The Belle of Linley Cottage

The fact that Zach had been voted “most likely to succeed” in high school felt like a slap in the face.

What kind of valedictorian graduated from college without a real job?

He probably should have thought more about what he would do with an English degree before choosing it because, at that moment, he was at a loss for what he wanted.

Well, no, he had thought about what he wanted for the future in the abstract. The big dream was to own a publishing company where he could publish not just his own fantasy and sci-fi novels, but also others that also showcased larger-than-life tales from a multitude of cultures, alongside a chain of secret library-inspired stores where they would stock those books and more. 

That was the ultimate dream.

It had been something he was steadily climbing toward since the beginning of freshman year. But he was currently in free fall back down the mountain, because even with his course load of grammar and writing workshops, hours of reading books to analyze their themes, and summers of being the top bookseller at The Book Haven, Zach couldn’t sell himself as an employee to any of the publishing houses he had been applying to for the last few months. He had thought that being paid to read books and help other novice authors get their stories out there as an assistant to a literary agent would be a way to show that he knew a good story when he saw it and that maybe he could write an amazing story himself. Not hearing anything back from any of the companies was discouraging, to say the least. They didn’t even have the decency to tell him no. It just added to the overwhelming feeling of failure that he had been wading through for the past week, which was the last thing he should’ve felt then.

He graduated two days ago. His whole family had come up to celebrate this achievement with him. It was something to be proud of, and yet he didn’t feel that way; it seemed that four years of hard work had accumulated into a worthless piece of paper. He indulged his family by going to dinner the night of graduation but was turned off by the idea of going back home right afterward. At Walker University (affectionately known as Walker U), most graduates would spend the weekend after hopping between bars and parties to celebrate their last moments of freedom before they went into the workforce, but Zach was already putting in for overtime with his job hunt. 

Though, his family believed otherwise. His grandmothers, Mimi and Gigi, were always telling Zach to get out more. When they heard about this tradition, they told him that he should partake. They convinced his father to leave him on-campus with Mimi’s car, and let him drive back down after he had his fun. Zach told them he would do so, but in reality, he spent the weekend in his bedroom, looking through job application websites, and eating takeout. The sounds of other grads wafted through the window, laughing and cheering as they ran from their apartments to the street of bars, restaurants, and convenience stores at the bottom of the hill. This had been a frequent occurrence every weekend since he moved in junior year, which was a small price to pay for an easy six-minute commute to his classes. In his final years of college, the last thing he wanted to do was worry about how he was going to get to campus without a car when the closest apartment complex that he could afford was nowhere near a bus stop.

Regardless, he truly felt at home when he was at Walker U. He would miss the large brick buildings and winding paths that covered the campus, along with the cafes and libraries where he spent hours doing his best work, both studying and writing-wise. The ability to go anywhere he wanted in the campus area was a freedom that he didn’t want to give up. The thought crossed his mind to pursue a master’s degree just so he could stay on campus and continue the life of an academic, but his scholarship had barely covered this degree, and he had no desire to spend all of his savings to get another.

Another yell of excitement shocked him out of the brain fog of his eighth application of the night, the twenty-seventh of the day. He groaned before shoving back from his desk and slamming the window shut. The rising temperature didn’t seem as annoying anymore; he didn’t need any more reminders of how everyone else was taking advantage of their last responsibility-free weekend before they headed off to their new lives while his throat dried up as the dread of what came next settled in.

He plopped back into his desk chair just as someone knocked on his door. It opened to reveal his roommate, Beau, dressed in his third favorite party outfit. He had already worn the other two this weekend.

“What?” Zach coughed as he started closing some of the tabs on his screen.

Zach could hear Beau lean against the doorframe, and he was certain that Beau was looking at him with his most judgmental gaze. “Your face will get stuck like that if you don’t relax.”

“I am relaxed,” Zach replied through gritted teeth, making Beau chuckle.

“All work and no play makes Zach a dull boy.”

“I’m not dull. Just frustrated,” he fumed before slamming his laptop closed and taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. His phone buzzed and lit up with another text of congrats, this one from his friend Kit, who had sent him a finals care package two weeks ago. He knew he should probably text her thank you for that, but he just turned off his phone and sat back in his seat as he put his glasses back on, trying to find some semblance of calm.

“Because you have not relaxed all weekend,” Beau reminded, tapping Zach’s forehead to keep his attention. “Which is why you need to come out with me and Mateo tonight and let loose. Give your eyes the break they definitely need.”

Zach looked up in time to see a smirk worm its way onto Beau’s face before he suggested that he “maybe find a girl who can help release that tension in your neck.”

