Zac opened the door of the office building as he left, looking around to see if any paparazzi were around. Much to his dismay, they seemed to be waiting on him as they instantly began flashing cameras. He pulled the beanie on and made his way to his Audi that was parked a few spots away.
He yawned and took the final gulp of his black coffee an assistant had given to him when he arrived at the early morning meeting nearly two hours ago. He pulled the beanie off and tossed it into his passenger seat. He felt his phone vibrate in the pocket of his skinny jeans and before putting his car in reverse; he lifted his hips, allowing him to slide his hand into the pocket, grabbing the iPhone.
Seeing the brown haired beauty on his phone, he smiled, sliding it open to accept the call.
"Hey gorgeous," he said charmingly.
He heard a sweet giggle in reply and could tell she had just woken up.
"I woke up and you weren't here," she said. He could see the cute pout that would no doubt be on her face as the words escaped her sweet lips.
"I know, silly girl. I woke you up when I left. I had a meeting for Ninjas, remember?" he said, backing out of his parking spot carefully.
"I don't remember you waking me up. I didn't interrupt your meeting did I?"
"No, I just got out. And I gave you a kiss and told you good morning and you said it back. You instantly fell back asleep though. I guess I really wore you out last night, huh?" he joked, a smile on his face.
"Zachary David!" she scolded him, before conceding, "Yes, you did. But I certainly didn't mind."
"Me either, baby girl. Do you want to grab some breakfast at Paty's?"
"Mmmm, yes please!" she said, jumping up and going to her closet.
He chuckled at her excitement as he used his turn signal, changing lanes on the freeway. "I will be there in ten minutes. Can you be ready by then?"
"Yep. See you soon. Love you!"
"Love you too, Ness." He hung up the phone and listened to the radio, singing along as he drove home.
Vanessa heard his Audi pull into the garage almost exactly ten minutes later. She bounced down the stairs happily and grabbed her purse before opening to door to go out into the garage. She walked around the hood of his car and slid into the passenger seat, placing her purse in the floor. He looked over at her, a wide smile on his face as she got in.
Before he could put the car in reverse, she leaned over the center console and placed a hand on his left cheek and connected their lips. The loving kiss quickly deepened as he placed his left hand on her hip. Vanessa pulled back moments later and placed a quick kiss on his lips before sitting down in her seat and pulling on her seatbelt.
He opened the garage door, backing out before closing it again. Once he started driving again, he placed his hand on Vanessa's jean clad thigh, squeezing slightly.
"How was your meeting?" she asked, looking over at him as she rested her hand on top of his.
"Good. Just met with a couple of the partners to talk about potential scripts that me and Jason picked out."
"Are you excited for tonight?"
"Yeah, I'm stoked. I haven't been to the Malibu beach house in forever."
Zac and Vanessa along with the HSM cast, Ryan Rottman, Brittany Snow, Laura New, Chris Reinacher, Bubba Lewis, Miley Cyrus, and some others were going to the beach house in Malibu that Ashley rented for everyone for the weekend.
"Party tiimmmeeee," Vanessa sang happily, making Zac laugh. He pulled into Paty's and they went inside.
That night, Zac pulled Vanessa's Audi up to the beach house. He pressed the button, putting the top of the convertible back up. They got out and walked hand in hand inside the house. When they walked inside, everyone looked up and all the girls squealed various excitements. "Let's see that rock, missy!" Brittany said, pulling Vanessa to where all the girls were seated.
Zac shook his head, laughing and made his way to find all the guys.
"How did he do it?!" Miley asked excitedly.
Vanessa smiled happily and told the girls the entire story. She finished just as the guys walked in.
"Celebratory shots!" Ryan said after he and the rest of the guys learned the story from Zac outside.
Everyone moved towards the kitchen and Ryan poured shots for everyone.
He held his shot glass up in the air and everyone followed suit, waiting for Ryan's infamous toast.
He smiled widely before saying: ""Here's to those who wish us well
And those that don't can go to hell."
They all cheered and downed the shot.
"Let's go to the beach, beach, let's go get away!" Ashley sang, going towards the back door of the house. Everyone followed along, making their way to the back porch. Some of them continued and went into the water, while others stopped and sat on the patio.
Vanessa and Ashley, along with Monique and Laura were in the water while the rest of them sat on the patio. A guy walked by that Ryan recognized and he called him up to the patio. Ryan introduced him to everyone sitting on the patio.
Miley got up and went into the water to join the other girls. The guy, Brad, watched and saw her joining the other girls.
"Daaaamnn! Who is that girl in the black bikini?" Brad asked.
Zac raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything as he looked at the guy.
"Vanessa," Corbin replied, nonchalantly.
Ryan motioned for the guy not to say anything. "Don't even try, dude. Trust me." Ryan said.
