Disclaimer: I don't own the SLOZC…though I wish I did! Haha!

College Years

Chapter 7

Feelings

Maddie stared at the scene in front of her. A horse-drawn carriage stood about 20 yards away. Rose petals scattered around made a pathway to the carriage, which was white and red and had rose petals thrown throughout. Maddie gasped again and turned to Zack and said, "Zack! Is this for me?" He smiled and nodded. Maddie squealed and Zack put out his arm. She linked her arm with his and they walked down the rose petal path to the carriage.

Zack opened the little door and helped Maddie step up into the carriage. They rode through the streets. Near the end of the ride Maddie asked, "Zack…this is perfect! Why'd you do this? What's the occasion?"

He smiled and said, "No occasion…I just wanted to do something special for you."

"But…why?"

"Because you're the most special person I've ever met. I've never felt like this about anyone."

"Zack, what are you talking about?"

"Maddie…I just wanted to tell you…that…well, I love you."

Maddie widened her eyes and said, "Zack! You do?"

He nodded and she said, "I…I don't know what to say!"

"You…you could tell me how you feel…you know…about me?"

She took a deep breath and said, "I love you, too, Zack."

She kissed him as the carriage came to a stop back where they started. They got off the carriage and Zack paid the driver saying, "Thank you…this was the best night of my life." The driver smiled, a little confused, and pulled away from the curb.

Zack stuck out his arm again and Maddie and him walked down the street back to where they had left the car on the other side of the park. They reached the car, and Zack opened the car door for her and they drove off, neither of them being able to stop smiling.

They pulled into the parking lot at the dorms of Berkeley and Zack jumped out of the car and opened the door for Maddie. He took her hand and interlaced their fingers as they walked towards their dorm building. They reached Maddie's dorm too soon. He kissed her goodnight and Maddie said, "Thank you, Zack. Thank you for the most spectacular night of my entire life. You're the sweetest guy I've ever met. Thank you." He smiled and said, "No problem, baby. I love you." She smiled and blushed and said, "Love you, too." She opened her door and went inside. She turned around and kissed him one more time before closing the door.

Zack turned to the left and kept walking down the hall to his own dorm. He opened the door of his dorm and looked around the room, searching for Cody. Not seeing him, he checked his watch, realizing it was only 10 o'clock, and Cody had gone to a club. He's probably not going to be home until like 12. He took off his nice clothes and put on lounging clothes and sat down at his desk to work on an essay.

1 o'clock came and Zack was up from his desk, pacing across the room, calling Cody's cell phone every 30 seconds on his own. He sat down on his bed, calling Cody again. As soon as he got Cody's voice mail and was about to break down, the door opened, and there stood Cody, glowing and completely unaware of the panic he had caused Zack.

"Hey, Zack! What's up?"

"What's up? What's up? What's up? I'll tell you what's up. I've been worried sick in here for the past hour!"

"Why? I told you I was going out and where!"

"You weren't supposed to be out past 12!"

"What, do I have a curfew now?"

"No, but it sure would be nice to know when my own brother's going to be home from a dance club!"

"Well, sorry! I didn't know you had a problem with me going to the Dance Off! Quit yelling at me."

"I'm not yelling at you!" Zack yelled, not lowering his voice at all. "I'm just looking out for you!"

"I don't need protection all the time! I'm a big boy you know, Zack."

"I know about the Dance Off, Cody."

"What'd you know?"

"I know about the stuff that goes on there. It's a bad place, Cody!"

Cody's voice went from angry and frustrated to fearful as he said, "Like what things?"

"Illegal stuff!"

"Like what?"

"I really don't want to get into that, Cody. It scared the crap out of me to have you go missing like that. Promise me you won't do that again!"

"I promise."

"And another thing. Why didn't you answer your phone?"

"My phone?" He took his phone out of his pocket and said, "Oh, I guess I turned it off…I don't even remember doing that…"

Zack groaned and said, "Alright…so how was Dance Off?"

