Katie felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and almost turned into Zac.
"Oh my gosh, Zac!" She said, grabbing his arm.
"Hello to you too!" He said, smiling down at her.
"I cannot believe this." She said.
"What?"
"Zac, it's not a party, it's a makeout party!"
"I know." He said.
"You knew?"
"All Nicole's parites are makeout parties." He said.
"Oh." She said. "I should have seen that." She said to herself.
A figure walked up to them, but Katie couldn't see who it was. The person stopped in front of them.
"Hi!" Nicole said.
"Hi." Katie said flatly.
"What's wrong?"
"Nicole, you didn't tell me that this is the type of party you were going to be having." katie said,gesturing towards the couples on the other side of the room.
"All my parties are makeout parties." Nicole said.
Zac looked at Katie and just shrugged. "Oh my god." She said.
"It's not that big a deal." Nicole said.
"Maybe not to you." Katie said.
"Calm down. Just pair up, and......well.....go at it." Nicole said.
"What?!?' Katie said. "Pair Up? I know all of what, three people here, two of which are girls!"
"Well then that makes it easy." Nicole said, giving her a grin. "You'll figure it out." With that, she walked away.
"What? Zac, what is she talking about?" Katie demanded.
"Calm down." He said, laying a hand on her shoulder.
"She wants me to just pair up!" katie said. "I feel sick."
"No need to." Zac said.
"What?"
"You're my partner." Zac said.
"I am?" Katie asked.
"Yes." Zac said.
"Oh."
"That's why when you came in I was still the only guy not down someone's throat." He said, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Oh my gosh."
"What?"
"Oh, I'm just surprised." She said.
"Well don't be." He said. "I had you reserved." he said with a smile."
She grinned. "We don't have to make out." He said.
"okay." She said letting out a nervous sigh. "Good."
"Oh fine." He said in mock hurt.
"No, it's not you." She said. "I've just never....done this before."
"Me either." He piped up.
"Oh." She said.
"Well, we look kinda stupid just standing here...." He said.
"Oh, yeah." She said.
"Here, come with me." He said, taking her hand and leading her over to the other side of the stairs. There was a separate space away from the main room, with a small couch. They sat down, and he looked over at her.
"Thanks Zac." SHe said, looking at him.
"No problem." He said.
"So..." She said.
"Yeah." He said. They looked at each other and laughed for a moment.
"My gosh this is really awkward." She said.
"Yeah." He said.
"I had no idea that she was having a makeout party." Katie said.
Zac just chuckled.
"You knew?" She asked him.
"Yes."
"Zac, it's not funny." She said, leaning back on the couch.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." he said.
"I feel stupid now." She said.
"Don't feel stupid, you couldn't have known." He said.
"I can't help it."
"You know, when we were younger she would invite me to her parties, and she would start games of spin the bottle." He said.
"Really?" Katie asked.
Zac nodded his head. "I would be the one running away screaming." He said.
"Oh, You mean Zac The Romantic didn't use to be?"
"No." he said with a laugh. "She would drag me here every time, and every time I would run out of this basement as fast as I could."
"I can see this." Katie said laughing.
"Yeah, and then she wouldn't talk to me for weeks. Especially when I broke that door two years ago." Zac said, pointing to a closet door.
"You broke the door?"
"Well...yeah."
"Why?" She asked.
"You would have to."
"Share." She said.
"Well, you can't blame me; she stuck me in the closet with Sophie." Zac said. "You probabally haven't met her yet."
"No." Katie said.
"Well, she's this girl that's liked me since we were like, six, and I do NOT share her feelings."
"Zac!"
"Well, Nicole shoved me in this closet with her, and we hadn't been in there fifteen seconds when she pounces on me. Nicole had the door locked, and I just threw myself at it a couple of times and then BOOM! Down it went." Zac said.
"Oh my god." katie said, laughing.
"Yeah."
"That's halarious." She said.
"It wasn't for me."
"Oh be quiet."
"More like traumatic."
"So naturally, I haven't been to eager to come to parties of Nicole's since that little incident." Zac said.
"I guess I can see why." She said.
"Yeah." He said. "So you shouldn't feel stupid. Sophie just started speaking to me a couple of weeks ago." He said with a laugh.
"Oh my." She said.
"Yeah, I haven't gotten very far with girls." He said.
"Well you've gotten pretty far with me." She said, looking at him.
"I have?" He asked.
"Yeah. I think you're pretty cool."
"I'm glad." He said, looking at her.
They looked at each other for a few moments.
"Zac, why won't you kiss me?" She asked.
He took a deep breath, taken back by her question. "Um...."
She looked at him expectantly.
"I'm just....I...I'm afraid I'll screw it up." He finally said.
"What?"
"I'm just...not sure...I....I don't want to screw it up." He repeated.
"Zac...It's just kissing." She said.
"I know...but...I just want to see how things turn out." He said.
"Oh."
Then sat in silence for a few moments. Zac looked at his watch.
"It's only nine." He said. "This, uh, party goes until eleven. Do you want to go to my house?" he asked.
She thought a moment. "Sure." She said. They got up and snuck up the stairs and out of the house. Once outside, they walked down to the end of their street then around a corner.
"Do you know what you're going to do about Ian?" She asked.
"No." He said, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Oh."
"I want to beat the shit out of him. Pardon my language." He said with a smile.
"You crack me up, Zac Hanson." She said.
"That's my goal." he said. He looked over at her. She looked at her shoes, feeling herself blush knowing he was watching her. He took his hands out of his pockets and slowly reached over and took her hand. She smiled at him as they walked onto his street.
