I've always had a Zoë prompt but no one to write it and English isn't my first language. So: have you ever read the book Everything Leads To You, in one scene the lesbian main character who is kicked out breaks into her own house to pick up some stuff (in the story her birthcentificate) but out of anger for her mom she starts causing damage on purpose searching for it… that part always reminds me of Zoë in the book so a Zoë story baised on that scene please
I’ve never read that book but I can SO do Zoë being angry and causing damage in her house!
(also apologies, I’m not Canadian so I’m not super familiar with Canadian documentation!)
Consuela Rivas, in her infinite generosity, had sent Zoë a package with her birth certificate and other necessary documents as a graduation “gift”, but she’d forgotten one crucial thing: Zoë’s SIN card.
Zoë had had a Social Insurance Number forever, she’d needed it for her work on television, but she’d obviously not taken care of it herself when she was just a toddler. Her mom had it somewhere in the Rivas files. Grace had suggested Zoë apply for a new one but the time and money involved in that seemed a complete waste when there was a copy somewhere in the Rivas house. Until she got it, Zoë couldn’t get a job, something she desperately needed to help her pay for university.
Consuela Rivas had also kept the vast majority of the small fortune Zoë had earned as a child star, sending her a two thousand dollar check in her graduation package along with her birth certificate and See You Never letter.
Zoë wanted that card. She knew where the spare key was, and she was going to get it herself.
Grace thought it was a terrible idea, but had gone with Zoë anyway. When Zoë had told her she didn’t have to, Grace had rolled her eyes. “Someone has to go with you to keep you out of trouble. That someone is usually me.”
Zoë knew her mom’s schedule to a tee, something she’d memorized to help avoid her as much as possible, so she knew when Consuela wouldn’t be home. She wasn’t feeling paranoid as she entered the house. Grace was, eying the place warily as she lugged her oxygen tank behind her. “Where do we start?”
“The office,” Zoë said, leading the way. “She’s not organized, but she’s at least consistent in where she puts things.”
The office was, indeed, a mess, but clearly Phillip had tried to do some damage control at some point. Zoë had the sneaking suspicion that it had been Phillip’s idea to actually give Zoë her shit. She could easily see her mom deciding a letter was enough, a last dramatic flourish in a relationship that had always been for show.
“I’ll get the cabinets. You can do the desk,” Zoë said. Grace stuck out her tongue. The desk was a lot less to sort through but it was also the major disaster zone. Zoë winked, but the teasing felt stilted, like an act the two of them were putting on to try to drown out the fact that Zoë was in her house stealing her own documentation back from her mom.
They got to work, silent at first, with a few jokes here and there, mostly from Grace. Then Grace moved her oxygen tank to get to another drawer and accidentally knocked over a pile of paper. “Shit, sorry Zo,” Grace said, tugging her oxygen tank closer to her.
Zoë watched the paper settle on the ground. “No, it’s fine… why are you apologizing?” Somehow knocking over the paper seemed appropriate, needed even. Zoë reached into the cabinet she’d been searching, pulled out a file and, after a second of consideration, tossed it into the air. Papers flew through the air.
“Whoa, what was that?” Grace asked, surprised.
Zoë laughed, her eyes lighting up feverishly. She looked at Grace, grinning. “I think this place could use a little decoration.”
Grace quirked an eyebrow, looking uncertain, but at the look on Zoë’s face she smiled slightly and pushed a stapler off the desk.
Zoë started tearing through the cabinet, hardly looking, laughing all the while. Soon the office was carpeted with paper and office supplies. The girls laughed, reveling in the chaos.
Zoë moved to throw another file in the air and stopped. It had her name on it. Slowly, Zoë opened it. Contracts for shows, pay stubs, bills. Her SIN card, tucked between the pages. Pictures of her, young and bright, headshots and stills of her in shots. A small history of Zoë Rivas, child star.
Zoë’s grip tightened on the file and it was suddenly blurry in her vision. This was the Zoë that her mom had wanted. That her mom had pretended to love.
She began tearing up the pages, the pictures, her mirth at being able to get back at her mom fading into anger, frustration and pain. “She threw me out like garbage. Like I was nothing to her, ever!” A picture of her first season on West Drive shredded in her hands. “She never wanted me, she told me so all the time, but I pretended not to know that she didn’t love me. Tricked myself into thinking I could be what she wanted. But I never could because there was never a single moment when she loved me.” Tears poured down Zoë’s face and she threw the file at the wall, hard, and started to kick the papers on the floor. “I was NEVER ENOUGH!”
Zoë’s rampage went on for a few minutes, tearing apart the entire office, and when she finally pushed the computer off the desk and it shattered on the floor she paused, breathing hard.
Arms wrapped around her, hard and unyielding. For a second Zoë was afraid that somehow she’d been caught, and she struggled before she realized it was Grace. Grace, who’d let her do the damage and was now holding her tight. Zoë turned to Grace, searching for anything that she could say to prove Zoë wrong.
Grace hugged Zoë tight and said, “Fuck her, dude.”
Zoë blinked, and then let out a surprised laugh. “Fuck her?”
“Yeah.”
Zoë laughed again. She buried her face against Grace’s collar bone and hugged her back. “Found the card.”
“Oh, good. I was worried we’d have to start looking through the stuff on the floor.”
Zoë giggled and shook her head.
“Let’s get out of here, Zo. Place is a dump.”
Zoë grabbed Grace’s oxygen tank and Grace grabbed Zoë’s hand. “Time to go home.”
