I'll Never Let Go, Chapter 4I'll Never Let Go, Chapter 4
Zac walked into the pitch-black entryway. He heard giggling coming from the living room area, and started walking through the house to see what was up.
"And then, he said 'I really like you.' and he gave me THE greatest kiss!" Jessica's new best friend, Robyn, said, loudly enough for Zac to hear even before he was close to the room.
The whole group giggled. "Oh, that is so sweet!" exclaimed Jessica, just as Zac entered the kitchen, which over-looked the spacious living room that looked anything but spacious with all af Jessica's friends spread over it.
"Hey everyone." he said as he entered.
"Oh, Zac! You scared us!" Jessica said, after she jumped nearly a foot off of her sleeping bag.
He walked over to the edge of the kitchen, trying to see if he knew everyone in the group. He didn't. "So Jessie, you going to introduce me to your friends?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah! Well, this is Robyn, of course, and this is Amber, whom you also know. This is Callie Brown, her sister, Tarin, goes to the high school with you. That over there is Marie McRay, she's a freshman at the high school, and then there are the twins, Samantha and Sarah Topper, I think they have an older brother at the high school, too, and over there is Jennifer Covert, and this is Bleu Harper." Jessica said, pointing to each one in turn.
"Hey, Zac!" said Amber. Amber was Cory's little sister.
"Hi Amber." he said.
"So, I heard that you and Corynne went to the formal together!" she said, slyly.
A chorus of "Oooooo"s went around the room.
He blushed, thankful that the lighting was dim. "You know that it was just a friendly thing." he told her.
"Yeah, sure. You guys aren't so young anymore, Zac. I swear, you and Corynne are just made for eachother." she told him.
"Okay, believe what you want." he said, "Now, if you will excuse me, I'm heading upstairs."
"Bye Zac!" they all chorussed.
"Goodnight. Nice to meet all of you!" he said as he walked through the house to the stairs.
Climbing up the stairs, he found his bedroom and flopped down on his bed. It had been such a long evening, after all it was already 1:30 in the morning. He hadn't realized that it was that late.
He undressed down to his boxers *~* Authors note- Am I the only one thinking about things I shouldn't?*~*, hung up his Tux in the back of his closet, and put on a over sized shirt and a pair of flannel Pajama bottoms.
Pulling the covers up, he got into bed, turned off the light, and pulled them up to his chin. Zac dozed off into a restless sleep.
Zac was walking to his mother's hospital room. He was dressed in the same Tux as earlier, only this time his entire family was dressed in black, walking along with him.
He heard Zoe sob into Ike's shulder as he carried her.
"What's going on?" he asked Jessica, who was walking next to him, looking like a zombie.
She kept walking, her unblinking eyes focussed on the door of their mother's room.
"What's going on?" he again asked, getting no response.
They arrived at the room, and openned it, finding a funeral parlor filled with people. His mother lay in a coffin at the end of a red carpetted aisle.
Suddenly, his family left him at the end of the aisle, and he looked up to see Cory smiling up at him from the front, obviously waiting for him. As he walked up, a Bridal March in all minor keys began playing.
He walked slowly up to Cory. When he go there, he asked, "what's going on?"
She didn't say anything, she just wound her arm through his and took him up to the coffin. There his mother lay, her beautiful face looking more like she did a few years ago, before the weight loss.
Suddenly, he was turned around by Cory, to find her throwing a bouquet of wilted flowers into the crowd. They ran out of the parlor together, having rice thrown at them in all directions.
Outside of the church, they found themselves in a huge garden filled with the most beautiful roses ever seen. Cory ran up to one, suddenly being attacked by the plants and their thorns. She was wrapped into the center, not making a sound. He ran to her, trying to help her, but he couldn't.
"Cory!" he yelled.
"CORY!!" he yelled, crying out."Don't die, Cory. No, I never got to tell you that I..."
Zac sat up, in a cold sweat.
"Zac?" asked Ike, who was shaking him.
"Oh, my gosh, Ike. I had the weirdest, most freakiest dream!" he sighed, falling back in his pillow, in relief.
"Shhhh. It's okay. You're okay." Ike comforted.
Zac took a deep breath and let it all out.
"What happened?" asked Ike.
"We were all dressed in black, our whole family, except for mom." and we walked into the hospital, and a I asked Jessie where we were going, and she wouldn't answer me. She was like a zombie. We got to mom's door, opened it, and it was a funeral parlor, and mom was lying there, dead. Then I walked down the aisle and- Oh, Ike, I don't even want to continue." he said, in a rush.
"It's okay. It'll be fine. It was only a dream." Ike told him.
"But it was so, so real." Zac admitted. "especially when Cory-"
"Cory was in it?" Ike asked, stifling a smirk.
"Yeah, we got married." Zac said.
"And that scared you?" Ike asked.
"No, no. When we were leaving the parlor, we went into this rose garden and she got consumed by the roses." Zac told him.
"What? No, actually, I don't want to know."
"Okay. Thanks for waking me up, Ike," he said.
"Yeah." Ike said, trudging back to his room next door.
The next morning, Zac as awakened by the sound of the phone ringing in his ear.
He reached for the phone, which was right next to his bed. "Hello?" he asked into the phone, half awake.
"Zac, is that you?" Taylor asked into the phone.
"Yeah, man. Why the heck did you wake me up so early?" Zac asked.
"Um, Zac, it is two o'clock in the afternoon." Tay told him.
"Oh. Did you have a nice practice with your band?" Zac asked, referring to the fact that Tay had practice every Saturday at 11 o'clock in the morning.
"Yeah, I guess." Tay sighed.
"So Tay," Zac said, looking around," what are you and Lauren going to do about her pregnancy?"
"Well, I don't know. I mean, she did come back again last night and apologize. But I really don't know how Mom and Dad are going to take it." Tay answered.
"You mean you are going to tell them?" asked Zac.
"Well, yeah, if Lauren wants to have the baby, then Mom and Dad are going to eventually find out." he told Zac.
"She's having it? Didn't you guys talk about abortion?" he again asked.
"Well, her parents don't know, at least that's what she told me, but they eventually would find out. I think that she already told her mom, and her parents are very pro-life, so she doesn't want to." Tay said.
"Woa. I'm going to be an Uncle." Zac said, bewildered.
"Just think, Zoe and my baby will be like siblings, only Zoe will be it's aunt." Tay laughed.
"So what do you want it to be, a boy or a girl?" Zac asked, as he heard a soft click on his line.
"Well, I want it to be-"
"Shhhhhhhh. I just heard a click on my line. Hello? Hello?" Zac asked. He could hear the color almost drain out of Taylor's face.
"Zac, do you think someone was listening in on our call?" Tay asked.
"I don't know. Look, I'll call you from someone else's house, like Cory's. She already knows." Zac slipped.
"What? You told her?" Tay asked.
"Tay, I trust Cory. She's my best friend. I was only doing it to get her advice. She kind of guessed." Zac said.
"Tell me Zac, was it one of your 'hypothetical' questions?" Taylor asked.
"Yeah." Zac admitted.
"Oh, that explains it." Tay said.
"Well I'll call you from her house." Zac said.
"Fine. Bye." Taylor said, hanging up the phone.
"Bye." he hung up the phone.
Zac looked up, seeing Isaac smiling mischeiviously in the doorway.
