Love In London

Hey guys! This is just a fun one-shot I wanted to do. It's Zanessa and everything. I think the story is pretty self-explanatory. But if it isn't here's the storyline:Zanessa and the hsm gang are heading off to London on a plane obviously. (Prob. a little before hairspray gets finished filming)On the plane Zanessa have a misunderstanding…read on and find out! Plz plz plz review and maybe I'll do more one-shots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vanessa's POV:

I walked in the airport with my best friend, Ashley, hanging on my forearm. We were walking about medium speed, although I really wanted to run.

I was so excited I could barely contain it. Not only was I about to go to London for the first time in my life, I was going to see my boyfriend of over a year for the first time in 6 weeks.

You see, my boyfriend, celebrity Zac Efron, was off in Canada filming Hairspray while I was traveling across America with my co-stars of High School Musical for the concert tour. And meanwhile, I and Zac hadn't had time to visit each other once in over a month. But now we were jetting of to London to promote High School Musical for the English, and we would finally see each other again. I couldn't wait.

Sure we had talked on the phone countless times while he was away working, texted, and even video-chatted a couple of times. But nothing could compare to seeing his face. Ohhhh, his gorgeous face. I couldn't wait to kiss, hug, touch; just to be near him again would be a thrill. My adrenaline rushed just thinking about him.

I couldn't wait to see how he reacted to me. We had talked the night before and I knew he too couldn't wait to be with me. But nothing would compare to the look on his face when he saw mine. All the love and feelings he had for me would definitely show.

As me and Ashley cruised for the airport, searching for eyes that we both knew I couldn't help but skip along.

"V, calm down. He's here. Don't worry." Ashley told me as she laughed.

I smiled because I knew I was being a little to obnoxious. But I couldn't help it. I was in love.

"I know, but I can't help it, I'm just so excited." I looked at Ashley and tried to create an analogy. "Think of if you and Jared were separated for 6 whole weeks?"

Ashley looked into the distance, and she finally got what I was talking about. Her eyes got wide and she dragged me along faster, my legs barely touching the airport floor anymore.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed loudly.

I laughed hard at Ashley's new dedication. "Ash, you don't have to kill me in the process of finding Zac!" I laughed again.

She slowed down a little bit. "Sorry."

Suddenly I saw him, and my heart skipped a beat. He was lifting his green duffel bag onto his shoulder, and was looking down; he hadn't spotted me yet.

I accidentally hit Ashley on the arm-hard.

"OWW!" she groaned in pain while she rubbed her arm.

"Sorry Ash!" I gasped, "There he is!" I jumped up and down smiling big.

Even though Ashley was still in pain, she couldn't help but laugh at my excited ness and be excited with me.

"HEY ZAC!" she yelled. I was glad she did-there's no way I could ever be that loud. That's Ashley's specialty, being loud.

Zac looked up confused, but then when he spotted Ashley and me running over to him full speed.

He laughed as I jumped into his arms. I firmly planted my lips on his and felt him gently peck me back. I found it a tiny bit bizarre that he didn't really kiss me back, but I thought nothing of it because I was too preoccupied with seeing Zac.

"Hi!" I smiled brightly at him once we pulled apart. He smiled back and retorted "hi" back.

Then Ashley went in for her hug, after all they hadn't seen each other in 6 weeks too. She pulled back and smiled up at Zac.

"How the hells are ya?" she asked.

Zac laughed at Ashley's attempt on the southern expression.

"I'm fine, thanks."

"How was your flight out here?" Zac had taken an extra flight out here other then the one with the rest of us. Right now we were in Los Angles, and we had to fly to London.

"It was fine. I can't wait to get to London though."

I smiled at the thought. "I know me too."

Zac smiled half-heartedly and started walking towards the plane-without me. I found it a little strange, but pushed the thought aside.

When we were in the aisle for the plane-Zac walking in front of me-I thought we were going to pick the two seats in the front the plane, so we could sit together, but I guess Zac had other plans.

He walked up to where Kenny Ortega, our High School Musical director, had taken the window seat took the aisle seat in his row.

I starred at him and tried to wipe the bewildered and hurt face I had somehow got on myself. After all, I was sure I was just reading too much into his actions. I mean, did him not sitting by me on a 7 hour plane ride to London mean that he completely hated my guts? No. At least, I don't think so.