Brad laughed. "Oh, I get it. She's with you? Come on man, share! How is she? I bet she is amazing. She looks like she would be good in bed. I mean, damn! Look at that ass!"
The guys, minus Brad, looked at Zac as the guy sat there talking about Vanessa.
Chris coughed, trying to stop from laughing at the guy.
Zac decided to get up before he caused any trouble. He finished his beer and stood up, walking down to the beach. As he got closer to the shoreline, Vanessa ran out of the water and giggled loudly, jumping into his arms and wrapping her arms and legs around him.
"Oh shit!" Brad said. "He is with her?!"
Ryan slapped his back with a smile on his face, "He is her fiancée, dude."
Brad's eyes got wide. "Fiancée?! Why didn't anyone stop me?! Did you see his muscles?! He is gonna kick my ass!"
Bubba laughed loudly. "Nah man, just don't say anything else. He's really chill, unless you start to mess with V."
Brad nodded, still looking scared and gulped a sip of the beer Ryan handed him.
Zac's phone rang, which was sitting beside Corbin, but he didn't answer it. When it stopped ringing, Vanessa's phone started ringing. Corbin saw that both calls were Dylan, so he picked it up.
"Dylan? What's up, man? It's Corbin."
When Corbin didn't get a witty response from Dylan, he immediately thought something was wrong. "Dylan? You there? What's going on?"
"Hey Corbin. Do you know where Zac is? I'm at his house and he isn't here. He wouldn't answer his phone. Damn, I'm sorry, I could have sworn I called Nessa's phone."
"You did, they are here with me. We are at the beach house in Malibu. Is everything okay?"
"Um…yeah. I just needed to talk to my brother."
"Just come here, man. We're all just hanging out. He is down in the water right now."
"Okay, I'll be there in twenty."
"Sweet. Later dude." Corbin hung up the phone, wondering what was going on with Dylan.
The rest of the group went down to the water, joining the girls and Zac.
Zac dunked Corbin, making his curly hair go flat on his head, making everyone laugh. Corbin got him back by dunking him in a big wave. Everyone continued to play around in the water.
Vanessa got out a little bit later, to get something to drink. As she walked into the house, she jumped when she saw the front door opening.
"Dyl?!" she said, shocked to see him.
He gave a weak smile and she noticed his red eyes that had recently harbored tears.
She put down her glass and rushed to him. "Dyl, what's wrong?" she asked, concerned.
He shook his head, hugging her tight. "Hey sis-in-law," he said, squeezing her tightly.
"Hi bro-in-law. You're worrying me, Dylan. Are mom and David okay? Grandma Anne?"
He pulled back and she could see him swallow hard, moving his Adam's apple. "They are all fine. They think I'm at school. I um…I need to talk to Zac so I drove down here, but when he wasn't at home I called him and when he didn't answer I called you, but Corbin answered and told me to come here. I hope that's okay."
"Of course it is. Hang tight, I'll go get Zac, okay?"
He nodded and sat down on the couch. She made her way out to the patio and down towards the water. Zac looked up and saw her worried face and quickly swam into shore. He walked to her, putting a hand on her hip. "Ness, what's wrong?"
"Dylan's here," she said worried, "he said he needs you."
Zac blinked, confused and grabbed her hand as they walked back to the house. He walked in and saw Dylan drinking a beer quickly.
"Dylan, what's up?" Zac asked, concern evident all over his face. Dylan looked at Zac quietly and Vanessa quickly saw this was clearly a sibling moment.
She grabbed a drink and kissed Dylan's cheek before kissing Zac on the lips quickly and heading back outside. Zac motioned for Dylan to follow him and they made their way to front porch steps. They sat down and Zac shoved Dylan slightly with his shoulder.
"What's going on?"
"Kelly cheated on me, dude."
"She what?!" Kelly was the girl Dylan had dated in high school for a few years. They had broken up after their junior year in college, but had recently started going out again a couple of months ago.
Dylan pinched the bridge of his nose, wishing the tears away. "She cheated on me, bro. With Carlos."
"Carlos?! As in your best friend Carlos? The guy you have been friends with since like fifth grade?!"
"That's the one. I wouldn't have found out if Matt wouldn't have told me."
Zac was shocked and honestly didn't know what to say to make his little brother feel better. "That's lousy dude. I wouldn't have thought she would do that, but I definitely wouldn't have expected it from him."
He saw Dylan's jaw flinch as he looked down and covered his eyes with his left hand, a sure tell sign that he was about to cry, but was trying not to. Zac wrapped his arm around him and hugged him to his side, squeezing his shoulder.
He could count on one hand the number of times he had needed to console his brother. Of course, there had been little fits when they were younger and would fight, but since then, Dylan hadn't needed a brotherly talk that often. The last brother talk they shared were when their grandfather died and before that when Zac and Vanessa had broken up.
