Kris gripped Zac's hand as he knocked on the door and waited. The experience of actually waiting was next to him when it came to Gwen's house. He'd always let himself in and announce that he was there. Megan came to the door, and was shocked to see Zac there.
"Zac! I didn't know you were coming!" She immediately threw her arms around him, causing him to release Kris's hand and put his arms around Megan.
"Yeah, well I missed you."
She pulled away. "Don't tell me you're here to see Gwen." Zac nodded. "Why?"
"Because. Just because." Megan sighed and let them inside.
"Who are you?" Megan asked, looking at Kris. She noticed they were holding hands and immediately jumped to conclusions. "New girlfriend?"
"No," Zac said. "She's just my best friend. Actually, she's Taylor's girlfriend." Megan nodded.
"Could have fooled me." Zac gave her a look. "Well you're holding onto her for dear life. It's like you'll fall apart if you let go."
"Moral support," Kris said. "It's the only reason I'm here." Zac nodded. "So, where is she?"
"In her room." Kris followed Zac over to her room. He stopped at her door and looked at Kris.
"What am I doing here? I'm leaving�" Zac turned to go, but Kris pulled him back.
"You're here to show her that you don't care about her anymore. You're here because you don't love her anymore."
"But Kris, you know I do�"
"It doesn't matter as long as you don't let her know that." Kris smiled to him. She knocked on the door.
"Come on in!"
Kris opened the door and looked around before setting her eyes on the girl in the corner. She had her foot propped up on her desk, nail polish in her hand. She finally finished painting her toenail and looked up at them.
"I wasn't expecting you people yet!" Gwen said, getting up. "I honestly didn't think you were going to come." She carefully stepped up to Zac, trying not to mess up the wet polish on her toes. Kris noticed that Gwen was shorter than her. Gwen looked up at Zac.
"Hi Gwen," Zac said.
"Hi Zac. You got much taller."
"You're still short." She smiled, but wasn't sure what to do next. "Kris, could you leave for a few minutes?" Zac asked, and turned to her. Kris was skeptical, but left anyway. Zac watched her leave the room. He closed the door after her.
"What's that about?"
"I didn't want her to see this." Gwen grew confused, but it changed once Zac hugged her. "I missed you."
"Really?" she asked into his shoulder, hugging him back. "I didn't think you would."
"I keep telling myself that I don't still care, and that I don't still love you, but I do. I didn't want to come because I knew that."
"But nothing can come from this."
"I know. I won't let anything happen between us. Someone will just get hurt again."
"I missed you too, Zac." Zac let go and looked at her.
"You look�God, you look as beautiful as you always do." She blushed and turned away. She was never good with compliments. "No, seriously. I always thought you were beautiful."
"Shut up, you're embarrassing me."
"In front of who?" Zac said, slightly laughing. "In front of my pictures on the wall?" Zac asked, pointing to a collage of him on the wall, collected from various teeny magazines. "How bout that one over there of Leonardo DiCaprio?"
"Well, stop it anyway. Sit down, I have to finish painting my nails." Zac took the liberty to sit down on her bed. When she smiled at him, he fell back and put his feet up. "Why are your dirty, nasty shoes on my bed?" She paused. "Because they want to be there, right?"
"You know me too well."
"There was a time period when we were completely inseparable, Zac. I think I know you rather well."
"Can you tell me what I love, or who I hate, and everything I wish?" Zac said, sitting up and moving closer to her. "Do you really know me?"
"Zac, you love yourself more than you love me. You do love me, and you do hate me. You hate people who lie all the time. You wish for everything to be right, all the time, but you never let people know that. You always want everything your way, but you know that it can't always be that way." He bit his lip. "Do you know me?"
"You love me and you say you love Leonardo DiCaprio but it's only a cover up so you can watch The Man in the Iron Mask over and over again for Jeremy Irons."
"I do not!"
"And John Malkovich." She gave him a look. "You hate Megan and your brother Andrew, even though you never let on that you actually have a brother. You wish for Andrew to understand you, but you also wish for happiness."
"And I can never get it."
"But you try."
