~25~ Just Dandy

(Brian’s POV)

“Where are you going?” Grace asked Zac casually as he came down from wherever he just was, and grabbed his leather jacket from the back of his chair.

“I have to go,” he expressed in a low voice. I twitched a frown.

“What are you talking about?” Callaghan asked him.

“If someone doesn’t want me here, then I’m gone. I’ll see everyone tomorrow I guess,” he said. I didn’t need him to tell me what happened. I didn’t eavesdrop; I only heard the part when Angel was yelling at him. His first time seeing her, and he screwed it up. Therefore, I followed him outside.

“Hey,” I addressed when I reached the sidewalk. Zac turned back to me and I punched him square in the jaw.

“Alright. I deserved that,” he said, rubbing it only once. What? He’s not gonna get me back or nothing? Who was this guy! I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Not even an hour and go screw something up!” I yelled at him.

“Look, I’m not gonna argue with you,” he said in a calm voice. “Just…go inside and check on Angel. She’s not feeling—”

“Stop telling me to check on people,” I ordered. “It’s always your fault anyways, so why don’t you do us both a favor by just leaving everyone alone.”

“You don’t think that’s what I’m trying to do?” he raised his voice. “That’s what I tried to do, alright. And obviously it’s not working because I’m still here! I don’t wanna be here—”

“Then leave!” I dared.

“I can’t!” he returned in anger. Simultaneously we sighed and took a seat on the porch’s steps like we used to do at his house. “Just go check on Angel. She says she’s better but I don’t believe her…”

He said this with his gaze away from mine and a sense of care in his voice—as if he wasn’t the guy Joey and I had talked about having no care in the world enough to stop the powers.

“She didn’t seem sick to me earlier and she said she wasn’t sick,” I reasoned.

“Well we both know how stubborn she is,” he scoffed. “If she wasn’t sick, then I wouldn’t have had to spend the last twenty minutes holding her hair as she puked and then looked for medicine.”

She said she was fine. Sh!t. Zac stood up.

“Tell her I’m sorry and…bye, Brian,” he concluded.

“Wait,” I called. Great. That “I should see all sides of stories” perspective of my brain was taking over…or was it my old best friend habits towards him? “Why was she yelling at you?”

“Is it really important?” he asked. I gave him a look and shifted positions. He sighed, scratching the back of his neck that was free of any hair—unlike the last time I saw him. “I thought she was sick because I thought that maybe she was pregnant and the seafood didn’t agree with her.”

All I could do was laugh.

“Why…would…you…think…that?” I asked between fits of laughter. I was literally rolling on my ground now. That’s what they fought over? Of all things! At least it wasn’t serious…well, to us. Angel, on the other hand, thought he was maybe calling her fat.

He shrugged and I kept laughing. Suddenly, the front door opened and I snapped into a sitting position in case it was Angel. It wasn’t; it was Grace.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Grace asked Zac, galloping down the three cement stairs.

“Nothing. I said no one wanted me here so I’m going,” Zac repeated like before.

“But Nelly—it was her wasn’t it?” Grace said with a scoff. She said ‘her’ as if Angel was her sworn enemy. They’ve only met twice and I bet Zac hadn’t mentioned her.

“Yeah, it was, so if you don’t mind—”

“I do mind,” Grace interrupted. “And it’s not just Angel’s house, you know. It’s also Nelly’s and she has a say in her guests. Everyone else wants you here so stay.”

D4mn.

“Grace, you know I can’t,” Zac said in a whine. Grace walked over to him and started to whisper, but of course I could hear it.

“Look. You can settle what you need to settle another time, but right now I want my friends all together before we have to leave again,” she hissed up to him in probably the nicest tone she could manage while still being persistent. So I’m guessing she knew about their fight?

“I can’t just settle things and you know that,” he whispered back. Now, I didn’t even know what they were talking about.

“What did I tell you about saying can’t?” she asked.

“That I can always try,” Zac rolled his eyes.

“Exactly,” Grace concluded before grabbing Zac’s wrist and hauling him up the steps and inside. I sighed and I stood up only to meet Zac at the door.

