Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Chapter nineteen.

Zack's POV.

It is afternoon when we decides to leave the group. I come into full conclusion that James was right, this morning fun was to prepare for tonight. Jason and Ariana wanted to know me before the night party comes in.

I repeated the same story to them; about my car breaking down, getting help from James, and leading to this stage I'm in at the moment.

The drive is fast, because I'm the one controlling the wheel. James is next to me. He had reclined the chair, so that he can rest back comfortably. He is drunk a little bit. They prepared few alcoholic drink, which he drinks from.

By the time I entered the garage, he is asleep. I shake my head, roll my eyes, and get down. I come to his side, and open his door. That makes him shift.

I pat him on his chest, and feel the hardness against my palms. Holy Lord!

He wakes up, and murmurs. "We home?"

"Yes, we are." Croaks me. He groans, rubbing his eyes in the process, and steps down.

"Thanks for driving."

"Mh-hm." I reply him with, and help him down, since he's staggering. Taking a grip of himself, I let him go and close the door. When we have moved out of the garage, I roll down the gate.

"Take." He says, already outstretching a key to me. I collect it, and lock the pad.

Approaching the house, I tell him. "I think I should see uncle now."

"No, let it be tonight. It can wait."

I think about his words. "Tonight, like after the "night party tonight"?" Of course, that's the tonight. I roll my eyes at myself inwardly.

"Yeah, however you want to place it. It's fine. I'll go and see Uncle. You should go and rest for tonight. Or write before it's time." He's already walking away, but I nod still even though I know he wouldn't see me, agreeing.

Getting to my room, I think of what I should. I can't write now with my brain being distracted by the conversation Rebecca and I had.

I turn off the laptop I had turned on before, hoping I'll have something to lay down. I take my phone out of my pocket, and dial Susan's contact. It doesn't take more than three rings before she answered.

"Hey." She chrips from the other side. She sounds happy. "How are you doing, cuz?" She uses her abbreviating dialogue.

"I'm okay. I thought of calling you, and hearing your voice. I actually was hoping I wait till tomorrow, but I feel bored right now, and kind of tired." But on the deeper side, I feel much more hurting. I feel like leaving tomorrow means betraying every lovely soul in this town, And at the same time, I want to leave. It's weird.

"You feel bored. Isn't the sexy boyfriend around to keep you company?" On the contrary, she's the worst.

"The sexy boyfriend, whom I have no idea of, is not here to keep me company." I frown jokingly.

"If you have no idea of him, how the hell did you know if he keeps you company or not?" What she's saying now makes literally no sense. But who am I to tell her that?

"And you have to use my words against me?" Like seriously? My brain adds that.

"Hehe. So, um, I'll be dropping off flight by nine tomorrow morning..."

Before she continues to talk further, I chime in. "I've even had another plan. It's one of the reason why I called. So, um, James, the guy that helped me, has offered to drive me to Los, and well, I was thinking that we could get you at the airport too. We'd just arrive back at home at the same time. What do you think?"

"That's awesome. I'll be expecting you guys, him more though."

"Shut up." I say and we both laugh.

Few minutes more.

"Okay then, take care."

"You too." With that, I cut the call, and drop my phone somewhere beside me.

As I stare into the ceilings, letting my thoughts roam inside my head, I close my eyes and soon after, drift off into slumber.

***

"Wake up, Zack." I hear the familiar voice calls.

"James..." My voice trails off. His face is so close to mine, as I'm still lying on the bed. I want to move my head, closer to his but I don't know why. I can't. And I'm not bothered. "Kiss me, James." My voice is very faint to my own hearing.

"You need to wake up. Open your eyes." That makes me want to frown, but oh, boy, I can do that neither. I can't control my body.

"They are."

"Zack, open your eyes."

"What..." I begin to say when I'm brought back to reality and I see that it was a dream. His face is positioned close to mine, truly, but it's not in the way my dreamy self thought. I hope he didn't hear those things I said. As much as I want to convince myself that he didn't, I cannot. "James..." I trail off.

"Hey." James state, smiling down at me. He is sitting at the side of the bed, one of his hand on the other side of me, somewhat hooking me to the bed. And surprisingly enough to me, I like it.

"Hi."

