DISCLAIMER: I do not own any member of the High School Musical cast or crewmember, nor do I own any family mentioned which is mentioned or featured. I do own all original characters and the plot of this story.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE - INVITES AND CONNECTING THE DOTS.
Beth was snuggled up in her queen size bed, the duvet was hitched up to her neck even though it was now July in England and thanks to global warming, and it was maxing out at about 22 degrees at night. Her bedroom windows wide open, caused her heavy curtains to sway gently in the tiny breeze there was and the gentle humming of the ceiling fan rotating, and filled the air.
"Its summer time and the weather is fine…" her mobile sang out as Beth continued to snooze. It must have continued for a good ten minutes, until her bedroom door swung open and her Mum shook her finally to wake her up.
"Mum!! I am freaking trying to sleep! What's wrong?" Beth yelled now awake.
"That's funny Beth, we're trying to sleep too, answer your damn phone." her Mum told her as she stormed out again, muttering something about it being early and people having no respect. Not moving from her cosy position, Beth grabbed her phone before it broke out into song again.
"Hello?" She answered, the display said 'caller out of area'/
"Beth? Is that you?" A feminine voice said on the other line. Beth now sat up in bed, the heat of the room hitting her as she did so,
"Yes, who's this?" she asked in a normal voice, but repeated I again in a lower more hushed tone when her father yelled her name to shut up.
"Its Katy, don't tell me you've forgotten me already! I know we haven't spoken in a while but Jesus!" she said sarcastically to Beth, who was now eating some ice from her chilled drink.
"How have you been? How is Brooke? Does she miss her Aunt Beth?" she whispered down the phone.
"I've been ok; I'm actually working for Dad again! Worrying huh? Brooke is fine, she is teething and finding it funny to keep me awake, she definitely misses you Beth we all did, do, whatever. Why are we whispering?" she replied to Beth in an equally hushed tone, which caused people to stare at her as she sat drinking her coffee on 'their' Star bucks.
"Well, I know why I'm whispering, but why are you?" Beth tried to out smart her which worked when Katy started to speak normally again.
"Oh yeah, sorry. Anyways I am attempting to arrange Ashley a birthday party - her birthday was the fifth but she was busy, blah blah blah, but were having it over in the UK, coz that is where she is going to be promoting her album next. I've got it all arranged and booked but I wanted to invite you along, maybe…if you'll come." Katy sat with Brooke on her lap waiting for her answer anxiously. She knew Beth had chosen not to get in touch, she could have but she had not, and Katy was worried that Beth may have felt awkward being around them again.
"Katy, I don't know when is it?" Beth was trying to think of a quick excuse in her head as a reason to not go, she prayed silently as Katy answered her,
"Its on the 27th July - I know your nervous, I can hear it, just come, it'll be fun! If you don't then you're going to have to baby-sit." Katy told her like it was the end of the world entirely if she had to baby-sit, which made Beth laugh.
"Katy! Don't use your baby as a bargaining tool, that's not fair!" Beth, now too tired to sleep pulled her lap top on her maroon, purple bed, and allowed it to illuminate the room and her face.
"I'm not using her as a bargaining tool; I'm just saying that this is what is going to happen! So are you coming or not?" Beth gazed at the illuminated screen and clicked on her favourite's page - up popped her home page - then a list of favourite showed - all sites relating to Zac and the people.
"Who else is going?" Beth asked, as she clicked on the top site, Katy answered as she waited for the page to load,
"There everyone, Vanessa, Mo', Lucas, Corbin, me, dad and Ashley's family, Miley, all her suite life people, Zac's going too…he's in London promoting Hairspray before its released worldwide. There's going to be more people there than him, so we can avoid him all night if you want." Katy thought it was best to tell Beth he was going to be there rather than flip out about it. Beth's attention switched from the screen to the conversation, which she realised she was not really part taking in.
"I'll go Katy, just e-mail me details, time and place and I'll be there." Beth heard Katy sound relatively surprised, expecting her to say no - Katy began to launch into a whole explanation as to why she should go and not shut herself away. Letting her ramble, Beth removed the phone from her ear as she began to type her password into he forum section of the site. Pressing enter, she put the phone back to her ear, but quickly removed it when Katy began to scream her name down the phone. Not putting the phone to her ear, she spoke into the mouth piece and Katy stopped screaming,
"I said I am going!" Beth laughed as Katy fell silent.
