Part 25: Chloe's Point of View I went back downstairs and saw Josh and Ali having a thumb war. I had put on another one of my mom's rings when I went upstairs. I liked wearing them, they made me feel closer to her. Zach cleared his throat, he scared the crap out of me. "Yo Josh. Let's go for a drive and give these two ladies a chance to talk to each other." Josh glared at Zach, he clearly didn't want to leave Ali's side. Ali looked over at me and smiled. "That's a great idea!" She kissed Josh and whispered something in his ear. He got up and walked out the door with Zach following after him. "We'll be back soon Chloe." I just nodded. I'll be thinking of you, I thought to myself. We heard the door shut, I turned to face Ali. "It must be really hard for you to be away from Josh. He's very happy to see you though." She smiled, probably thinking about Josh. "Yeah, I love him with all of my heart. But love means you can never be apart, so in a weird way, we're always together." "Huh. I never thought of it that way." I smiled and she looked at me, studying my face. "What?" "I think he likes you Chloe." She said wagging her eyebrows up and down. It made me laugh, she's really funny. "Who? Zach?" I felt my heartbeat start to accelerate. "No, I don't think so." I awkwardly twirled my ring on my thumb. "Whatever you saaay. But I'll tell you this; I've known Zach since I moved to his town in 8th grade. I have never seen him like this with anyone else. He's different around you. A good different." I felt my cheeks start to burn. Zach's Point of View "Zach, what the hell! My girl is back THERE. Not to mention yours is too!" I smiled thinking about Chloe being mine. I quickly snapped out of it. "She's not mine. Not yet." I grinned a little bit. My mom and I worked up a plan. "What do you me-ahh YET. Gotcha. That's pretty tricky bro! What do you have in mind?" He looked at me with a smirk on his face. He had something to tell me too. I'll ask him after I tell him my plan. "Well, the weekend that you, me, and Ali go to my parents' house, you know, in like 2 weeks. I'm going to invite her to come with us, my mom really wants to meet her. And then I'll take her into the treehouse, and we'll look up at the stars for a while. Then I'll ask her. Either way, my mom has to meet her. So why not then? It seems like a perfect time. I mean, I might change it a little bit so it's more romantic. But that's basically it. Give or take some more romance." I looked over and saw Josh smirking. "What's your plan, Mr. Happy Pants?" I remember calling Josh that in Kindergarten after he got in trouble on the playground. Josh spoke softly, and he sounded very sure of what he was saying. "I'm going to ask Ali to marry me."
Part 26: Zach's Point of View I sat in the front seat of my car in absolute shock. My best friend is getting married. "When are you going to ask her?" He sat there thinking for a minute. "I'm not really sure. Before she leaves, but she's going to be here for like 2 weeks." He smiled. "I missed her so much." He whispered. Love is a miraculous thing. Chloe's Point of View "Ali, tell me how you met Josh." She smiled, and looked like she was trying to think of a good way to put it. "Well, in 8th grade, my Dad's company moved to a town near where Josh and Zach lived." She smiled, remembering. "On my first day of school Zach came up to me and introduced himself. I knew he wasn't trying anything on me. He was just being nice. He's a really nice guy. Anyways, Zach showed me around the school and soon I met Josh." Her smile grew even bigger. "and bam. 3 weeks after I met him, we were dating." "Aww, so you guys have been together since 8th grade? That's so cute!" She blushed. I think she and Josh are adorable. I could tell they won best couple in high school. I'll probably be voted most anti-social. "Yeah. He told me that he loved me on our one-year anniversary. It kind of freaked me out that I was a Freshman in high school and already telling someone that I'm in love with them. But Josh is different, he's special. Everything just feels right with him. He's my best friend and the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. Even if he is a lunatic." She looked down and played with a ring on her ring finger. She was smiling and twirling it around. "What's the story behind that?" She looked up and I could see a sparkle in her eyes. "He gave it to me last year on our four-year anniversary. It's a promise ring. When he gave it to me he promised that he would love me for the rest of his life, he would never hurt me, and that from the first time he ever saw me, he was head over heels in love with me. It was so cute, I cried." She smiled again and her cheeks turned a rosy shade of red. "That's so sweet! Josh doesn't really seem like the romantic type though, no offense or anything." She laughed. "Oh no he isn't. I guarantee you that Zach told him half of the things to say. Zach is a really romantic guy, so you're in for some major surprises." I bet I am.
