"ROSEANNE! WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?" My dad yelled. "NO ONE DAD!" I screamed back. "Zac, you better go." I said. "Why?" "Just go ZAC!" "Okay." Zac said confused. "Not out my door, out the window." "May I ask why?" Zac asked even more confused. "JUST GO!" "Okay, I’m going." Zac said before opening the large window to my room and climbing down the ladder. I quickly scrambled to the window and shut it just in time before my father entered the room. "Why was that window of yours open?" "My room is hot, so I opened the window to cool down." "Oh so you think you should kick up our heating bill. Is that what you think??"
"No dad... I was hot. I didn’t know you would over react."
"Over react? I am not over reacting!" my dad said before hitting me
across the face. "Not a word of this to anyone. DO YOU UNDERSTAND??"
"Yes daddy." I said quietly.
"WHAT?"
"YES DAD!" I screamed with tears in my eyes. Then my father turned
and left out the door to my room. I grasped my face where my father had
struck me. "Zac, if only you knew." I said quietly out loud.
(Meanwhile over at the Hanson’s house.)
"Issac?? ISAAC!" Zac screamed.
"What do you want Zac?" Isaac asked sitting up in his bed while
scratching his head.
"We need to talk."
"Can it wait till I’m awake?"
"Sorry Isaac, I’m afraid it can’t."
"Alright Zac, what is it?"
"It’s about Rose. Something just isn’t right. And frankly I’m
worried."
Chapter 9: SILLY LITTLE ARGUMENTS
Over the course of two weeks, Zac and Monday were seeing more and more of each other, Taylor and I were becoming almost best friends, my friendship with Zac was frankly going down the drain, Isaac was lonely and miserable, and my father was still the drunk he always was. "Isaac please?" I asked "No way Rose. Remember what happened last time?" "So the plan bombed. I’m allowed to make little mistakes." "Not mistakes like those." "Isaac come on, you need cheering up." "Being set up on a blind date isn’t fun." "Oh come on, be a good sport." "Alright Rose, fine. But if you even think about setting me up with one of your ditzy friends like Amber, you can forget the whole thing."
"Isaac, I don’t even hang around Amber anymore. And give me some credit, I didn’t know she liked Taylor." "Neither did I till she told me non-stop how cute he was during City of Angels." "Look, I guarantee that will never happen again." "Can I get that in writing?" "Oh this is pathetic." I said reaching for a pencil and paper that was located on the desk. Before I could write anything down, I heard Taylor running up the stairs.
"Hey Isaac, Zac is making out with Monday on the front porch, get the Ike camera." "Alright, it’s blackmail time!" Isaac yelled. "You get the camera, I’ll pop the popcorn." "Wait a minute you two. Why are you going to record Zac making out with his girl friend?" I asked "Cause, we can use it as black mail." Taylor said. "You guys are so cruel!" I said. "You haven’t seen anything yet." Isaac said as he placed his hand on my shoulder. "Isaac, that hurts." "What hurts? All I did was touch your arm." Isaac said touching my arm again. "Ouch!" I said as I winced in pain. "Rose, what’s wrong?" "Nothing, my shoulder is in pain that’s all."
"What did you do to it?" Taylor asked. "I.. I ran into a wall. Clumsy me." I said before Isaac rolled up my sleeve on my left arm. "That doesn’t look like a bruise you would get from running into the wall." Isaac said noticing the fist sized bruise located directly on my shoulder. "And that doesn’t explain the large bruises on your arms." Isaac said examining my left arm. "I.. I ran into the door the other day." "Rose, you seem to be running into large hard objects lately. Is there something you aren’t telling us?" Taylor asked. "Okay Clark Kent, I told you I ran into the wall and fell down the stairs, why don’t you mind your own business?" I said getting defensive.
"Wait a minute Rose, you said you ran into a door. You didn’t say you fell down the stairs." Isaac stated. "So I only told you half of the story." "Rose, is there something happening that we need to know about?" "What’s happening is none of your business Isaac and Taylor, I can handle myself perfectly well." "Rose where are those bruises coming from?" "Taylor just stop asking me questions. It’s none of your business get that through your skull!" I yelled. "Okay Rose, I won’t pester you about the bruises anymore." Isaac said. "And nor will I." Taylor said. "Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I’m going to go down stairs." I said, exiting the room. But little did I know, Isaac and Taylor’s conversation was still based on me.