"Oh…well that's great! I'll e-mail details…hang on, I've got to go, Brookes started crawling and I can't find her!" She told beth frantically as she began searching frantically with her eyes around the shop. Beth could not even reply and ok as Katy put the phone down,
Giving her undivided attention once again to the computer, she continued to click on the various links through her favourites list, all linked to Zac or the cast in some way. She slipped her glasses back up her nose as a yawn escaped from her mouth, clicking on 'New Pictures' section on her favourite Zac web page, up popped a new picture of Zac next to Big Ben, reading the caption below, 'Zac Big Ben on the 22nd July 2007.'
"OH MY GOD!" Beth sounded like a fog horn in the middle of the night.
"Bethany Nancy GREEN! Some people are trying to sleep! Go to BED!" Beth winced slightly as her Dad yelled her whole name, 'he really means business!' she thought as she crept quietly to her bedroom door and closed it too. Running back to her bed, she dived on it causing the springs to squeak in panic ad grabbed her home phone. Dialling a familiar number, she did not even wait for the person at the other end of the phone to say hello.
"Elliott! You're never going to believe this, seriously, I'm freaking out right now!" Beth giggled in girl excitement.
"Beth? What? It's early or late or whatever, this is getting to be a bad habit!" Muffled noises drowned out the last of Elliott's moans, indicating she was still snuggled in her bed.
"Zac's in LONDON!" Beth told her quickly; more muffled noises came down the phone and padded noises from where Elliott was walking to her door to close it shut.
"He's what? Has he contacted you? Called you?" Elliott's voice was now at its regular tone, indicating that she was now as awake as Beth, who was now back on her laptop searching for more information. Stopping what she was doing, she attempted to cover up how she knew.
"Well not really, I found out, Katy called and invited me to Ashley's UK birthday Bash and mentioned it then" She dove her head into her pillow as she lied to Elliott, hoping she would believe and that she didn't get a huge spot on her tongue where she lied!
"When is the party? More importantly, what are you going to wear?" Elliott quizzed Beth, who quickly flew into an explanation of a dress she had seen,
"No that's not why I called - Zac's in London Elliott!"
Elliott sighed down the phone, "Look, he's not contacted you, he might not even, he hasn't for the last few months you've been home, he's moved on Beth, and couldn't this have waited until tomorrow?" Beth rolled her eyes and rubbed her forehead in tiredness,
"Guess so, sorry, I'll talk to you tomorrow, nighty night." Beth hung up after they had exchanged their goodbyes and sighed as she closed the lid to her laptop and moved it to the floor next to her bad. Snuggling back down, her thoughts kept running back to Zac, 'Elliott was right, he hasn't contacted me', he was stuck on her brain, 'there's no sleeping now.
Zac sat in his hotels restaurant area at table for two, next to the furry cream designed wall, looking out at the London city streets and the hustle of people running past in their busy daily activities. Fiddling with his napkin, he checked behind him at the entrance doors, anxious to see if shoe would actually turn up as she told him she would. He took another look at the window of his hotel; he had perfect view of Hyde Park from the window, the sun beamed through the window, creating rainbows patterns on the crisp white table dishes. Taking a sip of his ice water, he peaked at the people next to him, who along with enjoying their breakfast, was also enjoying the fact that their 12 year old daughter was hyperventilating that he was only sitting meters away from her. He flashed them a smile before he glanced towards the door again, his head whipped back to the table as he saw a head of blond straight hair ask the waiter for him and dash in his direction.
"Well Zac, you've no changed one bit." Elliott smirked at him from across the table as she removed her sunglasses and ordered an iced tea as her drink. She pushed her thick black head band back into position and altered her black crepe top to sit on a better position. Zac smiled an awkward smile as he leaned back in his chair,
"Neither have you, how have you been?" he asked generally. Elliott did not answer him, she leaned forward on t eh table slightly, still smiling a knowing smile,
"Why did you call me Zac? What do you want?" Zac's eyebrows rose as he let out a light laugh,
"You really haven't changed," The waiter interrupted their conversation to take their orders, giving Zac time to think of an appropriate answer. Waiting until the waiter had left, Elliott's eyes now fixed firmly on Zac,
"What? Can't I ask an old friend to lunch?" He tried charm to worm his way out of her question,
"Ok, firstly, yeah you can, secondly, I've only spoken to you once - hardly an old friend really, seriously, what's going on?" She moved her cutlery around the table as Zac began to speak.
