Those words stuck with me for the rest of the day. Zac had gone home to try and talk to his family, try to get them to let me come over for a little while, just to say goodbye and a small, individual apology.
I was stuck by the phone, waiting for him to call and have me come over. I was a wreck the rest of the day.
The phone rang. "Hello?" I said, picking up after the second ring.
"Is Carrie there?" some unfamiliar voice asked.
"I think you have the wrong number," I said.
"Oh sorry." I hung up. Dammit, rack up my nerves and it�s a wrong number.
Again I sat there with my nerves shot, waiting for the phone to ring. I knew how that family was. They were all as stubborn as mules, and it wouldn�t be easy to convince them to anything.
The phone rang an hour later. "Hello?"
"You can come over now," Zac said.
"Judgment day comes."
"Just come over."
"Fine." I hung up the phone, brushed my hair, and left. I took my time walking over there, because truthfully I really didn�t want to go. I didn�t want the looks, even worse the non-looks. What are the little kids going to think of me?
It was all too awkward, as I went up to the door and knocked. Please let Zac answer, please let Zac answer� Taylor opened the door. Dammit!!!!
"Oh it�s you. Come on." He left the doorway and let me go in by myself. Zac immediately pulled me up the stairs. I just got a glimpse of everyone.
"I can�t handle this Zac, they�re not even looking at me. It would be really bad if they stared but they�re not even looking!"
"My dad and Ike are out somewhere, probably to the store or something, but they were gone when I got here and they�re not back yet so they won�t be expecting you," he whispered.
"O.K. Why are we whispering?" I asked.
"Because I don�t want them to hear. I was lucky to be able to get you over here and they really didn�t like that. They don�t want to hear you out."
"Then why am I here?"
"To see them before you leave."
"I won�t be leaving for another week or so."
"And I�m lucky I got you here now. I know how much they love you but they�re just mad and maybe you being here and looking all down will help them forgive you."
"Why did this have to happen?" I asked. He took my hand in his left and with his right, tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
"I don�t know. All I know is if they see me being able to forgive you it�ll be easier for them." He gently kissed me. "I hope."
"Your hopes come true before mine do," I told him.
"Tini!" Diana called. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and then turned around.
"Yes."
"Come down here." I let my hand slip by Zac�s, a small sign of hope and affection, then went down the stairs.
"Zac seems to have a very convincing story," she told me, and sat down on a couch. I remained standing.
"Oh really?"
"Yes. He says it wasn�t your fault, but I beg to differ."
"I agree with him. Taylor brought it on himself, and he knew it."
"Do you defy my family?"
"Not all of it."
"Why do you insist on coming back here when you�re of no use anymore?"
"I figured it would be a good idea to see you all again, one last time before I left. You used to be so pleasant, Diana. What happened? I thought you liked me."
"Well that was before you spoiled my sons� hopes. It was before you decided to exploit Taylor�"
"I did not exploit him in any way shape or form! I was angry. You knew what he had done to me and still you think it�s all my fault."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Diana paused. She didn�t know why exactly. The only reason she had backed him was because he is her son and she has to.
"See, there�s no real reason to hate me. This doesn�t involve you, Diana. I don�t even know what your say in this is. You don�t have one. This whole thing is between me and Taylor, and no one else. Other people just get in the way. That�s you, Diana."
She sat there speechless as I walked away.
I walked around, looking for Zac. I found him downstairs in a small room of some sort. I walked in, and noticed Taylor was in there, sitting in a chair. "Oh hello," he said. He stood up and walked over to me.
I slowly walked backwards, towards the back of the room. All of a sudden Taylor was being really nice to me and I didn�t like it. "Don�t be afraid of me, even though you have every right to."
"What�s going on?" I asked. He walked over to the door and closed it.
"You know I�ve been waiting for this, Tini," Taylor said, locking the door. I backed away from him, towards the window. "I�ve been waiting a while to get rid of you."
"Excuse me?" I said. I looked to Zac and he shook his head. He had no idea what was going on. Taylor turned around finally, and I noticed something in his hand.
A gun?
"Woah, Taylor, what the hell is going on in your head? Why would you want to get rid of me?" I asked, now against the window
"Well lets think about it, Tini. The only thing that brought me pleasure you took away from me. My music. People thought we were great and we were wonderful people, and I wanted to keep it that way. But of course you had to tell people, and we died. Why?"
"I just wanted to show some girls who you really were! I was mad at you, I didn�t know they were recording the whole thing!" I said, frantically. I was close to a panic attack.
"You just get yourself hyped, it�ll make me easier to kill you," Taylor said.
"Tay don�t. What happened to you?" Zac asked. He was just as petrified as I was.
"You shut up Zac! You have no part in this. I can�t believe you wouldn�t figure out that she was against us."
"I�m not against you!" I said.
"Yes you are! That�s why you did this to us. Zac, you know she killed us."
"She didn�t kill us, you did."
"And I will again," Taylor said. "If Tini would just stop shaking so I could get a good aim at her!"
"No Taylor, please don�t."
"You said yourself you didn�t fear death, why should you now?" he asked, raising the gun.
"Well no one was going to kill me then! I figured I would die from my disease, not some insane fifteen year old pointing a gun at me!"
"I�m not insane!" Taylor yelled.
"And killing me is going to prove it?" I asked.
"You stop shaking! I only have one bullet and I better make it count." I closed my eyes, pure fear that only someone with a gun pointed at them could feel. "Say goodbye, Tini."
A shot rang out.
Zac jumped in front of me and it hit him.
He fell.
I opened my eyes and saw Zac on the ground. "You idiot! I�m not supposed to kill you!" Taylor yelled, in a panic. I sank down to the ground, next to him.
His whole body was shaking, a dark blood flowing out of his chest. "Zac�" I whispered, brushing his hair away from his face. "You saved me, you idiot! I�m supposed to die, not you!"
He smiled, weakly, his body still shaking and the blood still flowing. "It�s better me than you. You�re too precious to go. I�m nothing anymore, you still have everything."
"Zac I don�t have everything, I�m just a sick dying person myself, Taylor was going to put me out of my misery."
"I love you Destiny," he whispered. I flinched at the sound of my real name.
"I love you too Zac." His eyes closed. "No�no Zac you stay with me. You don�t die. Please." Tears fell out of my eyes, and I wiped them away. They blurred my vision. "Zac! Come back. Zac!!!" I screamed, holding his head. But his body stopped shaking, his head was limp, his eyes were closed.
I looked up to Taylor, who had a look of fright on his face. The gun dropped from his fingertips. "You asshole!" I said, getting up and running over to him. I screamed now. "You killed him, you killed your own brother!! Do you have any idea what you just did? You killed your best friend�" my voice was now a whisper, a gentle whisper. "How could you?"
He took me in his arms, letting me cry into him. There was a knock on the door. I ignored it, and so did Tay. I cried, blocking out the reoccurring knock that eventually turned into pounding.
After the longest time the door opened and in came Walker and Isaac. They saw Zac�s dead body lying on the floor, and me crying into Taylor�s chest.
They saw the gun on the floor.
"Oh my God," Walker said, running over to his son. "Zac?"
"He�s dead," Taylor whispered.