In three weeks Zac had grown accustomed to living with Gwen. Gwen's parents never did come to their part of the house. Most of the time they were out of town or out of the house anyway, so Zac and Gwen enjoyed the benefits of living together. She was hardly in her room anymore. She spent the night in Zac's room most every night, and when she wasn't doing that, she was packing her things for the big move to Los Angeles.
"I never realized how tough packing is," Gwen said. It was Zac's eighteenth birthday and they had a flight at six o'clock in the evening, and Gwen still had some last minute packing to do. "I'm forgetting things left and right."
"Gwen, if you did what I told you to do, then you wouldn't be having this problem. It's three o'clock. We have to be at the airport in two hours and we still have to go to my house and get all this shit to Jarren so he can ship it." Jarren's father worked with the post office and could ship their boxes overnight. Most of it was already sent to LA where it stayed with a friend of Zac's until Zac got there.
They already had an apartment picked out. Zac refused to tell Gwen about it, saying it was a surprise, but Gwen hated surprises and was nervous enough about leaving Tulsa for the first time. She'd never been anywhere in her life further than Oklahoma City and definitely had never been on a plane before.
"I'm going, I'm going�" Gwen said. "Wait, why do we have to stop by your place? I thought you had Isaac ship everything already."
"I forgot my drums."
"Oh. Okay."
"Actually, I'm going to go right now. It might take a while. You stay here and finish packing." Gwen sighed.
"How did I know you were going to find a way to go to your house without me?" she asked, more to herself than to Zac.
"Oh, come on, Gwen! You're still packing and I have to get my drums. It'll just save time. I'll take these boxes to Jarren's on the way." Gwen sighed and waved it off. Zac took the boxes down to his car and drove off.
Opening the front door to his house about twenty minutes later, he peered inside and quietly entered. He knew if he were seen, his family would make a very large deal about his birthday. His plane was leaving soon and he didn't have time for them. He'd put off coming here for that very reason as well; he didn't want to have time for them.
He slipped into the basement, smiling. He'd managed to get past everybody. It didn't even seem like there was anybody home. He opened the door to the basement and froze. He knew it was too good to be true. Taylor was playing away at the piano. Zac sighed and walked over to his drums.
"What are you doing here?" Taylor asked. Zac didn't respond as he began to take apart his drum set. "All right, don't talk to me. I'll talk to you. I really think it's a bad idea you're going to LA like this. Ike and I won't go on with this band without you. You're too important for us to just replace you. So you're not just affecting your future here, you're affecting the rest of us too." Zac began to pack away his drums, ignoring Taylor. "Have you talked to Ginger?"
"Now why would I do that?" Zac asked.
"I think you should." Zac blew it off with a toss of his hand and continued packing. "And you're not honestly bring Gwen along with you, are you? She's no good for you."
"Maybe you should fuck her. That worked with Ginger, didn't it?" Zac finished packing away the drums and began to move the case to the stairs. "I have a plane to catch."
"I seriously think you should talk to Ginger, Zac."
"I don't need to talk to anyone, Taylor. Nothing you or anybody says will make things better. I'm going to LA. I'm looking forward to it. At least now I don't have to deal with the likes of you any longer." Zac began up the stairs.
"At least say goodbye to Mom. She'll never speak to you again if you leave without saying goodbye."
"You speak as though that's a bad thing." Zac went up the stairs and left quickly, not running into anybody else. He put the case in the trunk and drove off. After a quick stop at Jarren's, he drove back to Gwen's house. "Gwen, are you ready yet?" Zac asked, walking into her room. She was lying down on her empty bed in her empty room, reading a magazine.
"Geez, it's about time you got here," she said. "I finished packing five minutes after you left."
"Yeah, well, I got it done anyway. And look! We still have time before we have to go to the airport." He looked at the clock. It was four. They had an hour before they had to be at the airport. Gwen consistently asked him why they had to go so early, but he knew airports better than she did.
"We actually should be going pretty soon," Zac said.
"What? Why? The flight doesn't leave for another two hours!"
"Well, it's a long way into the city and with traffic, it'll probably take us an hour to get there. Security is tight these days; you never know how long it's going to take. We could end up waiting for a half an hour or we may be running to make the plane."
"Are you serious?"
"Completely." She still didn't believe him but left with him anyway. Her parents weren't home, so they had to say their goodbyes earlier in the day. Zac still didn't plan on saying goodbye to his family, and Gwen didn't believe he was actually going to do it all the way up until they were sitting in the private waiting room at the airport.
"You're not really going to leave forever and not say goodbye, are you?" Gwen asked. They'd made it with about twenty minutes before the plane was to leave, which was what Zac figured.
"It's not like you think it is, Gwen," Zac said, giving her a look. "I'm not leaving forever, and it's not like I'm never going to see them again! I'm sending them our new number and I can almost guarantee that my mother will fly out to redecorate. It's just not important to me right now."
"I just can't see you doing that, Zac."
"Yeah, I couldn't see myself doing it either, but here we are," he said. "Are you excited? It's your first time to LA."
"I know�You're going to take me sight seeing, right? I want to get to see everything."
"We're going to live there, sweetie," Zac said, a grin on his face now that he successfully vied the subject away from his family. "We're going to have plenty of time to sight-see."
"We are going to live there, aren't we? Oh man, there's so much we're going to have to do when we get there! We're going to have to unpack, then decorate, figure out what grocery store to go to�we're going to need so many things! I'll need to get my driver's license changed!"
"Yeah, it's a lot to do."
"Wow�I didn't even think about that." There was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Zac said. An airport employee walked in.
"It's time for you to board," she explained. "Are you ready?"