"Wow, I’ve never seen bruises that big before." Isaac said.
"No kidding. Not to mention, she has been very moody lately."
"Plus Taylor, she said the first time she ran into a wall and into a
door. The second time she said it was a wall and she fell down the
stairs."
"Good point. I mean, I have never seen this side of her before."
"Side?"
"She doesn’t say what’s on her mind, and she doesn’t tell anyone
anything, not even Zac. Which is very unusual. Do you think something is
going on at home?"
"I’m almost sure of it Taylor."
"Excuse me?"
"Well a couple weeks ago, Zac came up to me and told me how he had
to leave out Rose’s window."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I mean Taylor, Zac always goes in and out the front door. And when
he visited her, her dad sounded really mean, and Rose was forced to
send Zac
out the window. I tell you I think her Dad is doing something to her."
"You may be on to something Isaac."
******************************************************************************
"Do you have to do that out here? Get a room or something." I said
exiting the house and onto the front porch.
"Hey Rose." Zac said. "I didn’t see you there."
"Gee I wonder why." I said sarcastically. "Look Zac, go take your
activities to the tree house or something. But don’t do it out here."
"Why not? I like it out here, besides, Jess and Avery are in the
tree house."
"Why not? Zac there are girls that are fans of yours out here in
Tulsa. Do you know how heart broken they would be?"
"Who cares about the fans, I’m happy, they should be happy for me."
"But Zac, what if they aren’t happy for you? Then what?"
"Then, I’ll do anything but dump Monday."
"Zac maybe I should go." Monday said standing up after sitting on
the porch swing.
"No Monday, you don’t have to." "I think I should. You two need some time. I’ll call you later okay?" "Okay Monday, bye." "Bye." After Monday had gotten a great distance away from the house, Zac and I continued our conversation. "See, look what you did Rose, you made her leave." "Well I’m glad she left now we can talk." "Don’t you mean now we can argue?" "Zac you're making this so difficult. I haven’t talked to you in two weeks." "You said you needed some space." "I said space for like four days, not for two weeks." "Well I’ve talked to you since then." "What did you say Zac? Sure the occasional ‘Hi and Bye’ but that’s about it."
"Well what did you want me to say? After all you were coming over to see Isaac and Taylor." "Who says I was coming to see Isaac and Taylor? Did it ever occur to you that I just might be coming over to visit my best friend?" "No. Besides, I’ve been busy for two weeks." "Too busy to talk to your best friend? Well then I guess you’re too busy with Monday to be around me at all." I said before I started to walk off the porch. "Roseann, I didn’t mean it that way." "What did you call me?" "I called you Roseann." "Why?" "Well that is your name isn’t it? I can’t believe after three years I didn’t even know my best friends real name. Why didn’t you tell me? I would have liked Roseann, you didn’t have to change it to Rose." "Zac, my name isn’t Roseann." "Then why did your dad call you that?" "Because Rose is my first name, and Ann is my middle name." "Would you tell me the truth for a minute? You’ve always said your name was Rose Joyce Allison. Where did the Ann come from?"
"You want the truth? I’m adopted okay, Zac? They renamed me to Rose Ann Porter after my mother died and my new parents adopted me. My real name is Rose Joyce Allison, but it got switched around when I was only ten months old." "Oh well, you never told me that." "There are some personal things about me that you aren’t supposed to know. I liked my old name, that’s why I kept it." "I don’t understand though. Why would you keep this secret from me after three years of being best friends?" "Zac, if I told you everything about me, you would most likely flip out. Some things are meant to be kept secret." "Well what do you want me to call you?" "Look, if you talk to my father, call him Mr. Porter, not Mr. Allison. My mom, call her Mrs. Porter, and me, well, just as long as you never, EVER, call me Roseann again, you can call me Rose."
