On Christmas Day Zac found himself calling Peter. "Peter Denepir speaking."
"Hi Peter," Zac said, rubbing his forehead as Lindsay and Gwen continued to open the presents they bought for each other with Zac's money, although Zac could care less how much money they spent on each other. Gwen hadn't stopped bugging Zac about taking this record deal since he told her about it, and Zac continued to kick himself for telling Gwen anything in the first place. He could have said Peter desperately needed his signature on a random document and that would have been the end of it.
"Zac!" Peter said. "Merry Christmas, my good man."
"Merry Christmas to you too, Peter."
"What's up?"
"Um�well�" Zac didn't continue. It was all Peter needed to jump the gun.
"Do you want to take the deal?"
"�Yes."
"All right." Zac could hear the (badly) stifled excitement in Peter's voice and wouldn't be surprised if the man wasn't jumping up and down on his side of the line. It made Zac sigh.
"But, I still have a few conditions," Zac said. "I want to finish the Feeling Left Out record, I want you and all of your people out of my studio when I am there, unless I say I want you there, and I don't want this mentioned to ANYONE until I am ready to do so. Do not tell a single person that I am working on a solo record unless I authorize you to do it."
"All right, that's perfectly understandable," Peter said.
"And if you or anybody else messes with me, or does anything I don't like, then this is off. I don't want any binding contracts or any shit like that. If you do something I don't like, I'm going to walk away from it all."
"That's fine. You do have to sign a contract, but you can take it home and read it and change whatever you like."
"Great," Zac said. "I'll see you tomorrow." Zac hung up the phone and Gwen looked over from admiring a sundress Lindsay had bought her.
"So?" she asked.
"I took it," Zac said, sighing. He got up and put the phone back on its charger.
"Oh, honey," Gwen said, standing up. She walked over to Zac. "You're not going to regret this, okay? This is something you were born to do. Don't look on it as such a burden. Have fun with it."
"I know, I know, it just feels like I'm doing what they want me to do, not what I want to do."
"Zac, look at me." He looked directly at her. "This is what you want to do. This is what you've always wanted to do. I know you're feeling guilty and it seems like it's not the right choice, but it is. You know that deep in here." She tapped his chest. "If it ever seems like you're not doing the right thing, just relax and think. It'll come to you."
"Well," Zac said. "That aside, did you two like your gifts that you gave each other, although they're really from me because I paid for it all?"
"Yes," Lindsay said from the floor. She gave Zac a smile. "Thank you, Zac."
"You're welcome, Linds." Zac said down. "Oh, honey, I never got to ask, how did your fitting go the other day? Do you know what your dress looks like?"
"Yes I do," Gwen said. "But you're not going to find out until the day of the show." Zac groaned. He knew she was going to do something like that. "Stop groaning, it's a surprise. I can tell you this, though. It's going to turn heads."
"Great, baby," Zac said. "At least tell me what color it is so I can match you." "It's kind of an odd color," Gwen said. "At my next fitting I'll bring back an extra piece of fabric for you."
"All right," he said.
"Did you decide who you're wearing yet?"
"I got a call from some Armani associate who offered to suit me up, so I'm going with them. Is that all right? Are you okay with Armani?"
"No, it's fine," Gwen said. "Linds, what do you think?"
"I like Armani."
"Perfect," Zac said. "Now that that's set, I'm going to�Lindsay what the hell are you doing?" Zac looked at Lindsay who had lifted up her leg and was attempting to put it behind her head.
"I'm trying to see if I can put my foot behind my head." Zac glanced at Gwen, who was laughing.
"Are you high?"
"�Yes," Lindsay said.
"Whatever," Zac said. "I hope you didn't smoke anything in my apartment." Lindsay shook her head.
"I did it on the balcony."
"Okay. Well, as I was saying before, I'm going to go out on the balcony and write a song with my new guitar." Zac grabbed a notebook, a pencil, and his new acoustic guitar that Gwen had gotten him. When she handed him a box that looked like it contained a guitar, he was slightly worried that she had picked out a piece of crap, but she told him she'd spoken to Bill and Joe about it and they helped her pick one out. It turned out to be a really nice one; better than the two he already had.
He sat down at the table on the balcony and put his notebook on the table. He'd been writing in his head all day and he just hadn't had the time to write anything down. He tuned the guitar first, glancing back inside at his girlfriend and his best friend as he tightened the strings. Lindsay was still trying to put her foot behind her head, however she wasn't able to do it and ended up falling backwards onto a large amount of wrapping paper. Gwen burst out laughing.
He couldn't believe how wonderful it had been these past two months out here with Gwen. They'd been back together for nearly three months now, and they hadn't had a serious fight yet. When they went out before they had brutal fights on a weekly basis, but this time around it was a lot more positive. The most obvious change was Gwen. She wasn't the same person she used to be. When they dated before she was a manipulative, slutty bitch and he couldn't stand her half the time he was with her. A lot of that had to do with the fact that she was such a druggie during that period, and he wasn't much better. Although she went onto harder drugs, nothing too serious, but still harder than pot, he was perfectly happy getting high off the weed Lindsay almost always seemed to have lying around. Looking back, he knew he wasn't much better than Gwen. He manipulated his friends too, and he fucked around too, but not as bad as Gwen. But now everything was different. He and Gwen rarely got high, and they were so in love with each other, so appreciative of each other, that it was hard for them to fight.
He began writing, every now and then pausing to look back inside, and had a song in less than fifteen minutes.
