Hollywood's Misconceptions

A/N: Not all chaps are M rated

December 14th-

It was somewhat early that morning when Vanessa woke up to the sound of her phone blasting, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," she tiredly smiled knowing who was calling her. She reached over to her nightstand and grabbed her iphone and slid over the answer bar, "Girl you are crazy for waking me up on my morning off," she teased one of her best friends.

"Oh boo hoo. I was going to call you even earlier but Scott wouldn't let me," Ashley responded, "Anyways Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you," she sang giving a smirk to Scott as he put down a plate full of breakfast in front of her.

Vanessa's heart warmed, it was great to remember she still had people who love her; something she really needed after the heartbreaking night she had which left her crying enough to fill a swimming pool.

"Thanks Ash," she responded when her friend was done serenading the day of her birth. Vanessa didn't really feel the difference of being another year older but she knew this birthday was going to definitely be memorable and not in a good way. She went silent on the phone and her friend grew extremely worried. Vanessa never was quiet on the phone; scratch that she was never quiet ever, "Are you okay sweetie," Ashley asked concerned. Vanessa took a deep breath, "Yeah I'll be fine, I just have to buck up and get through it."

Ashley rested her hand on her forehead and took a few seconds to decide what to say to make her friend feel better, "Nessa it'll be fine. I know you guys will get back together before you party and you know it too. You guys have had this fight before and you always get back together," Ashley pointed out. Ashley didn't know if she truly believed what she just told her friend but saying uplifting things was exactly spelled out in the job description of best friend. It broke her heart seeing her friend hurt and it broke it even more to see another one of her friends be the reason behind it. She didn't want to admit that she thought this was going to be the end, well for at least a long time, of Zanessa.

Vanessa looked over at the empty spot in the bed and she knew that this certain spot was going to be empty for a while and not just because her better half was filming, "Thanks for trying to make me feel better but I know this isn't like last time," she took a second to hold back tears, "But today's supposed to be a happy day so no more Zac talk," she said trying to shake the thoughts of the man who changed her life.

She finished up her call with Ashley then rested her head back on the pillows holding her phone above her head just staring at her screen saver. It was a picture of her and Zac a couple of weeks ago, forehead to forehead sharing one of those deep stares they're famous for. It was one of those pictures that would have fans squealing and staring at it for hours on end.

Slowly she dropped her hand down to her face and wiped away the tears that were slowly making their way to her ears. This wasn't how she wanted to start her birthday; it wasn't how she wanted to start out any day for that matter. But there it was, however she in hat moment decided that she wasn't going to ruin her day; it was after all a day to celebrate.

She turned on the radio that was on the bedside table then hopped up throwing her phone on the bed while walking towards the bathroom. She was due on set in three hours and she wanted to look nice and presentable; basically just look like she hadn't cried herself to sleep the night before.

Zac had woken up that morning know it was a special day; mostly because his phone woke him up at midnight telling him so. He then remembered that he had set up that alarm months in advance so he could wish his girl a happy birthday at the exact time it turned December fourteenth. But unlike years past she wasn't laying right next to him and those times they weren't in the same place he would immediately jump to his phone and wake her up with his singing of Happy Birthday; bit this time he just laid in bed and stared at his iphone that was across the room. He had a running debate with himself wondering if he should go call her but when he pictured himself getting up and quickly dialing her cell's number he heard his publicist Gina fill his mind with, "You need to think about your career," and, "You both need this." No one ever thought in a million years that they would witness him letting someone else control his heart, but that's exactly what he was doing and he never really noticed that Gina had been doing that for years. So he did nothing; he of course would send her a nice Happy Birthday text later on that day but that would be about it.

Vanessa while on her way to set received that text message but left it; that day was supposed to be filled with happy thoughts and that day he was classified as extremely un-happy.

As she walked past different crew/staff members on her way to her trailer she smiled brightly and thanked them for their birthday wishes. While filming she grew fond of all the people she saw everyday; they were another part of her family. She reached her trailer and smiled when she saw a rather colorful card taped to her door, she set her things down before she reached for the card, "Happy Birthday Vanessa," the front read, then she moved on to read the rather long message on the inside.