Cody shrugged and the whole story came out about how Cody left the Dance Off after being inside for 10 minutes. Zack, confused, asked, "So you left the club at around…what? 8:30?" Cody nodded and Zack said, "Then where the hell have you been for the last 4 ½ hours!"

"With Sarah." Cody replied, cool as ever.

"Oh, okay…wait a god damn second, who's Sarah?"

"Our neighbor. And my new girlfriend."

Zack, lost for words for the first time, spit out, "Girlfriend?"

"Yeah! After the whole Dance Off thing, I came back here and was walking past Sarah's door and I heard someone crying. I didn't want to get on Sarah's nerves and try and help because I didn't really know her, but I felt like she needed someone to talk to. So I knocked on her door and she let me in and we talked for a while. Then I was about to leave when she kissed me, and it felt so right that I just went for it and asked her to be my girlfriend. And she said yes…well, after some thinking about it."

"Wow, Cody. I gotta hand it to you. You really know how to surprise the crap out of me."

Cody smiled and said, "Okay, I'd love to hear about your date with Maddie, but it's around 1:30 in the morning, and I am exhausted. Tell me about it tomorrow?" Zack nodded and they went to bed, both dreaming of the fantastic night they had.

The next day, Cody went to see Sarah. She smiled when she opened the door to find him standing there, and kissed him quickly.

"What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to ask you if you'd like to go to lunch today with me?"

"Of course! What time?"

"Well, I was thinking about 1?"

"Sounds great! Come back and pick me up?"

He nodded and kissed her again, walking back to his dorm, feeling on top of the world.

Zack, on the other hand, was having a difficult day. It was Saturday, and the day he had planned for Maddie's surprise birthday party. He called her and said, "Hey, Maddie, happy birthday!"

"Thanks, Zack! What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to know if you wanted to spend your birthday with me tonight?"

"Oh, Zack, I'm sorry. I already made plans with Ashley. I haven't spent time with her in a really long time. How about we spend tomorrow night together, how about it?"

He breathed out slowly, sighing and said, "Alright. Well, I have to go. I'll talk to you later, okay? Happy Birthday."

"Thanks. Bye."

"Bye."

He shut his phone and thought to himself, Everything's going perfectly!

That night Zack heard Maddie leave for her outing with her best friend, Ashley. He started to set up for the party. A few hours later, the room looked perfect for a party, and Maddie's friends started arriving. Zack had met all of them at one time or another. It was 8:30, and Ashley was supposed to be at the party by 9. Meanwhile, Zack talked with the guests as they waited for Maddie. Cody arrived shortly afterward, not expecting to see a party in his bedroom. He stuck by the door and listened for Maddie arriving.

Maddie and Ashley went to see a movie. When they got back to Maddie dorm Ashley suddenly said, "Let's go see your lover man!"

Maddie laughed and said, "Zack? Nah, he's probably busy."

"Oh, please, Dee-Dee!" She said, using Maddie's nickname.

"Lei-Lei, why do you want to see Zack?" She said back, using Ashley's nickname.

"I just want to. I've only met him a few times and I'd like to be friends with my best friend's man."

"Oh, alright, fine. We'll go knock."

They went to the door and heard loud music. Maddie knocked, a little confused.

Inside, Cody looked through the hole in the door and gasped. He had the stereo remote so he immediately paused the loud music and said, "She's here!" They turned off the lights, people hid where they could, and Cody opened the door slowly and hid behind it. Maddie walked in curiously calling, "Zack? Cody? Anybody?" Zack hit the lights and everyone yelled, "Surprise!" Maddie's face could only be described as, well, surprised. She screamed with joy and her eyes lit up. She yelled, "Oh my gosh! This was all Zack's idea, right? Zack! Where are you?" Zack came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. As soon as she turned around he spun her around and dipped her down, kissing her. The crowd around them started catcalling and yelling, "Get a room!" or "Go Maddie!"