I took a seat in the row in front of him and Ashley sat beside me. I tried to mask my feelings by putting on a fake smile. But she saw right past it. I should have known. Ashley can tell what I'm really feeling almost before I can.

She leaned closer to me. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." I lied.

She gave me a don't-even-think-of-lying-to-me look.

"I am!" I lied again.

She sat back in her seat, even though I knew she knew I was lying.

I sighed deeply and took out my Ipod, trying to drown out my pain. I really had nothing to be upset for anyhow, Zac sat somewhere else on a 7 hour plane ride after we haven't seen each other for almost 2 months and hasn't really said anything to me the whole time…

Oh, well, it's fine. He's probably just tired, I mean, he had a 4 hour plane ride from Canada to come here, he just must be cranky.

I sighed and closed my eyes trying to maybe catch some shut eye. Or at least relax. But I couldn't shake the thing that was upsetting me the most. Zac had only said one thing to me since we saw each other. One thing. I mean we had been away from each other for 6 weeks. Doesn't that mean anything to him? Or does he just not care about me that much anymore? Maybe he was annoyed with me for calling him all the time. But he called me plenty of times too. Of coarse I called him more then he called me. He was always working; I mean when you film a huge theatrical production, you're going to be busy a lot right? Right. I was right. Wasn't I?

As of now, I didn't know for sure. I knew Zac loved me, but with all the time we had spent apart, did his feelings for me just disappear? That couldn't happen? Could it? Oh God, I hope not. That would be the worst thing that could ever happen to me.

I took a deep breath and leaned back in my seat, my eyes closed. I tried to envision being in London. The cool London breeze running through my hair, hanging onto Ashley and Zac's arm, seeing all the landmarks. The feeling of despair was actually starting to disappear when Ashley's voice broke in.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna go sit in the back I think." she stood up and grabbed her purse.

"You want any company?" I heard Zac ask.

"Oh, it doesn't matter to me, I just don't like flying and it's easier in the back."

I heard Zac remove his seatbelt from behind me and begin to get up.

"Okay, I'll come." I heard him leave too.

Gee, thanks for remembering me guys.

I heard Ashley turn around abruptly. "Oh, does Vanessa want to come too?" She looked at me.

I hesitated for a moment then replied. "I…I guess. Sure." I grabbed my small, black Prada bag and walked behind Ashley in the aisle.

I was a little hesitant at first to agree, because I wasn't quite sure if I was being rude, I mean Ashley sort of had to invite me back there so I didn't feel left out. Wait, was I just implying that Zac wants to be alone with Ashley?

No. Absolutely not. I have always known that Zac and Ashley were close. I mean, they even knew each other before we filmed the movie. As a matter of fact, she had kind of set us up. But Ashley would never ever ever go out with Zac, they were like brother and sister. I had seen them together countless times, and there was absolutely no sparks. Or was there? No. I don't think so, I mean, sure they hugged and chatted, with the occasional phone call every once in awhile. But never anything that I had paid attention to. I didn't need to pay attention to them. Ashley was my best friend and Zac was my boyfriend. They would never to anything. I was being paranoid. Definitely paranoid. I just couldn't control my intuition.

As we stepped into the back, where all the sturdiest got their drinks for us, we walked over to the sofa, (there was only a sofa in there for us because we were the cast of High School Musical and this was our private plane.) that was seated in front of the wide screen TV.

I doubled over onto the couch, exhausted, because I just wanted to sleep. While we were on tour, we had been dancing, singing, laughing and waking up extremely early to go to our hotel rooms. Now I was extremely tired. When my body hit the couch, my eye lids closed. I heard Ashley say something to Zac, which I couldn't make out because I was so tired, my brain just couldn't comprehend it.

2 hours later…

I awoke later that day on the plane pretty confused. It took me about ten seconds to figure out why I was in the back of the plane with Zac and Ashley. Then I remembered.

I yawned tiredly, but also so they would know I was there. Ashley looked at me and gave me a warm smile, then focused her attention back on the TV, where they were watching Gilmore Girls. Zac glanced at me out of the corner of his eye but never quite looked at me. I felt a pain in my heart.

I knew it was extremely stupid and immature for me to feel so hurt at Zac not looking at me, but I couldn't help it yet again. Zac was my boyfriend, he was supposed to care.

I focused my attention on the TV, trying to find some comfort. After the first two episodes we watched in silence, Zac finally spoke.

He was looking at his watch. "Only 5 more hours." he said, using fake enthusiasm.