Once to his house, they walked inside. His parents were sitting in front of the TV with Taylor, Jessica, Avery, Mackie, and Zoe watching a movie.
"Well hi Zac." Diana said. "Nicole have another makeout party?" She asked.
"Yeah." Zac said shrugging. "Katie and I decided to come home early to do something else." He said.
"Okay." Diana said, turning her attention back to the TV.
"Do you want to go outside?" He asked.
"Sure." She said. They went outside, and Zac flipped on the light. "Oh you have a basketball hoop!" She said happily. She ran over and picked up the basketball near the hoop.
"Aw, I'm too tired to play basketball." He whined.
"You're just afraid I'll beat you." She said.
"No way." He said. He held up his arms in a fake flex. "Zac is the master at basketball. She reached over and poked him in the stomach. He bent over and laughed.
"Hey! No fair!"
"Haha." She said.
"So the master is ticklish." He said. "He cannot help it."
"Quit talking in third person and get your butt over here, Master." She said with a grin.
"You will be sorry. The master shall prevail." he said.
One hour later, They sat down on his front porch. "Looks like the 'master' wimped out." She said.
"Are you sure you play soccer?" He asked. "maybe you should play basketball."
"Nah, soccer's my sport."
"Sheesh, glad I'm not a girl." He said.
"Why's that?"
"Then you could kick my butt." he said.
"I could kick your butt right now!" She said with a giggle.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Oh yeah?" With that, Zac quickly leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek.
She stopped and looked at him open mouthed for a few moments. He looked back at her, then made a face. She burst into giggles, then they hugged.
"Do you want to go inside?" He asked.
"Yeah." She said.
They got up and walked inside. They went up to his room where Taylor was on the computer.
"Oh hi guys." Taylor said.
"Hey." Zac said.
"I'll go down and use the one in the den." Taylor said.
"Okay." Zac said.
Taylor poked him in the arm and stuck his tongue out at Zac. He then grinned and opened the door.
"What?" Zac asked.
"I'll just leave you two alone." He said.
"We were just going to hang out." Zac said.
"Sure ya were." Taylor said, giving the a thumbs up sign. With that, he shut the door.
Zac turned to her and they both laughed. "I have no idea what that was about." He said.
"Sure ya don't." She said, mocking Taylor.
"Oh don't start." he said with a groan.
"Oh, you have N-64?" She asked, pointing to his Nintendo equiptment in the corner of the room by a TV.
"Yeah, you play?"
"Well, Sandra does, but i steal it sometimes." She said.
"Do you want to play?" he asked.
"Yeah." She said.
They played for around a half an hour when Katie got up. "Pause mine, I'm getting sick of this." She said.
"You want to do something else?" He asked, eyes still glued to the screen.
"You can, I'll just watch." She said.
"okay." he said.
They both sat in silence for a few minutes, just watching him play. Katie sat behind him on the bed. She put a leg on either side of him, then rested her hands on his head.
"What are you doing back there?" he asked, half watching the game.
"Why don't you ever wear your hair down?" She asked, taking the elastic band out of his hair.
"I dunno." he said. "It's kinda long now." He said.
"Oh."
"I should cut it. Then I'll wear it down." he said.
"You cut your hair?" She exclaimed.
"Yeah." he said shrugging. "Or my mom or Taylor." He said. "We've always cut each other's hair. Me, Tay and Ike." He said.
"Oh."
"Do you want to cut it?" He asked.
"Me?" She asked.
"Yeah."
"Oh, Zac, I'd be way to scared."
"No, Come on." He said, pausing his game. He went into a bathroom and pulled out some scissors. "Here." he said, handing them to her. He sat down on a stool and waited.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
"Yeah." He said nonchalantly. "Katie, I trust my brothers cutting my hair. WHy would I not trust you?" He asked.
"Oh, I don't know." She said, taking the scissors. "How much do you want me to cut?" She asked.
"Bout an inch." he said. "More or less, it grows fast." He said.
"Okay." She said, and began snipping away. She cut slowly around his head, careful not to cut uneven or too short. When she was done, she brushed it and trimmed what she missed.
"You actually have nice hair." She said. it was now just at his shoulders.
"Thanks." He said.
Zac's hair was blonde at the ends but then a darker shade as it went up to his scalp, where it was darker. It was actually pretty soft and behaved well.
"How did you decide to keep it longer?" She asked as they picked up the floor.
"Oh, For one, I look like a dork with it short." He said. "And Two, it just kept growing and growing when i was about nine, so I've just never really cut it." He said.
"Oh." She said. "I like it long."
"Cool." He said. He looked at his watch. "It's nearly eleven. What time was Morgan coming for you?"
"Eleven." Katie said.
They walked downstairs and outside to where Morgan was in the driveway waiting in her car, talking to Taylor.
"Oh, sorry Morgan."
"No problem." She said. "Nicole said you were probally here."
"Oh." Katie said. She smiled one last time at Zac and then climbed in the car.
"See ya." Taylor said, closing the door.
"Bye." Zac said.
"Bye." The two girls said as Morgan backed out of the driveway. As they left their street, Morgan looked at her and smiled.
"So the party sucked?"
"Yeah, basically."
"Oh. What did you guys do at his house?"
"Oh, talked, played video games, and cut hair."
"What?"
"I cut his hair."
"Oh." She said. "He let you?"
"Well, yeah." katie said. "I was suprised too."