Zach glared at him as that was the last thing on his mind. While he enjoyed spending time with both Beau and his boyfriend Mateo, he’d rather not spend his last night on-campus mediating their ongoing debate of who’s the superior skateboarder or sitting awkwardly until a woman approached him. The fact that Beau was even suggesting it at that moment was way off, especially when he knew that Zach had pretty much given up socializing and hookups once he got into his job-hunting mode. Zach couldn’t even fathom that they were friends at times. Though the two of them were practically twins with their warm brown skin, dark brown eyes, and coiled black hair, they could not be more opposite. Physically, the only thing that separated them were Zach’s rectangular glasses and his decision to keep his hair short, while Beau grew it out into a proper curly ‘fro. Personality-wise, Beau was the outgoing, always-in-the-know guy who wanted to drag Zach out of his cocoon and turn him into a social butterfly like himself, which was never going to happen.

Beau liked to say that they were “bound by a love of words” but, in reality, Zach just sat next to him in their freshman English class (and every class they took together after) because even though Beau was nosy as hell, he was easy for Zach to talk to and get along with.

Even when Zach said things like, “The only pain in my neck is you,” Beau would just smile at him with unbridled joy in his eyes.

“Wow, tell me how you really feel,” Beau snorted as Zach put his laptop into his brown messenger bag on the floor.

“The thought of going out with you two makes me violently ill and I would rather sit through a real-time video of someone putting together a 10,000-piece puzzle than be at a party right now,” Zach looked up, saw the raised brows on his friend’s face, and shrugged. “You said say how I really feel.”

“Yeah, but puzzles? Really?” Beau said with a scrunched-up face as his Texan twang rang through his words.

Zach felt his throat get scratchy again. “They can be relaxing,” he insisted before standing up and pushing past Beau to head to the kitchen. He needed a drink.

He could hear Beau’s footsteps echoing behind him as he continued past their bathroom. “Only you would find a 10,000-piece puzzle video relaxing,” Beau snorted, making Zach’s eyes roll.

“A lot of people find them relaxing. Just like you find dancing in the middle of a sardine can of a club relaxing. Besides, I would rather not spend my last night here being a third wheel to you two.” 

“You’re never a third—”

Zach raised his brow when he turned back at the end of the hall for a moment and Beau’s mouth snapped shut. “Okay, maybe you were the last time,” Beau admitted. Zach nodded, walking past the counter that split up the kitchen and living room. “But we were in the honeymoon phase!”

Zach scoffed as he stooped down to open the fridge. The only things left were Beau’s leftovers from their Jade Dragon takeout order, and a single glass bottle of Zach’s favorite orange soda, which he pulled from its shelf. “You’ve been in the honeymoon phase ever since I forced you two to get it together.”

“Which I’m eternally grateful for,” Beau admitted as Zach pulled out a bottle opener from one of the kitchen drawers, “but believe me, it’s starting to wear off. We move next week and I still can’t get him to tell me if he rented a moving truck or not. Do you know how annoying it is to deal with someone who is constantly giving you one-word answers to difficult questions?”

“No,” Zach said as the bottle cap popped off. He turned to face Beau and smirked at the glare he gave him. Irking Beau with their sarcasm and dour attitudes was one of the things Zach and Mateo bonded over. After years of constantly being around an expressive character like Beau, finding someone else who preferred to stay in and have blunt conversation was a delight. 

“How the fuck do I keep getting stuck with people like y’all?” Beau questioned. “Talking to either of y’all feels like pulling teeth.”

Zach took a breath before bringing the drink to his lips, keeping himself from telling Beau to fuck off and leave him be. He knew that he should be happy for his friends; they had the opportunity to work at a news startup that they had been following the inception of for years. The moment the call for potential reporters went out, Beau and Mateo answered with a ferocity only those two journalism students could muster during midterms. Now, they were moving to New York City, and Zach couldn’t help but resent them for having a much easier job search than he had. Not to mention, they were moving to a place where people were constantly working to be at the top of their game, while he was doing the walk of shame back down to Lillet, Maryland, where everything moved at a snail’s pace. He had to go back to living in his childhood bedroom, under his father’s warden gaze, while Beau and Mateo were going to be living in their own apartment in a city thousands of miles away, where they don’t have to worry about their parents dropping in whenever they like. Zach had deliberately picked a school that was too far for a regular drop-in, but that didn’t stop his father from calling or texting every evening to make sure he was in his apartment and not out partying, which showed how much he knew about Zach’s personality.

