WOW! Didn't see that one coming, did you? I'm just full of surprises like that!
What I own: just the storyline. Nothing else.
Chapter 6
When Vanessa finally woke up, the first thing she noticed was the unbearable pain in her body. As she lifted her head to sneak a peak at her clock, the next thing she noticed was that she was on the floor.
Why am I down here? she wondered. She sat up and ignored how her back and shoulders cracked as she repositioned herself to lean against the side of her bed. And then it all came back to haunt her. All of the events of the evening prior. All of the details of her fight with Zac. All of the pain that they caused each other with their words and- in his case- her actions. She pulled her knees up to her chest and grasped her hands in front of them as the tears started once again.
I wonder if he's- No! Stop it, Vanessa! He called you selfish and self centered and shut you out! You can't worry about him and how he's doing this morning, she chastised herself.
But no matter how much we hurt each other, we still love each other, right? she continued to wonder. The thought that last night could possibly be the end for the two of them terrified her to no end. How are we going to fix this?
She was brought out of her thoughts by her phone ringing on the bedside table above her. Wiping her eyes, she reached up to get it, looking at the caller id as she sat back down on the floor.
"Hey, Ash," she said, trying to sound as normal as she could with a voice that was horse from crying herself to sleep.
"Sweetie, you sound rough. What's wrong?"
"I can't-" Vanessa started. "Zac and I-" She tried again, only to find that she couldn't continue as a result of the tears that were a constant at this point in time. Instead, she reduced herself to simply sniffling in Ashley's ear.
"I'm on my way over," Ashley said before hanging up, fearing the worst.
When Vanessa hung up the phone, she stood up and climbed in the bed. Struggling to get comfortable, she quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. She wasn't naïve to the fact that the reason she couldn't get comfortable was because Zac wasn't there with her, wrapping her tightly in his strong, warm arms. She had spent almost every night with him for the past two years after she moved out of her parents' house and last night was one of the rare nights they were separated, other than when one of them was traveling. The thought that frightened her a moment ago made itself known in her mind once again. Had the two of them crossed the line too far, past the point of no return? And if not, how long would it take before one of them swallowed their pride and approached the other first?
As she got in her Mercedes, Ashley called Monique. "I'm going over to Nessa's. I have a feeling something big happened last night," she told her as soon as her friend answered.
"Is she okay?" Monique asked curiously.
"I don't think so. From what I heard in her voice when I called, we may need to pay a visit to Zac later on, too."
"I'll meet you there," Monique said, hanging up her phone, grabbing her keys and rushing out the door to climb in her own car.
When Ashley and Monique arrived, they walked up to the door and knocked. After a moment of silence on the other side of the door, Monique reached up and rang the bell while Ashley walked off the porch and around to the garage. She reached up to the key box that Zac had installed after Vanessa first moved in, punched in the code to open the box, and grabbed the set of spare keys that were kept inside. She walked back to the porch and unlocked the door, walking in behind Monique. The two girls looked around the foyer as if searching for some clue as to what may have happened the evening before. Upon hearing a small noise on the stairs, they turned in time to see Shadow coming down toward them. Ashley leaned down to pick up the pup while Monique set off to find the dog food. After letting Shadow out in the backyard and making sure she had fresh food and water, Monique and Ashley again looked at each other.
"I guess it would be safe to say that she's upstairs," Ashley pointed out.
"After you," Monique said, holding out her hand to let Ashley pass. As the two got further up the stairs and closer to their hurting friend's bedroom, they heard the sounds of tears and sniffles getting clearer. As they opened the door and let themselves in, they were greeted by the sight of Vanessa laying in bed- facing the door, so they got a good look at her tear-stained face- and holding a picture of her and Zac from one of their many stops on their High School Musical 3 promo tour. As the two of them stood at the foot of the bed, they tried hard to imagine what could have gone wrong.
"Nessa?" Ashley called out timidly. This was a sight they were not used to seeing. It couldn't have been a fight, for Zac and Vanessa never fought. They had disagreements and discussions, but always seemed to work everything out. When Ashley didn't get an answer, Monique decided to give it a try.
"Vanessa, hon? Are you okay?" she asked. Silence. The two friends looked at each other with concern on each other's faces.
"We fed Shadow and let her out for you," Ashley tried again. More silence. The sound of a ringing phone broke the silence. Ashley spotted the phone on the floor and picked it up, looking at the caller id. "Hey, Nessa, is Starla. Do you want to talk to Zac's mom?" She hoped that if neither she nor Monique could get her to talk, then maybe her soon-to-be mother-in-law could. Surprising to them, the mention of Zac's name only resulted in a violent shake of her head and the tears to speed up.
