CHAPTER 13

I continued to climb up until I reached their bedroom. Ike was still in his bed, but I needed him to take me to the mall. I sat at the bottom of his bed, reached up and shook his shoulder. He pulled the blankets away from his face and opened his eyes slowly.

“What do you want, Angie?” he asked, his voice hoarse from sleeping.

“Will you take me to the mall?” I asked him. His eyes seemed to groan.

“The mall? For what?”

“I want to buy Zac something for his birthday.” I said, pulling on his blankets so that he would get up. He tugged on the blanket, too.

“The mall doesn’t open until 11:00.” He mumbled.

“It already is 11:00.” I said, looking at the clock. That got him up. He sat up, stretched, and then yawned.

“You owe me.” He grumbled as he stood, then walked into his closet to find something to wear. I smiled and left the room, going back to my ‘room’. I couldn’t wait until Walker was going to build a wall to separate my room from the rest of the garage. Then I could actually have some peace.

As I walked into the garage, Zac looked up from his drums. It was a look that seemed to say, “why aren’t you listening to me? I don’t want anything from you!” I still couldn’t figure out why he was being so stubborn about this.

There were quite a few things that were going on that I didn’t know about. One night, I walked into the living room and Taylor and Zac were talking about something. As soon as I entered the room, they looked at me sheepishly, as if they were talking about me. Then Zac left the room, leaving me alone with Taylor. He seemed to be getting farther away from me and I didn’t like it. We were so close when I first started living at the Hanson’s house, but after I was there for awhile, he seemed to slip away, like he was annoyed by me being there.

We both heard Isaac clomping down the stairs to enter the garage. He peered through the doorway. “Ready Ang?” he asked me. I nodded. “You coming, Zac?”

“No.” we both said at the same time. Isaac’s eyes widened and he looked at me, then at Zac and back to me again.

“…Okay…” he said. “Let’s go.”

Isaac and I walked out to the family station wagon and I got into the passenger side. As he started up the car, he looked at me. “Is everything between you and Zac alright?” he asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

“What makes you think that they wouldn’t be alright?” I asked.

“You could’ve cut the tension between you guys with a dull butter knife! Something’s bothering you.” Ike said. He was paying close attention to the road, but then looked at me for a brief second to see the expression on my face.

“Well, there is something,” I started. He smiled.

“I knew it.” He said to himself.

“I guess that you can say that it all started after I began to move in with you guys. Zac seems like, distant, or something. You know how close we are, but lately, he hasn’t really been talking to me. It makes me wonder if likes me anymore. Maybe this is why he doesn’t want me to get him anything for his birthday.” I was thinking out loud at this point. I was just saying different thoughts as they popped into my head.

“Okay, first of all, I want you to stop thinking that Zac doesn’t like you because I know that he does. And maybe he’s just a little freaked out that you’re actually moving in with us. I know that I would be a little on the weird side if my girlfri—if the girl that I liked would be moving in with my family.” Isaac said.

“Why did you cut yourself off?” I asked him. It sounded like he was going to call me Zac’s girlfriend and I wanted to know why he stopped himself. Did he know something that I didn’t? Didn’t Zac want me to be his girlfriend??

“I don’t know what’s going on with you two.” Isaac replied. His answer seemed honest enough. “I don’t wanna jump to any conclusions or anything that wouldn’t be the truth.”

“Well, I was hoping that I would be his girlfriend, but, I don’t know anymore. Ever since he’s been acting different lately, it makes me wonder if he regrets kissing me. We weren’t weird like this before he kissed me.”

“Now here’s the big question. Do you want him to be your boyfriend?” Ike asked me. What kind of question was that? Of course I wanted him to be my boyfriend! I loved Zac more than anyone else in the entire world! He was all that I had right now and I would never want to lose him.

“Yeah, I do.” I answered him. “What do you think I should get him for his birthday?” I wanted to change the subject.

“Ang, you have to talk about this. I know that it’s bothering you.”

I sighed. I gave up. Ike won. We talked about it until we reached the mall. And that’s when I knew exactly what I was going to give Zac for his birthday.