"Stop." Zach glared at me and turned back to his show.
I settled back on the couch to watch the action on screen as Daryl shot an arrow through a zombie's head. I'd binge-watched the whole series when I returned to the States. The show was good, though the plot holes bothered me. For the life of me I couldn't understand why the survivors never thought to go to a Sam's Club or BJ's. They'd never run out of supplies.
"Don't you work today?" Zach asked when a boring scene came on.
I shook my head. "My classes are done for the summer. I thought we could hang out more now."
"Suit yourself," he said, returning to the show.
I rolled my eyes at his words. Nothing like feeling welcomed.
"Lori loses her baby," I said tongue-in-cheek, wanting to punish him.
He glared at me and hit me with the throw pillow next to him.
I plucked it out of his hand and clutched it to my chest.
"What's up?" Zach asked, really looking at me.
I shrugged. I wasn't sure what I'd been thinking when I headed over to see him. Dan and he had been friends. Did I really want to ask him about his friend cheating on me?
"Kat?" he asked, muting the TV. This was a testament to how far we'd come during the last month. When I first started visiting him he wouldn't even look at me, much less turn his games down so we could talk.
I sighed and sat back on the couch. "Dan cheated on me with Cindy." I said her name like it was toxic.
"Yes."
The old Zach would have beat around the bush. The Zach we all knew would have tried to pacify the situation. That Zach was dead. Truthful, brutal Zach had been left in his wake.
"More than once?" I asked, feeling sick to my stomach. I wanted to cut my tongue out so it would stop working, but I'd made it this far. I might as well finish.
"Yes."
"Why?" I asked, though I knew the answer. Dan wanted to go all the way. It had been my parents who'd encouraged me to wait. I'd agreed with them. At the time, it didn't seem to be a big deal. We'd do it eventually. I could now see it must have been more important to Dan.
Zach's eyes bore into mine. "Why do you think? You decided to lock your knees. Dan didn't want to be the only guy left to score in our class."
His words were cruel. They didn't belong to him. If I didn't know better I would have been convinced a ventriloquist was controlling them. "You're an asshole," I said without any real conviction.
"Yes."
"Why?"
He shrugged. "Because I can be. I don't have to be the good guy anymore. I don't have to be the rule follower. Grades and obeying the law don't even matter. I could have flunked all my classes. Driven above the speed limit. Hell, I could have bailed out of driving altogether. I could have made one of you do it. I'm not a leader anymore. No one is expecting me to step up. They won't ever expect anything from me ever again. I can sit in this room playing video games and watching mindless shows for the rest of my life and no one would care."
"That's bullshit. I would care. You don't have to be the leader or the good guy you used to be, but you don't have to be prove anything by being deliberately cruel. Especially to those who love you."
"Do you love me, Kat?" he mocked.
"Of course I love you. We're friends."
"Are we?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Yes. We've been friends our whole lives."
Something flashed in his eyes at my words. "And that's supposed to mean something?"
"Of course it means something. It means everything."