"I try hard." She looked at him. "I don't know why I ever doubted my feelings for you." Zac looked out the window. She hadn't changed much at all, if anything she was more beautiful than she was before. He just couldn't look at her and not think of what she did to him. He looked past her to the bookcase that stood behind her. The first thing that caught his eye was a picture in a frame. The same frame she'd given him such a long time ago�together forever. But it wasn't of her and Zac. It was Gwen and that Joshua kid. He bit his lip and his entire mood changed
"I just want you to know that even though I've always loved you, you do not understand what a real life is like. I know you more than I know anybody. You've never had pain, you've never had heartache, you've never had any problems that didn't go away in a few days. You don't know what it's like to live life everyday the way I do. You think you know me, but you know me eight months ago. I've changed a lot since then. I'm not the same person I was then, Gwen. You have to realize that before you can walk back into my life."
"But�"
"I don't care, Gwen." He got up. "It was good to see you again, but that's going to be it. I may love you and I may never get over you but I do realize that you're not worth it to go through all that pain."
"Zac, please. Don't just change moods again like you always do. Don't just walk away from me."
"Stop it, Gwen. Just stop it. You are so beautiful that you could have anyone that walked up to you. I just happened to have the courage to walk away from you." She stood up. "I just don't want to be with you anymore. You're too much for me." He opened the door and stepped out. He found Kris talking to Megan in the kitchen. "Hey, let's go."
"Already?" Kris asked. "Hey, that was easier than I thought it was going to be. I didn't have to do anything." She said goodbye to Megan and walked over to Zac.
"Bye Megan." Zac ran over and hugged her before they walked out of the house. "Well," he said after they had left. "It may have been easy for you but it sure as hell wasn't easy for me."
"What'd you say?"
"I started out trying to compliment her and trying to forget how much she hurt me. But then I looked at her, and directly behind her was a picture of her and Joshua in the same exact frame she had given me."
"Joshua's the guy she cheated on you with, right?" Zac nodded. "Not good."
"I just figured that if we ever got back together she would just do it all over again, so I told her basically that I didn't want to be around her anymore."
"Are you feeling any better?" Zac put his arm around her.
"I'm starting to get over her," he said. "Thank you."
"Well, you know I try."
"I really appreciate you spending all this time with me, trying to help me get over her. I know you came here to be with Taylor and all�" She smiled.
"I'm happy I'm helping. I've spent plenty of time with Taylor. I mean when I'm not with you I'm with him. And since I'll be leaving the day after we get back to Tulsa, I'm going to spend the rest of my time with him."
"That's only a few days away, Kris," Zac said, looking at her. "I'm going to miss you. You came here and I didn't even know you very well, but now you're my best friend." He squeezed her. "I don't know how Taylor got to you before I could."
"Excuse me?"
"Nevermind." She stopped and looked at him. "Alright, I'll tell you. I've had a crush on you since I met you." She smiled and hugged him.
"I don't know what to say, but get your ass in the car so I can get out of here before Megan decides she wants to tell me more stories about the two of you."
"Is that what you were talking about?" Zac asked. He stepped into the passenger's seat of the car, while Kris got behind the wheel. "I was wondering."
"Yeah, she told me all about the stuff you two used to do." Zac looked at Kris.
"How much did she tell you?" he asked. There was a few things that they'd done that he didn't want Kris to know anything about. Megan knew everything, Gwen had always told her everything that ever happened to her, and Zac was glad Megan didn't care very much.
"Well, just the fact that the two of you were inseparable. How you spent all your time together and how much you two loved each other." Zac let out a breath. Kris pulled out into the road. She wanted to mention everything Megan said. She found it very interesting, especially the fact that Zac lost his virginity to Gwen not long before they broke up.
"What else did she say?" Kris sighed.
"Everything." Zac looked over at her. "I know you and Gwen had sex. I'm actually not that surprised."
"Why?"
"Well since you were that inseparable and together for that amount of time, I only figure it'd come up sooner or later. It's not even like the age thing would blow me off. I knew a lot of people younger than you were who'd had sex on a regular basis."
"Really?" Zac asked.
"Well, yeah. And I went to a private school. I knew a lot of, well, sluts. I use the term loosely, of course, but that's what they were basically. I knew a few people that strut around to guy after guy after guy sleeping with them and then leaving. It was horrible some of the people I knew."
"You're in like, what? Eighth grade now?"
"Yeah."
"I know a seventh grader who's all that and more. It's pathetic a few of the people I know."
"To tell you the truth all I did after it happened was regret it. I think both of us did. We were too young for that sort of thing. Hell, I still am now."
"Society's a bitch nowadays." She switched lanes and made a turn. She didn't realize that she was going rather fast for the roads she was on, but she was just trying to concentrate on where she was going and have a conversation with Zac at the same time.