Ashley put her hands in the air, "Yay."

I tried to smile, but couldn't quite muster one yet.

I decided to say something. "Ash, are you starting to feel better about flying?"

"Uh…sort of. But I still wanna sit back here."

I leaned back against the sofa. "Oh, okay."

At that moment the captain came on the loud speaker. "Will you please fasten your seatbelts and take your seats, the whether seems to be changing and there is a slight possibility we may hit a bit of turbulence."

"Omigosh." I heard Ashley gasp.

Zac turned and tried to calm her down in a soothing tone. "Ash, we'll be fine, it's just a little turbulence."

"Yeah, right just a…little turbulence." her tone was controlled but she had a look of fear in her eyes.

"I still wanna sit back here though. I like it back here." I think there was a hint of hysterics in her voice.

"I'll ask." I volunteered.

"Uh, miss?" I signaled for one of the sturdiest, "Do we have to move back to out regular seats or our we allowed to stay back here?"

The red haired sturdiest smiled lightly at me and shook her head. "You can stay. It's just brief turbulence."

I nodded and thanked her, then turned to face Ashley. "See, we can just stay here. Relax."

Ashley breathed out and smiled-a real one I think. I looked at Zac who was sitting in the middle of us, next to me and tried to determine what he was thinking.

The blank look on his face was hard to read.

He was staring at the TV intently, but I had a feeling he wasn't watching the TV. I wished I knew what he was thinking. Was he thinking about me?

I don't know. Usually I can read him so well, because I know him so well. I can tell when he's angry, he usually has a hard look on his face and doesn't look my way. When he's sad he just kind of looks down and acts very shy. Right now he wasn't doing either of those. He was just blank. Like he was spacing out or not paying any attention at all.

He must have felt my eyes on him because he turned his head to face me and gave me a confused look. I just looked away, embarrassed. It was a very weird thing for me to feel towards him. Usually, I'm so comfortable around him. But ever since he came back I've been weirdly restricted. I just couldn't find anything to say to him. I was afraid of sounding stupid or obsessive. I shyly looked down and I felt his eyes bounce of me and back to the screen.

But I wasn't going to let my sudden shyness stop me. I'm an outgoing, back-boned person and I wasn't going to let my relationship with Zac be ruined because I was too afraid. I turned to Zac with new found determination.

"Zac," I began, feeling very proud of myself. But that feeling disappeared rather quickly when I realized I had nothing to say to him. My mind went to jam and I panicked.

"Um…do…um…" the seconds ticked by as he looked at me expectantly.

"Uhhhhhhh, d-do you like Lo-London?" I instantly regretted my choice of words because the answer was obviously obvious.

He looked at me weirdly. "Well, we aren't there yet, maybe I will." he turned his attention back to the TV without giving me a second glance.

I rolled my eyes at myself and leaned my head back against the sofa. Well if he didn't think you were stupid before he does now, good job Vanessa, I thought sourly.

All of a sudden, the plane did a hop. We all jumped out of our seat and bounced. It wasn't a big thing of turbulence that anyone would particularly worry about, but I knew Ashley, and she was probably hyperventilating by now.

I immediately looked at her over Zac's shoulder. I guessed right. Ashley wasn't quite hyperventilating, but she looked like she was about to. Zac was already facing her and trying to calm her down.

"OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" Ashley was breathing heavily.

"Ashley, it's okay, we just hit a little turbulence. It's okay." I assured her.

I turned to face the sturdiest table, to see what their reaction to the turbulence was and just as we did, we hit another bump. This one was slightly bigger then the first one, but still not quite big enough to scare me.

But when I turned around I saw a blur. The next thing I knew Zac was atop of Ashley. Well, not really on top of her, but she was covering her head with her hands, and her head was in her lap. Zac had his hands carefully and tightly over her, and his head atop her. My breath hitched in my throat. I couldn't believe it. So he does like her. I'm so completely and utterly stupid. He's a pig and a cheater, and I was in love with him. I'm so pitiful. And Ashley? I thought she was my best friend. I guess I thought wrong.

Zac got off of Ashley without even glancing my way and asked if she was alright.

I thought I was gonna be sick.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." she answered, taking a deep breath.

Zac nodded then glanced at me finally, while I was sitting on the other side of him on the sofa, looking down to avoid anyone seeing the tears in my eyes.

He looked at me. "You okay?" he asked, but I didn't think he meant it.

