“Just be optimistic; be yourself and show Zac that you’re interested in him. He may be
totally crazy, but he’s not stupid, nor uncompassionate; don’t consider your love for
him to be a lost case.”
These were his exact words that filled me with self-confidence and made me feel
strong enough to see the whole thing from another point of view: the optimistic and
carefree one. So, when Tiffany called me that morning and invited me to “hit the mall”
with her and Kim, I accepted gladly after a short recall of Tay’s words.
“What the hell, I’m gonna have some fun and get Zac off my mind for the day!” I said
to myself as I made my way to the closet. It was September 1st.
“Nope.”
“Nah… What I need now is a drink… What about you girls?”
Kim and I expressed our willingness to quench our thirst so we all headed to the stairs
to go to the cafeteria in the first floor.
“So, how do you like Tulsa so far?” Tiffany asked me as we made ourselves
comfortable at the café, after ordering orange juice and milkshakes.
“I love it! I absolutely love it!” I replied.
Tiffany laughed. “Because of Hanson?”
“Well no! Of course not! I mean, yeah, I definitely love it that I met Hanson, but
everyone here is so kind and make me feel at home and…”
“You’re missing home?”
“Well yeah… Who wouldn’t?”
“I hate to interrupt your touching conversation but, Tiffany, there’s Greg!” Kim spoke
for the first time since we ordered.
“So what? He’ll come and say ‘hi’ anyway… Why bother to go all the way over there
and ask him?” Tiffany giggled.
Ask him what? I looked over to where Kim was staring in anticipation. There
was a bunch of boys our age. I noticed one of them that smiled as soon as he saw us
and came over to where we were sitting.
“Hi girls!” said the guy, who was really cute…
“Hi Greg… Oh this is Georgia by the way.”
“Hi”
“Hi” Greg smiled at me.
“Oh Greg! Greg, please tell me that he’s here!”
“Unfortunately Kim, Ben is not here… But he asked about you!”
“He did?” Kim asked in excitement. “What?”
“What your favorite place in town is…”
“Seriously Greg, what did he ask you?”
“I’m not kidding, this is it!”
Kim gave him a doubtful look.
“All right, all right… But I’m not supposed to tell you anything…” said Greg and then
whispered something into her ear.
“What? Oh my God! Greg, I love you! You’re an angel! Are you serious about this?”
“Yeah, I am” Greg laughed as he watched Kim jump up and down in joy.
“Take it easy Kim! Come on, what’s the answer to his question?”
Kim pondered for a while. “McDonald’s… We don’t want him to go broke, do we?”
she finally commented, which resulted in giggles from Greg’s part.
“Well anyway, I gotta go… I’ll see you girls around”, said Greg as he got up and
winked at me, “and hopefully your friend too…”
I just sat there and gazed at him as he walked away; I wasn’t used to being winked at
by any guy, especially a cute one. I quickly came back to reality as I heard Kim
cheering about a ‘first date’ and Tiffany trying to calm her down. At that point, I
couldn’t help but wonder who that Ben was and how he could make Kim be over the
moon with a single question; I asked Tiffany.
“Ben is Greg’s best friend. He and Kim have been… um, fond of each other for almost
a year now. Greg and I have been trying to make them go out together, and now, Greg
has finally done it! Ben’s gonna ask Kim out soon…” Tiffany winked at me.
“That’s great Kim!” I congratulated my friend.
“Thanks, I know!”
After we had managed to calm Kim down, the girls provided me with some interesting
information: school was starting almost in two weeks and the two boys, Greg and Ben,
would be with us. I smiled in spite of myself. The thought of spending a whole school
year with Greg was not at all unpleasant… Maybe I would find out that I wasn’t in
love with Zac after all. Maybe it was mere excitement that I felt every time I saw him,
just because he was my favorite celebrity… “Who knows? Time will show…” I said to
myself as I followed the girls out of the mall.
“Hey, take it easy… Between whom?”
“ Between Tay and Georgia! Nothing’s up between them!”
“I thought so… But how did you find out?”
