.:Chapter 24:.
Crash Landing
Zack frowned, leaning over the top of the guitar that rested on his lap, pushing his fingers into the frets the way he had been shown before. It didn't seem to be working. Though his hands were bigger, he should have been able to figure out the placement of his fingers along the neck. That's what he had been told, anyway, having bigger hands made it easier to navigate your way around the fret board. He just didn't seem to have the concentration for the instrument. Leaning his head back against the lockers behind him, Zack's eyes moved around the hallway; studying the red, pink, and white decorations that touched every surface within reach.
Flowers, roses to be exact, stuck out of the slats in the lockers. Balloons were taped to locker handles, cards were being passed around throughout homeroom and classes, and even though it was only the middle of the day, Zack wanted nothing but to go home and not have to deal with it anymore. However, he knew the Tipton was just as bad. Mr. Moseby practically lived for Valentine's Day, it was the best time for couples on their honeymoons or weddings to come and stay at the Tipton hotel, the restaurant was always booked months in advance for the flocks of couples that wanted to have a romantic dinner.
Needless to say the Tipton was just as decorated as the school was, but definitely went the extra mile with all the money the five star hotel was bringing in. It just made Zack hate the day even more than he already did. Yes, it was awesome to get a bunch of candy for free, but even when he was in a relationship he never thought the idea of Valentine's Day was a good one. Only because he had so much pressure put on him to be as smooth and romantic as possible as well as holding onto his masculinity as long as he could. Instead of hanging out with the guys and playing basketball or something, they ended up comparing what they would be doing for that day.
And what he was going to be doing was making sure he didn't make things even more awkward than they already were.
"Hey, Zack."
Zack looked up to see Max walking over to him, her hands shoved into the pockets of her jacket. Zack watched her for a moment, suddenly realizing that for the first time in a long time, she didn't have her hair up in the braided pigtails she had worn since he met her. "Hey." Zack got up from the floor, brushing off the seat of his pants. "What's up?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing, actually," Max said with a slight laugh. She brushed some of her hair over her shoulder. "I'm getting ready to go, Mom's taking me to look at some colleges and she signed me out for the rest of the day."
"Oh." Zack nodded, running a hand through his hair. He shrugged then leaned against the lockers with his shoulder. "So I guess you're not going to have a lot of time to get back for a date with Tape or something, right?"
Max chuckled. "Mom promised I'd be back in time for it, don't worry." She looked at him funny, the corner of her mouth turning up. "Though I can see you're really worried about it." Zack gave her a knowing smile and Max laughed. "Seriously, what are you doing out here? Aren't you supposed to be in English class or something right now?"
Zack nodded. "How did you know that?"
"Zack, I've known your schedule for the past couple of years," Max said. She waved a hand in the air. "How do you think I know specifically, when we would have study hall free?" A light blush rose to her cheeks as Zack gave her a wicked smile. "Shut up, Dude." She reached out and shoved him on the shoulder. "You know, I'm glad we can still joke around with each other like this, and not have things be weird."
"Yeah, who would have thought that we would actually be able to have a conversation without me putting my foot in my mouth," Zack said. Spoke too soon. He let out a breath and dug around in his pocket. "Actually, I have something for you. This was supposed to be your Christmas gift. I got it a while before…and since I forgot to give it to you for Christmas I figured now would be as good time as any."
Max stared down at the little bag that Zack held out to her. She hesitated, wondering whether or not she should take it. They weren't dating anymore, and considering it was Valentine's Day, she didn't want to give him the wrong idea. Besides, how would it look if she accepted a gift from…From who? Max thought. From your friend? How weird is that? You have gifts for all of your friends. How is this any different? Max opened her mouth then sighed, turning away from Zack for a moment. When she looked back at him, she found his eyes, with dark circles under them look back at her.
Max took the time to look at him closely and realized, with a start, how terrible Zack did look. His face was thinner and he had managed to gain some muscles, that was true. However, he was constantly pale, looked tired, and had dark circles under his eyes, adding onto the bags that seemed to now be ever present. The large sweatshirt he was wearing made him appear to be two times smaller than he really was and Max suddenly got the realization that he was really sick and refusing to take the bag from him would probably hurt him even more than he already was.
Max smiled at Zack and took the bag. She reached her hand inside and pulled out a sparkling hair clip. At one moment it looked like it was bent into the shape of a butterfly, though the harder you looked at it, it seemed to be in the shape of the infinity symbol. Max turned the hair clip this way and that in her hands, before resting it in her palm, the light bouncing off the tiny crystals added on top for extra decoration.
