Author's Note: So I didn't go to school on Thursday and I only had two classes yesterday and basically no homework today. So I couldn't help but update this even though I've only gotten 1 review from it... I hope you enjoy this one!
Midnight came and gone and soon enough it was twilight. Stars glimmered across the Californian sky and the roads were empty. The water crashed against the shores of Malibu and two pairs of legs were tangled in the aftermath of their passionate acts. Vanessa's head rested in Zac's bare chest. Thump-thump thump-thump. His heartbeat kept her calm on the events she knew was impending. They lay their quietly until finally Zac spoke up.
"Ness…" his soft baritone voice said. Vanessa raised her head at him. "You..uhh…have…um…boyfriend" he said in broken words. It was too hard to say out loud, especially after what they had just done. Vanessa closed her eyes in pain. She knew what she did was wrong. How could she do this to Austin? She swore in her life she would never be that kind of girlfriend. She then pulled her body away from his and covered her naked body with the white sheets that have been covering them and sat up on her side of the bed. She sighed, she couldn't bear to look at his eyes because then she would feel the need to lay with him in bed forever. Zac's eyes filled with pain and disappointment looked at her bare back. She finally turned around and brought her eyes to him. Zac noticed the tears in her face. He got up, walked over to her and hugged her. Vanessa buried her sobbing face in his shoulders. She felt his hands softly grabbing the back of her head in comfort. They stayed in this position for a while until Vanessa stopped her crying. She lifted her head up to look at him and stroked his cheek.
"Zac, I can't do this right now" she said sadly. He took her stroking hand and held it against his face. "I'm so sorry" she said trying to keep her tears in. He nodded understandingly but nevertheless upset.
"I know" he whispered quietly. He took her hand that he was holding and gave it a small chaste kiss. They both got up and picked up their clothes that were thrown prior to their passionate love making. Afterwards Zac got fully dressed he sat down on the bed and just looked at Vanessa who was trying to find sweater. She could feel his eyes burning through her head as she picked up her sweater that was behind the TV. She put her sweater on, bit her lip and looked at him. She didn't know what else to say and there were no words to be said, they both knew what they did was wrong.
"I should get home" Vanessa said quietly looking at the ground. He nodded somberly. "I'll talk to you later" Vanessa said hopefully. But, Zac did not respond and stayed quiet. She walked quietly out of the room, trying very hard to keep the tears in. She looked back quickly at him to find him lying in the bed with his hands covering his face in frustration. She ran downstairs and got into her car.
Ashley got woken up by the bright light that shined through the glass windows and into the living room. She winced and quickly covered her eyes. She got up from the sofa where she passed out earlier. She walked to the kitchen to find Zac laying his head in the counter. She raised her eyebrows in question.
"Zac?" she asked confused. "Where's Ness?"
Zac picked up his head from the counter and looked at her. Her eyes widened when she saw how bloodshot his eyes were. She sat down next to him.
"What happened?" she asked worriedly. Zac stayed quiet for a few moments and turned his head to her.
"Something that shouldn't have" he whispered quietly.
Vanessa lay quietly in her bed looking at the ceiling of her bedroom. She got home when it was still dark and she tried closing her eyes but she could not shake the thoughts of Zac and their love making they did earlier. The sound of the front door opening interrupted her thoughts.
"Ness!" a voice called out. She closed her eyes in pain. She had to do this. She got up from her bed and walked downstairs to be met by a pair of lips. She tensed up but tried not to make it noticeable. Austin pulled away and gave her a hug.
"I've missed you" he said putting his chin on top of her head. She rested her left cheek against his shirt.
"Me too" she responded quietly. Austin noticed something wrong and pulled away from their hug to look at her. She was looking at the tiles of the floor.
"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly. She nodded. He didn't believe her and took her hands in his, so he tried to pry more. "What's wrong?" as they walked to the living room and sat on the couch.
Vanessa looked at him and sighed. "We need to talk." At those words, Austin's hands dropped hers. They were quiet for a few seconds and he took a deep breath waiting on what was going to come out of her mouth next.
"What happened?" he asked trying not to expect the worst.
"Yesterday, made me realize that I went into this relationship way too quickly" she explained trying very hard to keep eye contact. His eyebrows furrowed. "I was so infatuated with you that I didn't give my heart time to heal… and I think that I need healing time before I get into another serious relationship" she bit her trembling lip.
"What made you realize this?" he asked in such a calm voice with no hint of anger or jealousy that surprised Vanessa.
"Zac." She said quietly. She couldn't lie to him, he doesn't deserve to be lied to. His eyes dropped down. "Zac did." He looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry" she apologized, not knowing what else to say. He looked at her.
"I always knew he was going to be a tough act to follow" he said quietly. He took her hands in his again. "Do you still love him?" he asked. Vanessa opened her mouth to answer but no words came out. Austin nodded understandingly. Vanessa felt the tears come out of her eyes and she quickly tried wiping them away. "Hey… it's okay." He said quietly. "We don't choose who we fall in love with."
She sighed. "I'm sorry" she breathed. "It's not fair to continue this when you know how I feel". Austin nodded and stood up from the couch. He looked down at Vanessa. He gave her a soft kiss on the forehead.
"Bye Vanessa" he said quietly. Vanessa stood up from her place and gave him a hug.
"You're going to find a girl that will never do this to you. And she's going to make you a really, really happy guy" she said. They pulled away from their hug and Austin walked out of the house. Vanessa sat back down in her couch in defeat. She entered a number on her phone.
