Page 24 of Saving Micah

“Hey.” He says with a cute little smile.

“Where are we eating?”

“Waffle House.”

He went for it. He knows my weakness.

“Oh really? Are you trying to score brownie points for something?”

“I don’t need brownie points. I just know what my girl wants.” He winks and I let out a little giggle.

Raisin bread, people. Raisin bread.

I jump out of bed and run to the bathroom to get dressed. For raisin bread and apple butter. No shame. That stuff is pure heaven.

Kelly decides to stay behind and says she will grab something for brunch. She isn’t ready to get moving just yet.

Once our breakfast has been ordered and the waitress has brought our drinks, we start to plan the day.

“We need to go souvenir shopping before we spend all of our money on food.” I say as I sip my coffee. It’s good but it isn’tmycoffee. I doctor mine up so that it’s more sugar and creamer than coffee and my coffee is pretty mild. I love it.

“Yeah, I need to get my mom and sister something.” Macy says while looking at her phone.

“Ok then. Are y’all coming too?” I look at Levi while he looks at Chance and he looks at Zant. I turn my eyes to Z to collide with his. “Well?”

“I don’t know babe. I’m not really into shopping. Do you and Macy want to go ahead and get that done while the guys and I go look around for some activities for us to do later?”

My heart stops. He isn’t coming with me? He must notice the look of confusion and terror on my face because he grabs me and pulls me to his lap so that he can put his lips to my ear. “Micah, you can do this. I want you to do this. I know you can and I think you know you can. This is a test babe and I have all the confidence in the world that you will pass.”

As he’s talking to me my eyes are on Levi’s. I see shock pass through them first, then anger, and finally understanding. He knows what Z is trying to do for me.

I nod my head to Levi and Zant feels it. He kisses the side of my head and puts me back in my seat. “I love you and you’ve got this. You’re my brave little butterfly.” He says before he fully lets me go.

I steady myself and take a couple deep breaths to steady myself.I’ve got this. I can do this.“Ok Macy. We can do that? I saw a souvenir store a couple buildings down. We can go there.” I turn to Zant. “Y’all can pick us up there in an hour.” I can only do an hour and I hope that I don’t have a panic attack in the meantime.

“We will be there.” He says as our food comes.

We eat our food and then prepare to go our separate ways once we get outside. Zant kisses me on the forehead before getting into the van with the guys. Macy and I make our way down the sidewalk to the souvenir shop. She grabs my hand and we walk like we have no cares in the world. I try really hard to make that thought my reality.

Chapter 12

Zant

I’ll be your crying shoulder

I’ll be love suicide

I’ll be better when I’m older

I’ll be the greatest fan of your life

{‘I’ll Be’ -Edwin McCain}

I watch my girl walk down the sidewalkhand in hand with one of her best friends in the world. She has her back straight and her head held high. I’m so freaking proud of her. She needs to do this. She needs to do this for her. She has been afraid of every little thing for too long. She isn’t in danger from the monster that terrorizes her mind. She has nothing to worry about from that freak. I can’t tell her that though. She can’t know anything about that.

“We aren’t completely leaving them, are we?” Levi ask in a shocked voice. He has been super protective of Micah and has helped her in any way that he can since the attack. I can’t thank him or Chance enough for everything they have done for her. They stepped up and moved into protective mode for her and the other two girls. Kelly and Macy both went through living hell after the attack. They were afraid for Micah. They were afraid for themselves. They were even afraid for me. They all waited for Roy to come back around and start terrorizing them all.

It wasn’t going to happen.

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