At the Bridgewater
Disclaimer:I'm sure you know by now that no one on this site owns anything except the stuff they make up, so what's the point of saying it again? I OWN NOTHING! There, I said it.
A/N:Okay, after almost a month of not writing anything I'vefinally overcome my writer's block. There's not much to say about this chapter except that I'm sorry for the really long wait!Well, here's the latest on the story ...
Zack sat by the phone in the living room, tapping his fingers in a steady rhythm on the table. The house was empty as his father had gone to work, and Nora, the maid, did not come today. It was a Friday, but Zack didn't feel like going to school, so he stayed home. He was beginning to regret it, acknowledging the feeling in the pit of his stomach as boredom. The novelty of skipping school had worn off, and, as everyone else was stuck in their lessons, there was no one else to talk to. The curtains of the living room where Zack sat were closed, and the light was switched off. As a result, Zack sat in a state of semi-gloom, listening to the distant sound of cars passing by outside.
Eventually, after almost an hour of sitting, motionless, by the telephone, Zack stretched. His back ached, his head throbbed and he had cramp in the back of one leg. He tried to get up, winced, and sat back down again, gripping the back of his calf in an effort to ease the pain. When the painful twinge of his leg had subsided to a dull throb, Zack moved into the kitchen, where he helped himself to a couple of aspirins and a glass of water.
He glanced at the clock. It was five past one. Time to eat.
Zack bent down and opened the tiny fridge that he and his father shared. There were some leftover pieces of chicken from last night's roast and a cold baked potato. Zack put both of them into the microwave and poured himself a drink of milk. For a moment his eyes strayed over his father's drinks cabinet, but Zack wasn't feeling up to alcohol this time. Besides, it wasn't worth the hassle of making sure his father didn't find out.
Zack gulped down his glass of milk in one go, suddenly realising how thirsty he was. He was about to help himself to another glass of milk when the doorbell rang. With a groan, Zack placed the empty glass down on the side and walked out into the dim hallway. It was very narrow, more of a corridor than a hall, and the wallpaper on the walls was peeling off. If you looked up just outside the living room, you could see a large damp patch there, caused by the bath overflowing one too many times.
Zack opened the door and immediately blinked, startled by the sudden change of light. He screwed his eyes up against the sun and turned away for a moment to stop his eyes burning. He heard a familiar laugh. It was Katie. Zack groaned again and turned back to the doorway.
"Katie," Zack said, speaking for the first time that day. His voice was cracked and husky, having been unused for so long. Zack cleared his throat before speaking again. "Hi."
Katie laughed again, smiling at him slightly pitifully.
"Freddy said you were in a bit of a state," she said simply, before pushing past Zack and stepping into the narrow hall and closing the door behind her. Zack turned away and shuffled back into the kitchen. He left the door open so he could still see Katie, and set about finding the mayonnaise.
"Freddy?" Zack said, confused, as he got a knife out from the drawer.
"Yeah, Freddy," Katie said. She paused, looking at him as he struggled awkwardly to get the last of the mayonnaise onto his spoon. "You want some help?" she asked rhetorically. Zack mumbled something inaudible and carried on poking his spoon into the tub of mayonnaise but not succeeding to get any on the spoon. Katie went up to him and pushed him aside. "Here, let me do that," she said. "You just go and sit down and I'll have this done in no time." Zack let her take the mayonnaise from him, but protested further before Katie sent him a glare that meant do-what-I-say-or-die. Zack simply shuffled over to the kitchen table and plonked down in the nearest chair.
"Feel free to help yourself to anything you find," Zack said to Katie. Katie shook her head.
"No, it's okay. I've already eaten," she said. Zack shrugged and settled back in his chair.
It was only then that he realised he wasn't dressed, and was wearing only a pair of boxer shorts and a large t-shirt which had been rescued from the dirty laundry basket that morning. Zack suddenly felt awkward sitting here in front of Katie when he wasn't dressed, but she didn't seem bothered. A few minutes later, Katie placed a plate of chicken salad in front of him, accompanied by a baked potato and a mug of hot coffee.
"Thanks," Zack said gruffly, pulling the plate towards him and tucking in. Katie sat opposite, watching him with vague interest as he ate. He left a bit of the salad and about half of the potato. Zack stood up to put it in the bin, but Katie said, "Hang on minute, Zack – I'll have that."
