Goodbye Zoey
Zoey sat down in the lounge with the whole gang, except for Chase who had a tennis match at a rival school. Which she was honestly thankful for right now. She felt like it would be easier to tell the rest of her friends her news first because she had no idea how to bring this up with Chase. It had been two days since her parents showed up at PCA with news they were moving to England, and now she had an important decision to make.
"Hey, guys."
"What's up Zoey?" Michael greeted her, glancing up from his homework.
"So why were your parents here?" Lola asked again, she had already asked this every time she'd seen Zoey the past two days, but every time before Zoey had simply promised to tell her later.
"Actually, I need your advice. My parents are moving to London and they asked me if I want to go to school in England so I can be closer to them. Some school called Covington Prep." She threw the brochures her parents brought on the table in front of them.
This news got everyone's wide-eyed attention, they each grabbed a brochure and started reading through it.
"You're leaving PCA?" Lola shouted.
"I didn't say that."
"You're thinking about leaving PCA?" Quinn asked.
"Well, kind of, maybe."
"Can I have your Jet X?" Logan asked.
Michael and Lola started hitting him and Quinn threw several balls of paper at him. "Ow! Well if she's not gonna be here!" Logan shouted against the barrage.
"Zoey you can't be serious about this," Lola told her.
"Look, I haven't decided anything yet."
"How can you move to London? You love PCA!" Lola interrupted her.
"Of course I do, I just-"
"She might love Covington Prep too." Quinn interrupted her again.
"Yeah, I mean it's-"
This time Logan interrupted her. "It's supposed to be one of the best boarding schools in the world!"
"I know, I looked it up online-"
"Oh online, you can't believe everything you read online!" Michael interrupted her. "Cause I read that if you drop a peanut in a glass of lemonade, it explodes. Well guess what? It didn't. Think about that."
Zoey rolled her eyes, so far her friends weren't being much help. "Listen it's not that I want to leave PCA-"
"It's that she's being offered this amazing opportunity." Quinn finished for her.
"Right, and that's why I want to talk to you guys about this first."
"What school could possibly be better than PCA?" Lola demanded.
"Covington's more expensive than PCA! So obviously it's better." Logan crossed his arms.
"The peanut just sank." Michael pouted, still off on his own tangent.
"How many kids get a chance to go study in London?" Quinn tried to remind everyone.
"Who cares?" Lola shot back. They continued arguing with each other, seeming to forget Zoey was still sitting there for a few moments.
"This isn't helping!" Zoey shouted, bringing everyone's attention back to her.
"Well, what are you gonna do?" Lola asked again.
Zoey took a deep breath to calm her racing thoughts. "I'm going to go ask Chase." What she knew she should have done from the beginning.
"Chase doesn't know about this yet?" Quinn asked, she suddenly looked nervous. As did everyone else.
"No, and his opinion means everything to me." Zoey told them all, missing their even more anxious looks.
"Well, why haven't you asked him yet?" Michael asked.
"Well, you know...we're really close friends, and it's just hard to tell him I might be leaving." Zoey was still oblivious to the knowing looks everyone shared from that statement, but even she knew it wasn't exactly the whole truth.
"Yeah, but you better go talk to him." Lola told her.
"You're his best friend." Quinn reminded her.
"Cough, Excuse me?" Michael asked.
Quinn rolled her eyes. "His female best friend."
"Alright then."
"What about me?" Logan asked.
"You're my female best friend." Michael patted him on the back.
"You're diseased."
Zoey shook her head, stood up, and grabbed her backpack. "I've got to go talk to Chase." She walked out of the lounge.
"Yeah, and do whatever Chase says!" Lola yelled out.
Logan shook his head. "You know he's gonna tell her to stay."
"Exactly." Lola smiled and sat back with confidence beaming on her face.
"I can't believe you two want her to leave!" Michael shouted at Quinn and Logan.
