They move from the swings to a nice hill not too far from the lake. There's a gentle breeze blowing that makes Addison's hair flutter in the wind. She scrunches her nose when she gets hit with a sprinkle of lake water but it's honestly such a cute moment that Zed takes mental note of it.

They lay in the grass and look out at the clouds. It's silent between them and Zed is completely at peace with the world, for the first time in a while.

His state of peace is interrupted by his phone ringing next to him. He picks it up to see who's calling and rolls his eyes when it's his mom. Addison scoots closer to snoop on his phone and catches him declining his mom's call.

"Hey, I thought I was the only one with parent issues," Addison teases.

Zed forces a smile to be nice. He doesn't really like talking about his mom. It made him upset and he didn't like being upset, especially around someone he had such a large crush on.

Unfortunately for him, Addison sees right through his expression. She props herself up on an elbow and asks seriously, "What's wrong? Like, with you and your mom?"

"Nothing," he mumbles. "Old stuff. Not important."

"It's obviously important, otherwise you would've answered her call."

She had a point. Zed sighs and shifts his gaze from her face to the sky. If he doesn't have to look at her, he won't feel guilty. His plan fails when Addison nudges his shoulder and says, "You can trust me, Zed. Alpha and omega, right?"

Zed sits up, his eyes widening in surprise. Their parents used to call them that when they were little—A and Z, beginning and end, alpha and omega. Addison's mom had come up with it and taken a whole afternoon to explain what it meant to them. But after, they used it as their "You can trust me" code. And the fact that Addison remembers makes his heart swell in ways he can't even understand.

"I can't believe you remember that," he breathes.

"Of course I do," she says. "You're the most trustworthy person I know. A to Z, everything stays between you and me."

"Alpha and omega," he breathes.

She smiles and nods. "Now tell me what's up. I thought you and your mom were like, best friends."

"When I was four," he snorts. "If you didn't know, she's a…"creative" or some bullshit. When she was pregnant with Zoey, she got this idea for a show. So while she was on maternity leave, she wrote it up and spent like a year working on it."

Addison sits up completely, folding her hands in her lap. It's cute and distracting in the worst way. He pauses for a moment before continuing with his story.

"Like a year later or something, her script got picked up for television." He purses his lips at the memory. "Lauren decided the best time to tell us all was my tenth birthday."

Addison winces and Zed nods. His eyes fall to the grass so he doesn't have to see the pitiful look Addison is giving him.

"My Dad was bringing out my cake, and she just goes 'I'm gonna be on T.V., I'm moving to Los Angeles in a month' and my dad was so shocked he dropped my whole cake. And I was ten, so I was pretty pissed off."

He snorts to try and lighten the mood, then continues. "So, then my dad was all like 'what are you talking about' and Lauren goes 'oh I sent my scripts and they loved it they wanna film it' blah blah. Mind you, this is the middle of my birthday party. Dad is clearly mad but he's already f-ed up my party so they decide to continue it later. Which leads to four days of constant fighting between them. Then one day, I come home from school, and Lauren is gone and all her shit is gone and Dad is a depressed mess in his room."

Zed purses his lips into a line. He hates thinking about what his mom did to them, how she emotionally destroyed his dad, how she abandoned him and Zoey for some stupid dream.

Addison puts her hand on his knee. He lifts his head and makes eye contact with her. Her eyes are soft and understanding and he can feel the tension leaving his body. This is Addison he's talking to. They have their own code word. Leave it to her to be the only one to actually make him feel better, seven years later.

"I'm sorry," she says earnestly. "That must really suck."

"The worst part is that she just waltzes in whenever she wants to decide to be a parent." Zed rolls his eyes. "She's here, right now, out with Zoey. Pretending like she cares about us."

"What do you usually do when she comes round?"

"Hide at Eliza's house."

Addison pats his knee and smiles. "Don't worry, you can hide with me," she says. "I think your mom still loves me, so I can be a great distraction so you don't have to speak to her ever again."

Zed snorts and shakes his head. "That's impossible."

"You're going to college next August, you won't be obligated to go back home after that."

Zed shakes his head at her. He doesn't have any plans on going to college. "That's too expensive," he tells her. "I mean, maybe I can get a few classes at Seabrook Community College but…" He gestured vaguely in the air and Addison nods, getting his meaning.

"I'm not going to college either," she says. She turns and lays back in the grass. Zed takes it as his queue to do the same. "I'm gonna be a rockstar."

Zed snorts and elbows her side. "I'm gonna be your biggest fan," he tells her. "I'll be at all of your shows. Have all of your merchandise."