"Um, okay," Ashley said putting the phone down on the bedside table. She and Monique shared a questioning look, not sure what to do next. Monique pointed to the door and mouthed "Downstairs". Ashley nodded her head in agreement and they left the bedroom, descended the stairs, and went into the kitchen. Monique started looking for some eggs for Vanessa- she was officially off her liquid diet and could now eat soft foods- while Ashley started the coffee.
"Okay, do you have the Efron's number?" Monique asked Ashley. After receiving a nod in response, she continued. "Why don't you give Starla a call and see if she knows anything?"
Ashley walked into the den and picked up her purse, searching for her phone. When she found it, she looked through her phone book until she found the Efron's home number and hit send. After having talked to Starla and still not having any answers, Ashley joined Monique in the kitchen.
"So Starla doesn't know anything?" Monique asked after Ashley finished telling her about the phone conversation.
"No, apparently she called Zac first and he's didn't answer either."
"This is really odd. It's not like the two of them to… to… whatever it is they're doing," Monique said, waving her hand towards the stairs.
"Mo, I say let's take Nessa her food and coffee and let her know that we'll be back later. I think we need to go see Zac."
"That sounds like a good idea. Let me take the tray up and you get Shadow back in and settled." The two girls went in their separate directions, Ashley to let in the dog and Monique to talk to Vanessa.
When Monique walked back into the bedroom, she noticed that Vanessa's position had changed so that she was sitting up, leaning against the headboard, and the tears had stopped for now.
"Nessa, sweetie, I've brought you some eggs and coffee. You need to try and eat." When she didn't get a response,- which didn't surprise her- she kept talking. "Honey, we don't know what happened, but we just wanted to let you know that Ashley and I are here for you. We're going to go ahead and go. It's apparent you want to be left alone, so if you need anything, just call." Monique stood from her spot on the bed and leaned over to give her a kiss on her forehead. "We love you, sweetie. We'll check back in on you later, okay?" she announced as she walked back out the bedroom and down the stairs where Ashley was waiting on her.
"I tried calling Zac while you were up there."
"And?"
"No answer."
"Let's go," Monique said, walking to the door. The girls let themselves out, locked the door behind them, and Monique went to her car while Ashley put the keys back in the lock box. Ashley climbed in the passenger seat and the two girls rode off to take care of the other half of the relationship that they were hoping to save.
The first thing Zac noticed when he woke up that morning was the massive headache he had. It wasn't often that he drowned his sorrows in beer- it was usually Vanessa who made him feel better- but the first thing he did the night before when he got home was grab the case of beer out of his refrigerator and go to sit on the couch in the den. He turned on the television to try and get his thoughts away from the past thirty minutes, but when a Neutrogena commercial came on the screen featuring his- girlfriend? Yes, girlfriend. He wasn't giving up that easily.- that idea failed miserably. He turned off the TV set and sat in the quickly appearing darkness, drinking his beer. When the first one was gone, he wasted no time opening the second and before too long, he had six empty bottles surrounding him and he felt his eyes drooping closed. He laid his head against the back cushion of the couch and the next thing he knew, he was waking up to the sunlight streaming in through the blinds and curtains that Vanessa had managed to talk him into. When he opened his eyes, he quickly closed them hard again and brought his hand up to cover his eyes wincing at the pain throbbing through his head.
He managed to stand up and make his way into the kitchen where he grabbed a glass, filled it with water, and reached in the cabinet for the bottle of Advil. As he was shaking two of the pills out into his open palm, he heard his phone began to ring in the other room. He managed to get the orange pills down his throat, and went into the other room, searching for his phone. When he located it, he noticed the caller id that said "Mom".
I can't talk to her now! She'll know before I even say "hello" that something's wrong.
No sooner was the thought fully out of his mind, the phone stopped. He heard the tone, signifying a voicemail, and sighed. I'll call her later.
He sat back down on the couch, and for the first time that morning, the pain in his left cheek made its ugly presence known and his thoughts returned to the night before.
He lost track of how long he sat there, thinking back over the past almost three months, racking his brain to try and figure exactly when things started going wrong. The only thing that brought him back from his thoughts was the sound of his phone ringing once again. Hoping it was Vanessa, he lunged for the phone, knocking over an empty bottle in the process, and picked it up, only to put it back down on the coffee table in front of him when he saw "Tizzy" on the caller id this time.
I don't really want to talk to anyone right now, except Van, he thought, as he rubbed his hand over his cheek once again, and once again, wincing at the pain. Actually, right now, I'm not sure how much I want to talk to her, either. His heart broke at the thought.