The next day was terrible. The dorm room had been condemned "hazardous wasteland." Paper cups lay on the floor, empty pizza boxes lay forgotten on the beds, and worst of all, kids were still lying on the floor, passed out. Zack and Cody had slept in Maddie's dorm, as you couldn't see the floor or the beds in their dorm. When they went to clean up, Zack said to Cody, "Was something in the drinks or something? Why are people passed out cold?"

"I really have no idea. Too tired to go home?"

"Yeah, I guess so…you reckon we should wake them? Or just clean around them?"

"I personally don't think they'll notice if we throw them out the window."

"I'm all for that idea!"

"Zack! We can't throw kids out the window! Let's wake them up, okay?"

They went around to the 5 people around the room that they could see and tried to wake them up. When yelling didn't work, Cody got a pitcher of cold water and dumped it on their faces. That one worked. They got up grumpily and left.

"You know, I'm glad I'm not one of those kids. I'd hate driving home like that."

"We shouldn't let them drive like this, Zack! They could get killed!"

"Not our fault. We didn't tell them to pass out on our floor."

"True, but it was our party they passed out at."

"Still. We can't be blamed."

"Whatever. I don't want to take them home, either, so they can figure out what to do. We need to clean."

They cleaned all day. They picked up paper plates, cups, pizza boxes, trash, and party decorations. Cody thought they had found the strangest thing when he found a pair of pants, but that was topped by Zack finding a pair of underwear. He threw them out the window, holding them with a pencil, with a disgusted look on his face.

By the end of the day, they had vacuumed, shampooed the carpet, cleaned the windows, picked up all the trash, and made a complete transformation of the room. Maddie had seen the damage and left immediately to avoid helping them clean. She came by at the end of the day and was amazed at the condition of the room. She kissed Cody on the cheek and kissed Zack passionately, thanking them for the party.

"It was fantastic. Thank you both so much. I really had a great time."

Zack smiled, leaning in for another kiss. She turned though, not seeing him leaning in for a kiss, and he ended up kissing the air in front of him. Cody saw and started laughing, which made Maddie turn around and ask, "What?" Zack gave Cody an "I'll kill you if you say a word" look, so Cody said quickly, "Nothing." Maddie kissed Zack on the cheek again and left, closing the door behind her.

Zack collapsed on his bed as Cody started laughing again. Zack sighed and relived the party, from Maddie's entrance to the end, enjoying every minute of it, as he threw a pillow at Cody, shutting him up instantly.

A/N- yay! Chap 7 is done! Okay, I really don't have anything to say about the chapter, so here's the other types of notes so I can stall:

Note #1- Thank you reviewers! Every single one of you made my day! I heart all of you so much! Thank you so much!

Note #2- Time for a bit of advertising. Okay, as for my own stories: I have 3 HP stories that would appreciate a few more readers. The Two, Too Perfect, and Depression. Look in my profile for information. I also have a few friends who have great stories, so these are just recommendations. Dopey91 (1 of my BFF's) has a modern day Moulin Rouge called The Ruffled Flamingo. It's real good. She also has a story for The Outsiders, called We, the Female Greasers. If you like Teen Titans, read RuperLover09 's stuff. She's real talented. I don't even watch the show, and I still think her stories are fantastic.

Note #3- check my profile for updates on story ideas. I'm always updating it with my story plans, so if you want to know what I'm up to with stories, that's the place to go.

Note #4- I'm kind of stalling and dragging this on as much as possible, can ya tell? Haha. Well, how did you like this chapter? Please review and let me know. This chapter is shorter than most of my chapters, but I was anxious to get a chapter up, as I've been neglecting this story for some time. My Internet is disconnected (I'm grounded from the internet as I'm writing this) so I haven't been able to update. Though it has given me extra time to type new chapters and work on new story ideas.

Note #5- my last and final review, because I really can't think of anything else to say to stall so: PLEASE REVIEW! I love reading my reviews, even if they criticize, because it lets me know that my story idea isn't absolute bullshit (pardon my language, im in a cussing mood lately) so please, please, PLEASE review. I will love you forever if you do! Haha! Criticism is welcome!

Hope to hear from you soon,

Love,

DC