"Oh, yeah," I lied, "I'm fine." Thankfully he took that answer and looked away.

At last, the sturdiest came up to us and said it would be better-in case there was some rougher turbulence-if we sit back in our seats.

I got up faster then them and speed back to my seat. This makes it easier, I thought, now I didn't have to look at Zac.

But I had to look at Ashley, the little home-wrecker.

I took a deep breath. This was going to be one long ride.

At the Airport (5 hours later)

I was exactly right. It was a long plane ride. Luckily, Ashley slept through most of it. And Zac, of course, didn't even talk to be the rest of the way. He had a serious problem, I knew, I was the one who caught him with Ashley, he had no right to be mad at me. Okay, so maybe it wasn't technically "cheating", but it hurt all the same when he didn't even act like he cared about me anymore, throwing himself on Ashley at the little turbulence, and not even caring what happened to me. It hurt. Badly.

Later, I was walking through the airport all by my lonesome. I guess the rest of the gang didn't care enough to come and walk with me. Oh, well. It didn't matter, because all we were doing was getting in a bus to take us to our hotel rooms. Thank God I didn't order a room with Zac. I'll admit, I was this close to doing so.

I walked out of the airport doors, looking for the bus on which I was supposed to be on. My eyes searched for a decent-looking bus. They didn't have to search for long. One, the bus was sitting right in front of the airport doors, and two, it had our faces plastered all over it. I was in shock. This was so amazing. For a moment, I forgot all about Zac and Ashley and just enjoyed the moment. But, after about ten seconds, I was back to the awful mood I was in before. God help the person that tries to make small talk with me today.

I climbed aboard the bus and took a seat, making sure to sit on the edge to prevent anyone else from trying to sit beside me. Luckily, when they all piled on a few minutes later, none of them tried. However, Ashley did sit in the seat in front of me with a big smile plastered on her face.

"Hi Nessa!" she squealed excitedly. Piss-off.

"Oh, hi." I faked my best smile. Luckily, faking was my profession.

"This is so exciting! Our heads are on the bus!" she pointed down; "See, my head, is right there!" she jumped up and down in her seat excitedly. If I wasn't so mad at her right then, I might have actually found her funny.

I nodded slightly, and then focused my attention on the scenery. I let all the thoughts of Zac fall from my mind. I looked at the beautiful trees we were passing right then. Ahh, isn't Gods creation amazing? All the trees, the grass, the animals, the sky, the day, this bus, Zac…

Oh my gosh! Did I just say "Zac"? Oh no, Zac was not a creation from God, he was the spawn of Satan. I just really wish I could convince myself of that.

Eventually, the bus came to a stop in front of a hotel.

"We're here!" came Ashley's excited voice.

She-and everyone else-practically ran off the bus to get to their rooms so we could start sight-seeing. I didn't.

It didn't matter really how fast I went, I had already made up my mind. I wasn't going. I would tell them I was sick or really tired, and then I would stay in my hotel room all day and sulk. The plan sounded good to me.

After I got my room number and had gone, taken about 15 minutes to half unpack, and then decide I would do the rest later, there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I called hesitantly. Please not Zac, please not Zac, please not Zac.

"Ashley." the voice called. Oh, thank God.

I wasn't really thankful for anything though. I didn't want to see Ashley either.

There was silence for a minute. "Can I come in?"

I sighed deeply and silently. Even though I was pissed, I didn't want her to think I was a witch. I guess I cared too much what people thought.

"Sure." I answered through clenched teeth.

I opened the door and Ashley came bouncing in, it was obvious she was changed and ready. Earlier she had been wearing sweats, now she was in a black top and black skirt, her unnatural blonde hair flowing freely. I, on the other hand, was still in my light jeans and white, cotton Hollister tee-shirt. She took one look at what I was wearing and she could tell something was wrong.

"Aren't you going? The bus is already here and waiting downstairs for us?" she looked really disappointed.

I took a deep breath. "No."

"Why?" she asked, genuinely upset.

"I'm just really tired and to tell you the truth, my stomach hurts." I grasped at my stomach for dramatic effect.

"But this is London! We're only gonna be here once."

"I know, but I'm sick."

I could tell she didn't believe me, but I couldn't tell is she knew the reason I was lying.

"Okay, I'll see you later then." she proceeded to walk out the door.

"Bye."

