"What the hell are you doing here?" Diana Hanson asked when she opened the door and found her soon standing there.
"I need somewhere to stay. Ginger kicked me out of the house and she�s not about to let me back in again," Zac said. Diana stood there a few minutes. Well it is her son�
"Fine, but you are going to learn some discipline or I�m just going to kick you out and you can find a homeless shelter." Zac nodded, solemnly. Diana felt truly sorry for him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Isaac asked, hiding his right arm behind his back. Zac had broken it in the fight they had been in just a week before.
Diana gave Ike a stern look. He backed off, and she told Zac to follow her upstairs. Before going, Zac gave a smile to his older brother. "How�s the arm, bub?" he asked.
Zac ran up the stairs before Ike could catch him. Diana took him into an empty room. "We kept it empty, hoping you would come back," she said, flipping on the light switch.
The room was painted a nice blue, with a full bed stuck in the corner. There was two dressers and a closet. "I kept all your clothes, I don�t know if they still fit, though. You look like you�ve grown. I don�t know, you�re just too tall for your own good." Zac smiled, looking around the room.
"I don�t know, I�ve been stuck with the same clothes for six months and they fit fine," he said, looking down to the clothes he was wearing. They were big and loose, he hadn�t really grown at all since he left.
"Why did you come back, Zac?"
"I told you. Ginger kicked me out of the house, and she won�t let me back in. Really sucks because it was on Valentine�s Day too. I tried apologizing but she just wouldn�t let me back and told me to go home, so here I am. I was praying that you would let me in because I don�t have anywhere else to go."
"I�ll take you back, but I�m not sure anyone else will. Your father is going to be pissed when he gets home. Taylor and Isaac won�t agree to having you around. The younger ones, they�ll enjoy having you back, but it�ll be hard trying to explain why you were gone for so long to Mackenzie and Zoe. Zoe doesn�t even remember you."
"I wouldn�t think she would. I�m just hoping Mac will forgive me. Y�all said that he�s always looked up to me."
"Y�all? You�ve been in Florida too long." Zac smiled. A sudden scream came from the downstairs living room. "My life, Zac. Screaming and blames." She ran out of the room, and down the stairs.
"TAYLOR STOP TORTURING YOUR LITTLE SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Zac heard Diana scream. He chuckled. Now that he came back Diana didn�t treat him like her son, she treated him more like her friend.
He sat down on the bed, looking around the room. Pretty plain, the walls painted blue and two white dressers filled with his old clothes. He got up and walked over to the closet.
On the three shelves in there was his collection of Doc Marten boots. He sighed, "I�m home."
"Zakky?" a recognizable voice said from behind. "Zakky is that you?" Zac turned around, and saw Jessie standing there. She ran over and gave him a huge hug, toppling him over.
"Hey Jess." It was hard for him to realize that Jess was now 11. Zac still remembered her as the little 9 year old he once knew. Of course when he left she was 10, but it felt strange.
"You came home!" she exclaimed, and then slapped him.
"Ow!"
"Why the hell did you leave?" she yelled. Zac gently pushed her off of him, and sat up.
"God, Jessie, you didn�t have to hit me!" She gave him an annoyed look, wanting an explanation. "I had to leave. It was Ginger, I told you about her, right?" Jess nodded. "Dad told me I wasn�t allowed to see her again, and I so didn�t want that, so I just ran away and I lived with her for six months."
"Why�d you come back?" she asked, moving over to sit beside him.
"She kicked me out," he said, pulling his knees up to his chest. "I was feeling like I was losing her. She was throwing herself at another guy and I felt alone. I got this girl to stop by while she was at the store and well things led to other things and we ended up making out."
Jess shook her head. "Zac, my gosh. I can see why she kicked you out."
"Yeah, but I didn�t mean it. I tried apologizing but she wouldn�t accept and she told me to just leave. She even threatened to call the police�"
"And you left!" Jess yelled.
"Well, yeah. What was I supposed to do?"
"You idiot! If you were able to live with her for six months without a problem and then she asks you to leave you don�t leave! She loves you too much to call the police. She�ll threaten you but she won�t actually do it!"
Jessie picked up the phone. "Call her."
"What?"
"Call her. Apologize. And if she hangs up call her again. And if she hangs up again, I�ll talk to her." Zac took the phone, and started dialing.
"Jess, you�re too smart for your own good." He waited as the phone rang, and I picked up.
"Hello?"
"Ginger?"
"Zac, leave me alone." I hung up. Zac gave Jessica an annoyed look, and she said to call again. He hit re-dial. After seven rings he was about to give up.
"You have to be persistent. Don�t hang up until she answers. Trust me, she will. It�ll get to her."
"Hello?" My voice said.
"Ginger you got to hear me out�"
"Zac leave me alone!" I hung up again. Zac gave another annoyed look to Jess. She took the phone and pressed re-dial.