"Hello?" the voice asked.
"Ash?" she asked quietly almost childlike after getting hurt from the playground.
"Nessa? Are you okay?" Ashley asked worriedly.
"Yeah" she took a deep breath. "Can you come by the house?" she said as tears start to run down her face.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right there"
A few minutes later, Vanessa was crying in her best friend's lap. "I didn't want to hurt him but I couldn't lie to him" she sobbed. "And I didn't realize that I wasn't over Zac and it hurts".
"Ness, I'm so sorry" Ashley said sincerely as she played with Vanessa's hair. "I shouldn't have invited Zac"
"NO." Vanessa said firmly. "No, you shouldn't have to do that. We promised we would stay friends but I barely talked to him for the past year!" she cried she picked up her body from her best friend's lap and sat straight up. "This is my fault! I tried to avoid him so badly to escape my feelings for him and what has it done, Ashley!" she screamed. "IT'S MADE EVERYTHING WORST!"
Ashley did not know what to say. She's never seen Vanessa this frustrated, angry and heartbroken. Not even when she called her in tears after her and Zac decided to take a break. All she knew how to do was let her talk and for her just to listen. She put her arms around Vanessa and gave her a big hug rubbing hands on her back for comfort. That's all she could do.
A month has passed since the events of Memorial Day and Zac and Vanessa hasn't seen each other since. For weeks, Vanessa would stare at Zac's name on her phone and debated on whether to call him but she would always chicken out. One June morning, she woke up with a nauseating feeling and quickly got out of bed, ran to the bathroom and threw up. This happened repeatedly for four more days. Vanessa then decided to visit Ashley one morning. Maybe locking herself up in her house wasn't such a great idea to deal with the pain. She walked into Ashley's house.
"Ash? You there" she yelled out. She suddenly smelt something that made her insides almost go up. She cringed and pinched her nose.
"Ness?" Ashley walked towards her. She noticed the uncomfortable state of her friend and got worried. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"What is that smell?" she asked disgustingly. Ashley raised her eyebrows.
"I'm cooking eggs; I know you like them scrambled..." she explained. "Are you sick?" bringing the back of her hand against Vanessa's forehead to feel any signs of fever.
"I've just been feeling nauseous for a couple of days…sorry" Vanessa said hesitantly opening her pinched nose.
"Do you have your period?" Ashley asked as they walked to the kitchen. "I have Midol if you want some" she suggested opening up her medicine drawer on top of her stove to find the small bottle of pills. She noticed Vanessa's silence. She took the bottle out and put it in front of her friend. "Ness?" she asked trying to get her attention. Vanessa suddenly got up and took her purse with her.
"Sorry, Ash" she apologized quickly trying to get out of the house. "I have to go somewhere, I'll call you later!" she said walking out of the house leaving Ashley very, very confused.
As she was driving Vanessa's thoughts raced through her head. I can't be. But, it's possible. She parked her car in front of a Walgreens and rolled her eyes when she noticed two photographers snapping their cameras away. They would catch a picture of me doing this. She shook her head and got out of the car. She kept her head low and ignored the questions being thrown her way.
"Heard you & Austin broke up Vanessa!"
"Are you and Zac getting back together now?"
She tensed up as soon as she heard Zac's name and ran inside the building. She quickly tried to find what she needed and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a self serve checkout station. She doesn't need anyone to know what she bought. Not yet anyway. She walked out of the building and walked quickly to her car again ignoring the questions.
Zac was driving down the 901 back to LA after going home to Arroyo Grande to see his family for the week. He heard his phone ring in the cup holder it was being held in. He picked up the phone and heard a familiar voice speak.
"Zac?" the voice asked softly.
Zac's blue eyes widened as he heard the voice and tried hard to focus on the road.
"Ness?" he asked.
"Can you come over?" Vanessa's soft voice asked. Zac was confused. They spent weeks avoiding each other and suddenly she wanted to talk now. Something was definitely wrong.
"What's wrong?" he asked fearfully. He heard Vanessa sniffle. She's been crying. "Vanessa, what happened?"
On the other end of the line, Vanessa winced. He never calls her Vanessa unless he's angry or nervous. "Can you just please come over?" she asked helplessly. "Please?"
"I'll be there soon"
15 minutes later, Zac parked inside the two car garage. He didn't need cameras snapping pictures of his car in front of his ex-girlfriend's house.
"Vanessa?" he yelled out the big Mediterranean-style mansion.
"Bedroom" a quiet voice responded. He walked up the stairs to the third floor and entered her bedroom. It was empty.
"Ness?" he asked confused.
"Bathroom." She replied. He walked to the bathroom and found her sitting on the floor looking down, her back against the bathtub. He kneeled in front of her and raised her head up. Her face was red and puffy and it was evident she had been crying.
"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly as he brought her in for a hug. "In the sink" he heard her mumble against his neck. He pulled away and got up to walk towards the sink. His eyes grew in size as he stared at three different pregnancy tests. Positive: they all read. He turned his head to Vanessa who was looking down at the white rug she was sitting on. He looked around the room trying to look for the right words to say. He ran his head through his hair in frustration. Then he saw Vanessa's helpless body sitting on the floor trying hard not to cry again. He sat down on the floor next to Vanessa. They stayed in this position for a few minutes until Vanessa felt Zac's hand take hers. She looked up at him and saw him nod then rested her head in his shoulder. He kissed her head and leaned his head on hers. No words were needed to be spoken, they just needed each other.