"You'll post embarrassing pictures of me from the seventh grade on my birthday."

"Please, I'll have up-to-date embarrassing pictures."

Addison shakes with laughter. "You'll be my own personal groupie, even though you've only been to one show."

"That means you gotta invite me to all of your future shows."

Addison hums in agreement. Zed turns his head and looks at her, seeing her still smiling, amused. It's silent for a minute, then another, until they're laying without talking. It's nice and peaceful. After what feels like five minutes, Addison nuzzles into his side.

"You're really nice, Zed," she tells him. "I like hanging out with you. When you're not stuttering. Your blush is cute though."

Zed doesn't really know what he's supposed to say. He smiles and turns his head down to rest on top of hers. Addison pokes his side and giggles.

Zed doesn't go home until close to dinner time. Addison drives them back, and wishes him luck before he goes inside. His mom managed to wrap him in with going out to dinner with her and Zoey, which he doesn't want to do in the slightest. Part of him wants to tell her that, and also to go suck it and never come back. But the bigger, more sensible part of him tells him to just get dressed and go with her.

On the bright side, he's getting a free meal. "Where do you guys wanna go?" Lauren asks them.

Zoey instantly suggests the diner a block away. Zed doesn't mind it. They have pretty good pancakes that you can eat at any hour. Plus, Zed has a hankering for milkshakes. Though when he goes out to the diner with his mom and sister, he feels like he's cheating on Addison. They went to a diner once and he can't help but think it's their thing.

Lauren takes them back home after dinner and drives away once they're inside. Their dad isn't home, which is odd considering how late it is, but Zed is too tired to call and check on his father. He's probably working late anyway. Zed gets Zoey ready for bed and makes sure she's tucked in before going and taking a shower. He doesn't think about Addison, which is a first, and brushes his teeth before going to his bedroom.

Zed doesn't realize that he is standing butt naked in front of his window until he gets a text from Addison. He pulls on a pair of boxers and grabs his phone.

Addison Davis (NEIGHBOR): Cute butt ;)

He whips around and sees Addison sitting on her windowsill. He shrieks (a high-pitched, embarrassing sound that he's ashamed he even made) and ducks behind his bed. He wraps himself up in his blanket, his heart racing. Addison Davis just saw his bare ass and she's probably laughing at him and—fuck. He's breathing out of control and nothing is helping because the girl he's been in love with for years just saw him butt naked and nothing in the entire universe could make the situation better.

All he wants is to crawl into a hole and die. Maybe he can. If he never leaves his room again, he'll never have to face the reality of the situation. And he'll die, slowly but surely.

There's knocking at his window and he wants to ignore it. Maybe if he stays swaddled up in bed whoever's knocking (probably Addison) will go away. She doesn't, and yep minutes later he peeks out from his blanket swaddle to see her smiling at him through the window. He shimmies his way off of his bed, refusing to get out of the swaddle, and walks over to the window, kneeling down and letting Addison pull it up.

"I meant what I said," she says. "You have a cute butt."

Zed looks away from her. He wants to cry, honestly. He had thought he'd been making progress with his never ending, overwhelming crush on Addison and now she's seen him naked. He's about to close his window and crawl back in bed and die when Addison says, "I'm sorry, if what I said made you uncomfortable. I was just teasing you."

Zed's eyes flicker over to her and catch sight of her regretful expression. He turns back to fully gauge her sad and sorry eyes and softens up.

"I-You're okay," he tells her, trying his best to be reassuring. His voice is barely above a whisper but he's sure Addison hears him. He loosens his grip on his blanket just enough so that it falls off of his head and around his shoulders. "It's just embarrassing."

Addison's lips curl in an amused smile. "That I saw your butt?" He nods and she laughs. "Dude, I'm sure you've seen me completely naked!"

He has, several times. But they were all accidents! He can't help but laugh though, the blood finally receding from his face. He was sure he still had a light blush on his face, but at least he wasn't as red as a tomato anymore.

Addison's giggling too, and leans over to pinch his cheek. "Now stop pouting," she says. She stands up, which is when Zed notices she's in her pajamas. "Get dressed and go to bed. We have a quiz in physics tomorrow."

"Goodnight Addison."

"Night Z."

He watches her climb back into her bedroom, give him a wave, and close it. Zed smiles to himself and closes his window—and his blinds too. He's not going through that embarrassment again. He goes to his drawers, pulls out pajamas and gets changed. Once he's wearing clothes, he leaves his blanket on his bed and goes to his desk to pack for school the next day. Once he's triple checked his bag, he shuts off his lights and crawls into bed.

There are no dreams of Addison, only nightmares of going to school in his underwear.