“Sorry,” he apologized.

“Sorry for the punch,” I countered. He shrugged it off and started to turn to go inside, now that I saw Grace wasn’t attached to him, and then I grabbed his shoulder. “Is she...your girlfriend or…?”

“Maybe,” he winked. Well that’s just dandy.

***

“Angel, open the door,” I ordered, still knocking because she wasn’t coming out of her room. Not even for Lulu—who gave up an hour ago and was now basically cuddling with Archer on the couch as everyone was having a good time in the living room.

“Go away!” she ordered. I felt someone coming up the stairs and then turned to see it to be Grace with a strange look on her face.

“What?” I asked. She was questioning the position I was in—sitting against Angel’s door with a hand up to knock. Yeah, pathetic right? Nothing,” she lied. “I just need the restroom.”

“There’s one downstairs,” I informed.

“Ty’s using it,” she informed. I pointed across the hall and with the same questioning look, she turned and entered.

“UGH!” I heard Angel cry in pain. That’s it.

“Angel, I will break this door down—”

“No you won’t!” she yelled. Ugh. I closed my eyes with my head against the door and then I started to picture her room from…her window? Again, my powers were giving me visions of some sort. It was as if I was the only tree in the alley adjacent to Angel’s window. She was laying down, flat on her bed, pressing her hands deep into her stomach. I noticed a box of Advil and about a gallon of water on her desk. Yeah. I knew she was sick. With that special power, I managed to maneuver a twig into opening her window and snaking a vine on the base of her floor in order to unlock the door. Almost there—

“Is she still being a drama queen?” Grace’s voice asked, making me open my eyes and fear that my attempt was now a fail.

“She’s not being a drama queen,” I defended. “She’s sick and she doesn’t like people to see her that weak.”

It was true.

“Whatever,” Grace replied.

“Grace!” Zac’s voice called. “Are you up there?”

Moments later, he was on top of the stairs, leaning against the wall.

“Nelly mentioned something about a Girl Band video…” he winked with his arms crossed. Grace’s eyes widened and then went back to normal as she controlled herself. With no words, she shoved past him and went downstairs. Before Zac actually cracked a smile for the first time of me seeing him for all this time, he looked to me on the ground. I was still focusing on the knob and then heard a click and the door came open. Zac frowned.

“Did you do that right now?” he asked. I nodded. “I thought that you had to—”

“Zac! Come; see Grace act like a rockstar!” Archer yelled, but Zac was still shocked at my work. As far as he and anyone else knew, I had to see and determine my plants and rock’s movement or growth. No one really knew I could imagine it…

“How did you—”

“I said to go away—!” Angel commanded to me, grabbing the side of her door. She looked at me as if her ears would go red with steam coming out, but then she saw Zac and I don’t know. It’s like she was embarrassed of her previous anger and only shifted in position with a sigh. “You…you too.”

She started to slam the door, but Zac put his foot in the door. He looked swiftly between Angel and me.

“What’s going on here?” he asked, confused.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“Since when are you able to move plants without vision?” he asked me. Then he looked to Angel. “And since when do you get pissed off at Brian when he’s trying to help you?”

“If you hadn’t noticed, a lot of things changed alright? So be my guest and stay the h3ll out of it,” she ordered, kicking his foot away and slamming the door. Zac seized my shoulder and placed me against the wall. Yeah. This was the Zac I was used to.

“You need to tell me what exactly has happened this year,” he said with his eyes changing the mimic my green ones.

“Zac! Come on!” Callaghan now called. Zac immediately released me and straightened up my clothes.

“And why do I ‘need’ to inform you of everything?” I asked him. “Because all that’s happened is this: We had senior year without you. Angel finds out that Devin’s dying and needs us to help him. Which then returns into us going around the middle-eastern border of the United States looking for you, when it turns out we have to go home to ask you mom, but with that useless information, we traced you from that stupid letter you sent Angel—”

“Wait,” he said with a confused look on his face. “You talked to my mother?”

I nodded a couple times and then he dashed down the stairs and I heard the door slam.