"Oh your so old lol. It sucks that you have to work on your birthday; we know you'd rather be with your mom or Zac but I think we're good substitutes. We've loved having you work with us and we've loved seeing your beautiful face every morning. You've definitely made this old man smile a whole lot more; Who would have thought it would be so much fun," she giggled, "we know it's not a monumental birthday but we still think it should be celebrated anyway. Everyone would say the same thing; it marks another great year full of Vanessa to come. Well we'll see you in a little bit. Oh and P.S what you'll see in a couple of minutes was not my idea. Love Michael."

Vanessa smiled at the card in her hand before she folded it and put it in her purse. She lightly rested her hand on the door handle debating with herself if she wanted to experience whatever Michael had warned her about. It only took her a second before she concluded with herself that it wasn't going to be anything bad; well at least she hoped it wasn't.

What she was met with was nothing even remotely close to being bad; it was sweet actually. Her eyes began to water from happiness when she saw her trailer filled with balloons of all shapes and sizes, Happy Birthday banners hanging on the walls, pink and purple streamers hanging in different places and sitting on the small coffee table was a cake that had a picture of her, the cast of Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 and Zac they had taken a few weeks before. When Vanessa walked over to her cake her tears turned from happy to sad, not because of the picture but because of the flowers right next to the cake; flowers Zac had sent two days before for her birthday. The flowers Zac got yelled at by Gina for sending. The flowers she got teased for when they were given to her while on set. The flowers she loved to see in her trailer for two days. The flowers she wanted to hurl towards the wall at that moment in time.

Zac was sitting in his chair on set reading through the scene he was to do next. It was about two in the afternoon when he heard the familiar sound of his phone signaling a text message. He put down his script and pulled his phone out from his pocket scrunching his face in confusion no one ever really texted him while on set. He clicked the center button on his phone and saw Stella's name. That just added more to his confusion; Stella always called him, mostly to catch him in an awkward moment. When he unlocked his phone he saw why. He didn't even know his little 'sister' knew those types of words; thought she's fifteen years old he still thinks of the ten year old he first met. There wasn't a true written point she was trying to make just many expletives in not only English but in Filipino as well. Zac knew the reason behind those words but he wanted to hear he actually yell at him instead of chickening out by text messages. So he dialed the familiar number and waited until he heard, "what do you want?"

He knew that this was going to happen, Gina (his publicist) even told him that it was going to happen but she advised him to just ignore them and that they were just trying to ruin him just like Vanessa was going to go to him.

Stella didn't know what to say other then cuss at him. Up until a few hours ago he was her big brother, someone she loved very much, and someone who would protect her at all costs. This was just a new concept, she never thought that he would go and do something that stupid. Her sister and her sister's boyfriend had partaken in many fights over the years and Stella frequently found herself on team Zac but this time she was rooting for team Vanessa, but she didn't know why. Maybe because this time this was happening at and around her sister's birthday. One may never know.

"Stella Bella, I think your father would be very upset if he saw the type of language you're using," he said with a smile growing across his face.

"I don't think he'd care if he knew I was saying them to you," she said as she typed away on her computer, sending her friend an IM.

"Stells listen," he began to try to calm her down but she chimed in with, "No Zac you listen," she was such a little girl to him but when that came out of her mouth he listened, "my sister loves you, a lot I might add, and I know you love her a lot too. So what's the deal? I thought you guys were going to ignore Gina and not let her control your every waking moment? What happened to that huh? I need my family to stay together and you are my family," she paused for a breath and to quickly wipe away falling tear, "think about the people that will be affected by this, not only is Vanessa hurt but I and too. You're my big brother; I've gone through so much with you. You taught me how to ride a skateboard, I taught you how to cook, you let me cry on your shoulder over some boy while you were on a date with Nessa, you even went to the store to buy tampons when mom and dad were on vacation and Vanessa was in Texas. You are a part of our family and you just can't take that away. In your heart you know you love Vanessa and you can't live without her, or even without her family."

Zac didn't know what to say, his mind was moving a mile a minute but he couldn't form one understandable word. He had sunken back into his seat in hopes of trying to hide from himself. As Stella was talking he couldn't help a flashback in his mind to all of those times he spent with Vanessa and her little sister. Those are many moments he loved to keep in his life. He didn't think that Stella could get him to really think about his life and his future.