"Finally you awake. I was beginning to think that maybe you drank too." At the beach? No, I did not. If I had drank, then I wouldn't have drove us home. It's one of must-not-do things. I don't ever drive even if I just got a little bit tipsy.

I smile, and raise my head halfway up, making him remove his hooking hand, and sit upright as well, still beside me though. The sheets are covering my frame up to my hips, which gives me warmth. My best guess is that James covered me with them.

"What's up?"

His brows furrow. "It's evening." He tells me. I still don't get him.

"And?" Do we have any plans? No, I don't remember one.

Oh, my...

Before he says his next words finish, I quickly take it from him. "The night party. Sorry I forgot. That's what sleep does to me sometimes." I say, and mean it. My head finds it hard to booth quickly after just waking up.

"I'll get dressed." I state again, and he stands, breathing out as he does so.

"Okay, I'll just wait for you outside, at the living room. Don't take long. Rebecca just called me, said they have arranged things, and are now waiting for us."

Wow. This news makes it all more important to me. I mean, I now realize how serious they take the get-together party stuff.

"Won't take long." As I say, I roll off the bed, and open the door to the bathroom. At that time, James is walking out of my room. I hear him close the door just in time, I lock the bathroom door as well.

Inside, I am hurried to groom my teeth, and rinse it. Once done with that part, I step under the shower, and take my most speedy shower, probably the quickest wash I've ever had. Though, I'm looking forward to having more of them in the future when I get my job.

Whilst the towel is wrapped around my waist, my hands roll another off the rack, and use it to dry my hair. I wish I have a hair dryer. I know I could have asked from James, but no, I won't.

Maybe I'm the shy type, whatever. I groan at my subconscious that wants to insult me. Sometimes, I do regret that he owns the thoughts.

I pick out another short jean, a black coloured one this time around, and place it on the bed. Then, I pick a shirt from my case. The bright red colour reflects vibrantly under the yellow light bulb at one side of the room.

When I'm done with grooming my body, I take the jeans and put it on. Then, following is the shirt. Looking at myself in the mirror, I see that I am out-worthy enough, so I step out of the room to the stairs.

I can hear sounds of tiny voices as I climb down the stairs. At first, I thought maybe there are some little kids around here, maybe having conversations with James, until I listen in and hear that they are coming from a movie.

Down the stairs, I get to the living room. There is James, sitting on the couch, staring at the television ahead of him, and wearing a smiley face. I am amused by his expression, but at the same time, astounded by the TV I'm seeing. I have seen the TV there before, but I used to think it wasn't functioning. Now, that I am seeing it work, you can't blame me.

And more also, they don't, I mean, they have never watched it in front of me before.

"Hey, James." I say, and he shift his eyes to me. He is just noticing me. He smiles as he uses his eyes to access me.

"Hey, handsome."

"Ah, stop teasing." I find myself quickly saying. If before, I would have reeled in his words, but I will not. I don't want to. I know I'll be leaving soon, so thinking and keeping his sweet words in mind hurt when he isn't around me anymore. Or when he wouldn't be around me most of time as we had been in the last couple of days...I'll like to put it that way.

He doesn't reply me, so I continue, changing the topic. "I didn't know the TV was functioning."

"It was. We just don't really watch it. And you know, the breakdown didn't only affect gadgets networks, it affected dishes too—uh, antennas." He says, and I make an "oh" sound. I am just understanding now.

"I get it."

"So, you're watching..." I don't want to say it, and before I can, I'm already chortling. "Cartoons?"

"It's not a sin." I can tell he's managing to keep his own laugh.

"Whatever you say." I add as more effect, and he releases a smile.

"Okay, let's move." As he says, he stands, turns off the TV, and follow behind me to the outside.

"Where's Uncle?" I ask to keep the conversation alive.

"He's taking a nap." His thick voice enlightens me, and I hum and nod.

"Okay, when do I have a talk with him?"

"Maybe when we are back." He tells me, and in his tone, I had the feeling that he isn't sure. And I once read it from somewhere that one's tone is everything. You can determine people's emotions through their tone. When they are angry, you can know. When they are sad, you can know. With each feelings coursing through their veins, you can guess it through their tone.

It is dusk, the sun is almost down, and by now, a fragment of the moon is showing out dimly at the sky when I raise up my eyes to check it. The wind blows oh-so-good, making me close my eyes momentarily, and breath it in.

