Chapter 3 - Sleep Over

Zach's POV

I shift into the seat of the bright yellow cab in front of my house with a sigh. Will is taking my mother somewhere that I don't care about, so I'm forced to get there by my own means. I'm going to his house. Jayden's house.

His house is just a couple miles away from my house, so it doesn't take long before the cab pulls up and I make my way to his front door. I'm sort of dreading ringing the doorbell. It feels really awkward being here. Liiza and I haven't been here since the incident happened.

I press the modern, white doorbell and the door opens almost instantly, drifting me out of my thoughts. A woman, probably in her thirties, stands in front of me.

"Hello, may I help you?" She asks politely.

"Uh..." I pause for a moment, gathering my thoughts. "I'm here to see Jayden"

The woman lets me in and gestures to a plush, leather couch to wait on while she gets Jayden. The place has changed a lot after all these years.

Jayden's house is huge. It is three stories, with high ceilings, winding, modern staircases and even a big dining hall.

Jayden's filthy rich, like me. His parents earn a lot of money. But, at least when I was last with him, they hardly know what is going on in his life because they're always busy, all day, everyday, and Jayden is usually free to do anything he wants.

"Mr. Mayer will be here in a minute." the woman smiles.

"Okay. Thank you." I replied.

Jayden walks down the staircase, stopping suddenly when he spots me. He looks surprised. I can't blame him. He must be wondering why I came back to him after 4 whole years of not even talking.

"Look who suddenly showed up," Jayden says slowly, smirk on his face.

He hasn't changed after all these years.

"Hi Jayden," I say, trying to be nice and masking the anger building up inside me.

"What do you want?" He asks, with a frown.

"I need your help." I reply slowly. "The only reason I'm coming to you is that you're the only one I can trust right now"

I pat the space beside me and tell him to sit, before I explain everything.

"I'm fake dating Liiza and I need you to go out with her best friend on our group date with the rest of my friends."

"What? Why?" He looks puzzled.

"Please. Jayden"

We spoke back and forth about it, he kept asking questions on top of questions but eventually, he agreed to help me, only because he wanted to restore our friendship.

"I regret what happened Zach. I'm sorry" He said.

I nod slowly. I always thought that he didn't care about our friendship and he only cared about himself but I was wrong, I guess. He actually apologized for what he did.

"But what will you do if they find out that we are both faking our girlfriends?" Jayden asks.

"They won't as long as we play it out well" I smile.

Jayden and I spoke for a while. He asks me a few questions and I answer them, most of them are about the plan.

After a short while, we head to his car, driving to Liiza's place.

• • • •

Liiza's POV

"When are they gonna be here?" Rilee moans, flopping onto the coach. "Is this guy that I'm going to date hot?"

I murmur a quiet reply and bite my lip. Rilee has no idea why I'm so worried. What if Zach and Jayden got into a fight? Or Jayden refused to help or… I don’t know, there are many terrible scenarios that I could imagine happening.

The door slams open and Zach swaggers in, with Jayden right behind him. Does this mean Jayden agreed to help?

I jump to my feet, running towards them.

"Where were you guys? What took you so long? How did you manage to get Jayden to help? I thought you guys might have gotten into a fight by now." I blabber.

"Woah, woah, woah! Calm down, baby girl" Zach chuckled.

Jayden smirks. "You're still the same Liiza, aren't you?" I roll my eyes, slapping his chest. "Besides, we're not idiots that would get into a fight for no reason."

"Well, knowing Zach, you probably are." Rilee butts in.

"And who is this beauty?" Jayden smirks, checking Rilee out.

"Jayden, this is Rilee, Riles this is Jayden." I introduce them to each other.

"Liiza, can I talk to you?" Rilee suddenly drags me to the side. "Why didn't you ever mention that you have such a hot friend all these years?" She asks, excited.

"Trust me, he's not that cute on the inside." I chuckle and walk back towards the boys "Jayden I'm sure Zach explained the whole plan to you." I say. "Rilee here will be your new girlfriend."

"Sweet."

• • • •

The day passed quickly, as we chatted and got to know each other.

"Why don't we play 21 Questions? We haven’t spoken in so long, I’m sure so much has changed" Jayden suggests, taking a sip of his soda. We were all sitting cross legged in the lounge room, pigging out on candy and chips. I nod, along with everyone else.

"Me first!" Rilee beams, turning to Jayden. "When was your first kiss?"

Jayden chuckles, looking thoughtful. "Years ago. With a girl at summer camp up the old tree. Good times." He turns to me. "How many boyfriends have you had?"

I can feel my cheeks redden. "Um..."

Jayden bursts out laughing. "You don't have to answer that. New question: what's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?"

I think for a moment. "I convinced my family to buy plane tickets to Bali"

"That's pretty spontaneous"

We continue to take turns asking each other questions late into the night. Surprisingly, I learnt a bunch of stuff about everyone, mostly about Jayden since I haven't spoken to him in a long time. He's changed.

• • • •

I wake up in the morning with my alarm playing 'Sorry' by Justin Bieber. It takes me a bit to reorient myself. We all fell asleep.

Zach's head is lying on my lap. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps. Relaxed. Pure. Jayden's head is resting on Zach's stomach and Rilee is lying on Jayden's chest with her thumb in her mouth like a baby.

I chuckle to myself, pushing my body up gently so I can sit up. Sometimes I wonder how these crazies are my friends.

Gently I shake Zach's shoulder, trying to wake him. "Zach, guys, wake up. We'll be late to school."

"Just one more minute mom." Zach groans.

"Yeah, one minute" Rilee adds in.

Rilee opens her eyes slightly and frowns. "Since when do I have a brother?"

"Guys, wake up! Or I'll pour a bucket of coldwater on each of you" I threaten.

"What?" Jayden sits up suddenly, making Rilee fall onto the floor.

"Ow." Rilee winces "What was that for?"

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't realize you were on me" Jayden says sheepishly, helping her up.

"It's okay. This was fun." Rilee giggles

"Are you lovebirds done? " I ask tauntingly.

"Well. I'm going home. I need a shower. Jayden, you can come with me if you want. I'll lend you my clothes then I'll drop you home on the way to school. When will you join?" Zach sighs, getting to his feet.

"Wait, you're joining our school?" I ask.

"Yeah. I guess I'll just go in and organize the admission today and I'll start tomorrow if possible. I'll ask my parents today" Jayden answers nonchalantly.

"Don't you have a school you go to?" Rilee asked.

"I'm home schooled, I'd rather just join you guys"

Zach nods. "Thanks." The two boys walk out of my bedroom, leaving Rilee and I.

"Riles you can take any of my clothes." I gesture to my wardrobe. "You can go to the guest bathroom and shower."

She smiles, thanking me.

"Okay well, peace out." I giggle, walking into my washroom, slamming the door behind me.

After taking a shower, I come out with only a towel wrapped around me. Zach is in my bedroom. I gasp, feeling my face heating up. Zach spins around quickly, looking the other way.

"I-I'm sorry I left my phone here so I came here looking for it." He stutters softly.

"Um, it's okay. Did you find your phone?" I ask.

"Yeah. You should come downstairs. Your mom made pancakes." Zach answers quickly, before leaving, closing the door behind him.

Well that was awkward. I feel like screaming into my pillow, but instead I get ready quickly, trying not to think about what just happened. I don't want to miss out on any pancakes.