Zenon's Game Chapter 144

But I also don't want to be around Bianca.

"OK Zenon, I haven't really told you this," I confessed, "But Bianca has not been nice, to say the least. She said she was your one constant and when you tire of me, you'll go back to her. So excuse me if I don't want to spend this weekend in her company."

"She told you that?"

Why was he laughing?

"Yes," I said.

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I don't want to get between you and your friends," I said, hoping Zenon would see that I'm not trying to disrupt his life.

"Next time, tell me."

I continued to explain, "I'm fine for you to hang out with her, because I trust you. But she has explicitly told me that she wants to be with you and that makes me uncomfortable. I don't want this romantic weekend to include her."

Zenon was about to say something, but I kept going. "And I do want you to support your friends, but knowing her ulterior motives, I doubt the reason she's asking you to take her on a romantic weekend to your lake house is because she wants to 'get away from family'."

I've been through a lot of home drama. But I never once thought about using that to get with a guy.

I exhaled in relief. I said the lake house and not the jake house, so that's a win.

I just really hope I expressed myself correctly. The last thing I wanted to do was create a fight before this weekend even began.

Zenon didn't say anything. He twisted the key in the ignition and started the car up again. We were very close to Bianca's house, so it was only a couple streets before we arrived.

I wasn't sure why we were still going there.

He didn't even have to call her, because she'd been waiting for him. She opened the front door and her dark hair was long and wavy, falling over a cute winter sweater. She was putting on a pair of moccasin shoes.

"Hi Zenon," she cheerfully called out, "Thank you for agreeing to this. I'm sorry to intrude on your little weekend together. I wouldn't have asked unless I had no other options."

Zenon still hadn't said anything. And that worried me. Why were we doing this?!

Bianca tilted her head at seeing me in the passenger seat of his car, as if she was surprised to see me, and gave me a fake wave.

Did this innocent act really work on him?

The girl has other friends. She's the most popular girl in school. She can spend the weekend with any one of them.

The windows in Zenon's car were rolled down so we could hear her clearly. Plus, her house was only a few feet from the road.

"Turns out we don't have space in the cabin," Zenon told her, unclipping his seat belt and getting out of his car in one move.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her hand gripping her suitcase, "You have a lot of spare rooms."

"We're doing a romantic weekend," Zenon said, walking round the car to stand near my side. I was on the side of the street, where Bianca was standing.

I couldn't tell if that was his defensive instinct.

I knew he was the kind of guy who liked looking people in the eye when he told them something heavy.

The smile on Bianca's face had dropped. "But I thought your parents and Jake are all going to be-"

"Three's a crowd, B."

My eyes widened and I almost cackled. Zenon was a straight shooter.

Bianca's face went through a couple emotions. She wasn't sure how to react or how to salvage the situation.

She let go of her suitcase and it sat abandoned on her doorstep. Bianca walked down the steps to get closer to Zenon.

"I don't want to be a burden," she sounded so sweet, "My living situation is a bit difficult right now but I understand if you-"

"No, I don't think you understand," he said, "I'm saying three's a crowd. My relationship has nothing to do with you."

Zenon saw she was walking towards him, but he'd finished. He had made his point clear and wasn't about to hang around to discuss it.

He walked back to his side of the car and got inside.

I dared not move.

Bianca looked like she'd seen a ghost. Maybe the ghost of relationships passed. Her gaze narrowed on me.

"What did you say to him?" she raised her voice and made a final call out to him, "Your girlfriend has poisoned you against your friends!"

Zenon answered under the sound of the car's engine, though he wasn't even looking at her anymore. "The only poison I see is outside my car."

He looked back as he drove in reverse, to get us out of parking. I was stone silent in the car and it reverberated with his last words.

I was going to say something. My mouth was hanging open, hoping speech would come out of it soon.

"I wanted to end this narrative before it began," he said of his decision to confront Bianca.

He's seen how these stories go. Bianca begins to taunt me, rumors begin to circulate and ultimately impact our relationship. Zenon didn't want the drama.

Which is very ironic, since drama seems to love us.

I looked in the rear view mirror at Bianca's retreating figure. Her face was deflated.

We drove so fast out of there that I gripped my seat belt. Wow. If that didn't make me her number 1 enemy, then I don't know what will.

Today had become a strange string of events. I thought taking the SAT subject tests was enough. Now we added a trip to the lake house and a take down of Bianca Rodriguez.