Kerri heard the door to the room open and she flung open her eyes and sat up.
"Took you long enough." she said.
"Sorry," Zac apologized,"it was Taylor and his shoe again."
Kerri laughed,"You always make me laugh." she said.
"Yeah well what I have to say now is one hundred and ten percent serious." he told her.
She nodded slightly taken aback by his tone of voice,"Sure."
He sat down next to her and let out a deep breath before talking,"Okay, well you see, I've been wondering something and I wanted to ask you..." Zac suddenly got quiet. He stared at his hands and rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans. Everything he felt couldn't make it past the lump in his throat. He let out another breath but it seemed more like a gasp for air.
Kerri paced her hand on Zac's. The touch of her hand made his eyes shoot up to meet with hers.
"I...I..." he stuttered. His breathing started to become more uneven. The lump in his throat was growing bigger and seemed to be blocking the air from getting to his lungs.
Kerri's eyes burned into his,"Are you trying to ask me something?"
Zac nodded his head. his breathing started coming out in rapid bursts. Suddenly he couldn't breathe. His lungs weren't cooperating. He was gasping for air.
Kerri looked at him frightened,"Zac stop it now. You're scaring me."
Zac started to choke as he tried to speak.
Kerri put her hands on his shoulders to keep him from falling over,"Zac breathe!" she commanded.
He grasped her arm and managed to choke out,"Get Ike."
She looked at him and realized he was serious. He had broken a sweat and his eyes were close to rolling back into his head.
"I'll get him Zac! Breathe!" she yelled jumping to her feet and running from the room.
Meanwhile, Isaac, Stacie, Taylor and Erica were sitting at the kitchen table talking. Erica still was barley saying two words to Taylor.
"Isaac!" they heard Kerri yell.
All four teenagers stopped talking and looked at each other.
"Is that Kerri?" Erica muttered.
In a matter of seconds a hysterical Kerri was in front of them,"Hurry! Zac is hyperventalating!" she shrieked.
"What?!" Isaac and Taylor cried. All four teenagers jumped up knocking over chairs and running from the room.
Taylor ran into the room first with Isaac at his heels. Erica and Stacie and Kerri ran in behind them. The sight before them caused them to gasp.
Zac was lying face up on his bed, sweat pouring down his cheeks. He was clutching a pillow and taking deep shallow breaths.
Isaac and Taylor ran over to him. Taylor sat him up.
"Put your head between your legs and take long deep breaths." Taylor instructed.
Isaac grabbed a shirt that had been discarded on the floor and started wiping the sweat off of his little brothers face.
"Should I call someone?" Stacie asked nervously.
"No," Isaac said,"he'll be fine, it's just a panic attack."
"Get control Zac. Deep breaths, in and out, in and out." Taylor said calmly.
Zac kept his head down and took deep breaths. For once he was thankful for his brothers. They knew he was prone to this sort of thing. Granted he only got them when something really upset or bothered him, but at least they knew how to handle it.
"What happened this time Zac?" Isaac asked.
Zac's only response was to continue breathing.
Kerri found her voice,"He, he said he had to ask me something...but he never got it out."
Isaac got a stupid grin on his face,"Zac, that is what this is all about? That is what you are worked up over?" he asked chuckling.
"Huh?" Kerri asked.
"He is just nervous because he wanted to ask you out." Isaac explained.
A strange noise came from Zac.
"There he goes again," Taylor announced,"breathe Zac."
Kerri slowly walked over and sat next to Zac on the bed. She gently placed her hand on his knee,"Really?"
Zac nodded as he tried to breathe.
"I will Zac." she said.
Zac picked up his head and looked at her,"Really?" he choked out smiling.
Kerri nodded and smiled.
All of a sudden Zac regained his normal breathing rate. He stared into Kerri's hazel eyes,"I really like you." he whispered.
"I like you too." she whispered back.
"Awww..."
Kerri and Zac broke their gazes to look over at Stacie and Erica.
"Oops." Stacie said.
Both Zac and Kerri turned red.
"Aww they're blushing." Stacie said.
Kerri brought her hands to her cheeks as if to rub away the red. Zac dropped his head in his hands.
"Okay," Isaac said,"you two have embarrased them enough. Let's go back downstairs everyone." he ushered Stacie out the door.