Part 27: Chloe's Point of View "What about Zach?!" Josh walked through the door with a smirk on his face. My eyes went wide when I saw him, SH*T. What if Zach heard?! "Don't worry Chloe. He's still outside making sure I didn't do anything bad to his car." He chuckled and kissed Ali's cheek. She smiled just at his touch. They are so beyond adorable. I could tell just by looking at them that they would be together forever. Zach walked in the door, his hands were in his pocket, he was looking down. When he looked up, our eyes locked. His chocolate brown eyes were filled with so much care. I could look at them all day. "Chloe, let's take a walk. Leave these two lovebirds alone." Josh winked at Zach and smiled. 'Thanks bro'. He mouthed. It had just stopped raining. We were on our way to the park. "Who do you live with? You know, since your parents.." He was studying my face, trying to see if he upset me. An image of Jane flashed into my mind. "My uh my sister Jane." Zach nodded his head and then looked me in the eyes again. "Where is she?" Gone. She hates being with me. "She always leaves for a week, the day before the 11th, to the following week. I have no idea when she'll be back. She's been doing it ever since my parents.. died." I managed to choke out the words. The truth is, I loved it when Jane wasn't here. "Either way, she's almost never home so it doesn't matter to me. When she is here, she's mean and she's drunk." "Don't you have any other family you could live with?" I shook my head. "Both of my parents were an only child. Their parents died before I was born." Zach looked at me with sadness is his eyes. "I'm so sorry." He whispered. "That must be hard. Tell me about your sister." "Well, like I said, she not around much. He used to be a happy person. But now she's horrible and mean. She leaves the house early in the morning, and comes home drunk sometimes after midnight." I felt tears start to sting at my eyes. "She's violent too.." I didn't mean to say that. My eyes grew wide. Zach turned in front of me so we were face to face. He reached his left hand up to touch my right cheek, where Jane had hit me. "Chloe, be honest with me." I nodded. He looked into my eyes. They couldn't lie to him. "Did Jane do this to you?" He whispered. A tear fell down my cheek as I nodded again. I could see his right hand curl into a fist and his jaw became very stiff. His left hand was still stroking my cheek. "I can't believe she would lay her hand on you! I could just -." He was fuming. He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. "I can't believe it. I just can't." His eyes became watery. "It's okay, Zach. I'm strong. I'm fine." I made him look me in the eyes. "See? I'm fine." He looked back at me, his eyes were filled with pain, and sadness, hurt and tears. He shook his head, "I know you're strong, Chloe. I know that. But I'm not. I'm weak. Seeing you in pain kills me. It kills me Chloe, I feel broken every time I think about you hurt." A tear fell down his cheek. He was stroking my cheek with his thumb. "When I see this on your face I think to myself 'Why wasn't I there to protect her?' I'll tell you one thing though Chloe. For the rest of my life, she will never touch you again. I promise you that. No one will ever hurt you again." I felt my eyes start to water, too. Zach still had tears rolling down his cheeks. I could tell he was in pain. "The first step of my promise begins with one simple task." I gave him a questioning look. He smirked, even through all of those tears. "You're moving in with us."
Part 28: Zach's Point of View "The first step of my promise begins with one simple task." She looked at me very confused. I smirked at her. I still had tears rolling down my cheeks. What can I say? I'm an emotional guy. "You're moving in with us." She started to protest, but as usual I cut her off. "Chloe, I'm not taking no for an answer. I'm not going to let your sister hurt you again. We're going back to your house. We'll all help you pack. Don't worry, we have an extra room." She nodded her head and then smiled at me. "Thank you Zach. You are really way too nice to me." "Just helping.." Helping to save the girl I'm in love with. Love. Why couldn't I just tell her?! It was so irritating. But I didn't want to scare her away. Two weeks, Zach. You can wait that long. It'll go by so fast it'll be ridiculous. We got back to her house. "Jooosh. Where are yoou? Come on buddy. We've got work to do!" Why does everyone keep me questioning looks?! "We have to pack Chloe's stuff up. She's moving in with us." From behind me I could see Chloe blush. Josh ran over to Chloe, and gave her a giant bear hug. Part of me got extremely jealous. Zach, calm down. It's just Josh. I'm good. I came back to reality to see Josh jumping up and down with a very large smile on his face. "Today has been the best day EVER! First my girlfriend surprises me, AND NOW I'm getting a little sister!" Chloe laughed and pushed Josh off of her. That's my girl. I grinned at them. They were going to be fun to live with. "Hey guys. We should probably get to work." Everyone nodded and agreed. Chloe ran upstairs with Ali right behind her. Josh and I left to get boxes. We came back about an hour later, all of Chloe's stuff was packed up. She was holding a jewelry box in her hands. "It was my mother's. It has all of her jewelry in it. I like to wear them." He flashed me a small, sheepish grin that I returned. We pulled up to our house and got out. Josh pranced into the house carrying almost all of the boxes. When we walked in he was the at the top of the stairs, wearing a top hat. He started to sing, and dance. A song from Oliver Twist, that's one of his favorite movie. Just because of this song. Consider yourself at home Consider yourself one of the family We're taken to you so strong It's clear we're going to get along Chloe was smiling ear to ear. She laughed and both she and Ali started clapping. Chloe turned to go upstairs, but I grabbed her hand. Sparks. I tried to ignore them. I leaned forward and whispered into her ear, "Welcome home."