"Zack, this is so cool," Max said under her breath. She continued to admire it. "It must have cost a lot."
"Not a lot," Zack denied. He scratched the back of his head, averting his gaze. He brought a hand up and ran it over his face. "But I did have to save up a bunch of money from my allowance to make sure I could get it in time." He clasped his hands together, holding them in front of his body. "You're welcome," he prompted.
"Thank You." Max replaced the hair clip into the bag then stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Zack in a hug. Zack reached out and hugged her back. Max's eyes widened when she realized the extent of what Zack was trying to hide. She could feel his collarbones dig into her as she hugged him and he seemed to be shaking, shivering as if a chill had suddenly blown down the hallway. Max squeezed Zack tightly then took a step back. "You're going to the swim meet right?"
"After the fact I've been forced into waking up every day at about five AM I may as well go and see what my hard work has done to help," Zack joked weakly. Max smiled and nodded. "Speaking of,"—he lifted the guitar in his hand—"I should probably get back to practicing this or else she'll kick my ass."
Max chuckled. "And you know she would." She reached out and poked him on the shoulder. "And you'd probably enjoy it too."
"I did whenever you threatened me with it," Zack replied. He stepped around Max. "I gotta get going; I don't want you to be late with your Mom." Zack gave Max another smile then walked away from her. Max twisted the plastic bag in her hands as she watched him walk away.
After what happened the week before, when he had passed out during class, he had come back from the nurse as cool as a cucumber, saying he was just dehydrated.
She was torn on what to do.
Zack sighed as he walked out of his study hall. As soon as he had gotten back from talking to Max, Miss. Tutweiller had stopped him at the door with a note for him to go to the gym to talk to the basketball coach. He took it with a charming smile and turned on his heel, leaving the room.
He didn't mind that the coach wanted to pull him out, how much longer could he sit in a totally silent room and do his homework while he tried to ignore the blubbering that whatever novel the teacher was reading at this time was inflicting. He felt a little guilty though; he knew that he was supposed to be pulling up his grades as quickly as he could, so he would be sure to stay on the right track for graduation.
But Coach Carpenter did say that he thought Zack would have a career in athletics and it could be something he studied in college. So in a way to make himself feel better, Zack chalked it up to investing in his future.
Zack kept his head down as he passed by closed classroom doors, not wanting to catch the eye of anyone that was inside, in case he spotted one of his friends. The last thing he needed was for one of them to stop him; in fact, he was somewhat surprised Max didn't stop him and ask what was going on. Didn't she see that there really was something wrong?
Or was he really that good of a liar?
Cody had come to find him after he left the nurse's office the week before and had been very good at keeping an eye on Zack ever since. It started to get on Zack's nerves a little, forcing himself to eat a normal amount of food when all he wanted to do was just sit there and look at it. His stomach killed each time he had to eat more and more, so he frequented the bathroom more often than he had before, just to get it out. He was starting to throw up without forcing himself to do it now and that was starting to scare him. He could see the cracks forming in everyone around him, his paranoid blaming it all on him.
He knew Cody and Rhuben weren't talking and hadn't since the day he passed out, but didn't know why. Max was being nicer to him than she ever had been, Riley was being nicer to him than usual and considering their strange friendship that was worrying enough, then he had Crystal being outright with the fact that she was clearly concerned, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had been looking at him oddly, he even had Maddie asking what was up whenever he was at work and…he wasn't sure how he felt about it anymore.
He was in a good position on the basketball team, doing pretty well, and he was still trying to lose weight. Just a little more, that tiny voice inside his head would whisper as he did crunches or lifted weights. A little more and then you'll be OK.
But the voice never went away.
Zack entered the gym and followed the sound of pounding feet and shouting as he neared the double doors to the basketball court. Opening it, he saw the freshmen class during their PE class—he wasn't sure why his high school was the only one that continued to have PE in freshmen year—playing a game of dodge ball. Zack ducked his head once more, hoping Patrick and Noah wouldn't notice him. He was so engrossed with not being seen that he walked into someone.
"Oh, sorry." Zack took a couple steps back and noticed Bailey and Moose standing in front of him. "Hey…" he said slowly. Everything he did was slow now. If the dizziness didn't attack him, it was feeling that his heart was going to explode. That hadn't happened before and now he did his best to make sure things were being done in moderation. Zack tried to regain his confident composure, seeing Bailey and Moose exchange a glance. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Moose was saying that he was thinking of moving out here," Bailey said, glancing up at the tall brunette, who grinned and nodded. "So he was asking about the sports requirements."