After fifteen rings, I picked up again. "Why don�t you just leave me alone?!!" I yelled.
"Ginger, this is Jessie. If you don�t listen to me I can track you down and trust me when I say you won�t hear the end of it. I can ring the doorbell many times without getting tired."
"Fine, you got my attention."
"Do you have the slightest idea what hell you�re putting my brother through?"
"Do you have the slightest idea what hell your brother put me through?"
"Selfish little girl. I can see why he did that to you," Jess said, in a nicely morbid tone. Zac signaled for her to stop, but she ignored him.
"Don�t bring it up, Jess."
"But it�s true. You�re selfish. I�m surprised he didn�t leave you to yourself a long time ago. I see all that modeling has gone to your head. Why does he love you so much?"
"Jess did you call me to criticize me or what?"
"Well I�m not sure why I called�"
"Then goodbye."
"If you hang up that phone you�re going to die." Zac had never heard that tone come from his sweet little sister before.
"Fine."
"I believe I called because my brother is desperately in love with you. Ever since he got here he�s been a total wreck, and I can tell you�ve just crushed his heart. He wants you back but you won�t listen to him. Why not?"
"He crushed my heart."
"And he�s sorry for it. Will you talk to him?" I sighed, thought about it for a long while and then spoke.
"Yeah."
"Good." Jess handed the phone to her brother. With shaky hands he started speaking into it.
"Hi Ginger."
"Hi Zac."
"I�m really sorry I had to get Jess to start this out in such a morbid way. That�s just her, I guess."
"It�s O.K., Zac. I�m kinda glad I let her talk to me. I�m sorta calmed down now. So, you�re really crushed?"
"Yeah, I am."
"I�m sorry�"
"I love you." Jessie smiled, and got up to leave the room. Zac took her arm and pulled her down. "You�re staying here just in case I make a mistake," Zac told her.
"I love you too, Zac."
"You do?" He asked, a broad smile on his face. It had been a week since he left, he�d only been in the house about twenty minutes but he still missed me with all his heart.
"Yeah, I�ve always loved you. I never stopped, I just got really mad at you."
"So�can I come home now?"
"No."
"What!?" he yelped. "Why not?" Jessie put her head in her hands. This girl is so playing him. He�s too gaga over her to realize it. She�s just going to break his heart and he�ll be so upset. And he�ll still love her.
"I don�t think you should come back now, I�m not ready yet." Zac shook his head.
"But you just said�"
"I know what I just said but I�m not ready for you to come yet. I may say I love you and all that but I�m still really mad at what you did. It�s going to take time for me to forgive you."
Jessie had picked up another phone and was listening in. Zac saw her do it, and was O.K. with it, as long as she didn�t say anything. He could tell she wanted to yell her heart out. He did too.
She couldn�t help it anymore. "You self-centered little bitch. I swear to God you have the best guy in the world talking to you right now. And I�m not saying that cause he�s my brother. When he says he�s sorry like this he means it and he won�t ever do it again. You�re tearing him in two here. Half of him wants to yell at you and the other half is so desperately in love with you he sees right past what you really are and into something you are inside that he wants to surface. Well get a grip into reality girl because your chance is about to blow."
"Fuck you," I told her.
"Don�t you say that to my sister!" Zac yelled. "She�s right you know. I gave her up for six months for you. You have no idea how incredibly hard that was for me. It may be that your family is never there but mine is and has been my whole life and I gave that up for you. And now I�m begging them to take me back because you want to be a pris. If you don�t realize what I gave up then maybe you should get back onto earth from whatever planet you�re on."
"Jess, get off the phone," I said
"No!"
"Zac get her off the phone, I need to talk to you alone." Zac took the phone from Jessie and hung it up. She gave Zac a look, and he shooed her out of the room.
He was glad those were the two only phones for that line.
"O.K., she�s off."
"Zac, I don�t know what having an actual family is like. I had a maid. That was my family. My parents are always gone, I�m an only child and I don�t have any relatives that I know of. I always wanted a normal family, that sat down to dinner and gave each other hugs and kisses for no reason. I don�t know that, so you�re right. I have no idea what you gave up."
"See?"
"But Zac I try. I try really hard. It�s insane but now I�m just starting to realize how much I miss you and I want you home but I can�t take you back. I�m too afraid that I�ll get hurt again."
"Ginger, that�s what trust is. You need to trust me. You need to realize that I won�t do it again."
"I�m sorry, Zac. I can�t do it. I just can�t. I�ve never trusted people and when I finally started to trust you, you blew it. It�ll take a while before I can forgive you. But I still love you."
"I do too, but this isn�t going to work if you can�t trust me."
"Then I guess it�s not going to work." I hung up the phone. Tears glossed Zac�s eyes, threatening to spill. He put the phone back in it�s cradle, his face going white and his tears falling over.
