Chapter 7

The next morning I woke up to find that Aaron was still asleep so I went to feed Angel before finding something to eat. I was in the process of setting the table when I noticed the Aaron was up.

"Mornin'" I said, "Breakfast is almost ready."

"Someone's in a good mood" Aaron said.

"Do you know how long it's been since I have cooked for anyone other than myself?"

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say a while."

"Try like five years. I miss having an excuse to cook."

"Smells good," he commented, breathing in the aroma of fresh made biscuits, sausage, and eggs.

"Thanks. Drinks are in the icebox. I don't know whatchya like so you gotta get it yourself." I said going back into the kitchen to check on the second set of biscuits.

He walked around to the icebox and got him a drink while I finished putting the food on the table. We ate in silence, enjoying the company until his phone started going off.

He answered, "Hello?...What's up?...Yeah I just got up…..Alright dude….See you." He hung up.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Nick warning me that Zak's looking for me."

"Oh."

"Well, have fun with that." I said going back to my food.

"What are you going to do today?"

"Oh I don't know. Probably just lounge around here all day with Angel. Unless I can get the motivation to take Angel out to the park."

"OR you could get dressed and come with us and hang out at the office." Aaron suggested.

"And chance running into Barbie? No thank-you. I rather like it out here on the outside."

"Oh come on, you can't leave us to fend for ourselves." he pleaded.

"Why not? You've done it before. You can live without me."

"You know you want to come because then you get to see Zak."

"Yeah okay that's so totally it." I rolled my eyes "I'll talk to him when he can finally pull+ his head out from Barbie's ass."

"I bet you can't go a day without talking to him."

"How much you wanna bet? I've gone these past couple months without saying a single word to him."

"Twenty bucks says you won't last the day"

"Fifty says I can."

"Deal."

"Deal" I agreed and we shook hands. After breakfast I went upstairs to change. I put on a pair of medium wash denim kapris, a black half spaghetti strap half short sleeve shirt that had a silver design on the front, and a pair of white high tops. "Hey, do you think I could bring Angel too?" I asked coming out of my room.

"I don't see why not. Does she get along with other dogs?"

"She's well behaved in public."

"Okay, well let's get going before he decides to come looking for us" Aaron said. I grabbed Angel's leash, my purse and keys then we headed out to the office. All the way up to the office people gave us a wide berth along with some hateful stares. I was used to it and blatantly ignored it.

"Hey, what took you so long?" I heard Zak say as we walked into the room then he noticed me "Oh. Hey Lynn."

I just looked at him. Angel started sniffing the air.

"What is it baby? You smell something?" I asked. She looked at me then looked back at Zak. She started tugging on the leash, trying to make me walk forward. "Okay, okay." I said walking forward. She took me into Zak's office where she saw Gracie laying down in the corner. Gracie looked up at us. Angel started tugging really hard on the leash, wanting to go play. "Okay, you can go play, but you gotta let me get your leash off first." She stopped pulling and looked at me. "Well come here so I can get it off." She walked up to me. I took off her leash then she ran up to Gracie stopping right in front of her.

I noticed Zak stand up which caused Gracie to look up at him. I looked at him and motioned for him to sit down and be quiet. He looked at me like I was crazy, but then decided to sit down. I looked back and saw Gracie lay back down. Angel sniffed the ground for a bit before deciding to lay down right next to Gracie.

"Who's dog?"

I gave him my 'really' look.

"What's that look for?"

I just rolled my eyes and walked out to the main area, listening to music.

I was zoned out listening to music and playing a game when all of a sudden I heard a scream. I looked up to see that fake bitch in Zak's office freaking out about something.

"Do you know what's going on?" the guys asked me

"No. Do you?"

"No." So we all walked over to Zak's office to see what the commotion was all about. I fell over laughing when I saw what was going on. Angel was standing in between Barbie and Gracie barking and Barbie was cowered in the corner.

"Lynn what's going on? Why is your dog acting that way?" Zak demanded.

I looked over at Aaron and asked, "For the sake of lives can we call a truce? For like five minutes."

"Nope. I win."

"Only because I let you."

"Will someone tell me what the hell is going on!" Zak said

"Oh don't get your panties in a twist" I said walking over to Angel and Gracie. I knelt down beside Angel. "Hey pretty girl. What's the matter? Did that mean ol' lady try to hurt you?" I asked petting her while looking over at the scaredy cat. Angel stopped barking, but she never took her eyes off Barbie.

"Courtney wasn't doing anything! She just went over there to get Gracie then your dog started snapping at her!"