“Tay told me… Last night, when we went to bed, he told me that she was really
depressed and kinda broke down when he talked to her and he just tried to calm her
down… And then he told me that I should be nice to her and try to cheer her up ‘cause
she must be missing home and stuff. So… Nothing’s up!” Zac exclaimed
triumphantly.
“That’s great… Did he tell you anything else?”
“Nope… He just went on discussing with Ike almost halfway through the night…” Zac
rolled his eyes.
“I see… So what are you going to do, with Georgia?”
“Ok, this is the good part… I was thinking about taking her out to McDonald’s or
something like that…”
“Yeah that sounds pretty okay…” Kevin said and forced a smile.
“…but it would be too obvious so we’ll go there the three of us…”
“What kind of a date would that be?” Kevin raised an eyebrow and secretly hoped it
wasn’t a date after all.
“A great one… Look, we’ll go there all together but after a while you’ll find an excuse
and leave us! Get what I mean?”
“Oh I see…” Kevin frowned.
“What? What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”
“Oh no, no, of course not!” The problem is that you’re my best friend and I feel
ridiculous helping you get a girl I also have feelings for! “Nothing’s wrong, I’m
sure everything will work out fine….”
Helen appeared from the kitchen. “Oh hi dear! Did you get anything?”
“No I didn’t… Neither did the girls… We just hang around”
“I see…” she said and we both went back into the kitchen. “Did you have anything to
eat or shall I serve you lunch?”
“Serve me…” I smiled and sat down on the table.
“Oh I almost forgot, your father called when you were at the mall.” she said as she put
some food on a plate and left it in front of me.
“He did? What did he say?”
“He just called to ask how you were doing, if you were having fun and if you liked our
little surprise…” she winked at me. “He said he’ll call again some time
soon”
“That’s cool, I haven’t heard of them since I got here” I answered between
mouthfuls.
“Are you going upstairs dear? Tell Kevin that Bill needs him in the backyard…” Helen
said as I finished lunch and headed to the staircase.
“Ok, I will!”
I got to Kevin’s room, knocked the door and almost immediately got in. “Kevin, Bill
wants…” I just stood there, with one hand on the doorknob and the other one in my
back pocket, as soon as I saw Zac sitting on the floor skimming through a magazine. I
felt my hands sweat and the butterflies roaming in my stomach as he threw his mag one
side and put an ear-to-ear smile.
“Hi”
“Hi… W-Where’s Kevin?”
“At the backyard with Bill”
“Oh…”
He got up from the floor and sat on the bed. “So, how are you today?” he asked,
always smiling.
“Oh I’m fine… And you?”
“Absolutely great!” he grinned.
“Good!” I forced a smile. I couldn’t help but recall last night.
“Are you going to just stand there?”
I sat next to him on the bed.
“Now, isn’t that better?” he punched me playfully in the arm.
“Yeah I guess…” I wondered what had gotten into him that could make him be so
nice… We stared into each other’s eyes for a moment.
“Hey guess what! Mom and Dad are going to some relatives with the kids and they’ll
come back in two days! So everyone’s coming over to our house tonight, it’ll be like a
pajama party!” he cheered.
“Hey, that’s great! Am I invited too?”
Zac rolled his eyes. “Of course you’re invited! Jeez!”
“I just love to tease you!” I laughed.
“Oh yeah?” he narrowed his eyes.
“Yeah!”
Before I knew it, I was lying on the bed with Zac on top of me, tickling me, constantly
saying: “Oh yeah? Oh yeah?”
“Oh God! Oh no, Zac, stop that! Show some mercy! Stop that!” I was now laughing
hysterically and Zac was enjoying it…
When Kevin and I got to the Hanson house that night, it was 17 minutes past 9. Ike
opened the door and told us off.
“Come on in you two, you’re late! The others are already here!”
We went into the living room. I saw Tiffany, Kim and another guy who looked pretty
much like Tiff. Ike introduced us, and as it proved, the guy was Jason, Tiffany’s
brother.
“Ahhh! I finally meet you, you lovely exotic young lady! Zac, get me a coke!” said
Jason and left in search of Zac and the drink.
I faced Tiffany and asked her dazed: “Exotic?! Is that your brother?”
“Don’t pay any attention to him, he’s crazy…” was the reply I got from
Kim.