"I'm just saying I don't understand why you have to do a sport here," Moose said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I mean, if you have guns the side of your head, like I do, why should you have to prove that you can whoop anyone on a sports field?"
Bailey rolled her eyes, though Zack noticed a small smile on her face. Zack laughed a little. "If that's what you think, then you should probably join the school's wrestling team," he said. "It'd be the first time they win in a long time."
"Yeah, well, you don't want to inflate his ego anymore than it already is," Bailey interrupted, holding up both of her hands. She looked back and forth between Moose and Zack. "And, really, that can go to both of y'all." Zack and Moose looked at each other and started laughing again. "Boys," she murmured then placed her hands on her hips. "Anyway, Zack, what are you doing here? I thought you had study hall this period."
Zack scowled, instantly annoyed. "Is everyone checking up on me now?"
"I was just making an observation, sorry," Bailey said, frowning with hurt.
"Coach Carpenter asked to see me," Zack dismissed. "So I should get going." He stepped around Bailey and Moose, and walked into the coach's office. He glanced out the window that Coach Carpenter had, to watch the teams as they practiced, and watched as Moose said something to Bailey, causing her to smile, then put his arm around her shoulders, leading the two out of the gym. I thought Bailey didn't want to get back together with him, he thought. He turned to the coach. "Hey Coach, you said you wanted to see me?"
"Yes, actually," Coach Carpenter said. He leaned back in his seat, looking up at Zack with a stern expression on his face. Zack gulped, shifting his feet. No matter who the figure of authority was and how much he didn't believe in how tough they could be, he could never get over the feeling of dread whenever he knew he was in trouble. "It's come to my attention that you were at the nurse last week for dehydration?"
"Yeah." Zack nodded. "That was just so weird. I mean, I haven't really been drinking a lot of water or Gatorade recently, I mean, I've been working a lot and—"
"Zack, you know that when you work out, when you go on a diet, when you're playing for a team in general, you're supposed to take care of your body," Coach Carpenter said with a heavy sigh. He pressed his fingertips together. "You know that, I've been forcing that into your head for ages, since you were in middle school."
"Yeah…"
"And that's why I don't believe that you're dealing with dehydration," Coach Carpenter continued. He leaned forward and stared hard at Zack, who was silent. What could he say? He didn't want to give his hand away at this point; he needed to know what was being thrown at him before he said something that could damn him even further.
Can it really get worse? Zack thought.
"Zack, I wanted you to be the captain of this team because I could see how badly you wanted it. I know that it usually goes to the seniors, but you have the drive and passion that I haven't seen in years. Not just for basketball, but for anything you really set your mind to. I could see it as something that would really help you and your game, knowing that you had the whole team helping you out." Coach Carpenter took a deep breath through his nose. "That's partially why I gave your point guard spot away. I thought you were great, but I think you're even greater as a power forward and I was disappointed when I saw how passive-aggressive you were to your brother when I gave it to him."
"Can't we just chalk it up to sibling rivalry?" Zack flashed a toothy smile, hoping to disarm the coach. However, he could see in his face that I had no effect. "C'mon, coach, I'm not really doing anything—"
"That's where you're wrong, son," Coach Carpenter interrupted Zack once more, this time his words shook Zack so badly that he could feel his fingers starting to twitch at his sides. His heart dropped to his feet. "I know what you're doing. I've seen this happen before. I've seen players go to the ultimate extreme to be sure they could stay where they once were. They think the sport is their whole life and it may be their parents may be pushing them. I don't know what the case is here, but you have a bright future ahead of you, even if you don't go the athletics route. You're good at a lot of things Zack, not just getting attention. And it sickens me to think about what you've been doing."
Zack opened his mouth to say something, and then stopped. Closing his mouth, he turned on his heel and threw open the door to the office and started to storm out. He stopped, rolling his eyes when he saw Patrick, Noah, and Moose still on the court. "What is everyone's problem?!" He demanded.
"You," Patrick said simply. He was holding a basketball against his stomach, lightly drumming his fingers against the ball. He nodded over towards the office window, though his eye stayed on Zack. "We heard you guys…we know what's going on."
"Nothing's going on," Zack said.
Noah's eyebrows rose. "Is that what you have to say to yourself to make sure you feel better?" He scoffed then turned serious. "Zack, we knew something was wrong way back in the locker room that one time. When you threw up after the game?" He looked away for a moment. "It couldn't have been because you were playing so hard."
"How would you know?"
"I just do, ok?"
"Whatever!" Zack started to walk by them, but Moose reached out and pushed him backwards, causing Zack to stumble and almost lose his balance. "Get out of my way!" Moose calmly looked at him.