"I don't want her to leave, I'm just saying Covington is like twice as expensive as PCA is, that's how you know its high-quality education. Besides, the day is gonna come when Zoey finally realizes she wants to make out with me. Plus realistically, when has Zoey ever listened to me? I'm really helping you guys. Reverse Psychiatry." Logan pointed to his head in emphasis.
"Reverse Psychology you ninny." Quinn rolled her eyes as she corrected him.
"I am not a nanny!"
"And since when do you care about high-quality education?" Michael asked.
"Quinn, what's wrong with you?" Lola demanded
"I make my decisions through logic, not emotion just like a real scientist. I don't want her to leave, but there are some major benefits Zoey could get if she goes to Covington, for one, practically any college would accept her just for attending there."
"You know what? It doesn't matter, Chase is going to fix everything for us in like two seconds. There is no universe that Chase would tell her to leave, and that will be the last we hear of Covington Prep. Cheerio would you like some tea with your crumpet? No thank you!" Michael finished his speech in a terrible British accent.
"But what if he freaks out and does something dumb? Like when we all thought Zoey and Logan were dating." Quinn asked, looking worried.
"Hey, maybe it will be a good thing if he freaks out a little, he'll do anything to keep Zoey from leaving. If he thinks she's really leaving maybe he'll finally tell her everything." Michael shrugged his shoulders. It may be unlikely, like literally every other time, but if this was the push HIS best friend needed, then this whole England situation could turn out great for everyone.
"Wait, do you think maybe Zoey will break her denial now? She told us before she told Chase, she never does that." Lola pointed out. "She's scared to talk to him. That has to mean something. I'm 85% certain I heard a pause when she tried to tell us why she hasn't yet."
Zoey knew Chase would be at his tennis match all day, but the rest of her friends were just arguing in circles with each other. So she went back to her room and sat on her bed, half-heartedly flipping through the brochures again. She didn't want to leave PCA, it was her home. But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and she'd be close to her parents again. She did miss them occasionally, who didn't get homesick every so often? But all her friends, even though they were often crazy, she loved all of them. Michael's wackiness, Quinn's creativity, Lola's ambition, and even Logan's cockiness occasionally disappeared when his friends needed him most. But most of all…Chase.
She didn't know how to tell him she might be leaving, but she knew she had to talk to him. She had even been avoiding him a little bit the past few days so he wouldn't ask why her parents were here. If he asked, she just knew she would crack and tell him everything. Despite when everyone reassured Michael that he was indeed Chase's best friend, Zoey knew she had a special place in her heart for him, and she thought she had a special place in his.
They did everything together, and they always sought each other out when they needed help, or more often than not, didn't take no for an answer from the other. Like when Zoey found Chase in the rain and sat with him for over an hour before convincing him to head back inside on his birthday. Or how even when Zoey and Lola went temporarily insane over Logan's pageant Chase kept reminding her how crazy she was being but still helped her out as much as he could. Or when he slept through the dance contest after practicing so much just so she could have a partner. She enjoyed dancing with him that night, much more than she would have dancing in some forgettable contest. Just the two of them dancing under the stars around the fountain was so much fun, and she knew he had done it all for her. He really was the sweetest guy she had ever met, and she trusted his judgment more than anything.
Then there was the part of her that she had tried to ignore since school started this year. When Lola and Quinn had tried to convince her Chase was in love with her, but then the whole Rebecca situation convinced Zoey they were completely wrong. Even if Chase had chosen her over Rebecca, it was because he chose his best friend over his girlfriend. Not because he was in love with her.
But, now. Just she still didn't know how to talk to him. Partially because she couldn't imagine not seeing his admittedly cute smile and fuzzy head every day. He saved her from the ghost and carried her all the way back to PCA from Redstone Gulch without any complaint. Sure he was Chase so he would undoubtedly do that for any of his friends, but still, when he found her, she had never felt so relieved, and then spent he nearly every second of the day with her, helping her out as her ankle healed.