"Yes we are," Zac said. He stood up with Gwen, who took her carry-on bag. Zac only brought a book along, but Gwen, who was ridiculous, insisted on taking a bag with everything known to man inside. She took along a spare change of clothes in case her baggage got lost, even though Zac reminded her that most of her clothes already been shipped to LA.
They walked to the terminal and got on the plane. Gwen was noticeably nervous, but when they sat down and got buckled in, Zac took her hand in his. The first class cabin was almost empty, as it normally was when Zac was on board. That was more for safety and convenience for him, just in case he happened to meet someone who knew who he was. Especially as of late, he didn't want to be bothered. His break up with Ginger was more popular than their relationship. He'd heard from Vinnie that she had a memo sent out to all of her interviewers to inform them that she must not be asked about her break up with Zac. Zac didn't know if it was true or not, but it sounded like a damn good idea.
"Are you excited?" Gwen asked Zac as the plane began to roll away from the gate.
"Of course I am, sweetheart," he responded in a low whisper, in case anyone around was listening. "This is the best decision I've ever made, I promise you that." She smiled and looked out the window, squeezing his hand tightly.
"Well, here we are," Zac said, turning on the light. Gwen walked in and her mouth dropped at the sight of the penthouse apartment on the beach in Santa Monica. "It's not much yet, I mean we still have to decorate and everything, but I think it could be pretty snazzy once we get settled."
"It's absolutely gorgeous!!" Gwen said, running in and out of the rooms to see. "I've never seen anything so incredibly beautiful before in my life!" She ran to the window. "And it's on the beach and we've got a view of the ocean�Zac this is so beautiful. How did you ever get an apartment like this?"
"I know some people," Zac said, shrugging. "I'm the kind of person who knows people. I was making calls and this place had just opened up. It wasn't cheap, though. Good thing that producing job is damn good money."
"What kind of money?" Gwen asked, turning around and giving him a smile.
"More than enough," he told her. "That's all you need to know." She pouted but he shook his head. "No, I don't talk about that kind of stuff."
"All right," she said. "So, what exactly do we have right now?"
"Right now," he said, looking around. "We have enough to get by. It's not going to be pretty for a few days, but once all the basic buying is over it'll be wonderful here." It looked like Mark had arranged the boxes by the rooms they belonged in, roughly, and Zac went straight to his bedroom first. He couldn't believe how lucky he got with this apartment. It was owned by a different celebrity, although he didn't know whom, that decided to move to a different city. It was perfect timing when Zac called and he negotiated the price to slightly above affordable. He didn't have as much money as he would once he started getting regular paychecks from his new job, but until then he was pressed for cash.
He'd purchased a number of things and had them shipped over here, and the first thing he bought was a brand new bed. His bed at home was just that�his old bed at his old home. He needed something new. It was assembled, with uncased pillows on top, but wasn't made. All of the clothing was sitting on top of it. That was something Mark said he wouldn't do. He was happy to pick up all the boxes and dump them off in Zac's apartment for free, but to unpack or to put anything together by himself required payment and Zac wasn't in the mood to pay him. So here everything sat, still packed and waiting to be put in a proper place.
Gwen walked into the bedroom. "Ooh, nice bed."
"Yeah. It still has to be made. Why don't you do that, doll? I'll be unpacking the rest of the things."
"All right," she said. "I'm only going to do it because I want to see how it looks. Otherwise you'd be paying for that comment."
"Yes, dear," Zac said. She gave him a look and he walked out of the room. He went to the living room and heard the front door open. Stepping into the open hallway, he saw Mark walking in. "Hey Mark!"
"Zac! You're finally here!" Mark was an older man (well, older compared to Zac) with a goatee. He wore slacks and shirt with a tie, the sleeves rolled up his elbows. He was a schoolteacher at the local high school and he obviously didn't change after work. "Happy birthday, kid."
"Thanks, Mark," Zac said. "And thank you so much for doing all this for us. We really appreciate it. It saves us a lot of time."
" 'We?' " Mark asked. "Who is 'we?' "
"Zac, I don't like the pillowcases," Gwen said, walking out of the bedroom. "Oh, hello."
"Gwen, this is Mark. This is the guy who got all the boxes for us. Mark, this is my girlfriend Gwen." Gwen shook his hand politely. Mark looked at her skeptically and she didn't like it. "I'll finish making the bed." She left quickly.
"Girlfriend?" Mark asked, his voice low. "What the hell happened to Ginger?"
"We broke up about a month ago," Zac simply stated. "I'm with Gwen now."
"You've been dating this Gwen no more than a month and you're living out here with her?" Zac shook his head.
"No, no�it's not like that. I dated Gwen for about a year before Ginger, and now I'm with her again. It's like Ginger never happened." Mark shook his head. "Just trust me, Mark. I should have never broken up with Gwen." Zac kept telling himself that, but when he and Gwen were broken up, he was quite happy without her. He knew it was a lie to say he should have never broken up with her, but he'd said it so many times that he was certain it was the truth.
"All right. I just have to look out for you here, buddy," Mark said, hitting him lightly on the arm. "You're on your own and someone's gotta be there to get you out of your screw ups."
"What screw ups?" Zac asked, smiling.
"Just wait," Mark said. "Well, I just came by to see if you got here yet. I have your spare key here for you." Mark put the key on the counter. "Tell your lovely girlfriend I said goodbye. She's quite beautiful."
"I know."
"How'd you ever manage to get her?"
"I had her before she was that beautiful," Zac said. "That's the trick."
"Well it's a wonder she's still with you."
"Always nice to have you over, Mark," Zac said. Mark smiled and left shortly afterwards. Zac walked over to the bedroom. Gwen was just putting the comforter on the bed. "So what the hell is wrong with my pillowcases?"