"If everyone is saying there's something wrong with you, Zack, the best thing to do is listen," Moose said. "Now, I haven't been here long enough to get to know you, but even I think you're acting squirrely. These guys and Bailey, they're you're friends and you're not helping anyone by pushing them away."
Zack looked over at Patrick and Noah and watched in satisfaction as they winced. Moose couldn't have known that he had hit the nail on the head for what they went through and had done before. It was still a sore subject for them and no one pushed them to talk about it. Why was he different? If anything, they were all being extremely self –destructive over it.
The thought suddenly struck him.
Maybe that was the point.
To become so self-destructive that you had no other way to get better than to implode and pull yourself back together over time.
"You don't know what you're talking about!" Zack hissed. "And I'm sick and tired of everyone getting on my case. So what if I'm acting different? Maybe you all don't know me as well as you thought! Ever think of that?!" Zack threw a hand into the air, clenching his jaw together. Blood roared in his ears. "Why can't everyone leave me the hell alone? If it's not my parents on my back, it's you guys and I'm fucking sick and tired of it! So do me a favor and fuck off!"
Zack shook his head, it was starting to hurt. His temples throbbed, the pain suddenly moving down to his right arm.
"Zack?" Patrick's eyes suddenly changed. "Are you ok, Dude? You've gone pale?"
"Maybe you should sit down," Moose added.
Zack took a step forward, to prove them wrong, then stopped, feeling his knees start to quake. How had his balance gone so quickly? All he could focus on was the pain in his chest and arms and how…scary it was. He couldn't feel anything other than the pain and in a few moments, it was like had had been socked in the stomach. Breathing was difficult. He reached up and pulled at the collar of his shirt, teasing it away from his neck as far as he could.
And yet, he still couldn't breathe.
What's going on? Zack thought, panic instantly taking control of his body.
"Zack?" Noah reached out and grabbed onto Zack's shoulders. Zack stumbled, trying to keep his balance. He shook his head, his vision starting to tunnel. "Zack, say something, man."
"Something's…wrong," Zack managed to gasp.
He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to take in a breath, then, panicking, found that he wasn't getting as much as he wanted. He wasn't getting any air in his lungs and the more and more he tried to force himself to breathe, the worse it got. Sweat covered Zack's body and he reached out his hands to hold onto something steady.
Patrick turned with the basketball in his hands and heaved it across the court. It smacked into the glass window of the Coach's office and in seconds he was outside, by the boys' side, yelling as he went. "What's going on?"
"We're not sure, Coach," Patrick said, licking his lips. He turned back to the blond teen. "Zack, c'mon."
Zack brought up a hand and clutched it at his chest. It burned; his whole chest burned and the sucking sound that reached his ears, the indicator that he really was having trouble breathing and it wasn't his imagination scared him more than anything else. He could hear the desperation rattling through his body with each breath; it drowned out all the other voices that swirled around him.
Crashing down onto his side, curling his legs up towards him, Zack could hear the sound of the Coach instructing someone to call 9-1-1. Looking up, his vision fading away, Zack could see Patrick and Noah sprinting out of the gym as fast as they could go. Looking up, he saw Moose pulling off his flannel shirt and balling it up. He reached over and lifted Zack's head, placing the shirt underneath him.
"Everything'll be OK, Zack, just calm down and keep breathing," Moose said to him.
Zack barely got a chance to nod, he couldn't move his head. He continued to look at the ceiling, holding his hands to his chest. He let out a shuddery gasp then passed out, his head falling heavily to the side, a tear rolling down his cheek.
A/N: So this chapter got intense pretty quickly…though with only five chapters left after this one, you knew his collapse/confrontation had to happen soon. Not to say that he's out of the woods yet, I still have a couple of things to do before the story actually ends.
A couple of review responses, owlhero, I already replied to yours in a PM, but here are the anonymous ones.
Charlotte: I'm glad you found it, I was hoping you would. As soon as I read that you had wanted to see that story again I figured it'd be a good idea to try and revisit it. Plus, I have two sequels planned to it, one about Zack and one about Cody. So I hope you enjoy those as well.
DEfan10: I could, but it would depend on whether or not you want it to be an original thing with only our OCs or if it would be set in a fandom. If original I'll post it on DA, if in a fandom, I'll post it on here. Thanks!
I'll update again soon, I still have a lot to do with Zack and his friends and family (most notably, Cody, Carey, and Kurt, but I mean specifically with everyone). Looking back on it now, the lack of Cody and Zack's interactions in this story I think really helped it along, though I know some may not agree.
Cheers,
-Riles