Zoey still wasn't sure how she felt about Chase but was still confident he was her best friend in the world. She glanced at the clock, she still had a few more hours until Chase should be back. She knew in her heart, that Chase will be the deciding factor in her choice. She didn't know why, but she knew it would be true.
Chase was walking through campus later that night after he got back from his tennis match, bouncing a ball up and down on his racket when his friend Ryan walked up to him.
"Hey dude, did you beat Norken?"
"Yep, 6-1, 6-0," Chase reported.
"Awe man, Norken's the worst."
"I know right?" Chase laughed.
"Oh hey, when's Zoey leaving?"
Chase was confused, "Leaving what?"
"I heard she's bailing out of PCA, to go to some fancy prep school in London."
"Zoey Brooks?" Chase clarified, he had heard nothing about this. This must be some dumb rumor.
"It's what I heard." Ryan nodded.
"Yeah, I don't think so, I think you've got the wrong girl."
"Maybe." Ryan shrugged his shoulders.
"Later man." Chase walked away, he didn't believe it for a second. Why in the world would Zoey just get up and decide to go to London for no reason? Chase just continued his way to his dorm. He should probably tell Zoey some stupid rumor was flying around. If he hadn't experienced an insane ghost, many, many Quinnventions, and Vince Blake trying to kill him over a history test, that would be the craziest thing he ever heard.
As he was walking through his hallway he greeted Mark. "Hey, Del Figs."
"Hey, can you keep down the racket?" Mark said in his normal flat voice, his face void of all emotion or expression.
"What?"
"Keep down the racket." Seeing Chase still blank-faced. Mark sighed. "I made a joke."
"You sure?" Chase raised an eyebrow.
"No. So, what do you think about Zoey?"
Chase smiled involuntarily like he always did whenever he thought about Zoey, but he had no clue where Mark was going with this. "What about her?"
"Leaving PCA? Moving to London?"
"OK, where did you hear this?" Chase asked, slightly annoyed now.
"Everywhere, I heard it from like three different people. Zoey didn't tell you?"
"No. She didn't." Chase marched back to his room and threw his racket and backpack roughly to the floor.
OK, so maybe this wasn't just a stupid rumor then. But it still made zero sense. But most of all, why would Zoey decide to leave without even telling him? They tell each other everything. Did she even care about him at all? Time and again Chase always bent over backward whenever she needed anything. She was always the first person he searched for whenever he had a problem and he always did whatever he could to help her. All those times she asked him to help Dustin with bullies or Trisha or take Logan down from his narcissistic pedestal. Did that really mean nothing to her?
All those times she said he was the nicest and sweetest guy she ever met, those moments he let himself maybe believe she felt the same way he did whenever he saw her. He must be dead wrong about everything. Forget his fantasies of romance, were they even really friends? He broke up with Rebecca for her, for their friendship, and the only reason he even dated her in the first place was so he could try to stay just friends with Zoey. They had promised time and again to never let anything, elections, text messages, radios, boyfriends and girlfriends, anything get in between their friendship. But obviously, none of that really mattered to Zoey.
Since he met Rebecca this summer, he had tried to deny his feelings, even when he broke up with her, which was entirely for Zoey, but for his best friend. He had honestly gone a little crazy when he thought Logan and Zoey were dating, but that made just as little sense as her moving to London without telling him, and that was part of the problem then too, that she didn't tell him. That whole episode was just Logan being a jerk, and admittedly understandable on both their parts, but still. He worked his butt off until he passed out from exhaustion to learn the dance for her, and while he messed that up in the end, they still had fun together. She even asked for his help with Logan's stupid pageant. How he gave any worthwhile advice when Zoey was in her sparkling red dress, he had no idea, but he was there. Not that he ever would have fought her over helping her, even though he knew the pageant was a horrible idea the entire time. She had comforted him in the rain while he sobbed on her shoulder after his grandmother died. And he spent nearly every moment with her after she broke her ankle. Why wouldn't she even talk to him about this before she left?