Zach didn’t even want to think about what his father would be like when he settled back in. He had contemplated staying in his apartment until mid-summer. The university had already forced them to pay until the end of June, so he could surely stick it out here for a while longer. But as much as he wanted to, groceries weren’t going to pay for themselves, and without any classes to take, he surely would lose his mind trying to figure out what to do. Tomorrow, he was taking the two-hour drive down, but tonight he was going to wallow in his misery.

Apparently, this was written across his face. “I’m telling you. One night in a club could really turn that frown upside down,” Beau suggested before trying to poke around his mouth, but Zach quickly slapped away his roommate’s hand.

“You know I don’t like clubs—”

“Or parties. Or the student union. Or anywhere that people are, in general,” Beau listed off as he had a thousand times before. “Remind me again why you’re trying to move to New York. It’s literally a city known for being full of people, and you are known for actively trying to avoid people.”

“Because that’s where the major publishers are.” Zach took another sip of soda. “And if I can get my foot in the door there, I’ll have an easier time when I finally go to publish my book.”

“Mhm. The book you won’t even tell me the plot of? That book?”

Zach kept his mouth shut, making Beau groan. “Come on, you’re saying you’d let somebody who looks through hundreds of manuscripts a week—only to approve three—have the chance to look at your book before you even tell me what it’s about?”

“Pretty much.”

Beau rolled his eyes while adjusting the cuff of his flowy burnt orange top. “Well, I hope you don’t spend the next few weeks just holed up in your room writing this top-secret book.”

Zach shook his head before taking another sip of soda, wincing as the carbonation burned his throat. “Can’t. Gotta find a job in town to help pay New York rent prices.”

“Any ideas?” Beau asked as he messed with his curls in the mirror magnet on the fridge.

“Probably The Book Haven. Des loves having someone competent working in the store that he doesn’t have to train.” Zach had contemplated calling him that day between sending applications but given that he was trying to sneak into town unnoticed the next day, he decided against it. He was a shoo-in for the job anyway.

Beau nodded as he turned back to Zach. “Hey, spending your days surrounded by books, that’s your dream, isn’t it?”

Zach hummed nonchalantly as he took another sip of his drink. Beau rolled his eyes. “Okay. I’m not letting you put any more of a damper on my evening, so I’ll leave you here to sulk. Don’t wait up.”

Zach let him get near the front door before he called out, “Hey.”

Beau turned around.

“I am going to miss you.”

Beau grinned, “I know you will. Who else is gonna make you go outside?” Zach rolled his eyes, making Beau coo at him. “Aw, I’m gonna miss that eye roll.”

“Don’t get sappy on me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll save our grief-filled goodbye til morning.” A ping rang throughout the room. Beau pulled out his phone and smiled at what was on the screen. “Mateo’s downstairs. See you later.”

Zach waved him off as the apartment door closed. With a huff, he walked back into his nearly empty room. Besides two suitcases, his school bag, his sheets, and the aloe plant that he bought at an Ecofest junior year, his room was back to the bland state it was when he moved in. His father took everything else back to Lillet after their graduation visit. He was not going to let Zach take multiple trips upstate to get his things when they were already there. He wasn’t going to let Zach do a lot of things once he moved back in.

Zach placed his drink on his desk before digging into his bag to pull out his current read, or the book he was trying to read anyway. He was a quarter of the way in, but he could barely remember what happened in the earlier pages, and flipping to where he stopped only reminded him of that.

His phone buzzed on the desk, and he groaned when he saw a message from his dad.

[Jedidiah]

Are you in your apartment?

Zach rolled his eyes as he picked up the phone to reply. This was one message that he couldn’t let go unanswered.

[Zach]

Yes 

I told you I was staying in to work on applications tonight

[Jedidiah]

Good. What time are you getting here tomorrow?

[Zach]

Don’t know, planning for 1, but you know how traffic is

[Jedidiah] 

Okay, see you then. Good night.

[Zach]

Night

Zach groaned before tossing his phone and the book on his bed as he felt the frustration rising to his temples again. 

He had to remind himself that everything was going to be fine.

He would find a job, and he would be moving to New York before the end of the summer.

He took a breath as he sat down at his desk and grabbed his notebook from his bag, flipping past the lists of book ideas and outlines he’d made to an empty page marked with his favorite ballpoint pen, and started to write out his new plan.

If he was smart to be valedictorian at a school where the average GPA was 3.79, surely he could figure this out.

Zach’s Current Goals

1. Start Full-Time Job at the Book Haven and get a Great Recommendation from Des

2. Look Up Online Courses for Hard Skills needed for the Publishing Industry

3. Prep Answers for Least Common Interview Questions

4. Search for Cheap Apartments in NYC

5. Get the Hell out of Lillet (Circled Multiple Times)