Almost immediately she noticed the police car behind her. There were no lights on, so there was the chance that he was just taking the same route as her. She bit her lip and slowed down. His siren went on. "Shit!"
"What?" Zac looked behind him and saw the cop.
"I knew I was going too fast! Shit�" She pulled to the side of the road and put her head against the steering wheel. "Do you have your seat belt on?"
"No."
"Put it on." Zac quickly put it on, and a few moments later the cop appeared by the window. He tapped on the window. Kris lowered it and looked up to the cop. He had on the typical sunglasses, but otherwise he was looking very fierce.
"Going a little fast, honey?" Honey? she thought.
"Um, yeah I was, sir. I know I shouldn't but I wasn't paying attention."
"Are you trying to weasel yourself out of a ticket?"
"No, I know I deserve one."
"Let me see your license and registration." She sighed and got her things for the officer. She handed her license and the registration of the rental car to him. "Chicago, huh? Here on a vacation?"
"Actually I'm here because of my boyfriend. I was staying with him and they got called here for a few days." The officer looked inside the car. "He's not my boyfriend, he's just a friend."
"I'm sorry, but you were going 80 in a 45 mile an hour zone, so I'm going to have to write you up." Kris was surprised he was being so nice to her. Her impression of her first speeding ticket was the officer yelling at her as she cringed in fear. He wrote up a ticket and handed all her things back to her. "Start paying attention next time."
The officer walked away, and she looked at the ticket. "Three hundred dollars! Oh my God!" She rolled up the window and banged her hands against the steering wheel. "Shit!" Zac grabbed the ticket from her hand and looked at it.
"He drew a Smiley face, Kris."
"I don't care about the damn Smiley face! It's three hundred dollars!" She put her license away and threw the registration back in the glove box. She groaned and slammed her hand against the steering wheel again. The horn went off and immediately her hands went over her mouth. "I hope he didn't hear that." She looked out the window and the cop car was out of sight already.
She pulled out onto the road and paid more attention to the road, even though she was deeply pissed. They got back to the hotel quickly. Kris parked and slammed the car door. She kicked the curb and let out a scream. Zac had never seen her this pissed before.
Kris went upstairs and slammed the door to the hotel room. Taylor was in there, and turned to her. "Problem?"
"I got a ticket!" She yelled, holding up the piece of paper in her hands. "Three hundred fricken dollars! How the hell am I supposed to pay for that? I don't have any money whatsoever and I have to pay three hundred dollars for a speeding ticket." She kicked the nightstand, and plopped onto the bed. "My mother is going to kill me."
"Let me see." Kris held out the paper. He walked over and sat down next to her on the bed, and took it. "There's a Smiley face on it." Kris just shrugged, completely unsure of why it was there.
Zac walked into the room. He saw Kris on the bed. "Kris, if it's really bugging you this much, I'll pay for it. I mean you wouldn't of gotten it if you weren't talking to me," he said.
"No, I need to pay for it myself. It's the only way I'll learn. I'm just so fucking pissed right now!" Taylor looked down at her.
"Calm down," he said, and brushed her hair out of her face.
"I just have no idea how I'm going to come up with the money to pay for this." She sighed, looking up at Taylor. "Can you believe he gave me a ticket? And put a Smiley face on it! I couldn't believe he actually gave me a ticket."
"Kris, you were going 80 in a 45 mile an hour zone," Zac said. "And you didn't even try to get out of it! You're a girl, you're supposed to be able to get out of these things."
"I didn't really think about it."
"You just brought it on yourself."
"Don't make me come over there. I'll kick your ass to next Tuesday."
"Please don't," Zac said. "I need my ass, thankyouverymuch." She laughed. "And you know I'm only doing this so you won't get another ticket."
"Yeah, whatever. It's your fault."
"No, it's not."
"You just said that! You just said that before."
"Okay, whatever." Zac sat down on the bed. Taylor looked down at Kris. "Kris, you're going to be gone in a few days�"
"I know. I don't want to leave, but I kinda miss my mom and all. If she wasn't around I'd have an excuse to stay."
"What'd you tell Brian you were doing?"
"I didn't really tell him anything. I'm basically going to say that Debbie needs my help and whatever. I don't know, I'll tell him I went to Jupiter and he'd believe me." She tapped her head. "He's a bit dense."
"Wouldn't he be figuring it out by now?"
"I don't care; I really don't care." She looked up at Taylor. "I love you."
"I love you too!" Zac piped in. She looked at him and stuck out her tongue. "Fine."