH you too. So…I guess what I'm saying is…Yes…let's do it after the dance."
"Really?" Selphie couldn't believe her ears. She wrapped her arms around him and took him in for a warm embrace. "Now I'm kind of nervous…"
"Don't worry, we'll both learn." He closed his eyes and tightened his arms around her. He was imagining what it would be like to really 'feel' her inside.
GoodGurl: DUN DUN DUN! SO it's been confirmed that Zell and Selphie WILL have sex after the dance, but will they pull through it? BWUAHAH! More surprises and twists coming up for these two! ^^ Stay tuned!