Chapter 51

In the days that followed Zach grew distant and cold once again. And the more Lauren tried to draw him out the more he retreated. Even though they were spending the majority of their time together Lauren never felt more distant from her best friend. Eventually, he managed to completely shut her out. Until finally she had to admit walking away to find her own happiness elsewhere would be the healthiest thing for her, but it didn't mean that it didn't rip her heart out to come to that conclusion.

So she filled her time with the study of magic. Every day after training, while the rest of her gang caught up on sleep, she could be found in the school library reading up on ancient spells, with a major focus on defense against the dark art of spellcasting. Oh why, oh why did she have to be the only spellcaster in their group. She could really use a regular DA meeting in the room of requirements.

As a result of all her long hours dark circles began to appear beneath her eyes. Thankfully, she couldn't study forever, she was inevitably kicked out before first class for the Night School Students, but she would just use the remaining time to go home to search the deep web for news of her brother. She just knew if she could find him before the Yule Ball she could talk some sense into him.

At quarter to midnight she would start her round of pick-ups, portalling nearly three dozen times in fifteen minutes in order to deliver everyone to the glen they'd chosen to practice in that lay deep in the recesses of Muir Woods.

There the physically demanding training sessions would begin anew. Zach took the lead in directing and coordinating their training. She didn't know where he was learning the techniques he was teaching them, but no matter, they were working.

Soon Lauren noticed he too was sporting his own set of luggage under his eyes and his nerves were even more frazzled than they had been before. It felt like months since she had heard him laugh or even seen him smile. And even though he pushed them incredibly hard, he pushed himself even harder.

There came a time that most of them could be seen falling asleep in class or in the lunch room after scarfing down the extra calories they hovered like walking Dysons.

They were all beginning to show the strain. Her grades were even slipping and she didn't even need to study due to her dryad abilities. She could only imagine how hard it must be to keep up for the others. If you don't have time for sleep; how the heck do you have time to study or write papers?

One day she heard Ryan Groan in English when he received his third F of the semester.

"AH MAAAAANNN! he cried, "Mom's gonna kill me. "

She ruefully thanked her lucky stars her mother wasn't with it enough to know all this was going down. It would kill her all over again.

Apparently, Ryan wasn't the only one struggling with his grades. One evening on the rare occasion she was home before dark. She sat up in her room checking her contacts on the ultra-web and reading the magical sub-sub Reddits for news about her brother and his merry band of dweebs, as she liked to call them, when the door bell rang.

Odd she thought she hadn't ordered any take out and people didn't just drop by her house unannounced. She checked her watch to see it was much too late for Jehovah Witnesses and wondered who could it be?

And even though she was already in her PJs for the night they were her least embarrassing pair so she padded down the stairs to answer the door.

When she made it to the bottom of the stairs she called out, "Who is it?" before undoing the deadbolt. She was young not stupid.

A male voice called out from the other side, "It's me."

Lauren had a moment to feel shocked before her heart started racing in her chest. It had been months since Zach had come over to her house to hang out and his presence could only mean one thing: bad news.

She swung the door wide to see him standing on her dilapidated porch with his school backpack slung over one shoulder and his usual super serious expression plastered on his impatient face. As soon as she stepped out on the porch to ask him what was up, he silenced her with a look and called out to his Dad, Matt, who was sitting behind the wheel of their Land Rover.

"It's alright you can go now; she's home."

Lauren waved and yelled across the riot of her lawn, "Hey Matt."

He just smiled and buzzed his window down to call back from the street,"Hey, Lauren thanks for helping Zach out with his studies. His grades are still a bit sluggish. I think he's going to need some more sessions. Let me know if you want to start charging for all the tutoring you've been giving him?"

Lauren started to sputter, but caught herself. No way was she going to hang Zach out to dry, "It's no problem Matt. What are friends for?" She said the last part with a bit of sarcasm. She couldn't help herself.

Luckily, Matt didn't pick up on it, but she was sure Zach did, because when she led him inside and shut the door behind him, he fidgeted awkwardly with the strap of his back pack and said, "Sorry usually he drives away before I make it to the door."

For some reason those twelve little innocuous words tore the bottom out of her stomach and suddenly she was livid.

Like HULK SMASH livid.

"Do you mean to tell me, "she said through clenched teeth, "that you've been pretending to come to my house to study and then waiting for your Dads to drive away . . . and then what?"

Lauren suddenly pictured in her head the number of times he must have come to her door and not knocked, but instead waited until one or the other of his dads drove away, before turning around and going God knew where.

When she pictured him preferring to wander the streets of San Fran at night rather than spend time with her, it broke her heart.

"What the fuck Zach! I mean what the hell is wrong with you? Please for the love of God explain to me what I did to make you hate me so much!"

