Chapter 46

Juliette's POV:

Mom asked me to pack the food in the basket as she herself remained busy filling up the water bottles. I put the food in the basket and looked up when Zachary’s mom walked into the kitchen humming a song. She wore an orange summer dress and a fedora. She looked extremely happy as she walked in, humming and wiggling her eyebrows at my direction.

“You look happy,” Mom said and she nodded.

“Of course! I am really happy today, because we are going on a family picnic after a long time. I just can’t express my happiness,” she clapped her hands and walked up to me, inspecting my basket.

“Oh, and don’t forget to take the blueberry jam too. I love it in my sandwiches,” she exclaimed and I nodded smiling at her. I walked to the kitchen cabinet and took out the jam bottle and put it inside the basket.

“I am also going out for a picnic,” my mother told her and she looked back at her.

“Really?” Zachary’s mother asked and she nodded.

“Well, I bet this will be the happiest and most memorable day of your life Jessica,” she said and I looked at both of them.

“When did you start calling each other by name?” I asked and they looked at each other and then back at me.

“Last night,” both of them said in unison.

“Morning,” Kiara walked in and walked to the fridge. She took out a bottle of fresh juice and gulped it.

“What happened to you? What are those dark circle under your eyes? Did you not sleep well last night?” Zachary’s mom asked Kiara, and I turned to look at her to find dark circles under her eyes, which was quite unusual.

“What happened to your beauty sleep?” I laughed at her, which made her roll her eyes.

“Some jerk kept on calling on my number, disturbing me until I switched my phone off,” she said and stifled a yawn.

“Must be from one of those lovers of yours,” I winked at her and she glared at me.

“It’s nothing like that!” she said under her breath.

“Sure!” I mocked her and turned around, packing my stuff. It was true though, Kiara had lots of followers who constantly tried to woo and get her her to be their girlfriend. And who wouldn’t? Kiara was beautiful, talented, and she belonged to a rich, high-class, sophisticated family. One thing about her was unlike me, she spoke her mind. She did whatever she wished and liked, and the only thing that could ever scare her, apart from a ghost, is a gun.

She had tragedy with a gun in her past, which made her so afraid of them. It’s like a phobia to her. She can’t be in the same room with a gun, and I have already told Zachary to make sure that he doesn’t pull his stupid gun out, or else I will kill him using his own gun.

Speaking of Zachary, we are still not on speaking terms. How can I talk to him when I know that Loana is coming today to join us? Again I would have witness them get comfortable and cozy up to one another. I sighed when I finished with my packing.

“Are we all ready to leave?” Mom asked all of a sudden, jumping like a kid excited.

“No,” I heard Kiara mutter under her breath and I glared at her.

“Yes,” we all said in unison, and I picked up the baskets as we walked out of the kitchen towards the front door.

“Give it to me,” Zachary said as he offered his hand, asking me to hand him the food basket. Instead of giving it to him, I walked past him and put it in the trunk of his car. When I looked back at him, he squinted his eyes at me and closed the trunk while looking at me.

“Dad can we—” before I could ask Gale if me and Kiara could go with him, Zachary butted in.

“Go and sit in the front passenger seat,” he commanded.

“No,” I whispered-yelled at him. Thankfully no one was looking our way, or it would have been way too awkward to handle because they would have started asking us questions about our behavior. I knew that like me, Zachary had no interest in answering anything about our relationship problems.

Relationship problems?

“Go by your own wish, or else I will have to use another method,” he whispered back through gritted teeth, and Kiara nudged me hard with her elbow.

“Ow! What?” I hissed at her.

“Stop being so stubborn and sit in the front with him,” she hissed back at me.

“No, I won’t!” I argued.

“Yes, you will!” The next moment she pushed me towards the front, opening the door, and shoving me in.

“Cheater! You traitor! Whose side are you taking?” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her.

“Of course I am on your side; that is why I want to see you happy. How will you be happy? With him!” she answered her own question and shoved the door in my face. I shook my head at her, and she mocked me, sticking her tongue out from outside, to which I just rolled my eyes.

“You just understand when I ask you something to do huh?” Zachary said with anger evident in his voice as he got inside the car and sat in the driver's seat. I looked out the window, avoiding him. As I turned my head, I saw Kiara in front of our car, placing the water bottles in the trunk of Kristian’s car.

