… “I love you! I’ve been waiting for you for all my life!”, he said to me. “I love you,” he repeated softly as he leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine.
“I love you too Zac…”
“Don’t you ever leave me! What am I going to do withou……”
….I came out of my slumber at the sound of a ringing phone.
“Arggghhhh!” I said as I looked on my watch. 06:27.
“What?” I asked in an angry voice.
“You were not sleeping, were you?”, Zac laughed from the other side of the phone.
“Zac, it’s 06:30 in the morning, what am I supposed to be doing? Why on earth did you call me that early?”
“I’ve got a surprise for you!”, he said playfully.
I sighed. “Can’t it wait ‘til I’m completely awake?”
“Well, no, it can’t! Get up now, and get dressed as quickly as you can! I’ll be waiting for you under the tree house”, and with that, he hung up.
I sighed again as I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
When I got to the tree house, I saw Zac sitting on the lawn, with his roller blades on.
“Good morning!”
“Zac, you’d better have a good explanation why you got me out of bed at 06:30”
“Well,” he said as he got up, “like I told you on the phone, I’ve got a surprise for you! I’m teaching you how to roller blade!”
“Zac…”
“Really! I am!”
“What with?”
“I’ve got Kim’s old pair…”
“But why that early?”
“Well, I thought that you wouldn’t like other people watching you as you fall on your butt!” he grinned.
I chuckled to myself as Zac dragged me to the empty nearby square. When we got there, Zac helped me put the roller blades on and started pulling me slowly but steadily.
“Ow! I am soon going to fall on my butt after all!”
He laughed, his eyes sparkling and his hair flowing to one side at the early morning breeze. I was so busy looking at him that I forgot all about the roller blades, which resulted in my tripping over. I almost fell but luckily, I found the time to grab Zac’s shirt. He held me tight in his strong arms; we looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as he gently removed some strands of hair from my face. He looked flushed himself.
“Are you okay?” he asked with a concerned look when I was on my feet again.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” We shared an embarrassed smile.
“We’d better get back now, the others must have got up by now, they’ll be wondering where we are”, Zac said quickly and helped me get out of the roller blades. He got up and started walking back home. I sighed and followed him. We both walked without talking, lost in our thoughts.
“Why did I feel that way? What were the butterflies for? Am I in love? I can’t be! I’ve only known her for a week!” Zac glanced at Georgia as she walked beside him. “But then, why is it that I want to be with her all the time? Everything’s so complicated! But I’ve heard Ike and Tay talk about it so many times! Arghhh, I really need to talk to someone!”
When we got to Zac’s place, he asked me if I wanted to come inside; I lied that the others would be looking for me. In fact, they wouldn’t be up yet; I just wanted some time with myself…
I was still getting up the stairs as quietly as I could when Kevin appeared at the top of the staircase, with his hands on his hips, tapping his foot as he frowned.
“Where have you been?”
I made him a sign to be quiet and took him in my room. After making sure that Bill and Helen were sound asleep, he glared at me and asked angrily: “Well? Where have you been since 07:00?”
“I was roller blading!”, I replied cheerfully.
“But you don’t know how to roller blade!”
“Zac was teaching me!”
“Oh, Zac was teaching you!”, he chuckled.
“Kevin, what’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me? Why don’t you take a look of yourself! It’s almost 08:15, you’ve been up since 06:30, you’ve been roller blading with a jerk and you look totally blissful!”, he growled and stormed out of the room. A moment later I heard him slam the outside door and saw him striding to Hanson’s house.
I sighed. I was just too cheerful to bother about Kevin. He had asked me what’s wrong with me; I wasn’t sure but I felt I was in love…
Kevin found Zac in the tree house. He took a deep breath and started climbing.
“Hey Kevin…”, a sulky Zac said.
“Hey… Long time no see, huh? Seems like you’ve been rather busy lately, trying to be hospitable to our guest!” Oh no! Why did I say that?
“What? Kevin, is there something wrong?”
“Forget it… Seems like there’s something wrong with you though! You look like shit!”
“No kidding…”
“It must be because you’ve been roller skating that early…” Kevin chuckled.
“Oh…Well, I couldn’t sleep and I thought it would be fun to wake Georgia up and…”
“Zac, don’t excuse yourself, you’re pathetic! Just tell me what’s wrong… That’s what best friends are for!”
“Thanks Kevin but I need some time to think everything over again before I tell you anything… Well, see ya later.” Zac got up and climbed down the tree.
Kevin stood there considering the situation. Zac calls Georgia to go roller blading. When they get back, she’s thrilled while he’s almost depressed. “Something’s up and I need to find out what…”, Kevin said to himself as he got up.
Later that day, Walker and Diana cave over to visit with the kids, saying that the boys were waiting for Kevin and me. When we got there, Tiffany and Kim had already been there for quite some time. I said “hello” to Tay and Ike (Zac was rambling in the kitchen) and went over to catch up with the girls, who seemed to be having a serious conversation.
“Hey… What are you talking about?”
“Hi there! Well, did Kevin and Zac have a fight? They both look a bit pissed off…”, said Kim.
“To be exact, Kevin looks too thoughtful and Zac looks depressed”, explained Tiffany.
“I don’t know…”, I replied after some thought.
“Anyway, what have you and Zac been doing lately? Tay told me that you were together all the time!”, Tiffany said.
“Well,”, I hesitated, “we were just hanging around, that’s all…” Tay told you?
“By the way, what did he want my old roller skates for?” asked Kim.
I smiled in spite of myself and said: “Well, he gave them to me, he wanted to teach me how to roller bl…” I was cut off by the girls’ giggles.
“Awww!!! He gave you a pair of old roller blades! His taste sucks! I told him to get you some flowers but he wouldn’t listen!” Kim burst out laughing.
“Shut up!” I turned red. Suddenly, all the lights went out.
“Hey!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Who turned off the lights?”
Ike came out of the kitchen holding a torch. “Calm down everyone, it’s a blackout!”
We got some candles and got outside, at the backyard. We sat on the lawn and put all the candles in a circle.
“It’s like having a fire, don’t you think?” Kevin asked me.
“Yeah!”
It was the first time he had spoken to me since morning. I was glad he was himself again. My eyes searched for Zac. He was sitting silently, pulling off the grass. A cool breeze blew, putting out most of the candles. I shivered; putting on just a tee wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“It’s getting cold”, I said to no one in particular.
“Here, take this” Tay handed me his shirt after quickly glancing towards Tiffany.
I wish Zac had done that! “Aren’t you going to get cold with only a t-shirt on?” I gave him a doubtful look.
“I’ll be fine” he smiled.
“Hey! I was supposed to give her my shirt, not Tay! Oops, now, why did I feel that way? Am I being jealous?”
Zac looked at her. She was laughing at a joke Tay had just said. He sighed.
“Yep, I guess I am…”