"How is she?" he asked simply, his body language changed with his one question. Elliott an ironic laugh.
"Beth, you asked me here to find out how Beth is?! You could have asked her, she would have come!" The little girl at the next able, now had stopped hyperventilating, and was getting up, pen and paper in hand approached their table,
"Mr Zac, sorry, can I have your autograph?" The girl turned amazing shades of crimson as Zac smiled at her and took the paper and pen, "Is this your girlfriend?" Here eyes darted between the two; Zac struggled to think quickly enough,
"No I'm not his girlfriend sweetie." Elliott smiled in a friendly was as she answered her question and the girl giddy moved back to her table.
"Sorry about that, where were we?" Zac took another sip of his water, and a waiter was their within seconds to fill it up again.
"Beth, you want to know how she is, I am going to be honest, I can not understand why you care, and she rejected you AGAIN!" Elliott's eyes were wide; her tone was as if she was trying to explain something to a child rather than a 19 year old.
"I know, but its Beth, its not that easy, I really want to know how she is, I heard she's was with Harry again." he looked up from cutting his food to see Elliott's expression, which was surprisingly calm. She ate the bite of her pasta salad before shaking her head and making Zac's day,
"They were, but once again, he was an ass, she'd had enough, blah blah blah, mistake from the beginning if you ask me," She shrugged her shoulders as she finished, her phone buzzed from inside her DKNY bag, muttering an apology she answered;
"Hey Beth," Zac's head shot up, "I'm at lunch, who with?" Elliott's eyes looked at Zac, almost trying to decide if she should tell her the truth, "Just a guy from work, nothing important, I can meet you at about three-ish, ok bye." She hung up the phone and continued to eat her lunch; Zac just stared at her with a look to say 'Oh my god'. Elliott put her fork down and looked up for the first time since she had put her phone down, "So that was Beth!" she told him sipping her water.
"Really?! I hadn't caught on to that!" He told her sarcastically, which caused her to crack a smile.
"Sorry, so what are you in London for? Beth mentioned a party for Ashley, but I'm guessing you didn't fly all the way here for that?" Zac shook his head in response,
"No I'm on promotion duty, my new film Hairspray is being released early August." Elliott actually looked impressed,
"Wow! So I am at lunch with a super-star - LUCKY ME! Seriously though Zac, Beth is going to this party, we are going shopping for it once I am finished here. What are you going to do? It is going to be so awkward, she still likes you, you know! Are you going to hug, kiss, shake hands, and ignore each other? It could be really good or really bad…"Elliott didn't take one single breath between her sentences, causing her voice to get louder and her gestures to get bigger in the process - it made people stare at her. Zac laughed an awkward laugh before turning serious and hushing Elliott up.
"Elliott, shut up! Your drawing attention to yourself" He grabbed one of her flailing wrists to emphasis his point.
"Well, Zac these are important questions, very important! Do you like her still?" Nothing like Elliott grabbing the Bull by the Balls.
"I don't know her anymore. She was complicated to start with, but I'm guessing she's reached a whole new level right?" Zac asked as he checked his phone for the time and fiddled mindlessly with the unused cutlery. Elliott contemplated the thought before gently moving her head from side to side,
"Actually, she's far straighter forward I'd say. She went and lived her dream, it did not work out - everyone knows that it did not work out and she is OK with that. Now Harry's gone for good she's more trusting, she's still a little high strung on letting people in, but can you blame her?" Elliott smiled sweetly as the waiter brought over the bill. The table fell silent as the bill rested on the table. Elliott rested her head in her hand and drummed the table as she made no effort to grab her purse to pay. Zac rolled his eyes ad reached into his pocket for his wallet,
"Well you invited me here, the Lady never pays!" she teased as she hoisted her bag from the floor.
"Does she still like me?" Zac asked in a careful manner as they walked into the lobby. Elliott smiled knowingly;
"Well she called me this morning, very early this morning, freaking out because you're in the UK, she defiantly still likes you Zac, she doesn't always do what's right but she cares and she still loves you all the same." Zac blushed a little and did that awkward 'hand-behind-his-head thing' he does, before reaching over to Elliott for a hug goodbye,
"That's all I needed to know."
Ok, a bit late, but better than never right?! lol! I like this chapter -- really understanding Elliott more and I thought it was cute with the whole lunch setup! LOTS OF REVIEWS PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
Amy xox