The longer he sat there, the more he ached from not being able to take her in his arms and tell her that more than anything else in the world, he was sorry. Sorry for his words to her and sorry for his lack of words to her. He was starting to think that maybe he shouldn't have made those reservations for the resort in Utah, maybe he shouldn't have told her that he planned to propose to her at all, maybe- just maybe. Maybe if he'd told her of his plan to begin with… He was coming up empty in his attempts to pinpoint the beginning of it all.
When exactly did I push her over the edge? Where did it all go wrong? And why did she not talk to me about it before it got to this point?
This time, the doorbell brought him back to the present time. Not sure if he wanted any company right now or not, he stayed right where he was. When the doorbell rang a second time, he called out a response, full of choice words that he seldom used. The third time the persistent guest rang the bell, he finally let out a groan and stood from the couch, made his way to the door, and looked out one of the side windows. When he saw Ashley and Monique standing on his front porch, he sighed in frustration and turned the lock on the door, opening it to reveal himself to the girls.
"Usually when someone doesn't answer their phone, it means they don't want to talk and to stay the hell away," he snapped. Ashley ignored his greeting and pushed her way in, followed by Monique. Zac just rolled his eyes and shut the door. "What do you want?"
"To know what the hell's going on," Ashley stated as she and Monique walked into the den, followed by a reluctant Zac. The girls took a look around and noticed what kind of shape it was in as well as what kind of shape he was in. His hair was disheveled, his stubble showing through, his usual crystal blue eyes were a stone gray and were accompanied by the bags underneath, and they couldn't help but take note of the fact that he was in the same clothes he had on the day before. "We went to Nessa's-"
"You saw Van?" he asked as his ears perked up at the mention of her name, suddenly interested in what they had to say. "How is she?" The two female friends looked at each other, wondering how much they should say.
"Well, let me put it this way. Judging from what we see here," Monique started as she looked around, taking in all of the empty beer bottles scattered on the coffee table, "yall are doing about the same. Nice cheek, by the way. Pink's a good color on you."
"Yeah, it was a lot of fun getting it," he said sarcastically, picking up one of the empty beer bottles and sitting down on his couch, gesturing to the other two to sit.
"What happened, Zac?" Monique asked him.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said, as he began to play with the label on the beer bottle in his hands.
"Well, too bad, because we do and we know how to make you talk," Ashley supplied.
Zac made a show of working the bottle around in his hands, contemplating what he should share. He finally decided to share all he knew.
"I really don't know what happened," he started. "It all sort of happened so fast, but yet not really. I've been going back in time in my mind trying to figure out exactly what started it all, but I'm coming up empty." He paused and took a few breaths, holding the bottle up in front of his face, as if looking for some of the golden liquid still inside, or maybe all the answers he was looking for. Deciding that the bottle held neither, he brought it back down into his lap and let out a sigh. He had a few questions and had a feeling that the two who sat in front of him may have the answers he needed. He looked them both in the eye and verbalized one of the questions he had. "How is she? And don't give me some sugar coated answer. I really want to know. I do still love her, regardless, and just want to know that she's okay."
Monique is the one who spoke up to answer that one. "She's hurting. She was in bed when we got there, and was still in bed when we left. She never said anything."
"You mean she didn't say anything regarding us?" he tried to clarify.
"No, I mean, she didn't say anything. She didn't even acknowledge us." Monique began to tell Zac the whole story of what happened a short while ago when they were over at Vanessa's house. When she was finished, the three just sat in silence, Zac once again fascinated with the beer bottle in his hand, and Ashley and Monique just watching him.
Zac was the first to speak. "She slapped me. I don't guess I have to tell you, you can see that for yourselves. I guess, in the things that were said, I just pushed her too far. Our arguments have never gotten to that point before."
Ashley took a deep breath before speaking. "Zac, we don't know what happened. We don't know what started it yesterday. We don't even know what Nessa's had going on in her brain. She hasn't talked to us much lately, so we don't know. We do know that the two of you will get through this."
"What if we don't, Ash? I don't even know where everything started to go wrong, so how can we fix this? What if things have gotten to the point of no turning back?" he asked, finally looking up at his visitors. "I can't live without her," he whispered as the tears that he didn't know were building finally broke loose.
Monique stood and moved to sit next to him on the couch, wrapping her arms around him and just letting him cry, an action which was almost foreign to her, as Zac never cried where other people could see. Always in private, or with Vanessa. This was their first glimpse at his vulnerability; a side of him that neither of them have ever seen before.