Zac and Kerri got up and left the room, still blushing, right after them.
Taylor looked at Erica who was still hovering in the doorway. She smiled at him.
Taylor shrugged,"Okay so you found my weakness. I do care about him."
She grabbed his hand,"It's not your weakness it's your greatness."
"Popcorn...anybody want popcorn? Going once...going twice..." Taylor was cut short by a pillow hitting him right in the face.
"Ow." he muttered.
"You're such a dork." Erica joked smiling at him.
Taylor frowned,"I was simply asking if anybody besides me wanted popcorn." he explained.
"So, if you want popcorn go make it." Stacie told him.
Taylor stuck out his tounge,"Make me."
Isaac rolled his eyes and laughed.
"I'm going to hit you again." Erica said clutching the pillow with both hands.
"Oh yeah?" Taylor challenged.
"Yeah."
"Not if I hit you first." he told her.
"Ooh, now I'm scared." she said sarcastically.
"You should be." he said smiling. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rolled off of the couch draging her with him.
"Ow, my butt." Erica whined.
"So Tay,"Zac interrupted,"where the heck is the popcorn?"
"Popcorn! Yes!" Taylor exclaimed leaping to his feet,"I am the world champion popcorn maker!" he proclaimed.
Erica merely raised her eyebrows and drug herself off of the floor and onto the couch.
"World champion my foot," Isaac snorted," last time you made microwavable popcorn you blew up the bag and it caught fire!"
"Oh so that's the story." Erica snickered.
Taylor frowned,"It could have happened to anyone. How was I supposed to know how long to cook it?"
"You could have hit the button on the microwave labeled 'Popcorn'." Isaac said in between giggles.
"Blow it out your ass." Taylor huffed and stalked out of the room.
"Aww.." Isaac jeered,"come on Zac, let's go make sure he's alright alone with the microwave."
"I'm not going." Zac said defiantly,"I went last time."
"Oh yes you are." Isaac said literally grabbing Zac's arm and yanking him off of the floor.
"Don't blow up the bag this time." Zac instructed Taylor.
Taylor ignored Zac's comment and turned to his brothers with a humungous grin, simply stating,"I have a brilliant idea."
"God help us all." Isaac teased.
Taylor glared at him,"Do you want to hear my idea or not?" he demanded.
Isaac glanced at Zac. Zac shrugged.
"What have we got to lose?" Zac said.
Isaac sighed,"Okay Tay, lay this baby on us."
Taylor had a satisfied grin creep over his face as he started to explain...
Zac walked into the living room and plopped down onto the couch next to Kerri casually draping his arm around her shoulders.
"I thought you had to help them." Kerri said.
"No, I didn't want to be there for the explosion." Zac cracked.
The girls snickered.
Zac smiled,"So what are you watching?"
"MTV." Kerri said.
Zac nodded,"Oh."
After about three music videos Zac started to get fidgety. He was tired of just sitting around watching the Backstreet Boys dance half naked in the rain.
Tap Tap Tap
Zac smiled and then quickly wiped the smile off of his face,"Do you hear that?" he asked allowed.
All three girls gave him puzzled looks,"Hear what?" Erica asked.
Zac grabbed the remote control and pressed mute,"Listen." he instructed.
All three girls strained to hear the illeged noise that Zac heard.
Tap Tap Tap
Kerri gasped and covered her mouth.
"It's coming from outside, I, I, I think" Stacie stuttered.
Erica's eyes darted around the room looking for who or what was doing the tapping.
Tap Tap Tap
Erica's attention slid over to the side window where she ended up staring at the face of a stranger, dressed all in black, with a black ski mask over his face.
"Oh my God!" Erica screamed and pointed frantically at the window.
Everyone turned to stare out the window and as soon as they saw the figure all of the electricity in the house was gone. The room was pitch black and screams rang through the house.
A flashlight came bobbing into the living room,"Is everyone okay in here?" Isaac asked shining the flashlight over everyone's petrified faces.
Kerri was so scared she was practically on Zac's lap, Erica had ducked under the coffee table and Stacie's head was peaking up over the arm of the couch.
"Isaac!" she jumped up and ran over to him. She grabbed his arm and gripped it tightly,"someone's outside! Over at the window!" she exclaimed.
Isaac directed the flashlight over to the window. There was no one there.