Zach looked down at the floor and mumbled," I don't hate you," under his breath.

"Well you could have fooled me," she practically bellowed. "Apparently you'd rather take your chances wandering the streets in the dead of night than spend time with me."

Zach's silence spoke volumes. He wouldn't even look at her. And she could see that under that silence something lay buried and she intended to dig it up.

The kid gloves were coming off.

She advanced on him, trapping him between herself and the door. Lauren's face must have reflected her feelings, because when he looked up his eyes went wide.

And she thought that's right . . . be afraid . . . be very, very afraid.

"Zachary Thomas Reis can't you tell I could really use a friend right now, or do you not even care."

Suddenly there was fire in Zach's eyes and he bellowed back, "Oh I care alright and that's the problem!"

Lauren ran a frustrated hand through her hair before saying, "What the Freck Zach! Since when is caring about someone a problem?"

"Forget it. You'll never understand."

"Okay, explain it to me then."

Zach started to pace, "What do you know about the two kids that died? Did you know that the senior, her name was Shannon by the way, loved anime that she had two siblings, and that she planned on being a teacher after conscription, that the kid in junior year was named Mark and he was a gifted wizard and hoped to one day join the Wizard's Order?"

Lauren swallowed back her tears Zach was breaking her heart. All she wanted to do in that moment was hug his pain away, but she needed to scratch that scab. There was no going back. It was time for action.

"Zach you're obsessed. You need help. What happened to those two people is not your fault."

"Oh isn't it?! If I had been able to block those shards, they'd be alive today." He was now advancing on her. She had to back step as he approached.

But she would not be dissuaded," That still doesn't make it your fault! "Lauren screamed back," You did the best you could. You saved countless lives." She grabbed his ashen face in her two hands as inwardly she begged him to see reason.

Zach tore himself from her grasp and started to pace in front of the door, and with a frustrated sigh he said, "You still don't get it do you? If I hadn't been so frightened I could have saved them too, but I was too afraid, too terrified —    he stopped abruptly there like he'd intended to say something else, but decided against it.

"The point is the only way I can be sure I'm not crippled with fear again is if I don't have anything to lose. If you don't have anything to lose you don't have anything to fear."

When he finished speaking Lauren took Zach's big hand in hers and led him to the living room to sit him down on her old worn out couch. She led him there and pushed him back which made him sit back stiffly while she perched herself on the edge of the big square coffee table that sat in front of him.

She had to get through to him once and for all. She had a feeling their friendship depended on it, possibly even his sanity.

Sighing long and hard she asked, "Zach what am I?"

At first he looked like he didn't know how to respond, but then he sighed too and answered, "You're a halfblood Fae."

"Exactly," she blurted out. "That makes me part faery Zach. And don't think for a second I don't feel the draw of my ancestry. Every time I get the chance to play a mean little trick and succeed my Fae blood sings."

She took his hands that were nervously fidgeting in her own before she continued, "My point is not all angels are peaceful; some were meant to battle. They are meant to be protectors and guardians of the human race. Don't fall prey to your other half Zach. Your base instincts are to protect, but you have to know you are human too."

Lauren reached her hand out to stroke his face, "There is absolutely nothing you could have done to save those kids and torturing yourself about it is not going to bring them back."

She watched as tears started to form in the corner of Zach's eyes, but he swiped them away and leapt up before they could see the light of day.

"I've gotta go." He raced for the door. But Lauren used her Fae speed to get there before his hand could reach the knob.

She placed her hand on the door barring his way and sent him a pleading look, "Zach it's not a weakness to care; having people you care about makes you formidable. It's your reason to fight; it's your reason to live."

He just fixed her with a cold hard stare until she let go of the door. He swung it open and turned to say emphatically as he stepped on to the porch, "I won't lose anybody else."

Try as she may she couldn't keep her voice from cracking when she said, "Oh Zach you big stupid beautiful idiot you already have," as she shut the door behind him.

Lauren should have known, with her dumb luck, she wasn't going to get her prefect movie exit line, and she didn't. In that moment both their phones dinged to announced they'd both gotten a text message.

She pulled her phone from her back pocket with a sigh and read:

Xander:

Urgent meeting at Lauren's. I have news.

Lauren opened the door to find Zach staring at his phone and said," Get in here before I change my mind."

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

If you liked this chapter Vote, Comment, add this book to your reading list, or suggest it to a friend. Hey guys I would really appreciate it if you could share this book with your followers. My readership has dropped off since changing the POV from Zach to Lauren, but that doesn't stop me from believing that Lauren deserve as many people who love her just as much as the voice of Haven High and the gang. Please help me find more readers that would like to hear her story. *HUGS*