Zack turned towards her, grinning slightly. "I thought you said you hadn't eaten," he teased her. She shrugged awkwardly, sharing his smile.
"I have. So what? Who are you to say I can't have something else to eat?" she returned, getting herself a fork and then taking Zack's plate from him. Defeated, he sat down and sipped at the mug of coffee.
"So why are you here again?" Zack asked her.
Katie shrugged. "To keep you company,' she said. Zack said nothing.
"How come you're not at school?" he said eventually.
"Didn't want to go," Katie said simply. "I always skip school if I don't want to go … I mean, what's the point of being stuck somewhere you don't want to be when all you have to do is not go? I was going to go down to the beach this afternoon, but after what Freddy said, I thought I should come by here instead."
"And what did Freddy say exactly?" Zack asked cautiously. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. Katie shrugged and took her empty plate over to the sink.
"Just that you and Summer broke up. I asked him why, but he said he didn't know. He said you were really down about it, though."
"Oh," Zack said simply.
Katie dried the plate she had just washed up and then turned to Zack, looking him up and down. He pretended not to notice.
"You need to go and get dressed," she said finally.
"Why?"
"Because we're going out, that's why."
"Oh, come on Katie! I'm not on the mood! I just want to sit at home and watch TV … I don't want to go out," Zack moaned, sounding so much like a little kid that he cringed.
Katie just looked at him, and then said, "Fine. We won't go out. But at least get dressed. No offence, but I don't exactly want to look at your legs all day, thankyou." Katie turned to leave and went through to the living room, but Zack immediately blushed and stood up, his coffee in hand. He went straight upstairs and rummaged round in his wardrobe for something half decent to wear.
As Zack picked his way through his vast CD collection scattered on his bedroom floor, he thought about Katie, the girl who, at this very moment, was sitting on his leather couch in his living room. Zack liked Katie, and he thought she was quite pretty, but he would never go out with her. That's what he told himself, anyway. Katie was the girl Zack would consider as his closest female friend, and nothing more. What would I do if she kissed me? Zack thought suddenly. Kiss her back came his instinctive reply, but the more logical, cautious side of Zack said Back away of course! I don't fancy her!
Downstairs, Katie was busy at work. So far, she had opened all of the curtains in all of the rooms downstairs, had opened two of the windows in the kitchen and was currently struggling to open the biggest window in the living room. She pushed harder on the button on the handle, and suddenly the window swung open. She jumped back slightly in surprise, and then readjusted the window so it wasn't open too wide. Just at that moment, Zack reappeared in the doorway, his hair not brushed, his face unwashed and his clothes not ironed. But at least he was dressed.
Zack groaned and sat down on the couch, shielding his eyes from the sunlight. Katie laughed and sat down beside him. Zack felt a slight jolt somewhere near the region of his stomach as she settled into the seat next to him and took the remote from the coffee table. Zack was still slightly surprised that his automatic reaction to the question 'What if Katie kissed you?' turned out to be 'Kiss her back'. What if his automatic side took over, and he ended up kissing Katie anyway? Oh, don't be stupid Zack. You're way too paranoid about yourself.
Instead, Zack settled back into the soft leather couch and watched TV with Katie. For some odd reason, Zack found himself thinking of Danny Taylor, a boy in the year above him at school who had a big crush on Katie. She had made it perfectly clear that she wasn't interested, but Danny still followed her down the corridors at school, attempting to get as near as he could to her without her hitting him. He had once sneaked up behind her, pinned her against a locker and attempted to kiss her, but she had kicked him in the balls before he'd had half a chance. If only Danny could see us now Zack thought delightedly, grinning involuntarily.
Needless to say, Zack was in a good mood for the rest of the day, and when it came time for Katie to go home, Zack found himself oddly disappointed.
"What?" Katie asked, exasperated. "I have to go or my folks'll be wondering where I am." Zack sighed and got up from the couch to see her out to the front door. "Don't be stupid, Zack! Go and sit down! I'm perfectly capable of seeing myself out, thankyou," Katie told him with a grin before opening the front door and letting herself out.
Zack listened to the door bang close, and he felt eerily empty now he was on his own again. The blare of the television now felt empty and meaningless, and Zack turned it off. He settled back into the leather sofa and stared at the blank screen of the television, listening to the quiet tick-tock of the clock on the wall.