"Well that entitles her doin' somethin' now doesn't it?" I snapped "You can't just walk up on a dog's personal space and act like it's no big deal! How would you feel if some random stranger got all up in your bubble for no reason? You would be doin' the same thing she is so don't even try to blame Angel!"

"Get it away!" Courtney yelled.

I turned to her, "Shut up" then turned back to Zak, "Look, is it cool if I take Gracie out here to the main room with me? It's the only way Angel's gonna move."

"Not if she's going to act like that"

"Really Zak? Really? The entire time that we have been here has either Angel or I hurt Gracie? Ever?"

"No,but-"

"Then what the hell makes you think we'd start now? If she wanted to attack Gracie she would've done it when she first saw her instead of waiting for this Bimbo to show up."

"Hey!" Courtney butted in. Angel barked. She jumped.

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Come on Angel, let's get out of here. Gracie, you can come too. I'll bring you back when your daddy stops being an ass and can learn how to use his real head." I said and walked out into the main room. Angel sat on my right, Gracie on my left. When I laid down, Gracie was at my feet and Angel sat on my stomach. The last thing I remember was seeing Courtney sitting on Zak's desk, flaunting her fake boobs in his face.

Next thing I knew someone was shaking me awake. "Lynn. Wake up. Time to go."

I moaned and rolled over to bury my face into the couch.

"Come on Baby girl. We have to go home." Zak said.

I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. "Mmmmm… what time is it?" I mumbled.

"It's almost eight o'clock. The building is starting to shut down."

"Where's Angel?"

"She's back in my office with Gracie. After Courtney left, I saw that you were asleep and didn't want to wake you so I took them in there where they could play without disturbing you." I yawned and nodded. "How come you never told me you had a dog?"

"I did tell you about her. I talked about her all the time before you started being a jerk and blowing me off." I said sitting up

"I haven't been blowing you off, I've just been busy with everything that's been going on between work and Courtney and Gracie."

"Right." I said not convinced.

"What do you have against her anyways?" He asked standing up. "Courtney is really a good person. She does charity events for all kinds of nonprofit organizations, she helps her family a lot, she goes out to the nursing homes to help with the elderly, she's sweet, and thoughtful, and"

"A conniving little bitch who has you wrapped so tight around her little finger that you can't even see what's right in front of your face." I added.

"Courtney is NOT like that."

"Uh huh, sure. You just keep telling yourself that." I rolled my eyes.

"Do you even know what you are talking about?"

"You think it's just me who has noticed what she's doin' to you?" I stood up, "When's the last time you hung out with Nick and Aaron when it wasn't work related?"

"We hung out last night."

"Yeah with COURTNEY. Ever since she came into the picture you have been doing nothing but hanging out with her and doing whatever she wants. Even when you are out on the road you still bow to her every whim. I bet you haven't even been around any of your family since she's been around and the first meet-and-greet does not count because that was the only chance she gave me too before she told you to stop hanging out with me for whatever ridiculous reason that she came up with. Knowing you at first you tried to visit anyway, but every time you was about to leave she would call and say that she was in trouble somehow to make you come running to her doorstep." He was in very deep thought as he considered my words.

"And I'm gonna be straight up honest with you. All those 'charity events' and 'helping the elderly' are just excuses to leave without you questioning it so she can go be with some other guy who is just as clueless as you are or worse knows all about it and is having her use you to get to your money. I bet she talked you into putting some money towards those charities and helping her family out didn't she?" His jaw was clenched tight with barely held in anger. "You wanna know how I know that Zak?" I said tears starting to stream down my face "Because I was just like you Zak. Just like you!" I yelled then sat back down, letting the tears fall as my mind replayed my fist few months of living on the run.

After a few minutes I felt the cushion of the couch being pressed down as Zak sat down beside me, slowly rubbing circles across my back. All the anger and betrayal and sadness that I had bottled up was pouring out as I curled myself into a ball and cried. Once my sobs quieted down into soft cries Zak put a finger under my chin, making me look at him, "I will never let anyone come between our friendship. I swear to you. Not even Courtney, okay?" I nodded, wiping my nose. He ran his thumbs across my cheeks to wipe away the trails of tears, "Now what do you say we get out of here and go get something to eat." I nodded and smiled. That's when I noticed both Gracie and Angel standing in the doorway to Zak's office staring at us. "What? You guys want some lovin' too? Come here." I said opening my arms and they jumped on us. We did a big group hug then headed out of the office.