"Yea okay. Rose you know how much I hate fighting with you." "Zac I hate fighting with you too. I just haven’t seen much of you lately." "Like I said, I’ve been busy. Monday and I go everywhere together. I even went with her to Laser Quest yesterday." "You went to Lazar Quest?" "Yes." "Without me?" "What’s that supposed to mean?" "Zac, I met you at Lazar Quest. That’s our place. Why would you take her there?" "Calm down Rose, she wanted to go there. Why are you getting so up tight about this? It’s just Lazar Quest." "Just Lazar Quest? Um I don’t think so Zac. We met there, this should be Important to You. Almost important as our necklaces. Speaking of which, where is your necklace?" I asked noticing the absence of his best friend necklace.
"I took it off." "You took it OFF? You took it off?!" I asked "That’s what I said. You’re not going to get all bent to of shape are you?" "Why did you take it off?" "Because Monday thought it was ugly." "Well Taylor thought it was ugly, how come you didn’t take it off then? Huh?" "Because it was important to me." "Oh so, it was important to you then, but not now? Oh well that makes perfect sense." "I didn’t say it wasn’t important to me now." "Well why would you take it off?" "I told you that Monday thought is was ugly." "Yeah well, I think Monday’s ugly, does that mean I should take my necklace off?"
"Number One Rose, you told me you lost your necklace. Number two,
you think Monday is Ugly?"
"In a word Yes. But that’s besides the point."
"Then what is the point?"
"The point is, you shouldn’t take it off because of someone’s
opinion."
"Okay for one thing, Monday is very pretty and much more than you,
and if I knew you would get so up tight about this, I would have worn it.
Besides, they are going to fall apart anyway. We can just get new ones."
"New ones? You can’t get new charms, that would be insane!"
"Why?"
"Because the charms aren’t falling apart, all we need is new chains."
"Fine we’ll get new chains."
"Fine." I stated
"Fine."
"Well that was interesting."
"Yes it was. But what’s the point of getting new chains when you
lost your old necklace with the old charm? I think we should get new
ones."
"Fine Zac, I don’t care."
"That means that I wore my necklace longer than you."
"Zac, let’s not get into this again."
"Good idea."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHAPTER 10: LINDA
"AIright Boys, here is the deal." Diana Explained. "Taylor, you are ill, so Rose is going to come over to take care of you while Zac is with me and most of the children at the park. Your father is doing the grocery shopping and should be back soon. Isaac, I want you to take Mackenzieto the library to get some new books. And make sure that they aren’t too hard for his level of reading." "Hey guys!" I said entering the house. "Rose, I’ll have my cell phone with me in case there is an emergency and you need to reach me. The number is on the fridge. Alright?"
"Yes. Mrs Hanson." I said. "Isaac, you can take the jeep this time, but please don’t make any marks, dents, or scratches." "Mom, I know that already. We go through this every time we split up and I get the jeep. It’s not like I’m going to forget." "Don’t get smart with me. Now Mackenzie," Diana started while squatting down to be eye level with him, "I want you to be the best little man you can okay?" "Otay Momma." "Good. Everyone in the car." Diana instructed the children.
Soon Diana and most of the children were out of the driveway and traveling down the street. "COME ON IKEY! LET’S GO!" Mackenzie screamed loudly as he got more and more impatient. "What is the big hurry, Mac? What’s so important at the library?" "My friend Linda. She’s real cool. She reads to me all the time. Unlike SOMEONE I know." He said referring to Isaac. "Alright we can go, just don’t take too long, ok?" "Oh alright. But you have to read a book to me as soon as we get there." "Fine. Now go get in the car while I find the keys." "Otay." He said before running out the the red jeep. When Isaac and mackenzie arrived at the library, Isaac noticed avery attractive girl wave his direction. He couldn’t believe it. “Do I know that person?" He asked himself. She left her station behind the counter and walked towards him. Isaac’s hands began to sweat until she stopped at his little brother.
