Forbidden Love: Fate (Zac and Ivy Trilogy Book 1) (13 page)

“Okay,” I say absentmindedly. The sound of
the wind howling outside sends another fresh chill down my spine,
and I shake a little in bed. “Are you cold?” I ask.

“Yes.” She snuggles closer to me.

“Here, sleep here for tonight, okay.” I hold
her tight. “It’s too cold alone in your own bed.”

Moon only nods at my suggestion and falls
asleep right away in my arms. I huddle her close to me and try to
sleep too, listening to the wind howling outside like little lone
wolves calling out to their mother.

I don’t sleep all that well that night. I
keep on dreaming about Zac, his sad face haunting me.

The next morning, Zac’s sad face is still
embedded inside my head. By the time the school bell rings, I’m
half yawning until Mandy jolts me awake with a hug.

“Why the glum face? What happened?”

“I’m not teaching Zac anymore,” I tell
her.

Mandy looks perplexed and then
bewildered.

“You do know the last time you asked me to
replace you, he went mental on me. He even threatened me and
refused to sign his autograph. I had to tell him you were in the
library.”

“Mmmm,” is all I can reply.

****

For the next few days and even weeks, I’m
always cautious with my cell, home phone, and walkabouts. I look at
my caller ID first before answering. If it’s an unknown number, I
refuse to answer it and let it go to voicemail. For our home phone,
I always let Gigi answer it. Mandy hardly calls me on my home
phone. But if she does, she would text me first to tell me she’ll
be calling.

Walking around corners at school, I always
keep a keen eye, just in case Zac appears out of nowhere and
surprises me. I don’t want to see him after making that dramatic
scene at his apartment. Thinking about it now, it’s really
embarrassing.

Mandy ended up tutoring him after I
resigned. I know any information I want regarding Zac, I can easily
get from her. But in the end, I don’t have the courage. Showing
concern regarding Zac will only cause more problems and rumors
around school. There are already rumors about how Zac got into that
accident that required him to recuperate at home. Something about a
kiss, I hear. I wonder what that was all about.

On one particular day, a few weeks after I
resigned, Mandy’s behavior turns peculiar. She comes and sits next
to me, cradling her iPhone like it’s the most precious thing in the
world. A few times, she smiles at me, wedging her glasses so they
stay on the bridge of her nose, then stares at her phone. I become
curious too but don’t ask. Mandy can’t contain her excitement
anymore, and she ends up popping her own bubble.

“Ivy!” She sighs. “Why won’t you ask me why
I’m constantly looking at my phone?”

“I’m waiting for your bubble to burst by
itself.” I muster a smile.

I try to smile more often these days, but I
still can’t forget Zac’s sad face as the elevator doors closed on
him. Thinking about him, my face turns gloomy by itself.

“Okay. Here goes.”

Flicking her phone to the gallery, she stops
at one picture. It’s a beautiful picture of Mandy and that boy with
black hair and emerald-green eyes.

He looks happy. It looks like my
embarrassing revelation was just another silly thing that escaped
his mind. Looking at that picture now, I can’t help but feel a tug
of pain in my heart. He’s smiling so radiantly.
Is he
happy?

“Do you like Zac?” I ask. My heart is
constricted. I have a strong hunch what she’ll say.

“How can I not?” Mandy smiles at me, her
ponytail bouncing as she moves. “Look at those green, bewitching
eyes of his and his black hair. Ahh, such boyfriend material. He
even let me take a picture of him. See this one?”

My smile falters then. My heart aches a
little more. A little tear fights to escape from my eye, but I will
it not to drop when I see the next picture of Zac looking slightly
annoyed but still so very cute.

“I’m happy for you, then,” I say as the bell
rings, signaling lunch break is over.

After that discussion with Mandy, I become
cautious again. My mind is going crazy. I don’t know when Zac will
appear, so I’m always on guard. It becomes clear that Zac must
still be recovering from his leg injury.

Zac never appears at school. My days of
playing hide-and-seek are finally over. Although, with that
knowledge, my heart aches a little more, as if it’s crying over the
prospect that I might not be able to see him again.