Just then, Ashley got an idea. She stood up, taking her purse with her into the bathroom. Locking the door behind her, she pulled out her phone and scrolled through her phone book. When she found the number she was looking for, she hit send waiting on the other person to answer.
"Hello?" they finally said.
"Hey, it's Ashley."
"Hey, Ash! What's going on? How are the wedding plans going?"
"They're good. Everything's going good. I'm actually calling as a favor for someone we're both close to." She continued the conversation with the person on the other end, and when it was over, she quickly used the restroom to keep up the pretense that that was why she really went in there. When she came out of the bathroom, she noticed that Zac was gone and Monique was straightening up the living room. She helped by picking up the couple of bottles that were right next to her.
"Where's Zac?" she asked.
"I finally convinced him to get in the shower and at least get dressed. He asked if we'd go back to Nessa's and check on her once more. Ashley, I think that regardless of what happened, the two of them still want to be together, they just don't know how right now."
"I picked up on that, too. That's why I called in the big guns."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see. Zac is going to have lunch with an old friend one day in the very near future. One who I think will be able to put a new perspective on things for him. Now, our job is to try and get Nesquick to talk and calm down before she leaves tomorrow."
When the two got back to Vanessa's, they wasted no time in letting themselves in the same way as before. They immediately went straight upstairs and found Vanessa still in the bed. The only difference was that this time, the picture had been placed on the bedside table and the TV was on. They noticed a bit of irony in the fact that she was watching High School Musical 2 and it was at the point of Troy and Gabriella's breakup by the pool at Lava Springs, with Gotta Go My Own Way playing on the screen. Ashley and Monique looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Monique was the first to spring into action and took the remote and turned off the tv and took the movie out of the DVD player and put it back in its case.
"First rule, this," she pointed the remote to the tv, "is not allowed. No wallowing. Not while we're here, at least. Wait until we leave and then you can eat all pints of Ben and Jerry's and tubes of raw cookie dough that you want too."
Vanessa just looked at her in disbelief.
"Can I have my remote back?" she asked, her voice harsh from not having used it in almost 18 hours.
"Get out of bed first," Ashley spoke up.
Vanessa made a point of throwing the covers back and standing up, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration. "There, I'm up. Happy?"
"Thrilled," Ashley shot back.
"Second rule," Monique continued "is the attitude has to stop. We're here because we love you, not for you to verbally attack."
"You're right, sorry," Vanessa said, dropping her eyes to the ground. "Are there more rules, or are those the only two?"
"There's one more. We'll talk downstairs," Monique said as she turned to leave the room and move downstairs. Vanessa just looked at Ashley, who just looked back at her in return. Vanessa sighed and made her way down the stairs as well. When the three girls were settled in the den, Monique started.
"We went to Zac's-"
"You saw Zac? How is he?" Vanessa interrupted, with a slight hint of hope in her voice.
"Well, how are you?"
"Point taken," she said, lowering her eyes to her lap. "How's his…" she trailed off, ashamed, not able to ask the question that she wanted to know.
"His cheek?" Ashley supplied. When Vanessa looked up and nodded, she continued. "He still has a slight mark. I'm surprised it didn't swell." When Vanessa looked downward once again at the pillow she was holding in her lap, she continued. "You really did a number on him. Good job!" she joked, hoping it would get Vanessa to open up a little bit. It worked.
"I don't know what happened," she began. "He came in the bedroom yelling and saying stuff and I just yelled back. I couldn't tell you what all was said, I don't remember all of it. Finally it came out that I didn't think he trusted me because he's not been telling me anything and he's been keeping me in the dark about everything. Then he called me selfish and said that I was only concerned about myself and I just snapped. Before I knew it-" she stopped, not able to continue. "I don't know, I just-". The tears over took her once more.
Ashley and Monique scooted closer to her. Ashley took Vanessa's hand in her own while Monique gently rubbed her back. Vanessa continued.
"What if it was too much? What if we can't move past all this? What if this- whatever it is- is not-"
"Honey, anything with yall can be fixed! It always has been, hasn't it?" Monique asked.
"Yeah, but Mo, this time, things were said and… and done… and-"
"Stop making excuses. Vanessa, things are always going to be said and done. That doesn't stop love," Monique stopped talking, hoping something she said would sneak in. Vanessa angrily wiped at her tears.
"I just miss him so much," Vanessa whispered. The other two girls put their arms around her and just let her cry. They knew that somehow their two friends would be okay. It was up to them to find their way back to each other, but it was up to Ashley and Monique to make sure they knew the right direction, and that was just what they planned to do.