"Hi Mack!" The girl chimed. "Hey Linda, got any books i can read that are REALLY cool?" "Well, I heard we just got in a beginner star wars book. And as I recall, you like star wars." "Yep Yep Linda!" "But first Mackenzie, who is this friend of yours?" She asked pointing to Isaac. "Oh that’s just my big brother. Pay no attention to him, he can be an idiot sometimes." "Now mackenzie, that wasn’t nice." "I know." He grinned. "It’s nice to meet you...hey Mackenzie, what’s your brother’s name?" "Clarke." "Clarke?" She asked as she chucked at the name. "It’s Isaac actually." Isaac finally chimed in. "Well nice to meet you Isaac." "Come on Linda, let’s go find the star wars book!" He said as he began to pull on Linda’s pair of wide leg jeans. "Alright, let’s go. See you around Isaac." She said before taking Mackenzie’s hand and leading him to the children’s section. "How come all of my little brothers always get the girls?" Isaac asked himself.
****************************************************
Meanwhile at the Hanson House, I had never seen Taylor so stubborn. And to top off his stubberness, he was also being a thorn in my side. "Taylor, I told you not to get up from the couch, and if you wanted something, then I would get it for you. Now go lie down." I scolded. "I don’t want to lie down Rose, I want to do something." "Taylor, you have run into the kitchen table three times in the last five minutes. Your eye lids are practically dragging on the ground. I can tell you are tired, so don’t start with me." "I appreciate you being so concerned about me, but I am fine, really."He said before colliding with the end table next to the couch as he was returning from the kitchen with a full glass of cherry gatorade. "Shoot." Taylor mumbled. I looked down to see that the once white rug was now spotted with red blotches of gatorade. "Oh crap,if this soaks in we are toast" I said before running to the kitchen to get a wet wash rag. I cleaned up all of the gatorade, but there were a few blotches of pink spots where it had already absorbed.
"See Taylor, you are so tired you ran into the end table and spilled gatorade everywhere." "At least it wasn’t jello." Taylor said trying to look at the bright side. "Yeah well, jello bounces so it might have been a little easier." "I didn’t mean to. I just don’t think I have to be treated like a sick child." "Taylor, may I remind you that you are, indeed, SICK??" "Oh, right." "Why don’t you go upstairs to bed, and I’ll bring you some hot tea." "But I don’t want tea. I’m not conjested. Tea is for congestion which I by the way do not have." "Taylor, work with me here would you, and stop being so difficult." "But I want orange juice." He complained as he crossed his arms and exhaled. "Taylor, there is no orange juice in this house. We’ve went through this several times." "Then go buy me orange juice. I want orange juice." "You are beginning to sound like your mother when she was pregnant with zoe." "I am not." "You are too, now go to bed." "But I don’t want to. I’m not tired and I want to move around." "Taylor..."I huffed. "Why are you doing this to me? Why can’t you just for once cooperate?" "Because when I am sick, which I don’t think I am, I don’t like to cooperate, especially with a bossy person like you." "UH!" I screamed.
****************************************************
"Hey Zac, would you knock that off. There are girls watching." Jessica said. "So what? They can watch all they want, I don’t care." "Zachary Walker Hanson." Mrs. Hanson yelled. "You put that shirt back on this instant!" "BUT MOM!" "NOW!" "Uh." Zac huffed before putting his blue shirt back on. "But mom, it’s really hot." "Well when you are constantly chasing your sisters, of course you are going to get hot. But may I remind you, it’s only about fifty degrees out here. You’ll catch a cold like the one Taylor has." "Taylor is a wuss mom, I can take colds." "MMMhum. I remember the time last year when you had a cold and you didn’t want to do anything. I told you that you were getting better, but because you didn’t want to do any work, every time I came in to check on you, you had the thermometer in your mouth, hoping that you would have a fever. So who is the wuss again Zac?" "Okay you’ve made your point. Can we go home now? There is nothing left to do." "Zac, there is nothing to do at our house either hun, unless you want to go home and weed the garden." "Uh, I’ll stay here."