Once she shut the door, I slumped to the ground and fell apart in a pile of tears. Now I wasn't going to get to see London. I mean, I had known what my plan was, but I just assumed everyone was going to force me to go, or refuse to go because I wasn't going. Pity for me, I thought bitterly, your plan worked, boo-hoo.

As soon as I did though, Ashley came bursting through the door. I was shell-shocked with tear stains on my face. My cover was blown.

"Vanessa! What's wrong?"

"N-nothing." I tried to maintain firm hold on my sobs.

She gave me a look. "Come on, I'm your best friend. Tell me."

"I don't want to." I sniffled honestly.

"Okay…" she looked thoughtful for a moment, "Are you crying over a person, place or thing?"

I could at least do this, I figured, she probably won't figure it out.

"Person."

"Are you mad, sad, or scared?"

"Mad…and sad I guess."

"Are you the type of mad like 'they broke my favorite toy' or 'I can't believe my Gucci sweater was 500$?' "

I thought about it for a minute. "Uh, the first one I guess, though they both don't make a whole lot of sense."

"Okay, are you sad at something someone said, did, or didn't do?"

"Did."

"Is that person here in London?"

I nodded through my tears.

"Is it Zac?"

I sighed and nodded.

"Is it because Zac put his arms around me on the plane?"

"Mmm-hmm."

She looked really perplexed, and she took a minute to answer.

"Okay…" she inhaled deeply.

"I'm not mad at you-well, actually I am-but mostly at Zac because he-he's just acting like he doesn't care about me anymore. He has only said like, 3 sentences to me since we got to the airport."

"Oh." I could tell she was trying to be a good listener, but right now I really wanted her opinion on this.

"Ash, say something!"

"Oh! Uh, well, have you talked to Zac about how you're feeling yet?"

"No! Why would I? He'll just think I'm either obsessive, weird or hate me because he actually is mad at me." I looked down, burdened.

"Well, is there a chance there was a misunderstanding or something? Maybe Zac is feeling the exact same way you are now. Because, if you guys only said three sentences to each other, that means you didn't say anything to him either."

That was the thing with having a best friend who was also best friends with your boyfriend; you got two points of view.

"Oh, I never thought of it that way." I guess maybe he could be feeling the same way I was. It wasn't impossible.

"So, will you talk to him?"

"I don't know. I don't really want to. Maybe later."

"Okay, but think about it while we're gone, okay?" she removed herself from the tight hug we were in.

"Oh, and I'm sorry you were mad at me. I would never, ever wanna come between you and Zac." I looked at her eyes and they were honest.

I smiled gratefully. "Thanks."

She smiled warmly at me and left the room. "Bye, love ya." she called.

"Bye." I called after her.

I was glad I had gotten to finally talk to Ashley about all of this. It felt good. Like a huge weight had been lifted. The only thing to do next was talk to Zac. Easier said then done.

The Next Day

I think if I would have crawled I would have gotten there faster. Instead, I was walking extremely slowly. But, hey, I had a good reason.

I was on my way to Zac's hotel room. It had been exactly one day since I'd talked to Ashley, and I agreed to talk to him this morning about how I was feeling. Right now however, I was certainly regretting it. You're a wuss Vanessa, I scolded myself. I should have held out longer, maybe gotten something more out of talking to Zac then a broken heart.

I straightened myself out as I came to Zac's hotel door. It had taken me 20 minutes in my own hotel room to muster up the confidence, and 15 minutes to get here, because I kept chickening out and deciding what I was going to say in my head. Yep, 45 minutes of my life gone, because of a walk across the hall.

I quickly patted my hair. I'm so pitiful, I feel like a preschooler. And I shouldn't feel so nervous about talking to Zac, I've been with him for more then a year and I used to feel more comfortable around him then anyone else. Plus, I didn't have anything to be nervous about. I mean, I had done nothing wrong. Zac was the one that was acting so weird. That's right, I have absolutely nothing to be worried or concerned about. Nothing. So what if this goes badly? I'll only lose my boyfriend and my heart…oh God Vanessa, suck it up!

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. I was about to knock again when it swung open.

Zac looked at me and smiled a forced smile. I could tell. I've been doing that all day.

"Oh, hi." he said.

"Hi," I said hesitantly, "can I come in?"

He nodded but I could tell he didn't really want me in there.

I took a seat on the edge of his bed and sighed.

"We need to talk." I told him.

Zac nodded. I guess our silence hadn't gone unnoticed by him after all.

I sighed and looked down, waiting for him to say something. He didn't and I got embarrassed, I brought my head up and looked at him.