I branch way to the garage when James stops me. "Where are you going?"

"To the car?" I don't understand. We are taking the car, are we not?

"Oh, no, it's not far, just behind the apple tree there." He points to the path he's talking about and I am reeled.

There's an apple tree around here, and I didn't know. This is just cruel.

"There's an apple tree around?"

"Yes?" He laughs, interrogating me back.

I scoff. "I love apple plucking, that explains."

"Oh." he seems amazed.

"Me too, but I don't have the time anymore. You know, the animals and crops take most of my time. Adam, and Jason helps with that." I am feeling jealous already. How would I not know there's apple tree? It's just unfair.

"Can we pluck it tomorrow?"

"You'll be leaving tomorrow. Maybe some other time." He tells me, and I so much want to pout. I want to do it with him, but what can I say? He's made up his mind. "Some other time", he calls it. I hope there is much other times.

We pass the tree, continuing to walk down the path. The flowerbed at the sides of the pathway are trimmed, such that they look marvelous in the evening sunlight. The yellowness of the sun booms into them, making them more beautiful.

I look at James, "are we walking into the woods?" There's now forest ahead of us, and I don't assume us turning at any point now.

"Just wait." He says, and then, take a turn, crossing over one of the flowerbeds. I do the same, the short jean giving me not too much problem.

In front of us, side to the forest is the group. I see Rebecca first since her voice is the loudest of them all. She seems very active, even though all of them had alcoholic drinks at the beach. Even James is active, perhaps more active than I am. My own sleep is my own drunkness, I know so now.

"Here we are, people. Ladies and gentlemen, please applaud us." James thickens his voice, as he says, coming closer to the group. I am behind him.

He hugs Adam first, as he is near, then Rebecca before shaking hands with Jason, and waving at Ariana afterwards.

"Hi, guys."

"What's up, Zack?" Jason is greeting me more than asking me.

"I'm good. I'm surprised you guys are active when after having that amount of drink." I have to add in.

"Mind you, city boy, we drink a lot here." Rebecca says, adding effects to it with her change of tone — one of a drunkard. I laugh at that. We do drink in the city too, by the way.

But it's true, they are drinking masters. There's a whole barrel in the middle of the group. The setting is that the stones are arranged in a circular manner, and the assortments are placed in the middle. Jason and Ariana are sitting together on a big stone, wide enough to get them to be together so they can cuddle. Adam is sitting opposite from James, while Rebecca and I share the side to side stones.

"Will you get a drink. Zack?"

"He's not a stranger anymore, stop making him feel like it." James corrects Rebecca, and I want to cover my eyes in embarrassment. It's not a bad embarrassment, mind you.

"Whatever, Mister." I say, and get my own cup. However, Rebecca would not leave me alone, until she helped me pour my drink.

"Thank you, beauty." I accolade, causing James and Adam to laugh when she makes the sweetest tone of adoration as a reply.

"Okay, so, what are we doing?" Ariana says, chiming in.

"Um, let's, maybe play a game." State Rebecca, shrugging.

"Okay...I have an idea." The fact that Ariana drawls that first word is so mischievous of her. Whatever she has in mind can't be good.

Like I've known, "let's play truth, or dare," she brings out something dirty, naughty.

"I'm in." Jason is first to say. Now, I get the connection between them. And one of those connection, and things they have in common is being dirty.

"What choice do I have?" Adam says, and sip his drink. He's joining the game too.

I gaze into the cup. The wine is blue in colour, and a bit smelling, alcoholic. I take a gulp, and notice that it is warm and sweet. More sweet than gingering. I drink another, and another. Hmm, this is nice, and refreshing. It is chilled too.

By the time my consciousness comes back, the group is staring at me. Rebecca shakes her head, a motion that speaks "what is your answer, Zack? Come on."

"Are you joining the game?" Oh, this is why they were all looking at me? It was scary.

"Yeah, I can't stay back."

"Glad you know that." An oh-very-evil face is what Ariana is giving me now. If she hadn't been nice to me at the beach, I would have thought she hates me. The way she's gazing at me right now is like she wants to devour me. It is threatening.

"Let's begin the questions then." And just now, she has to wear a smirk.