Dylan swiped at his eyes angrily. "I thought she was the one, Zac. But she's fucked it all up now. I don't have her or my best friend anymore."
"When did it happen?"
"The night I stayed here with Nessa and then again last night. Matt walked in and found them last night at Carlos' apartment. When I came home from mom and dad's this morning, she was sitting on the couch waiting on me, and Matt woke up and saw her sitting there and told me what happened right in front of her. So I told her it was over and grabbed my keys and left. Carlos keeps blowing up my phone, but I don't want to talk to him."
"Dyl, that sucks. But it's better that you find out the type of girl she really is now than later on down the road. Ya know? And I don't really know what to tell you about Carlos other than I will happily beat his ass for you. That's really shitty of him."
Dylan nodded and cleared his throat. "If Nessa cheated on you, would you take her back?"
Zac bit the inside of his cheek, thinking about the question. "Hypothetically speaking….hmmm..if it was any girl besides Ness, no. I wouldn't take her back. But if it was Vanessa and it was a one time mistake that I could tell was genuinely a mistake and she was truly sorry for, I would consider it very heavily."
"But you and Nessa are totally different than me and Katie, I know. She wasn't my best friend first and while we were broken up, we weren't still there for each other. Plus you guys trust each other completely. You have a weird relationship, you know that? It's like you both are the same person."
Zac laughed, making Dylan smile slightly. "Yeah, I'm lucky to have her. And you will have that some day too, Dyl. I promise. And when you meet her, you'll know it. Everything will stop being about you and it will be all about her. It doesn't matter if you are 21 or 41, you will know her when you meet her. Plus, you haven't lost your best friend. I'm sitting right here," Zac finished cheekily.
Dylan nodded, smiling. "I know. Thanks bro." Dylan hugged Zac tightly, thankful for having such an awesome big brother.
"So what do you want to do? Are you going to give her another chance? What about Carlos?"
"Nah, I'm done with both of them. It wasn't a one-time thing, it happened twice. I think that's what hurts the most."
Zac nodded, understanding his point. "Well hey, how about we get you drunk and you can forget all about it? We'll grill out and have a bonfire and you can just party with your awesome big brother."
Dylan nodded. "Sounds good."
They got up and walked inside to see Vanessa walking downstairs, having pulled on one of Zac's shirts over her bathing suit.
"Heeeyyyy!" she said, giggling due to her slight tipsiness.
Dylan mocked her jockingly, "Heeeeyyy!"
Vanessa put her hands on her hips with a straight face and glared at him. "Don't make me beat you up, Dylan Nicholas."
He smirked and got into the same pose she did, before picking her up over his shoulder. "Psshh, like I'm scared of that. You weigh like a hundred pounds. What do you say, wanna go for a little swim with the sharks?" he said, walking slowly through the house.
She screamed and kicked, hitting his back. "DYLAN NICHOLAS EFRON PUT ME DOWN DAMMIT!"
He laughed loudly and put her down in the kitchen, where Zac was standing. She gave him an evil glare and wrapped her arms around Zac's waist.
Zac was trying hard not to laugh as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Aw don't be mad, Nessa. I've had a rough day." Dylan said, a slight smile on his face.
Vanessa instantly remembered he was sad and got a concerned look on her face. "What happened?"
Seeing that no one else was around, he explained the story to Vanessa.
"That bitch!" Vanessa said, shocked. Her reaction made Dylan laugh.
She pulled him into a brotherly hug and smiled when she pulled back.
"Don't worry Dylan, next time I see her. I will kick her ass for messing with my little brother. But in the mean time, let's get your mind off of it and parrrtttyyyy!"
He chuckled at her as his phone rang. He groaned when he saw it was Katie. Vanessa's eyes lit up as she stuck out her hand. He looked confused as he handed her his phone.
She looked at Zac with a smirk on her face. "Tickle me, babe."
He shook his head, smiling, already knowing what she was going to do. He tickled her softly and she answered the call.
"H-hello?" she giggled loudly.
"Hello? Is Dylan there?" Katie asked.
"Baaaaaby stop it!" Vanessa said to Zac, making sure Katie could hear. "No, I'm sorry. Dylan is a little busy right now. Do you want to leave a message?"
"I don't believe you. Why do you have Dylan's phone?"
Vanessa's eyes went wide as she motioned for Zac to say something.
Zac disguised his voice a little, sounding almost exactly like Dylan as he said into Vanessa's neck, close to the phone. "Baby, who is it?"
Dylan tried really hard not to laugh out loud.
Katie gasped loudly before she hung up the phone.
Zac, Dylan, and Vanessa all laughed loudly as V handed Dylan back his phone.
"You guys are the best!" Dylan exclaimed happily.
He slid his phone back into his pocket and grabbed a beer before the three of them began walking towards the back door to join the others.