****************************************************
"Where did she go?" Isaac asked himself as he was going along the library aisles scanning each row for Linda. As He was searching, he saw her with his little brother. Isaac quickly went to the next row over to get a better view from the books. He picked up a book so it looked like he was reading and not paying any attention to the row next to him. Linda dismissed Mackenzie to go play with the other children. After putting the book back in place on the shelf, she walked over to the aisle that Isaac was in. "Hey Issac, do you need some help finding anything?" "Yeah actually I do. I’m doing a research report for school and I need a couple sources." Isaac lied. "Well, what is your topic?" "Uh Whales." "What kind of whales?" "Killer." "And you would be looking in the Danielle Steel selection because..?" "Hehe. I uh kinda got lost." Isaac lied again. "I see that. Well how many sources do you need?" "Just one for now. All the rest I can get on the internet." "Okay then, follow me."
****************************************************
"Rose, Taylor, we’re home!" Mrs. Hanson exclaimed. "Mrs. Hanson, shhh." I said coming from upstairs. "It’s Diana, Rose. And I applogize for my rudeness." "I finally got Taylor to bed after an hour of stubborness and running into things. He spilled gatorade on the white carpet in the living room." "Oh that’s alright. It was my husbands fault to buy a white carpet when I was pregnant with Mackenzie. After five children I thought he might have figured it out that children make a large mess. But he insisted on buying it. Don’t worry about the spill. I’ve come up with a solution of cleaners that does the job. It’s strong, but it will take it right out. So, have Isaac and Mackenzie returned from the library yet?" "Nope. Not yet." "Well, I’ve been gone for three hours I hope Isaac isn’t having car trouble." "Isaac would have called if he was having car trouble, Diana. He’ll be fine, I promise."
****************************************************
"Ikey, can we go home now? I got my books and I want to go home and read them." "Give me a couple more minutes Mack." "Ikey, you said that an hour ago. All you are doing is staring at Linda and acting like you are actually reading. Please can we go home?" "Alright fine. Did you check your books out?" "Yes, and I know the only thing that you’ve checked out, in the past three hours that we have been here, is Linda." "Mack! Where are you getting your vocabulary from?" "Who else but my best brothers, Zac and Taylor." "Mackenzie, you are only five. You aren’t supposed to talk this well." "I’m smart for my age." "You know, I have to start taking you out more often and getting you away from those two." "Hey remember, they just tell me what to say. I don’t know what they mean. What does ‘checking her out’ mean?" "I’ll tell you when you are older." "MAN! I hate it when you guys say that." Mackenzie pouted.
"Besides, when you are old enough to be told, I most likely won’t be living at home."
"Why not?"
"Because I will be in my twenties and living life on my own."
"So who is going to tell me?"
"Jessica most likely."
"I CAN’T WAIT THAT LONG!" Mackenzie shouted before being shushed by
several people in the library.
"Mack, we will continue our conversation later, now let’s get going."
"Finally." Mackenzie said before grabbing Isaac’s hand and walking
out of the library with him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHAPTER 11: A SIGHT TO SEE
Several months passed quickly. The hitting never stopped unfortunately, so I was forced to tell my best friend the biggest lie I could ever tell. "He's better. He stopped hitting me." I knew I shouldn't have done it, but I felt I had no choice. During those months, I met someone new. His name was Jeremy and he was the captain of the junior varsity football team. Every girl in my school wanted him for their own, but I ended up getting him. Zac was a little nervous about me dating someone that big, and was also nervous about how I might be hurting his big brother.
" Zac…" " Hey, I just asked a simple question." " Why is that question relevant to who he is?" " I just think dating the captain of the football team could be dangerous." "That's why you wanted to know how much he could bench, because you're afraid he could beat the crap out of you." " That is entirely the wrong assumption Rose. I was merely curious about how strong this guy is. I mean you've been hurt enough lately." " Zac don't be such a worry wart. I'll be fine. Jeremy is a nice guy." " Nice is different than good, Rose." " Okay, you've watched Into the Woods a few too many times." " Look, I'm just watching out for you. And what about Taylor?" " What about him?" " Don't you think you're hurting him by going out with another guy." " Zac, I still have feelings for Taylor, but I can't sit around waiting for him to make a move. I have to move on. Besides you guys have to go record an album in a couple weeks, Taylor won't even remember me when he gets back."