"Hey Mom," Zac said into the telephone later that afternoon. Gwen was trying her best to cook while Lindsay pointed and laughed beside her. Dinner was going surprisingly well, however, and Zac was starting to wonder where Gwen picked up her new cooking skills. "Merry Christmas."
"Zac!" Diana said, excitedly. "Merry Christmas! How are you doing, dear?"
"Just great. Lindsay's over and Gwen is cooking dinner�all and all we had a really nice day. Did you get the gifts I sent?"
"Yes we did. Jessica was so excited to get her guitar; she hasn't put it down all day."
"Can I talk to her?"
"Sure! Jessica, it's your brother on the phone!"
"Which one?" Jessica's voice asked.
"The only one who isn't here, silly," Diana said. Zac's heart dropped. Everyone was home for Christmas, and Zac was out here in LA by himself. But, that was what he wanted. If everybody was home, that meant Taylor was home, and Zac didn't want anything to do with Taylor.
"Hey Zac," Jess said. "I love my guitar. Thank you so much."
"I knew you would. I need you to do something for me."
"What?"
"Okay, I wrote this song earlier today and it's a duet and I need you to sing it with me," Zac said.
"What?!" Jess asked. "No!"
"Oh come on, Jess! I wrote it for you! It would be so much fun. I can send it to you, you could practice and then come out here and it could be done in a day, if you cooperate."
"No, Zac," Jess said. "No, I'm not like you. I'm not going to do anything like that."
"I'll pay you," Zac said. There was a long pause.
"�How much?"
"How much do you want?"
"A million dollars," Jess said.
"Okay. Done."
"What?! You don't have a million dollars to pay me for one song!"
"How do you know I don't?"
"How much do you get paid, Zac?"
"That doesn't matter," Zac said. "So are you going to do it or not? I'd really appreciate it if you did. I wrote the song for your voice and all�I think you'll really like it." Jess sighed. "Oh, come on!"
"Okay, okay. Send me a copy of the song and I'll do it. Geez, you're so stubborn. I better seriously get paid, though."
"You will be, Jess."
"Wait a minute," Jess said. "Why are you recording a song anyway?" Zac snapped his fingers. He was hoping he could get off the phone before she asked that. He didn't want to tell anybody that he was recording his own album. If anybody found out before he was ready, it could get back to his brothers and that wouldn't be a good thing.
"Well," Zac said, trying to think of a good lie, "the guys at the studio know I miss singing, so they allow me to use the studio. It's just something I do for Gwen."
"Really? So you're not going to do anything with it?"
"No."
"Then why are you paying me a million dollars?"
"Because you asked for it."
"Whatever, Zac. Yeah, I'll do it. Whatever."
"Put Mom back on." Zac waited for his mother to get back on the line. "Hey Mom. Did you guys have dinner already?"
"Yeah, we just finished when you called. I wish you were here," Diana said. "We really missed you today. It just wasn't the same opening presents without you here."
"I know," Zac said. "I missed you guys too, but since Linds came out here Gwen and I couldn't go anywhere. I think we had a good time out here by ourselves. I'll come next year." Suddenly from the kitchen, Lindsay screamed and the smoke detector went off. "Oh shit! I'll call you back, Ma." He hung up the phone and ran into the kitchen. "What happened?" Gwen was waving a potholder over the ill placed smoke detector while Lindsay was on the floor, crying because she was laughing so hard.
"Shut up, Linds!" Gwen yelled. "Yeah, I definitely spilled an entire pot of water all over the burner and it steamed like crazy."
"Why did Lindsay scream?"
"Because I almost got scalding hot water on her," Gwen said. "We're okay now." Zac eyed her. "We are! Don't give me that look."
"Are you sure? Do you want me to cook the rest of the meal?"
"No!" Gwen yelled. "I can do it myself. It was Lindsay's fault. Did you talk to Jessica?"
"Yes I did."
"Is she coming out here?"
"Yeah," Zac said. "I'm going to give her some time to learn the song before she does, because I know she won't be able to be out here for long."
"How'd you explain why you're recording?" Gwen asked.
"I said that I was allowed some studio time because I don't get to sing anymore, and that I just kind of do it for you."
"And she bought that?"
"Sounded like it."
"I'm sure she's just going along with your lie," Gwen said. "Go set the table, dinner's almost ready."
"Are you sure?" Zac asked. "You did just set off the smoke detector."
"It's almost ready! Get out of my kitchen!" Zac rolled his eyes and left with Lindsay to the dining room. Zac opened the hutch cabinets and started to take out the china that he and Gwen had just purchased.
"Oh, these are so beautiful!" Lindsay said as Zac handed her a plate. "Where'd you get them?"
"I don't know," Zac said. "Gwen picked them out. I just kind of agreed to it."
"You two have your own china pattern already?"
"Yeah, Gwen insisted�what's that supposed to mean?" he asked, turning to Lindsay, who had placed the plate on the table already. He handed her another plate. Lindsay shrugged, taking the plate.
"Nothing," she said. "It's just, you two are living together, you already act like you're married, and now you've got your own china pattern together�all that's left for you to do is actually get married."
"Are you serious?" Zac asked. Lindsay nodded.
"Yeah! I mean, this is just from watching the two of you these past few days, it's kind of like you're already married. You sure act like it. I'm sure if everybody else saw you guys together they would think the same thing." Zac paused. "I'm not pushing anything; it's just an observation."
Her observation left a very uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.