After dinner I slunk back to the sofa and Zaphire followed me. Zack cleared up our mess and made himself scarce again. We watched a bit of tv and then after an hour or so Zack did pipe up and told me to go and get some sleep. Zaphire still mostly ignored Zack, but gave me a kiss on my cheek, to say goodnight.
“Don't worry about the meeting with Markus tomorrow, my sweet. Even though I'm furious with Zack, I know he's got your back, and there is no one better to have on your side.”
“Thanks Zaphy, will you be there too?" I needed to know.
“No, it’s a closed meet. Just you, Zack, Markus and Frank. But I will see you afterwards, okay?”
She nodded in encouragement and I nodded back. Then she left, leaving me feeling awkward with being with Zack on my own. I'd have to get used to that pretty quickly again though.
I climbed over his bed with a sigh.
“Can you move this already. It's getting on my nerves and it's totally unnecessary." I said a bit prickly.
“That's for me to decide Eliza, and it will stay exactly where it is. You're likely to be wandering around again and I can't risk not noticing and you disappearing off or getting hurt." he grumbled.
“Just go to bed.”
Which I did, expecting fully to lay awake for hours with all the events of the evening still raging inside me. To my surprise, however, I fell asleep almost straight away and woke up the following morning feeling quite refreshed.
Zack was up already and the smell of coffee in our room was divine, which reminded me of the joy of having super enhanced senses. It truly was a gift.
I noticed Zack looked absolutely shattered. He clearly had not enjoyed a good night sleep.
“Bad night?" I enquired to be met by a scowl.
“You could say that. I'm surprised you are so sprightly this morning.”
He took a swig from his coffee and sighed.
“Do I even dare ask?”
I tried to smile a little at him, but to no avail. I knew he was alluding to my supposed night time activities, but I had no recollection of them whatsoever and didn't suffer with any ill after effects either.
“And you wanted to move my bed yesterday. No chance." he scoffed.
“You might have slept better if I didn't have to climb over you.”
I tried again against my better judgement. He didn't even afford me an answer, just a warning stare.
“Just go and get yourself ready, will you." he said instead, still grumpy.
“We'll have to go in three quarters of an hour.”
I poured myself a coffee and made some toast. My life was so surreal. Yesterday I met my father alone for the first time since I was little and probably condemned him to death with my revelations to the Sensorian leaders, was grilled by my superiors over it and nearly went too far with Zack, upsetting Zaphire in the process. Now, I was having breakfast as if nothing had happened. It was weird and felt wrong somehow, but I felt amazingly fine. I seemed to find it quite easy to put it aside and look ahead. I hoped it wasn't going to bite me in the backside at some point. Maybe I worked it all out at night, hence keeping Zack awake. My subconscious has always worked overtime at night.
“How are you getting on? Nearly ready?”
Zack disturbed my musings whilst looking me up and down and he knew I hadn't actually changed from my pyjamas yet. He, on the other hand, had put on a shirt and tie and despite looking like a train wreck only ten minutes ago, now looked professional and not to mention stunningly handsome.
I groaned and sighed out loud but got up, sauntered over to my wardrobe and stared blankly at the contents of it. I could literally feel Zack's impatience burning a hole in my back and it spurred me on to just grab a top and trousers which looked relatively smart. They would just have to do the job for the impending meeting with Markus.
Though I had a good night sleep and felt refreshed, the meeting made me feel lacklustre. I didn't want to go over all of it again; I'd rather focus on what they wanted me to do next, if anything at all. I hated the fact they didn't fully trust me and felt I would have to prove myself again before they would regard me as one of their own. I decided to voice my worries to Zack.
“I don't understand what else they want to know. Couldn't they see yesterday that I did everything I could to make the mission successful? I wished you had listened to me and got him. Maybe I would rather have the physical pain of having my legs blown off then feeling like a failure and mistrusted by everyone.”
“Don't be fucking stupid. That would have definitely been the worst outcome and I would never have forgiven myself for that and neither would your mum!" he retorted angrily.
“I know, I know. I just feel a bit rubbish about the whole thing. I can't help it.”
“Yeah, I can tell. You need to try and get a grip and cover up your feelings a bit more. You're an open book at the moment and remember that everyone around you can sense your feelings and it's fucking tiring for those involved.”
“Well, that's making me feel a whole lot better, Zack." I said, not managing to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
“I was looking for some support or sympathy, not another telling off!”
“I'm just saying it as it is, Eliza. You should be used to that by now. We haven't got time to pussyfoot about." he said, equally annoyed.
This wasn't going well this morning.
“Right. Well. I'll do my hair