" Oh, I'm not so sure about that." " Don't worry Zac, I'll be fine while you guys are away." " You better be. Wait a minute Rose, we still have plenty of time to hang around each other. We have two and a half weeks, so let's enjoy them. Let's go to Laser Quest." " But what about Monday?" " What about her?" " Don't you want her to come?" " Not really. I told Monday I needed some space." " You need space?" " Yes, preferably without her in it." " What happened between you two?" " She was becoming possessive." " Ah. Tell you what. You go get your brother to take us to Laser quest, while I go home and get changed." " Okay. See you soon." " Yep."
I ran home so I could get ready. After I had gotten inside, I ran upstairs to my room and quickly changed into a different pair of jeans. I then removed my sweatshirt and selected a different one from my closet. With my shirt off, I saw the many markings my father had made on me recently. I put my sweatshirt in the front of me to see if it would look okay with the jeans I was wearing. My back was still bare and had large bruises all over it. I looked down at my shirt that was covering the front of me, and I looked back at the mirror. In the top left corner of my mirror was a small image of Zac. I quickly turned around to see Zac staring right at me. Tears fell from his eyes as he stared, and after two seconds of staring, he took off running. " Dear Lord, what have I done?" I asked myself. I watched Zac disappear into the woods, but I knew exactly where he was going. I quickly put on my sweatshirt and shoes and dashed out my window. I climbed down the ladder and then as soon as I reached the ground, I ran after Zac. But I knew I had all the time in the world, because I also knew where Zac was going, so he would most likely not leave that spot.
" Zac, what are you doing with a knife?" I asked. " Well I figured since there is nothing better to do, why not mark something on a tree back here." " Zac you are in the fifth grade. Your mother would never let you have a knife at this age." " What my mom doesn't know won't hurt her." " Unless it's a missing steak knife. You have the mind of a guy who would actually use a knife to cause some damage." " Yes, it is true that I act a little weird sometimes, but what we're going to do won't hurt anything." " Oh yeah? How do you know that trees don't feel pain?" " Cause they are not alive." " They are too alive Zachary. And how would you like if someone came up to you and started carving into your skin?"
" As long as it would be a cool drawing, I wouldn't care. Come on Rose, it will be fun." " Alright Zac, you win. But just this once." " What should we carve?" " I don't know. Zachary and Rose friends forever or something like that." " Nah…sounds too girlish." " And what's wrong with girlish?" " I didn't say anything was wrong with it Rose, But I would rather put something else." " Okay Einstein. What do you have in mind?" " Hold on, I'll show you." Zac said before beginning to carve something into the tree. " What's that supposed to be? A weed?" " It's a rose…unless you WANT it to be a weed." " No, a rose will be fine." I said to Zac before he began to continue on his work again. In a matter of minutes, his drawing was finished. It was a rose with a tag attached to it that said "ZAC" on it. Below the carving, he wrote " Zac's Rose."
" Are you trying to say I belong to you?" " No. Well in a way I guess you do. Cause I'll always here for you. Even though with thorns like your attitude, I may not water you every day." " The feeling's mutual Zac." " Go ahead rose touch the tree." " Why?" " Just touch the tree where are I carved it." " Okay." I said as I placed my hand on the carving. " Now tell me, is the tree crying in pain?" " No, but it could be." " Well it isn't. Rose, we didn't hurt it. Now this carving will be our little secret. Come on Rose, we better get back before my mom discovers this knife is missing." Zac said before grabbing my hand and leading the way back to his house. I hadn't visited the carving in a couple months, so I thought today would be perfect. Considering Zac was already at the tree. "Zac?" I asked reaching our secret spot. " Go away Rose." Zac said with silent tears streaming down his face like a leaky faucet.