Chase felt empty inside, and he also felt tears in his eyes when he realized that his friendship with Zoey, which had begun the moment they met three years ago was nothing. He wanted to cry, but he fought against himself, he wanted to be angry. Getting mad was easier than being depressed because he knew if he started, he'd probably never stop crying and eventually, Logan and Michael will come back and demand an explanation that Chase didn't have. All he could think in his head was Zoey doesn't care about you. Over and over.
About an hour later, he heard Zoey knocking on his door. "Chase? Chase, you in there?"
Chase rolled his eyes in annoyance and walked over and opened the door.
"Hiya!" He greeted her and then walked over to his fridge, he didn't want to look at her, let her see the pain in his eyes, so he could stay mad at her. If she didn't trust him enough to tell him she was leaving he wouldn't let her see how much it was killing him inside.
"Hey, you got a sec?"
"For you?" Sure. Chase said sarcastically.
"Good, cause there's something I gotta talk to you about."
"Oh yeah, what's that?"
"Um, is everything OK?"
"Yeah, everything's awesome." It was taking all of Chase's focus to keep up this fake happy façade as he tried to hide his pain and anger. Why was she now talking to him now? After she already decided everything. She doesn't care about him.
"OK, see my parents are moving to England for a little while, and well, there's this boarding school near London called Covington-"
"Oh Covington, I hear that's a really amazing school." Chase rolled his eyes but still avoided looking at her face.
"Chase, what's wrong?" Dang it! Why does she have to know him so well?
"Nothing's wrong with me, what's wrong with you?" Chase asked, his voice shaking in both sadness and anger.
"Well, I just wanted to talk to you about this, your opinion means everything to me."
"Oh it does, doesn't it? Then why have you already decided to go without asking me what I think?" Chase burst out, he finally looked straight at Zoey, no longer trying to hide his anger.
"What are you talking about? I'm here now."
"I heard about this from Del Figalo and some other guys I barely know!" Chase could feel the tears building in his eyes, but he was too hurt and angry to stop them. "I thought we were best friends, but if you've already decided you're leaving, good for you!" He shouted.
"Chase, stop! I have no idea how whatever you think you heard spread so fast. I've only talked to Lola, Quinn, Michael, and Logan. My parents told me two days ago and I thought it over myself before I asked for their opinion, and you were gone at your tennis match all day. I've been waiting for you to get back so I can talk to you! I haven't decided anything."
"You, you haven't?" That stopped Chase's angry, burning thoughts in their tracks.
"No, so can you calm down so we can talk?"
"Yeah, yeah, I can do that." Chase grabbed a Blix from the fridge and took a gulp before sitting on the couch. Zoey followed suit and sat down beside him. They both turned so they could face each other.
"So…just let me get this straight. Your parents are moving to England and gave you a choice to join them at some prep school in London. You've asked the gang's opinion, but you haven't decided yet."
"Yes, that's correct.
"Oh thank God, you aren't leaving me! I mean PCA, PCA." Chase quickly tried to correct himself, but like always Zoey seemed to ignore the true feelings he was always hiding but trying to show her.
"So what do you think I should do?"
"Zoey, I…I can't…I don't want you to go." Chase said quietly.
"Can you give me a reason? Please, Chase? Everyone else hasn't been any help at all. Logan and Quinn think I should go just because Covington's supposedly one of the best schools in the world. And Lola and Michael don't want me to leave because they think I'd be crazy to leave PCA. So give me a reason I should stay. I want to know what you think." She gently reached out and place her warm hand on his shoulder, making Chase's skin heat up from the close contact, just like always.
"I'm sorry, Zoey, I…" Chase thought to himself. Is this it, is this the moment you've been waiting the last three years for? But this is do or die time. It could make her stay, but it could also scare her away. She could never even think about leaving again, or she could hop on the fastest plane to England. Every time this moment came up the same thing happened to Chase. His heart starts racing and his palms get sweaty, and his mouth feels frozen like a block of ice, unable to utter the simple words that he says to himself every night before he goes to bed, but he can never say them to her. He's always terrified of her in these moments because she has the power to make reality better than he dreamed or worse than his darkest nightmare. He didn't have a choice anymore, he had to play his trump card, even though it might fail, he couldn't let this opportunity go to waste. It was time to tell her the truth.