He put his head in his arms, with his knees folded up against his chest. He cried for God knows how long, not being able to control it. Is this mean we�re broken up? Did we just cancel ourselves out? Are we not seeing each other anymore?
Just that thought made him cry harder. Jessie had been watching him cry for an hour before she went downstairs and got Diana. They watched together for another two hours, waiting for him to let up so Diana could comfort him but he didn�t let up at all, he just got worse.
For four more hours Diana passed by his room every half an hour to check on him, but he was still in the same position, still crying as hard as she had ever seen him cry.
Both Isaac and Taylor had walked by, seeing their little brother. Isaac rolled his eyes and Taylor had to keep himself from laughing. On TV and in public they always looked like they enjoyed the other�s company, but truthfully, they just hated each other.
When Walker came home, Diana told him that Zac had come home. He was about to go upstairs and yell at him when Jessie told him about the phone conversation. Even though he had a lot to yell at him about, he couldn�t just go in there after all this had happened and make it worse.
Eventually he forgot about it and let the poor boy stay in there with his own misery, that would punish him enough.
And finally after the seventh straight hour of him sobbing, Zac had cried himself to sleep.
"Hey Zac, you alright?" Jessie asked the next morning. Zac had been in his room since he woke up two hours previous. He had refused breakfast and decided he wasn�t going to talk to anyone.
"Jess, go away. You made this all worse."
"How the hell was I supposed to know that would happen?" Jess yelled. He sighed and turned away from her, looking out the window and into the field outside.
"Please, Jess."
"Oh you�re no fun," she said and walked out of the room. Zac thought she was still there and turned around to shoo her out, but she was gone and he faced an empty room.
And for some reason he felt that he was going to be facing an empty room for quite some time now.
As he stood there, looking around the room, his father passed by the doorway. Of course he hadn�t seen his father yet since he got back.
"Dad?" he said. His father stopped and looked to him, surprised. He looked his son over, not totally believing it.
"Damn, Zac. You changed."
"I did?" he asked. Stupid question but no one told him he�d changed, he thought no one really cared.
"Well, yeah. You don�t look like a little boy anymore. You look older, you�re taller," he said, walking over. "You�re actually taller than me."
"Dude! I am!" Zac said, noticing it for the first time.
"Don�t push it." Zac stopped, smiling. "You got braces."
"I forgot about those," he said, looking in the mirror across from him, noticing the brackets on his teeth. He remembered the woman asking his what colors he wanted and his simply said blue. So they were plain ol� blue.
"And you got thinner." Zac shrugged, sitting down on his bed. Walker felt a little uncomfortable. He had no idea what else to say and the silence was getting to him. "So�how�s life?" Bad question.
"It sucks."
"Really?" Zac gave his father a look.
"I�m sure Jessie�s told you the whole story. Otherwise you would of came in here yelling at me when you first had the chance." He put his forehead in his hand, looking down at the white carpet. "This is insane. This is truly insane. She has no clue what I went through for her."
"Then she�s not the one for you."
"But why do I love her so much? I know she�s selfish and she�s a bitch sometimes, but I still love her a lot�"
"Zac, why do you love her? Give me a few reasons." Zac looked up to his father.
"Because she�s usually so sweet, she�s always so beautiful even after she�s just woken up and she has no makeup and her hair�s all messed up and stuff. I love the way she just happens to fall into my arms after a long day, how she�d rather have a kiss than a million pairs of shoes, how she�d rather love me than that Bryan guy."
"Um, O.K. Who�s Bryan?"
"Her best friend." Walker nodded. "You know everyone is always saying she�s a selfish little brat, but when I look at her I don�t see that. I�ve never seen that. I say it cause everyone else says it, but I�ve never seen it. Well, before now."
"What do you mean?" Zac figured his father took a course of psychology in college or something.
"When we got into a fight a week ago that sent me out here I realized that everything she talked about was her, her, her. I just wanted to yell at her �what about me?�. And when I was on the phone with her yesterday she kept talking about herself, and that she wasn�t ready for me to come home yet, she couldn�t forgive me. It seemed like she had a switch on her and all of a sudden it was all about her."
"O.K. And you never noticed this before?" Zac shook his head, looking out into the hallway. Isaac was walking by.
"How�s the arm, Ike?" he asked. Ike flicked him off and walked away.
"And what�s that all about?" Walker asked, sounding like a dad again.
"I broke his arm." Walker�s head flickered back with surprise. "You didn�t know I was the one who broke his arm?"
"I knew when we were in Florida he got into a fight and broke it, but I didn�t know you were the one who broke it." Zac shrugged. "Well I can�t exactly punish you for that because seriously I don�t think you�re going to be around long enough to serve it out."
"Huh?"
"Well from what you�ve told me, and what Jessie�s told me she loves you too much to be mad at you for very long, so you should be back over there in a week or so."
"You think?" Walker nodded.
"Positive."