"Well whoever it was is gone now." he assured them.
Erica crawled out from under the table,"Wh...where's Taylor? And what happened to the lights?"
"We probably just blew a fuse. I'll go and check the box. Taylor is," he stopped short and his face fell,"he's outside." he muttered.
"What?!" Erica cried.
"He said he was going out with the garbage, I mean the garbage had to take Tay out, I mean he took the garbage out." Isaac stuttered.
"We have to get him." Erica said.
Isaac was just about to assure Erica that Taylor was probably fine when the back door creaked open and footsteps were heard in the kitchen.
"Someone's in the house." Zac whispered.
Kerri opened her mouth to scream but Zac clapped his hand over her mouth.
"Hide!" Isaac whispered fiercely.
Isaac grabbed Stacie and ran behind the loveseat, Zac and Kerri leapt behind the couch.
"Maybe it's Taylor." Erica whispered.
The footsteps were coming closer.
"Yeah and maybe it's Santa Claus and he's a couple months early! Get down!" Isaac whispered from behind the loveseat.
Erica dropped to the floor and rolled under the coffee table.
The footsteps stopped at the entrance of the living room.
Erica was crouched under the cofee table on her kness wishing that she had hid someplace so not out in the open.
The footsteps slowly and softly padded onto the rug.
Erica drew in a deep breath to keep from screaming.
The footsteps padded over by the coffee table and the stranger sat down on the couch.
It was then that Erica noticed her hands were shaking. She picked up her head slightly and saw Isaac quietly peering out from behind the loveseat.
Help Me Erica mouthed to him.
Isaac put his fingers to his lips to signal her to stay still and be as quiet as humanly possible.
Erica nodded slightly and put her head back down. She heard a sort of scraping sound on top of the coffee table. She picked up her head and stared in the direction of Isaac. She saw his eyes growing wide and a panicked expression cross his face.
What going on??? Erica screamed inside her head.
Erica felt a wave of fear run through her until one swift move removed Erica's hiding place. She whirled around to see the shadowy figure dressed in black towering over her. She gasped. The figure grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her up off of the floor.
Erica screamed and not knowing what else to do she tried to kick the figure in the "family jewels". She missed and got his leg but he was still shocked and he grabbed his leg and let out a low moan. Then when he was hunched over in pain her fear shot into her fist and she punched the figure in the stomach.
When the figure clutched his stomach Erica lunged forward and tackled him to the gound. Out of nowhere two other figures ran out and also leapt on top of the figure.
"Ow, let me up." the figure cried through his mask.
Kerri and Stacie held the figure down while Erica picked up the flashlight that Isaac had so carelessly left in the middle of the room on the floor. She walked over to the figures head, crouched down and pulled off the mask.
There was a full head of blonde hair glinting in the flashlight beam and a pair of sparkling blue eyes staring up at her.
"Taylor! You idiot!" Erica cried.
After Stacie had Isaac go and turn the lights back on the three girls stood in front of the boys with looks of disgust painted across their faces, and their hands on their hips.
Isaac, Taylor and Zac sat before the girls as if in judgement. Zac was desperately trying to hold in the giggles that threatened to escape. Isaac had a cheesy grin on his face and Taylor was clutching his stomach in pain.
"You hit hard." Taylor grumbled to Erica.
"Good." Erica said.
"But you broke my liver." Taylor groaned pitifully.
"It's your own fault." Erica replied.
"You really suck Isaac." Stacie informed him.
"What'd I do?" Isaac asked innocently.
"What'd you do? What did you do?" Stacie cried in disbelief.
"That's the question what's the answer?" Isaac asked.
Zac exploded with laughter.
"And what is so funny Zac?" Kerri scolded.
"Ha..huh? Oh uh, uh..." Zac stammered.
"Thought so." Kerri said crossing her arms.
Stacie's watch started to beep angrily.
"We gotta go now." Stacie said turning to Erica.
"I wish I could leave with you guys." Erica said.
"Yeah well have fun." Stacie said sarcastically.
"Don't worry. I won't. Let's get your jackets."
Kerri and Stacie followed Erica out of the room.
Isaac, Taylor and Zac exchanged glances,"Welcome to the P.M.S marathon guys." Isaac said pulling himself up off of the couch to go and see them off.
Back
Back Home
Go To Chapter 20