"Zoey, I'm not going to tell you what to do. I have a million reasons why I don't want you to leave PCA, but there is one, simple reason that I want you to stay that all the other reasons are connected to. So hear me out, but don't make this decision for me. Follow your heart, because the heart doesn't lie. Trust me, I know my heart has never lied to me for a moment since I met you."
"Go on Chase." Zoey seemed to have no idea where he was going with this, but she looked just as serious as he felt.
"Zoey, I've been in love with you ever since I met you. When you got out of your dad's car, I saw you standing there…I rode my bike into that stupid flagpole. I was in love with you before I hit the ground. I don't think that feeling is ever going to go away." Chase said with as much heartfelt emotion as he could muster, he was absolutely terrified of what could come next.
Zoey just looked at him, opened mouthed in surprise which wasn't making him the most confident. He was waiting on pins and needles for whatever happened next, seconds turning into hours.
"Chase." Zoey said slowly, but to his dismay, she had tears gathering in her eyes and she was shaking her head slightly. "Do you want to know why I was scared to tell you about this? I'm so sorry you had to hear it from other people. But there is a reason, that I've finally realized too."
"What is it Zoey?" Chase asked quietly.
"It's because no matter what my head was telling me about how great Covington could be and being close to my parents again, my heart always knew I could never leave you. I will follow my heart, because my head can't deny it anymore. I love you too Chase." Zoey reached out and squeezed the hand that was closest to her.
"You, you do?"
"Since we're finally being honest with each other, I remember that first day of PCA like it was yesterday. I just got out of my dad's car and was looking around at all the people, excited to be away from home for the first time, maybe a little nervous, but mostly excited. Then I turned and saw a boy riding his bike closer and closer to me. He said hi, and I waved hi back. Then he ran into a flagpole and I saw him hit the ground. So I ran over to help him, and from the moment I saw your eyes, I felt something I've never felt before or since. I didn't know what it was at the time, and I always tried to deny it. I was in love with you from the moment you hit the ground and every single day since it has been always growing stronger. I know that feeling will never go away. I love you Chase."
"I love you too Zoey." They both finally smiled at each other. Then, as if they were pulled by a force stronger than gravity, they moved closer and closer. Chase reached up and gently cupped Zoey's cheek, and she reached up and ran her fingers through his bushy hair. They closed their eyes in pure bliss just feeling the other close to them as they finally did what they had both been knowingly and unknowingly waiting three years for.
Their lips moved together in perfect harmony, sparks were flying, and both of their minds went completely blank as their dreams would never be better than reality again.
They broke apart a few moments later and just drank each other in with their eyes.
"So, just to be clear, you aren't moving to England anymore right?"
"Not unless you came with me." She promised.
"I bet I could convince my parents."
"That won't be necessary. I'm staying right here, with you, and all of my friends, because you are all my family. I wouldn't give any of you up for anything. But you Chase, from my first day here, you made PCA my home." Zoey scooted over so they could be shoulder to shoulder, slightly leaning her head back against his shoulder.
"I can barely remember PCA without you here. If you left, I don't know what I would do, plus PCA would probably burn to the ground or something without you here to fix everyone's problems."
"You don't need to worry about that, I'm not going anywhere."
"You know, not to scare you or anything, but you know when we tell everyone not just about you staying, but also about us, everyone's going to lose their minds."
"Probably, I just know I'll get a million I told you so's from Quinn and Lola."
"Yeah, me too."
"But I just realized, what am I going to tell my parents? Have you even met them before?"
"I met your dad your first day remember? I probably said like five words before I led you to your dorm."
"Oh yeah, well with how much I talk about you, they probably know you at least as well as Dustin does by now.
