Chapter 15 Ch. 12.1
"Hey, how's he?" Zara asked, approaching Yvette as she stepped out from the door.
With Ethan's reaction, she wanted to be angry and say "fuck him", yet she found herself going in the direction of the nurse's office.
"He's okay?" Yvette said with a shrug, giving Zara a look of irritation.
Zara could not care less.
"What did you say to him by the way?' she asked her. "That made him to drop the flask?"
"How's that any of your business?"
"I just..."
"Asked him if we could make some babies," she scoffed. "What's it to you?"
"You're sure that's what you said?"
Yvette gave a deadpan look and stomped away.
Zara placed her fingers on the door tentatively, pushing it open. Ethan was there, sitting at the edge of the bed and staring at his hands.
"Hi," she called out softly, closing the door behind her gently. "You okay?"
"I don't want to see your Zara, please leave."
Her mouth opened slightly, but she closed it again. Tere was no point, if he didn’t want to see her, then she wasn’t going to stand there like an idiot.
She turned around and stepped out.
Noah was leaning against the wall, he straightened when he saw her.
"What happened? You okay?"
She jumped back in surprise, no expecting to see him there.
"Yeah," she said, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I’m fine."
"Trouble in paradise?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
Zara gave him a mean glare. "What paradise?" She asked, raising her brows at him.
"Uh, I don't know. There's tension between the two of you?"
Zara exhaled, running her hand through her hair. "I think he's mad at me."
They started walking down the hallway together.
"Why?" Noah asked. "And let me guess, you don't like that he is."
"I really don't know. Maybe because of what I know, and am I supposed to like it if he's mad at me?"
"So you really do have a crush on him."
"I do not!" She growled at him.
"Then why do you care?"
"I have cross-country training today," she said, changing the topic swiftly. "You coming with the bus or something?"
"Nah," Noah said. "I have basketball practice, by the time I’m done, you’ll probably be done too, and your dad will be done coaching, so we can all go home together."
She nodded. "Yeah, cool."
"And I know you only brought that up to change the topic, but imma leave you for now."
She rolled her eyes and left him at the hallway and walked down to the track field, her heart felt tight and heavy, and she didn’t even know why, she was trying to understand what she had done wrong, Ethan looked angry, he looked at her like she had betrayed him or something, and she wanted to know why.
She kept thinking about the moment he looked her way, just after the flask broke, but she hadn’t said anything, she hadn’t told anyone, she hadn’t even whispered it to herself.
And Yvette... Yvette wasn’t even close to her, they didn’t talk, they never even liked each other, so how would Yvette know anything? And if she really only said something stupid and flirty like that, then why did Ethan look like she said more? Why did he look at Zara like it was her fault?
She shook her head and walked faster.
When she reached the track area, her father was standing by the bench, checking the timing device, he looked up the moment she stepped onto the field.
"Zara. I thought you had field training today. Don’t you have cross-country coaching now?"
She almost rolled her eyes, she didn’t, but she definitely wanted to.
Of course, he remembered the training. He always remembered when it was time to talk about her races like he was her manager but somehow managed to forget he was her dad too.
"I do, dad. I just wanted to let you know that Ethan’s not going to be coming to practice today."
"And what makes you think that? Since when did you become his spokesperson?"
"During chemistry practical today, he got acid spilled on his hand," she said, folding her arms. "So I’m not sure he’s going to make it."
Her father’s brows pulled together. "Oh my God. Is he alright? I hope it was a diluted acid, that’s the requirement, that experiment isn’t supposed to be done with concentrated solutions."
"It was," she said. "But it still stings, I know because acid splashed on me before and it burned like crazy."
"Hmm. I hope he’s okay. He has a race in three days."
"But he just came back from nationals, why is he running another race so soon?"
"It’s the season," he said, not looking up.
She nodded, not that it answered anything, but she was already used to the weird excuses that didn’t explain anything.
He looked at her again.
"Don’t you have training? You better not skip today, Zara."
She gave a dry smile. "Wow, thanks for the concern, dad."
"You weren't the one who got acid spilled on you, except if somehow Ethan being hurt is affecting you. And that can't happening if there's nothing going on between the two of you."
She ignored him and turned to leave, adjusting her laces as she walked across the grass, her bag hung loosely from one arm, but then she stopped.
Ethan was walking up to the track, his hand wrapped in a white bandage, his bag slung over one shoulder, and he didn’t look at her, not even once, even when their eyes met, he rolled his eyes and looked away quickly like even the sight of her annoyed him.
He walked straight to her father.
"Coach," he said. "I'm ready."
Her father looked confused. "You had an injury today."
"If I don't train, how am I supposed to keep up my pace, how do I keep winning?"
He said it loudly enough for her to hear.
Zara scoffed quietly and walked off, her shoes pressing into the ground harder than before, her chest ached and her hand curled into a fist around her phone, she didn’t like the way he said it, she didn’t like the way he looked at her like she didn’t matter, and she didn’t like the way it made her feel like maybe she actually didn’t.
But she wasn’t going to say anything, she wasn’t going to let him see that it bothered her, she was just going to run, maybe the running would make the feeling go away.