My Book Boyfriend: Zachary Goode

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted over at the Unread Reader---for more info, check out the introduction post here

In honor of the new release of Gallagher Girls 5, Out of Sight, Out of Time, I just had to do a post on Zach! Oh sigh. I absolutely love Zach--and in my opinion, he is a MUCH better love interest for Cammie than Josh!


He was handsome. He was strong. And most of all, I knew that even though Josh might have been the boy who "saw" me, Zach knew where my favorite passageways were, Zach knew I was a pavement artist; Zach knew where I sat in Class and what I ate in the Grand Hall and who my best friends in the world were. Zach "knew" me--or at least the version of me that Josh would never see.
~~~

“So I hear we get to go to town this weekend. Want to catch a movie or something?
--Z
P.S. That is, if Jimmy doesn't mind.
 
Translation: This weekend might be a good chance for us to see each other outside our school in a social environment, free of competetiton. I do not view other boys as threats, and I enjoy making them seem insignificant by calling them the wrong names. (Translation by Macey McHenry)” 
 ~~~
No one said anything for a moment. We were all too wet, too sore, and we'd come entirely too far to turn back.
Then Macey stared straight into Zach's eyes. "We're leaving her with you," she warned.
"I'll be fine, Macey," I said, but it was as if she hadn't hear a word.
"We're leaving her with you," she said again. "And if you make us regret that..."
"I won't," Zach said, and somehow I believed him. 
 ~~~~

I don't know how long I cried. I don't know when I slept. All I know is that Zach's arms were still around me when I woke on the mats, lying in the center of the floor.
"Go back to sleep," he said, smoothing my hair.
I'd been sleeping. I realized that I'd been sleeping and I hadn't dreamed.
"Zach," I said as I lay there. "Where did you go? When you were looking for me?"
I shifted in his arms, looked into his eyes.
"Crazy." His voice was a whisper against my skin. "I went crazy."