"Wait, is Dustin moving?"
"No, he says he's staying to be with his girlfriend, but I'm pretty sure squirting mustard in someone's face isn't a sign that you like them."
"Well how would you know? Actually, I have a question, everyone says I've been super obviously in love with you since the day we met. I will say I have made many plans, and most of them have failed but did you ever notice anything?"
"Umm, I don't know. Not that I can think of, or hold on was the dance quiz your plan to get me to like you?"
"Yes, sort of, it was Logan's plan."
"You should know better than to listen to Logan. When you acted insane when you jumped out of that bush after Logan told you we were dating?"
"Yes, but in my defense, Logan said you were dating, and then you said he was teaching you so much, my brain, unfortunately, decided to take that the worst possible way."
"Gross! The only thing Logan ever taught me was chemistry, I promise. WAIT A MINUTE!" Zoey grabbed his wrist and shouted wide-eyed. "Was that what the Tekmate wrong message was?"
"Yes. I told Michael I couldn't tell you I loved you because it would ruin our friendship."
"Why didn't you ever tell me before?"
"I was going to remember? Then we got interrupted again like 2 seconds before I said it, so then I decided to take a chance and send you another text message saying that I love you. But you never got it. So I decided that was the universe telling me that you and I were only meant to be best friends, so when I met Rebecca, the entire reason I dated her was to try to move on from you. I'm not going to lie, I had some fun times with her, but she was totally right. My heart will only ever belong to you."
"Yeah, I hated that skunk bag for making me stay away from you. Even then my head said it was because we were best friends, but I think even then I knew it was something more. I just ignored it as much as I could. Also, Nicole found my Tekmate in the fountain like three days after we got back after Spring Break. It was dead and Quinn fixed it, but there weren't any messages on it."
"It fell in the fountain? How can our favorite place on campus be the thing that stopped us? You see why I blamed the universe?"
"OK I get it, but it doesn't matter now, we still have forever to make new memories." Zoey leaned over and kissed him again. "So, do you want to come with me to really meet my parents? If they're really moving to England this will probably be your last chance until graduation. Plus it would probably be better if I told them I have a boyfriend in person, rather than from 6,000 miles away."
"Oh great, now I have even more nerves."
"Don't worry Chase, I'm sure my parents will love you, they already know you're my favorite person here and everything you do for me. Everything will be fine."
"OK Zoey, I trust you."
"Oh one more thing, even though I tried to deny it, you were pretty obvious when you saw me in my dress for the pageant." Zoey elbowed him in the ribs.
"Can you blame me? I was literally brain dead, how I didn't tell you I'm in love with you right then and there I have no idea. Wait, I didn't did I? Because, let's just say I was pretty distracted that afternoon." Chase said, blushing nervously.
"No, you were just a little more spacey than normal, if I wasn't so angry at Lola that day I would have probably called out your staring. But I took it as a sign I was guaranteed a win. Ugh, I was so crazy that week."
"I was staring? I mean I know I was but…I'm sorry. I think you're the most beautiful girl in the entire world. Even when you were covered head to toe in mud."
"No need to apologize, Chase, you've never noticed me just looking at you either?"
"What? When was this?"
"Um…" now it was Zoey's turn to blush. "When you carried me back from Redstone Gulch, I had two options, either focus on my broken ankle or just study your handsome face that I was so close to. But there may or may not be other times. Like when we're doing homework together and you're thinking about something while tapping your pencil against your hair, your thinking face is pretty cute."
"So what you're saying is, you think I'm cute?"
"Took you long enough Curly Sue."
"Hey!"
"Alright, I'm sorry…Fuzzyhead." Zoey giggled.
"You can call me whatever you want Zoe." Chase smiled at her.
"How about boyfriend?"
"Only if I can call you my girlfriend."
"I think that's a fair deal."
"Alright then. Spitshake?"
"Gross, not if you want to kiss me anytime soon. Or keep holding my hand." She warned him, only half joking.
