[Closed] Point Of No Return

[Zoe Lauren Pierson]

Zoe opened her eyes slowly as she listened to the sounds of horns, construction, people yelling, music…New York outside of Gabe’s window. City that never sleeps, yet the murmur of it all was soothing. She had a feeling when she would go back to Arizona to see her mom that she’d have difficult sleeping without all of the ruckus. She lifted her head off of Gabe’s chest and looked up to see him still fast asleep, probably dreaming of a world a lot better than the one they lived in. He was so peaceful for a guy that she expected to protect her from the worlds worst during scary movies and horrible storms. Every bump in the night, scary sounding door opening, hood covered figure was nothing to her whenever she was able to crawl into his bed and know that just because of him she was safe. So why couldn’t he protect her from everything else. He hadn’t given an opinion like the others had when she mentioned wanting to have her first encounter with someone over with so it didn’t limit her from anything else. She frowned slightly as she thought of Anthony, a hooded figure in his own right. That boy would make someone so happy someday, but she had a feeling he was going to have to be severely miserable first. He was going to have to hit an absolute rock bottom before he saw the way that he was behaving wasn’t beneficial to an adult lifestyle. She couldn’t even be mad at him for his choice, if anything she felt bad for him, he was such a child in her eyes. She knew from others opinions what they thought of Anthony, that they weren’t fond of him, and she knew that she should feel similar but honestly when she thought of him she just felt nothing. He’d been a good kisser. But that chapter of her life was over, time to turn the page and look at something new.

Taking a step forward in her own personal life was a choice that she could pretend didn’t mean anything to her, but it did. It was important, but that didn’t mean it needed to be life-changing. She didn’t need romance, rose petals, candle light. When she looked back on it, she just wanted to know that she had the right person. And what better person was there than the guy who made you feel safe? Zoe pushed herself up before she untangled her legs from around Gabe’s when she had made herself comfortable last night. “ Gabe..” she whispered, not wanting to startle him into waking up. Zoe took in a deep, nervous breath before she decided to just rip the band aid and be done with it. He looked so peaceful, sleeping with no conscious idea of what Zoe was about to do. She laid back over him gently, knowing her weight wouldn’t be enough or out of the ordinary to rouse him from sleep. Zoe pushed her hair behind her ear to get it out of the way before she tilted her neck, placing a soft kiss below his jawline and down the side of his neck. After a second she sat up, wrapping her hand over his jaw before she pressed her lips against his, having not kissed him since they were in Malibu. The small lingering fears started to creep into the back of her mind, the doubts, worries, second thoughts. But as Gabe seemingly woke up during the kiss, she leaned away to look at him and there he was again, protecting her from his fears with the most simple thing in all of the world, a smile. Zoe smiled, leaning forward to kiss him again. He didn’t need to love her, the dating boat for them had sailed, especially since he had started dating Bailey. But all she knew was he was the right guy for it, so the timing to her didn’t matter.

Zoe sat up slightly moving her hand away from his face and onto his chest. She was about to lean down and kiss him again when she heard him start to speak. ‘ I’ve been want- he started off, but he quickly froze. ‘ Gabe! You better wake your sexy ass up” Bailey called out down the hallway and that was all it took for every muscle inside of Zoe to freeze up. That one second seemed to last forever before Zoe finally looked away from the door and back at Gabe, another moment of panic. ‘ Shit” she whispered beneath her breath, pushing her hands against his chest as she climbed off of him quickly and jumped out of the bed. Zoe looked back and forth between the bed and the closet before she ran inside, shutting the door just as Bailey was opening the bedroom door. ‘ Oh good.. you’re already where I want you’ she said with a smile before she dropped her bag inside his room and shut the door. ‘ I tried calling you a few times, your phone must be off. Dex let me in…’ she said, pulling her shirt off over her shoulders and dropping it onto the floor before she crawled onto the bed and kissed him. Zoe cringed as she listened to the silence that followed. God, at least if she was speaking then she wasn’t kissing him. Silence left too many possibilities and she could feel herself just becoming more and more nauseous with each passing second. There was a quick banging on the door. ‘ Come on seriously, Bailey. Not cool. You ran past me at the front door, then you wouldn’t even help me when I asked for your help picking out a movie to watch with Felicia. Come on.. I need a girls opinion. Get out here.’ Dex called out.

Bailey sighed, leaning down to kiss Gabe one last time before she climbed off of the bed. ‘ Good God, Dex. She’s going to fall asleep anyways,” she called out, pulling her shirt back on before she straightened it and headed out into the hallway. Dex peeked inside, looking around the room for Zoe before he made a confused face at Gabe, pointing at the closet as though to question whether that’s where she was or not. Dex shook his head and went back into the hallway, shutting the door behind him before he made way to the living room, doing his best to distract Bailey for whatever amount of time he could. Zoe pushed the closet door open and quickly grabbed her sweatshirt that Bailey thankfully hadn’t noticed. She pulled it on over her head and pushed her arms through the sleeves, doing her best to avoid looking at him. ‘ Zoe..’ he said, though Zoe knew there was no point in starting a conversation with him. Bailey could come back at any second. Zoe walked over this window, unlocking it before she pushed it up and turned to look back at him, shaking her head quickly before she climbed out.