“He’s nuts!” said Tiff.
“He’s wonderful!” I answered back. At that moment, Tay and Ike walked into the
room.
“Hey girls, we’re about to order the pizzas… Do you think that 5 are enough for eight
growing teenagers?”
We looked at each other. “Yeah, 5 are definitely enough!”
“Hey, does anyone wanna come to the video store?” Ike asked.
“I’ll come!” I said willingly.
“Great!”
In a few minutes, we were roaming through shelves filled up with
videotapes.
“So, what’s been up lately? We haven’t been talking much, have we?”
“No, we haven’t” I laughed.
“We need to catch up then! Okay, lets start with…um, let’s see… Tulsa… Yeah,
Tulsa! How do you like it so far?” asked Ike putting a grin on.
Same question, same answer! I thought of my conversation with Tiffany that
morning. “I absolutely love it!”
“Really? Well, we must give you a tour someday!”
“Definitely!”
“Mm-hmmm… Do you think we should get a horror film?” asked Ike as he examined
the tapes on the shelf in front of him.
“Well, I don’t know… 8 people jammed in a couch, eating pizza and watching a
psycho killing pretty teenage girls with an axe… Yah, that’s sounds fun!” I
chuckled.
“Ok then…” he laughed. “Now, lets see… Which ones to choose?”
“How many are we taking anyway?”
“About two I suppose… That should keep us through the night…” he grinned.
We wandered through the shelves for a bit more and we finally decided to get
‘Scream’ and ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’.
“So, I see you and Zac are really getting along…” Ike commented as we were on our
way back home.
“Yah, we are…” I paused for a second. “I know, it’s weird, to become best friends
with your favorite celebrity…” I frowned.
“Well, it may be weird, but it doesn’t mean you have to feel bad about it…” I looked
at him. “Remember when you just got here and Zac told you not to see us as celebrities
but as your buddies? You know, we want this friendship. Really, soon you’ll get used
to us as we really are and you won’t even think we’re famous… Just don’t feel bad if
you do…” he smiled, and I smiled back. It was amazing, how all three of them could
make me feel better in just a moment. “Now we’d better hurry, cause the others won’t
leave a single piece of pizza for us!” We laughed and speeded up.
“Come on, put the movie in the video and some pizza in your plates!” Tiffany ordered
and we all went into the living room. Ike, Zac and myself sat on the couch and Kim
and Tiffany chose the armchairs, making the remaining boys content themselves with
the floor. Eight pairs of eyes were glued to the screen watching Jennifer Love Hewitt
run for her life. No one bothered to put the dishes away, after gulping down the
double-cheese and pepperoni pizza, until the movie was over. It was thirty minutes
past midnight that we started thinking about where to sleep. We decided that it
wouldn’t be so fun if we used the bedrooms, so we made up the sofa and armchairs,
while Tay, Kevin and Jason each took a pillow and spread themselves on the floor.
That was when someone had the ‘brilliant’ idea for us to watch ‘Scream’.
“Are you serious? We’re going to watch ‘Scream’ at 1 am? We just watched a horror
film, what do we want another one for?” I protested, but nobody listened to me, so I
leaned back on the sofa, closed my eyes and tried to ignore the screams coming from
the TV.
“Going to sleep already?” asked Zac, who was sitting beside me on the couch all night.
“No… But even if I was, I couldn’t deal with the nightmares… Watching two thrillers
in a single night isn’t exactly what gives me sweet dreams afterwards… I’ll be
constantly thinking that someone is about to attack me from behind with a
hook!”
“Don’t worry, no one’s going to hurt you while I’m here to protect you! Over my dead
body!” he said imitating a super hero trying to protect his girl.
“Shut up! We’re watching a movie here!” someone said.
“Besides,” Zac continued, this time whispering, “I’ll be right beside you all the time, if
you see the murderer, just poke me to wake me up and I’ll make him regret ever
deciding to come here!”
“Oh Zac! Now I feel so much better knowing that you’re here!” I laughed. “I feel so
secure with you on my side!”
“Yah I know… And now go to sleep…”
And with Zac stroking my hand as he whispered ‘sweet dreams’, I dozed
off…