Zac has already moved on. I tell myself this
countless times, but it’s actually me who’s in this deep
depression. I’m still clinging to some hope for us to see each
other again, even though it was me who wished us to be
strangers.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ZAC

Gloomy Face

“Zac, mate, can you hear us?”

Why didn’t I see it coming? She tried
everything to run away from me.

“He’s not even listening to us.”

But she makes me feel like I can do
anything. I want to see her again.

“Bro, Zac, are you even on Earth?”

“He looks like he’s off in another
planet.”

“Zac! Zac, bro!”

I feel someone’s hand shaking me. I blink,
look up, and see my band mates, Loki and Trey, and my buddy Kai
staring at me.

“Huh?” I ask, blinking again, now that I’m
back on Earth.

What are they doing in my apartment? And
when did they get here?

“Zac, mate. Are you okay? You look like
you’re off with the fairies. You thinking about something?” Loki
asks me.

“No, nothing,” I lie. Releasing a deep sigh,
I turn back to the guys and ask them what they’re doing at my
place.

“Zac, bro,” Kai comes and places his hand on
my forehead. “Are you sick? Want me to call your dad? Or the
doctor?”

“Why are you calling Dad? He’s still in
Japan for his conference.”

“No, Zac,” Kai says. “He’s home since last
week.”

Right. Last week. Yes, last week when Ivy
said her final good-bye to me. Last week when she revealed to me
that she was the last remaining survivor in that crash, the crash
my brother caused.

Ivy, why am I feeling like this? I really
want to be your boyfriend, or if not that, just your friend would
do. Ivy…

“Zac?” Kai’s voice penetrates my thoughts
again.

“He’s a lost cause,” Trey says from behind
his drums. “Let him be. Must be dreaming about something
again.”

Kai doesn’t leave me alone as he keeps on
shaking me.

Goddamn! Why can’t I sulk in peace?

“Why are you guys here anyway?” I scold them
when I wake again.

“Zac. We’re here for the band practice,
remember?” Trey yells from the other side of the room.

Oh, right. Band practice.

I pick up the microphone and stare at it
like it’s an alien from another planet.

“Maybe we should just call it a day,” Trey
says. “Looks like our prince won’t be up to singing anytime
soon.”

“But prom is in three months. We’ve got to
start practicing,” Loki argues.

“Zac doesn’t look too well. He’s under a lot
of stress lately, what with finding a girlfriend and petitioning
for his student’s right.” Kai decides to spill out my secret.

While all this is happening in the
background, I’m still staring dumbly at the microphone in my
hand.

“Fine, let’s just call it a day.” Loki
relents.

The guys start packing away their
instruments. Catalina pops in her head at that moment.

“Cookies and juice, boys?”

“Yes. Thanks, Catalina,” they all
chorus.

Damn my friends. They won’t console me,
won’t let me sulk in peace, yet have the guts to eat my food.

Catalina smiles and disappears to collect
the food.

“How’s your leg?” Trey asks.

Finally, someone cares.

“Better. I can walk now with just one
crutch.”

“That’s good. When are you going back to
school?”

“Probably in a few weeks. I should be fine
by then. Still need my walking stick, though.”

“And how’s the tutoring sessions going?” Kai
sneakily asks me.

Does he want me to bash his face? He knows
Ivy quit tutoring me already. Unless he’s referring to the new
tutor I’ll be seeing later on today.

I put on a glum expression. I’m not looking
forward to my tutoring lesson. Mrs. Dale is sending a new tutor for
me.

* * *

It’s approaching four o’clock. The guys have
already left. I’m still slumming on the couch, staring at the
clock, waiting for that inevitable hour.

In the last week or so, I loved that hour.
Four o’clock is usually the time I boil tea and wait eagerly for
the doorbell to ring. Now, four o’clock is like my death
sentence.

Finally, the hour arrives. I slowly trudge
myself off the couch and, with my crutch, hobble as slowly as
possible to the front door.

I wonder who Mrs. Dale sent.

Really, I’m not asking for a miracle. I know
it’s a one-in-a-million chance that when I open this front door,
Ivy will be standing there with her purple cardigan and her hair
parted to the side to cover her forehead, her scar. But I hope
maybe she will reconsider and the episode from last week was all
just a bad joke. I guess I’m still that delusional.