His face was looking at me, but his eyes were somewhere else. His normally gorgeous light blue eyes were darker then usual. Or was I just imaging it? I made eye contact with him and he instantly broke it. I sighed again and looked away. This was going wonderfully.

I looked up again. It was now or never. I had to say what I was feeling. No matter what the outcome or I would never feel better again.

"Listen, hear it is," I took a deep breath and prepared to spill my guts. "I don't know what's wrong, but something isn't right. We've been apart for 6 weeks, Zac, and since we saw each other yesterday, we have only said 3 things to each other. I don't know if you realized it, but I did. So, I just need you to tell me the truth. Do you not like me anymore? Has the distance come between us or something? Do you not love me anymore? Because if that's the case I need you to tell me before my heart breaks anymore. And here's another thing; yesterday on the plane, when we had the turbulence, why-"my voice broke, I really had to hurry this up before I lost it completely. "Why did you try to save Ashley instead of me? I mean, I know it's not a big deal, because there was no crash, but if there was, would you really not save me? Would you really throw yourself on Ashley instead? I know I may be a little paranoid. But, Zac, you've been giving me a lot of weird signals lately. So, just please, please, just tell me." I begged him, with tears flooding down my face.

I looked at Zac's face. He looked speechless. Well I would be to if some paranoid young women claiming to be your girlfriend showed up in your hotel room balling her eyes out. I would probably be a little surprised too.

"I-"he cut himself off as he searched for the words. I waited patiently.

"I don't know Vanessa." That was definitely not the answer I wanted. I wanted him to lay it all out on the table, so I wasn't confused anymore. I didn't want an even more confusing answer.

Without warning, anger boiled through me. I was pissed. No, I wasn't pissed, I was enraged.

I stood up off the bed. "Well, you should know!" I spat at him and bolted to the door. I quickly opened it and ran to my hotel room. Surprisingly, I got there a lot faster then 15 minutes.

I heard Zac call my name a few times, but I didn't respond. I locked my door and ran to the bed. Trying to drown out the sounds of my heart breaking.

3 hours later

Eventually, like all of us at some point in our lives, I felt the need to eat. I opened my hotel door and walked off to the kitchen. Once I reached it, I saw that I wouldn't be the only one there enjoying lunch; Ashley, Corbin and Monique were there too. Thank goodness no Zac.

I took a seat at their table. "Hi guys." I said, trying not to be too glum. But they could see through my fake enthusiasm.

Ashley looked at me. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing." I lied. But she didn't buy it. Man, I really need to work on my acting skills.

"Something is wrong." she observed. "Did you talk to him?"

I was a little surprised that Ashley would bring it up at the lunch table-especially in front of Monique and Corbin-but then it dawned on me that Ashley probably already told them that I and Zac were having problems. Either that or they sensed it themselves.

I decided to answer truthfully. "Yep." I looked down.

"And?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

By now Corbin and Monique were looking at us with weird eyes. I looked at them expectantly. They think they are such good actors.

"I know you know guys. Quit the act."

They looked down guiltily.

"Ashley told us." Corbin mumbled.

"I figured."

"But what do you mean?" Ashley asked again.

"I mean, I went over there, confessed my feelings to him and he said 'I don't know Vanessa' ".

"Oh." It looked like Ashley finally got it.

"So what does this mean? Are you guys not together anymore?" Monique asked.

"I don't know. He kind of left things unsaid."

"Well how did you guys end things?" Ashley asked. Ahh, the inevitable question.

"Well," I tried to explain for myself, "I was mad, you know, and I didn't want to hear what he had to say, I mean, I had just poured out my heart to him and he gives me this crap…I just stormed out."

"Oh." Ashley thought for a moment. "I think you should go talk to him again."

I looked at her like she was crazy-after all she was.

"Are you insane? He's a jerk-off! I don't wanna go near him."

Ashley looked at me like a mother deer must look at her off-spring. "Well, your not gonna know how he truly feels about you until you guys both have a mature conversation."

I sighed, I knew she was right. "I know."

"So, why don't you go right now?"

"Why do I always have to be the one to go talk to him? He's in this relationship too. He can at least put some effort into it." I concluded.

"Your absolutely right." agreed Ashley.

I looked at her surprised. "I am?"

"Yeah. He should take responsibility for the relationship too. But he won't. He's a guy. That's why you need to go talk to him."

