8. Garrett

My heart was pounding even harderthan normal this morning. My daily morning run always had my heart pumping, but something completely unexpected had happened a few days ago, and I was still reeling from the news that Matty texted to me.

Zoe Collins was back in Rockview, and I was seeing her again for the first time in years today.

Evidently, she was here to work on a story about the arson incidents happening all over town. We all had a feeling that something twisted was going on, but it wasn’t like we were detectives. We were trained to help people and put out fires, and we were too occupied with that to have the time or energy to deal with anything else on top of that.

So, if Zoe wanted to dig around and find the truth, I wasn’t going to stop her. Back in high school, I got in her way enough.

I breathed in deeply as I walked down the sidewalk toward Brews2Go, one of our local coffee shops that was on the way to the fire station. My eyes darted to my fitness watch to make sure that I was on time before my mind shuttled backward to the past. How could I forget my time with her? My Brother, Gabe, and I were in a club back in high school that was mostly for socializing and debating certain topics about the school among us guys. All the girls flocked to Zoe’s group, and they were pretty outspoken about all the changes they wanted to see in the school. We co-existed for the most part until they started making demands that some of our group members didn’t agree with.

That led to some arguments. Zoe was relentlessly fiery, standing her ground and not letting up in the slightest. Sure, it was frustrating that we butted heads with her and her groups so much, but she was also… frustratingly attractive. Her determination and passion were inspiring, and she was beautiful too.

But I couldn’t let any of the guys know that I was hooked on the enemy. We had to fight back! And I found a way to draw some of her attention to me. Damn, teenagers were pathetic.

I started telling people to ignore Zoe and her group, especially when they started to gain support for their plan to remove the candy and chip vending machines by the gym and cafeteria. Instead they wanted a small cooler section full of healthy snacks like yoghurts and hummus in the cafeteria.

Looking back, it was a good idea because kids didn’t need to gorge themselves on junk food like we did back then, but I wasn’t aware of that as a teenager.

However, what I was aware of was when she heard that Gabe and I were behind the silencing campaign, she was pissed. That started all sorts of bickering sessions that left me frustrated in more ways than one. The tension between us was torturous, and I struggled with the growing feelings I had for her that I shouldn’t have had in the first place.

Now that I was older, it was obvious that I went about getting her attention in the worst way possible. I went too far, and I doubted that she wanted to see me or Gabe after the bullshit we put her through. But we would both see her today at the station since it was our shift, and I struggled between feelings of excitement and nervousness.

How in the world would she react to seeing us?

I pulled open the glass front door of the coffee shop, immediately being hit by the strong smell of freshly brewed coffee. There was a wall to the left that was pure white with the shop’s name painted on it in a teal color. Metal tables and chairs dotted the interior as I made my way to the tall, wooden ordering counter where I could see my brother waiting in line.

I greeted my younger brother by one year by slamming my hands down on his shoulder from behind, making him jump at first. He didn’t even have to turn around and look at me to realize who was messing with him.

“You know, you’re going to get decked doing that one day,” Gabe said with a chuckle as he turned to give me a light push. “How was your morning run? That sounds awful by the way.”

“Fulfilling,” I replied as I crossed my arms over the white dri-fit shirt I had on with black athletic pants. “Did you hear about Zoe being back?”

“Of course, I did,” Gabe said, his bright expression dimming a little. “She should be at the station today.”

We shifted forward as the line moved, silence following his words for a few seconds. There was a lot that needed to be said to Zoe regarding the past, but I didn’t really know where to start. Looking back, we were a couple of punks who didn’t know how to properly talk to a girl we found attractive, so we did the stupidest thing ever and pissed her off instead.

“I’d be surprised if she even said hello to us,” I told him.

Gabe scoffed.

“Wouldn’t blame her if she jumped down our throats like she used to,” he replied.

An amused expression formed on my face as I nodded in agreement.

“We went too far,” I said.

Guilt flickered in Gabe’s eyes as he nodded.

“We should probably apologize,” he suggested.

“A very good apology,” I added as we moved forward again. “Especially if we’re all going to be working together on the arson case.”

Gabe smiled a little.

“She loves being in the middle of drama,” he teased with a look of admiration on his face.

I chuckled, remembering how Zoe wasn’t afraid to charge into conflict to defend her interests or her friends. She never let any of our group step on hers, and her resistance egged our dumb teenage minds on. We saw things as a competition when they could’ve been a collaboration.

Now was our chance to do things right. If she accepted that.

“She’s tough enough to handle it,” I replied. She had nerves of steel, and even if I was wary about her being involved in the case, I knew that she could most likely handle it.

When it was our turn, we ordered enough hot coffees for everyone at the station, including Zoe. Whenever we worked the morning shift, we often made a coffee run for the rest of the crew to start everyone’s day right. Between paperwork, training, and cleaning, we had a lot to do at the station until we got our first call.

Who knew when that would be today?

“Thank you,” I told the barista once we got two cup holders full of coffees to go.

Gabe led me out of the coffee shop so that we could start the walk to the station.

“I’m not sure what to say. I mean, I’m sorry, of course, but do we start with that? Or an explanation?” he asked me.

It was something to think about. It was our first chance to talk to her after quite a few years, so we didn’t want to botch our second chance at some sort of good relationship with her. According to Matty, she was similar in many ways, but she was also different.

I was eager to see that for myself.

“Well, we both need to apologize. I don’t want to speak for you, and you shouldn’t speak for me. We were both dicks to her,” I told him, wanting her to know how sincerely sorry we were for our past behavior.

I never thought that we would get the chance to apologize, and I carried quite a bit of embarrassment and guilt for years that I knew I would have to live with. Even if she accepted my apology, I would probably still feel bad about all the trouble I caused her years ago.

“Oh, boy,” Gabe sighed as we turned the corner and put the fire station in sight. “What if she hates us?”

“She might. Guess we should be prepared for that possibility too,” I said. She might not even want to talk to us, and we would just have to deal with it. At the end of the day, she was here for business. We didn’t need to get in her way like we used to.

But I hoped that things worked out. I hoped that we could all start over because Zoe was the type of woman that you didn’t want to make an enemy out of. Not only was she fearless, but she was a good person.

We had a second chance. Hopefully, we wouldn’t mess it up.