"Well, when you put it like that…I think I have a better idea." Chase grinned and leaned in close once again.
The next day, Zoey and Chase were in Room 101, sitting on the couch while her parents were sitting on Zoey's bed.
"I'm sorry Mom, Dad, but I want to stay at PCA. I'll miss you with you being so far away, but I can't imagine going to school anywhere else. PCA is my home."
"There's no need to apologize, honey, of course, we understand. Chase, I'm assuming you had something to do with this decision?" Mrs. Brooks said with a kind smile on her face.
"Um yeah, sort of." Chase started to blush.
"There's no need to be embarrassed Chase, I wouldn't expect Zoey to leave her boyfriend, with how she was last summer I can't imagine what no PCA would do to you two."
"Mom? How did you know Chase was my boyfriend?"
"Like it's a mystery? I know you've never said anything outright, but I can read between the lines, dear. Pretty much every email you send home ends with whatever you did with or for Chase that week, plus last summer every time you talked with him on the phone you'd be beaming even brighter for the next two days. You're at a boarding school you're supposed to have your own life and everything and there was nothing we could really do. Were you trying to sneak around because if so you weren't doing a very good job?"
"What? No, we literally started dating yesterday!"
"What?"
"Really?"
"Chase gave me a reason to stay." Zoey reached for his hand, and even though both of them were blushing, she never felt calmer.
"So you only started dating now? Why?" Mr. Brooks asked.
"Well, I had to tell her the truth, I've waited long enough because of many, many dumb reasons, and if she didn't stay I'd never get another chance." Chase admitted.
"And I couldn't be happier."
"It's totally fine Zoey, it's just that your mom and I already assumed, we knew there was a fifty-fifty chance of you leaving or staying anyway, but as much as we would love to have you close by again, we understand. Now Chase, since I'm finally seeing you again after three years, and since we'll now be 6,000 miles away, you better treat her right."
"Of course sir." Chase swallowed nervously.
"Dad! Don't scare him, Chase would never do anything to hurt me. He's literally the nicest, sweetest guy at PCA, also it took him three years to tell me he loved me. And the whole reason he waited so long was he didn't want to ruin our friendship. Not that I blame you at all." Zoey turned to Chase for a moment.
"OK, I know Zoey, I read all your emails too. I know you two care about each other too much to do anything stupid or to get in trouble for no reason."
"Oh trust us that's our friends' job." Chase chuckled.
"Totally, we're the ones that always have to bail them out." Zoey added.
"Well, anyway Zoey, we'll still be in town for a few more days before we have to leave. You and Dustin should come eat dinner with us tomorrow before we go, and Chase you are more than welcome to join us too."
"Thank you Mrs. Brooks."
"Goodbye Zoey." Both her parents stood up and surrounded her in a hug.
"Goodbye, I love you. We'll definitely come eat with you, in fact, have you tried Sushi Rox yet? You need to go there before you leave."
"Sounds like a plan then. We'll talk to you later Zoey." Both her parents started walking towards the door, but Chase jumped up in front of them.
"Hold on, you might want to stand back." He warned them.
"Why?" Both her parents asked, confused.
Chase and Zoey shared a knowing look for a moment before Chase opened the door and Quinn, Lola, Michael and Logan fell in a pile of tangled up limbs from trying to listen through the door. They argued for a few moments until they looked up sheepishly at Zoey's parent's confused faces.
They quickly untangled themselves and brushed each other off while making room for her parents to leave. Once they were down the hallway all four of them surrounded Zoey.
"Zoey! You have to tell us. You aren't leaving PCA are you?" Lola begged.
Zoey smiled, "Of course not, you guys are all my family. I'm not going anywhere. Besides, I can't just leave my adorable, bushy-haired boyfriend all alone can I?" She stepped closer to Chase, grabbed his hand and kissed his cheek.
"BOYFRIEND!" All four of them screamed before tackling them onto Zoey's bed in a massive group hug and demanding an explanation.