I open the door. And there stands Mandy,
Ivy’s best friend.

I heave a sigh, as if my chest had been
weighted with a ton of bricks.

“Hel-hel-hello,” Mandy stutters. She sucks
two puffs of her inhaler into her mouth and now she’s back to
speaking a hundred miles an hour again. “Zac. I’m your new tutor.
Mrs. Dale said you need help in algebra, and I’m the one who’s
going to make sure you ace this subject. So are you with me?”

“Hello,” I say slowly. This girl has so much
energy. Just watching her talk makes me so tired.

I open the door and let her in. We start on
our lesson.

I don’t learn much. It’s not that I’m not a
good student. It’s just that Mandy keeps on gawking at me. I
thought it was just her being a fan of Apollo’s, but when our third
and fourth lesson comes around, there’s no improvement. Just like
lesson number one, I sit answering the algebra worksheet, and she
sits with stars in her eyes, staring at my face.

I can’t take it anymore. I slam my pen
down.

“For the last time, if you want to admire me
that much, just take a picture.”

“Really? I can take a picture?”

You have got to be kidding me. That was
supposed to be a sarcastic remark.

She snaps my picture with her iPhone
anyway.

“Delete it,” I demand.

“But you said I could take it.”

Oh, don’t give me those big fishy eyes. I’m
not falling for it.

“It was sarcastically implied. Now delete
it.”

“Only if you let me take a photo of us
together?”

She’s blackmailing me? Is she really
blackmailing me? Deleting one picture only to have another taken.
No way.

“No!”

“Please, Zac. I’m a huge fan of yours. I
really want to take a picture with you,” she begs. “It’s a souvenir
to say I’m the one that helped the lead singer of Apollo graduate
with an excellent grade in algebra. So please.”

I’m stuck. I don’t want to be in a photo
with Mandy. Not that she’s ugly or anything. As I’ve mentioned
before, it’s not about the face; it’s their personality. Like Ivy.
I’m attracted to Ivy, not because of looks, but because of the way
she spoke to me that day… and that kiss. Even when she didn’t know
who I was, she still trusted me to lead her out of that throng of
people. But Ivy and Mandy are best friends. Surely I can bargain
her with something I want.

“If I let you take a photo of me, would you
tell me where Ivy lives?”

“You like Ivy?” Mandy slams her question at
me, which surprises the hell out of me.

Jesus, this girl is smart.

“I… I…”

What can I tell Mandy? I like her best
friend, but I can’t tell her that. Well, not when I haven’t
confessed to Ivy yet.

“I…” I try again. “Look, Ivy used to be my
tutor, so of course I want to visit her. She’s been good to me. I
just want to thank her by visiting her. That’s all.”

“Mmmm. I see.” Mandy sits rubbing her chin
and pushing her glasses back to sit on the bridge of her nose.
After some contemplation, she looks at me. “Well, if you promise
you’re not the type to stalk her and just want to visit her for the
sake of a thank you, then I don’t see any problem.”

“Really?”

Jesus, I almost squeal with happiness. I
can’t believe Mandy would give me Ivy’s address that easily.

“Yep,” Mandy says. She’s holding out her
iPhone in front of us. I know my side of the bargain. I lean closer
to her. “Good angle, Zac. Now, let’s get that picture.”

True to her word, Mandy scribbles down Ivy’s
address. My pulse shoots up.

I can’t wait for my leg to heal so I can go
to school. But more than anything, I can’t wait to go to Ivy’s
house.

CHAPTER TWELVE

IVY

The Unexpected Guest

Dangling from my hand as I hop off the bus
is a bag of tofu and some medicine. I’m thinking of making Asian
tofu stir-fry tonight. Since meat is quite expensive here, tofu is
the best alternative. And I like it.

The medicine is for Gigi. Her joints are
playing up again. Rheumatoid arthritis is never a good thing when
the weather gets too cold, so having this anti-inflammatory
medication on hand helps a lot.

My session with Sam ended on a successful
note as always. He aced all the tests I gave him. Seriously,
though, I’m beginning to doubt he really needs my help. He’s so
smart. What can his reason be for wanting me to teach him? I shake
my head of this confusion and am about to enter the house when
sounds of laughter from inside the house stop me in my path.