" Zachary, I'm sorry I lied to you. I had to." " You didn't have to lie to me Rose! You didn't have to lie! How am I supposed to protect you, if I don't know what's going on?" Zac yelled. " Zac, I never asked you to protect me. Okay? I knew you would be making a big deal out of this if I told you the truth." " You told me he stopped. How could you say such a thing?" " Because Zac, I wanted you to be happy. You were never happy about the whole 'hitting' thing before…" " How could I be happy?" Zac interrupted. " He was beating you. I can't be happy for that." " CAN I FINISH?" I yelled. " Yea go ahead." " That whole hitting thing was bringing you down Zac, you weren't acting yourself. I lied to you so you would go back to normal."
" Rose, look at our flower. Look at our rose that I carved in this tree. It's fading away both on the tree and in real life." " Zachary, I'm fine." " You know what? I know my mother is suspecting something about you." " Such as? You didn't tell her did you?" " I came close before, but I held back. My mother and I have been noticing things about you. The dark circles under your eyes and the fact that you are wasting away to almost nothing. You've lost a lot of weight; I can tell." " Zachary, the dark circles are from working so hard." " Working? You hate working. You're one of the laziest people I know." " Well I hate doing things that are boring. I'm at least doing something I don't hate. I work at the Outback Steak House. It pays nice, and I work after school till about nine, and then I have to do my home work and study for tests after that."
" You have a job?" " Who else is going to pay the bills? My father got laid off, and my mom went to care for my grandmother who is sick. My grandmother lives in Texas, Zac. I have to do everything." " And you don't have enough money for food?" " I give most of the money to my father. I don't know what he does with it though. I earn about two hundred dollars a week. I give my father around fifty and the rest I set aside for groceries and the bills." " Is that why you've been avoiding me lately?" " I've been busy Zac." " What about the weekends?" " I work on Saturday till around eleven at night, and Sunday, I stay home and sleep. I'm so exhausted, I don't have time to go to church anymore." " Wow. Look if you are in financial trouble, my family would be more than willing to help." " Zac, it's not that easy." " Sure it is. I could ask my dad if he could work for us." " Work for you?" " Sure, he could be one of our body guards on tour. And we might have to bring you along with us because there is no one else at your house to take care of you. As long as he doesn't drink."
" I don't know zac." " Come on Rose. Your dad and mine are friends, I'm sure they would enjoy each other's company." " Can this wait another day zac, I just want to go to Laser Quest." " Okay, we'll do whatever you want to do. But first…" Zac said before taking out his knife. " Your mom let you have a pocket knife?" " What she doesn't know won't hurt her." " People with minds like yours could end up doing some damage with those things." " That's entirely the point. No pun intended." Zac grinned. " Oh give me a break." " Give me a break, break me of a piece of that Kit-Kat bar!" Zac finished in the Kit-Kat commercial song. " You are a nut." " Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't." Zac sang mocking the Mounds commercial. " Lay off the sugar." " Dang it, I can't think of anything for that one. Oh well." Zac said before beginning to recarve the rose in the tree. All I could do was shake my head in disbelief. " Why do you have to be so…" " Funny?" " So incredible insane." " Cause that's how I am. Now hush, I'm trying to concentrate." Zac said before going back to carving.
" Don't think too hard, you'll hurt yourself."
" Shut up Rose." Zac stated still concentrating on his artwork. He looked like his head was going to explode. His eyes were fixed on the bud of the
rose and his tongue was hanging out the side of his mouth. It was definitely a sight to see.