I sighed again. Two points for Ashley. "Fine." I got up and walked back upstairs. Now, I'm gonna flat out ask him if he loves me or not anymore. Then I'll have my answer. No more confusion.

I knocked once and Zac immediately opened the door. "Hi." he said, and then held the door for me to come inside.

I studied his face and compared it with the last time I saw him. His eyes were no longer some place else. But that was no longer a good thing either. His eyes now looked perplexed and confused. He almost looked like he'd been crying. Join the club, I thought, I seem to be doing a lot of crying in London.

"Just tell me Zac. Do you still love me and want to be with me or not. That's all I came for."

"Yeah, I do. But we still need to talk about some things." his tone surprised me. He still sounded perplexed, but also determined.

"Okay." I sat on the bed and he sat across from me on the couch. I didn't know what to expect. I thought I had addressed everything earlier.

"Listen," he began, I realized he was taking the same route I had earlier that day. "I want you to know that what has been going on between us, it hasn't gone unnoticed by me. I know that we haven't spoken a lot. And I want you to know that's not your fault. It's mine." He took a deep breath and continued. "Over the last month or so, I've been feeling really…weird."

"Okay…" I gave him some sort of sign that I was following along.

"And, you know I've been doing Hairspray, you've been doing the High School Musical concert. And everything has just gotten so…weird."

"I know it was hard Zac. But I don't understand how that affects us now."

"I know. It has been hard, but we were doing so good with the change in our schedules for so long and then…" his voice trailed off.

"What? What happened?" I just couldn't take the suspense.

"Things got weird."

"Well, now they have, but I never noticed anything before London. This is where it got all weird." I said.

"Yeah, for you it did. But for me, things have been weird for a while now." I didn't know what it was with the word "weird", but I didn't say anything and just let him continue his story.

"I guess, I don't know, I felt out of place in Canada, and I missed you, I really missed you. I wished I could have gone on tour with you guys. And then after a while my yearning turned to…resent, I guess." he sighed; I knew this was not easy for him.

"Resent for who? Me?"

"No, no, not for you. For somebody else…"

I searched my brain for someone he could possibly be jealous of. Then it hit me.

"Drew?" I asked, shocked.

He nodded shyly.

"But-but why were you acting so weird then, on the plane and everything?"

"I just felt, out of place, again, I guess. I mean, me and you have been apart for such a long time. So, I just let my brain think that you didn't really care about me anymore, and I started to resent you too…I guess." he looked down ashamed.

I tried to contemplate everything. "So-so all this time you've been jealous of Drew?"

"Well, yeah. You've got to admit he's a threat to me. He took away me job and I just didn't want him taking away you as well."

My expression softened as I saw where he was coming from clearly.

"I put my hand over his. "Sweetie, you seriously thought I was attracted to Drew?"

"I never said that. But, I mean, you were spending so much time together, and you have all those romantic songs together, I just figured that you realized he's got so much more to offer then me."

I smiled-a real smile this time-and my eyes began to well up. He was unbelievably sweet; he really thought I could love someone else. That was beyond me.

I picked myself up off the bed and went to sit on his lap, squashing him with my arms in a tight hug.

"Oh, Zaccy, no. That could never ever happen." I felt him hug me tighter.

"I know that now." he whispered into my ear.

"I love you so much." I said and pulled back.

"I love you too." I looked into his eyes and could tell he meant it.

I gently brushed his lips, but he pulled me in for a deeper kiss. After we needed air, we pulled back.

I smiled down at him. "Hey," I pulled back to look at him surprised, "That still doesn't answer my question of what happened on the plane, I mean, even though you were mad at me, would you still pick Ashley over me?"

"Oh! That's right. Did you seriously think that I was trying to save Ashley?"

I nodded. "Well…yeah."

He laughed at me. "No. What kind of an idiot would try to save Ashley? I mean, she's one of my best friends and all, but she is a pain in the anus when we're flying."

I looked at him with a confused smile on my face. "Then why did you try to save her?"

"I wasn't trying to save her! I was trying to suffocate her!" He continued laughing.

"No, I'm serious!"

He quieted down after a minute. "Okay, seriously? The plane kind of flipped me and made me bounce and I landed on Ashley."

"Oh." I said, "That makes sense."

"Glad I could be of service." he said, running his fingers through my hair.

I smiled back at him, brushed his lips one more time, and leaned my head against his chest.

There, I thought, This is how London is supposed to be.