He sat, motionless on the couch for almost half an hour before he decided that he was being pathetic. He then proceeded to go into his bedroom, stuff one of his favourite CD's into his CD player and turn the volume on as high as it would go. It was the very first record that Zack had ever purchased, and for the first time in what felt like years, Zack felt the beat pulsing through his body like an electric shock, stunning his muscles into action and causing him to jump up and down, head banging over-energetically to the music. No one was watching, so he did whatever came to him – jumping on his bed, screaming, and singing along to the lyrics tunelessly. After a few minutes, he settled himself down by reaching for his guitar and playing along to the CD. By the time the record had finished, Zack was calm, collected and ready to go …
The afternoon had been fun, and for the first time in a long time, Zack didn't think once about Summer. Sure, he spent the afternoon sitting with the girl who had caused his blunder, but suddenly that didn't seem to matter. He didn't really care. For what seemed like the first time in his life, Zack had enjoyed himself to the full. He had laughed, joked, messed around with (and probably even flirted with) Katie all day, and he felt great. As Zack made himself cheese on toast, he found himself thinking of all the times he had tried to talk to Freddy about the break-up.
"Yeah, sure, hold on a sec, man – I just got to finish off this round," Freddy had once told Zack when he called him in the middle of playing a computer game. Zack could hear Freddy on the other end of the phone, shouting and cursing at the computer screen as he played. And Zack had been sitting hopelessly at the other end of the phone, waiting for his best friend to talk to him. Right there and then, Zack had decided that Freddy probably was not the best person to turn to when faced with an emotional problem.
A few times, Zack had called Freddy and found that he was interrupting a conversation the blond was having with Summer. "Oh, hang on a minute Zack – I've got Summer here … I'll just tell her to wait a minute." On those occasions, Zack had simply put the phone down. He came to realise that Freddy probably cared more for Summer than he did for Zack. At first this bothered the guitarist, but now, after an afternoon spent with Katie, Zack found he couldn't care less. If Freddy could have Summer, then he could have Katie, and who really cared if he ended up kissing her … maybe even go out with her. What did it matter?
As Zack took his snack into the living room, he saw two familiar figures walking past his window. He recognised both of them immediately: the small brunette was Summer, and the blond boy who walked beside her was his best friend Freddy. Without really thinking about what he was doing, Zack raised his right hand to the window and extended his middle finger to the two people on the other side of the glass. Neither of them saw him, but that didn't matter. What did matter was that Zack had finally given up on two of the people he had once cared most about. He now saw Freddy as an over-confident, arrogant git, and Summer as a prissy teachers-pet with nothing better to do than count brownie points.
As these thoughts crossed Zack's mind, he revelled at how easy it really was to get over Summer, the girl he thought he could never stop loving. There were other girls out there, and he had better things to do than chase after the one person who hated him most. As Summer and Freddy disappeared from view, Zack felt an odd sense of guilt in the pit of his stomach, because he knew that hating his best friend and his ex-girlfriend and cursing them both behind their backs was probably something only Elini would do, and even then she would probably feel bad about it.
Instead of dwelling on his guilty conscience, Zack went upstairs to his room, took the box of photographs from his desk and scattered them over his bed, just as he did two weeks ago when he spent the evening leafing through them. For a moment, Zack thought of burning the photographs, but instead he chose to stuff them back in the box and put the box in the attic. He could always get them later if he needed them, but he didn't want those memories of his friends haunting his room.
Just before he took the box upstairs, however, he reached into the pile of photographs and removed one of Katie at The Battle Of The Bands last year. They hadn't taken part, but chose to help out in the organising of the event instead. The picture showed Katie helping out in the costume area backstage, her arms submerged in a large pile of clothes as she tried to locate a red cloak which was needed for someone's performance. She was grinning, but her face was smudged with dirt and her hair was a mess. Zack decided that he liked the picture because it was the only one he had of Katie that showed her true smile – the one that showed off both her bottom teeth and her top teeth, and not the 'publicity' smile which only revealed her top teeth. Zack took the photograph and stuck it on the board above his desk where he kept things such as his 'To-Do' list, which was always full, and a calendar which told him when everybody's birthday was.
After stuffing the box up in the attic, Zack lay down on his bed and fell asleep inadvertently, still fully dressed. He woke up in the middle of the night, got his photo of Katie and put it carefully under his pillow before settling back to sleep again.
A/N: I didn't really know when to end this chapter, so I decided to stop there before it got any longer. Please, please review and if anyone has any ideas for storylines, tell me (I really need them!) Thanks!