It is like someone punched him in the stomach, he began to feel sick because he didn't know what to do, should he continue on in his life working towards making himself a big success without Vanessa by his side or should he fly all the way to Wilmington get on his knees and beg for forgiveness so that he could be with her again but be left in her shadow? He didn't know what to do.

He quickly told Stella that he was being called on set and then threw his phone in the side pocket of his chair. He groaned as he rested his face and hands. He hoped all of his answers would come flooding into his mind and that he would all of a sudden become confident with his answers.

Everyone had called Vanessa to wish her a happy birthday; her parents, Stella, Brittany, Laura, Matt, Gaelan, Lucas, Monique, Olesya, Kelsey, Kenny, Jenna, Abbie, Jamie, Emily, both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, some cousins, Starla, David, Dylan, everyone. Well everyone but the one she wanted to hear say it. Even though she before said that she didn't even want to hear his name secretly she was craving it a few hours later.

While walking from her trailer to her awaiting car Josh came skipping up next to her, "Hey Vanessa," he said.

"Hey," she muttered trying to put on a bright smile to hide her sadness.

"Are you sure you don't want to go somewhere to celebrate, I'm off too, we can go have dinner or something," he added.

She shrugged her shoulders and gave Josh a scrunched look, "Nah thanks though. I really just want to go back to my apartment and take a bath. It's been a long day."

He gave her a look resembling a sad puppy before he watched her get into the car in ride away into the slowly drifting sunset.

Zac threw his keys onto his nightstand before he walked into the bathroom to run cold water on his face. He felt sick when he looked at himself in the mirror. As he stood there he thought back to the night before. The time he spent arguing with Vanessa instead of talking to her about her day and telling her he loved her. He told her about what his Publicist had said to him and like an idiot he was starting to believe her, so that night he told the love of his life he agreed with her. It wasn't exactly how she thought that night was going to play out. Like he expected soon that very same night his phone was being blown up by all of Vanessa's friends and family. Now as he was standing there staring back at himself all of those phone calls came flooding back into his mind. He couldn't think of why he said that, why did he let Gina convince him of her crazy ideals.

"I love her," he whispered to himself. And he wasn't lying, he really did love her, he loved everything about her. But most of all he missed her, they had been away from each other for so long and this face time thing was getting a little frustrating. He had this feeling that hey were going to have some more difficult times to come but he didn't want this stupid publicist issue being the reason why they were no longer together.

He walked back over to the bed and grabbed his phone from his pocket. He slowly sat down onto the bed and began to navigate his way through his phone to reach his contact list. He scrolled through the list filled with numbers of family members, friends and cast members until he finally reached Vanessa's number. He couldn't help but smile when he saw the picture ID for her number, the first picture they took together as a couple; they were so young! He took a very long deep breath before he tapped onto her number to call her.

Vanessa threw her shoes in the corner of the room before she grabbed the hair tie she had left on the foot of her bed that morning and pulled her hair up into a messy bun. She sighed as she threw herself onto the bed, feeling her whole body ache with tiredness. She hadn't really worked that hard that day at work, she was really more emotionally tired. All she wanted to do was put on her pajamas, cozy up to her pillows, turn on her Ipod and doze off. So that's what she did, however she couldn't sleep. She closed her eyes and hummed to the music like she normally did to help her fall asleep but it just wasn't working. She then groaned as she turned over to stare at the off white ceiling. The second she reached her hands underneath her head she heard, "Have I Told You Lately," began playing from her phone. Without really noticing that certain ringtone she got up to retrieve her phone from the dresser. Not until she reached her phone did she realize who that ringtone belonged to. She didn't know what to do, after all she designated that day to Zac free but there was this empty feeling in her heart that was crazing the sound of his voice.

"Hello," her voice squeaked as she answered the phone.

Even though Zac was the one to call her he was shocked to actually hear her answer, he thought he was just going to leave a very pathetic and sad voicemail.

"Um," he said then cleared his throat, "Vanessa I'm going to say something but I want you to promise that you won't hang up once I do."

She took a second before she responded with, "I promise."

Zac took another long deep breath before he said, "Ness, I love you."

SO WHAT DID YOU THINK? SHOULD I CONTINUE? PLEASE REVIEW!

HANNAH