Today, everyone was wearing comfortable and casual clothes. I was dressed in a white button-up shirt and sky blue jeans with my hair braided to the side, and I was wearing sneakers. Kiara was wearing the same as me, but instead, her button-up was pink.

Zachary, unlike other times, was also dressed casually. He was wearing a green polo shirt with black jeans, whereas Kristian wore a black t-shirt with short camouflage pants. Jace wore the same shorts with a gray t-shirt, and my mom wore a peach-colored tunic top with black leggings. Gale and Dad wore black polo shirts, which Gale gave Dad because they would be going for golf, which was a short distance away from our picnic spot.

As we drove off to our picnic, I watched as Kristian took another road because he was going to pick up Loana from her house. I just wished she didn’t come, because God only knows how pissed off I will be seeing her with Zachary.

In the vast, grassy, meadow field, Kiara and I started unpacking, and both of us placed the blanket under a tree for shade. We placed the food basket on it as we sat down, and Kiara laughed, seeing both moms taking selfies near the lake.

“Be careful or else you will tumble down in the water,” Kiara warned them.

“We are adults,” my mom yelled back, which made us roll our eyes at them.

“Yay, adults behaving like kids,” Kiara spoke and leaned back against the tree, fishing her phone out of her pants pocket.

“Not again,” she hissed which made me look back at her.

“What?” I asked seeing her angry face.

“This dude just doesn’t give up!” she showed me a number of missed calls she had on her phone.

“Who is he?” I asked and she shrugged her shoulders “I don’t know! It’s an unknown number, and you know I don’t pick up unknown numbers,” she answered and turned her phone into flight mode.

“C’mon let’s take some photos,” she said and I nodded, smiling at her. Switching to camera mode, she took some pictures of me, and I took some pictures of her. We even took some selfies.

“What is taking Kristian so long?” I asked her, to which shrugged.

“Maybe the snob princess is taking her time to get ready,” she answered, which made me giggle.

“Talking about her, what is your problem with her? It seems like both of you dislike each other. Though I can understand you disliking her, but what is her problem?” she asked and I heaved a sigh.

“I guess I will have to tell you then,” I told her and she nodded her in curiosity.

I told her everything from what I heard at the party about her relationship with Zachary, to the phone call where I heard her in the background.

“Go and ask Zachary right now about what he was doing with her so late in the night,” she ordered me and I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Never!” I said stubbornly, pulling out a sandwich and eating it.

“Give me one!” she said, and I took out another one and handed it to her.

“Thanks, and why not?” she asked as she took a big bite from her sandwich.

“Because then he will ask me why I want to know about it. Then what will I answer?” I asked, and she rolled her eyes. “Tell him that you like him and you can’t see him with some other wo—”

“No, no! Yes, I thought about it in the beginning,” I cut her off and she cringed up her face in confusion.

“What? What are you saying?” she asked and with my eyes, I signaled her to look behind her, and she looked to find Zachary walking up to us.

“Oh!” she answered, understanding why I changed the topic all of a sudden.

“Let’s eat now. I am hungry after taking so many pictures,” I heard Zachary’s mom say, and looked in their direction to find them walking towards us. Gale and Dad also walked to us, followed by Jace, and I shifted my position, freeing up some space for them to sit down. Mom and Zachary’s mom sat in front of me and Gale, Jace and my dad sat on another blanket they put down. Zachary walked up to me and picked up the basket and sat in its place next to me.

So he won’t stop bothering me?

I looked at him, but then felt a nudge on my side.

“What?” I asked Kiara.

“Look what she is wearing!” she said signaling towards the front and everyone, including me, followed her gaze to find Kristian walking in our direction with Loana following him. It wasn’t Loana, but her dress that made us look at her.

The woman chose to wear a thigh-slit, burgundy, maxi dress, with stilettos, and she had a smokey eye and red lipstick on her face. The thing that was funny was the way she walked. Her stilettos dug into the grassy earth as she walked, and she was continuously bending to the left or right side because her stilettos weren’t helping her walk easily. I looked at her, and then turned to look at Zachary, who already had his eyes fixated on me.

“Come with me,” he said all of a sudden, and put the basket down in front of him, and then he held my hand and pulled me up with him leaving no room for me to say no.

As I walked with him, I looked back at Kiara, who gave me a thumbs up sign and she made a kissing face, as if telling me to kiss Zachary. I glared at her and looked back at Zachary, who mistook my hand as a leash and me as a dog, because he was literally dragging me with him.