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Chapter 13: An Old Friend
A week passed quickly, and so did Isaac's mind. Isaac has been off in space for some time. Ever since he met Linda anyway. He would go to the library just to stare at her at least once a day, sometimes, more than once. Taylor, Zac and I were getting not only worried, but frustrated, and plane old sick, of hearing that name over and over again. Taylor and I weren't really on speaking terms since he found out about me and Jeremy, And I could barely talk to Isaac with his constant babble about Linda the librarian. I was forced to talk to Zac, not that that is a bad thing or anything. As much as I wanted to hang with my best friend, I was more occupied with thoughts of Taylor dancing in my head. I know I should have been thinking of Jeremy, but I couldn't. I barely even liked Jeremy anymore, let alone liked him to start with. It's true I could have just said "No," to his invitation of becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, but I couldn't. This boy had a crush on my since the third grade, and I didn't want to break his heart. But lately, Jeremy has been controlling. Where ever I go, he goes. He even tried to fallow me in to the ladies room the other day. I have been thinking about breaking up with him, in fact am determined to do it since he won't just leave me alone. As I was walking towards the Outback Steakhouse, I saw Taylor walking towards me. " Hey." Taylor said as he walked past me on the side walk. " Hey you. How have you been?" I asked. " Okay, and how's Jeremy?" " I don't really care anymore how Jeremy is doing, in fact I never cared in the beginning." " Huh? I thought you were going out with him?" Taylor asked now getting very interested in our topic of conversation. " Oh I still am, unfortunately." " I'm not quite following you Rose. He's your boyfriend, why don't you like him anymore?" " I never really liked him to start with Taylor. In fact the only reason I'm going out with him that is clear to me, is I felt bad." " Then why did you say 'yes.' You could have easily said 'no.' Say it with me rose. 'No." " Taylor, shut up." " No. See I said it." Taylor said with a wide grin on his face. " So why did you say 'yes,' if you don't even like the guy?" Taylor asked getting back on the subject. " I felt bad Tay. The guy has liked me since the third grade, I couldn't just say 'no.' It would break the kids heart." " Well You would have caused a lot less damage if you said 'no' before, then if you break up with him now." " I have to break up with him Taylor, he's getting too controlling." " Controlling? What do you mean?" " He follows me everywhere I go, and he demands I call him to let him know where I'm going." I said before checking my watch. " Taylor, can we pick up this conversation later, I'm gonna be late for work." " Can't you just ask for the day off?" " Taylor, I really need the money." " Why? Your family is financed just fine. Your dad has a wonderful job." " You don't know do you?" " Know what?" " My father was laid off a couple months ago. I've been working to the bone trying to support me and my father." " What happened to your mom?" " She couldn't take living with my dad any longer, so she went to stay with my grandmother who needs caring for." "Are you going to be okay? I really think you need the day off Rose, I've noticed you have been really tense and really irritable lately. For pete's sake you bit Zac's head off last night because of something he said." " Look Taylor, I really do need this money, and if I have to work my self to death, then so be it. My irritability is just one of those things that is dragged alone with working myself to the bone." " Maybe my dad can give your dad a job, that way you won't have to work so hard. We need extra security guards, and maybe if that works out, you and your dad can come on tour with us after we finish the album." " Do you communicate telepathically with zac or something? He said the same exact thing to me last week." " Wow, talk about the twilight zone. Please Rose, call off work today." " Oh alright Taylor fine. My boss will understand seeing that he is my uncle and all." " Your boss is related to you." " Yes, but he still treats me like a normal employee and treats everyone fair. He'll understand. DO you have a quarter so I can call him?" " Why call when we can walk there. I mean you were on your way there anyways, maybe we can get some lunch while we are in town." " Okay, but how am I supposed to pay for my meal, I only have five dollars." " Don't worry Rose, I got it." " Taylor you don't have to…" " No. No. It's my treat. Today I'm going to pamper you like royalty." Taylor said before we started to walk towards the Outback Steak house. " Hey Isaac, Have you seen Rose?" Zac asked. " Nope haven't seen her." " Well that's odd, she usually calls me when she gets home from school. I wonder where she is." " She might be at her house waiting for you to call or something." " Good Idea Isaac, I'll go over to her house and see if she's there." " Ya, okay Zac. You do that." Isaac responded. Zac walked casually over to my house, but as he got close to the front door, his steps became shorter and shorter and his pace was going slower than normal also. He was nervous about knocking on the door, afraid of what my father might do to him. But he somehow built up the courage to knock. " Yes?" My father asked opening the door. " Is rose home?" Zac asked nervously. " I'm afraid she's out at the moment. Aren't you that boy from down the street?" " Yes sir." Zac said as he was beginning to become confused of why my father was being so nice. " Ah, so you are the boy my daughter likes so much." " No, I'm afraid you are mistaken Mr. Porter. She likes Taylor, who is my older brother. I'm just her best friend." " Well alright then. What is your name little boy?"
