Zac drummed his fingers hurridly on the back of Scott's seat.
"Zac knock it off!"
Letting out a big sigh, he threw himself backwards, not getting much resistance from the flat seat back.
"Well hell! I come all this way, through all that stress, to sit in the damn car and wait!"
"Kate's gotta get in first you dope, just chill."
Zac looked out at the dark sky, it was about 9 he figured. Late enough, and that meant he probably wouldn't get back to the house till around 5 or 6 in the morning, if he got back at all.
He sat pondering, whether or not he'd actually show up at Tammy's office or not.
Mark and Tucker exchanged amused looks, and both rested a hand on one of Zac's shoulders.
"It'll be okay dude, everythings gonna be fine…we'll even let you have a beer if you hold on tight."
Zac scowled at them.
"Screw you guys. You don't get it. Tammy is gonna wanna kill me when I get back."
"Nagh, it's gonna be just cool."
Zac shook his head. In actuality it probably wouldn't be alright, but there wasn't a whole lot Zac could do now.
The four guys looked up as the front door to the house swung open.
Kate jumped off the porch and ran to the passengers side of horrace.
"He said get your butts in there."
She smiled politely and opened the door for Scott.
"Lets go boys, I don't have all day."
She tapped her foot impatiently while the four of them piled out onto the sidewalk, standing in a huddle and straightening out their clothing.
"Lets go."
She clapped her hands, trying to get them to move faster.
Getting frustrated, he threw them off of him and on to Tammy.
Rolling back over on his side, he tried to reposition himself comfortably.
No such luck.
Sighing, he sat up on his elbows, looking around the room with his eyes squinted.
Pulling himself up out of bed, he walked clumsily to the door of the room and opened it, heading out into the hallway and down the stairs.
Tripping over a few of the carpeted steps, he held tightly onto the rail and made his way precariously to the bottom, his destination, the kitchen.
He hadn't had much time to sleep, his mind had been to busy reeling from all that had happened over the past few days. All this with Zac, all the problems he could see coming.
From past experience, he could tell there were going to be some serious troubles in the weeks to come. He knew his brother better then Tammy, and she was going to be in for a ride, he was sure of it.
Reaching the kitchen, he groped for the light switch and found it, squeezing his eyes shut as he flipped it on.
It wasn't even that he hated Zac really, well he wasn't best friends with him, but he surely didn't hate him. He wasn't that much of a problem. But Zac had created difficulties and severe consequences for just about everyone in his family, including Isaac.
Making his way to the coffee maker, he reached up in the cupboard for a filter.
He sighed, thinking back on one occasion in particular, where the three of them, Isaac, Taylor, and Zac had lain out in their back yard, eyes all staring at the big fluffy cartoon like clouds, and talking about life, love…music.
Isaac winced.
He hadn't touched an instrument in over a year. Grown out of it maybe? He shrugged the idea off and continued on his business of making his midnight coffee, then paused once more.
"Coffee? Do I want to be up all night? This stuff like…makes your muscles twitch or something."
Setting the can back down besides the coffee maker, he walked to the fridge, pulling the door open and grabbing the gallon of two percent milk. Twisting the cap off he placed it on the counter, taking a swig from the cold container.
He stood, an expression of obvious struggle writing itself on his face.
"Over a whole year, and I haven't played one note. Haven't even opened my mouth to sing."
He shook his head.
Turning around, he looked intently at the door to Zac's room. Before Zac had moved in, the door had always remained at least cracked, they just left it open all the time, they always had things to put in the room, or things to get out. Now however, the door didn't look so inviting, it's outside bare and non forgiving. It remained shut now, always, and it usually got that way with a slam. Maybe Zac didn't even mean to slam it, it just happened. So many years, with so many arguments and fights, maybe now it was just a reflex.
Isaac leaned against the counter, his bare back touching the counter, his feet crossed, arms folded over his chest, gallon of milk in one hand.
How long ago since he had touched a guitar?
Standing up, he took a few steps towards his brother's door.
Stopping in the middle of the kitchen, Isaac sighed, shaking his head vigorously and throwing his hands at the bedroom.
"Bad idea."
He turned, and took one step towards the counter.
Pausing, he turned back to the door.
Staring at it for what seemed like an eternity, he walked to it and grabbed the cold door knob.
The door swung open fairly easy, there was a pile of papers sitting in the corner behind it, but Isaac managed to push it open enough to get in, and to not make too much noise.
Isaac stopped in the doorway, looking around the room at the clothing already piling up near the bed, the shoes thrown in a pile by the closet, the books, the papers.
His eyes continued to move around the room until they found their destination.
The two guitar cases stood, leaned up against the far wall. Not dusty at all, one of them covered in fad stickers and words. The other a plain black case.
Both of them acoustic.
Taking a deep breath, Isaac walked across the carpeted room to the guitars and grabbed for the black case.
"Just don't get caught in his room and you'll be fine."
Isaac glanced around the room then picked it up, lifting it onto the bed and sitting down beside it.
Looking in some sort of amazed awe, Isaac flipped the latches and swung the cases lid up.
"Here goes nothing."
Grabbing the guitar by the neck, he lifted it out and onto his lap.
His fingers traced the strings up and down as a grin spread out on his face.
"De ja vu."
Placing his hands where he knew they should go, he began tuning, the smile on his face growing much larger.
Brent continued walking to his car, as Taylor walked beside him, trying to make his point clear.
"Listen, Tay no one's gonna do nothing to you okay? I promise. Everything's gonna be just fine? We'll get there, have a little fun, maybe even you can have fun this time. Garuantee you Zac won't be there all right?"
"And if he is?"
"We leave…I told you that."
"And what if he comes when you're all fucked up, and you got the keys and you're passed out on some floor."
"If he's gonna show up, he'll do it when the party starts alright?"
Taylor threw up his arms and sighed.
"Brent this isn't a good idea I can tell."
Brent turned around to look his friend in the face.
"Taylor stop being a chicken shit. You can't avoid your family for the rest of your damn life."
Brent continued walking to the car as Taylor obediently followed.
"He said he'd be up here."
Zac continued, following the rest of them with slow steps.
Kate was the first to make it to the landing, followed by Scott, then Mark, then Tucker.
Knocking politely on the door, Kate sighed and knocked louder.
"Hey Mike? You in here?!"
She shrugged and turned the handle, shoving the door open and peering in at the 3 people sitting on the floor.
"Thanks for answering me moron."
Mike shrugged, waving the newest participants in and beckoning them to shut the door.
"So what's up Mike? Got any cool new gossip? How's it been?"
He shrugged in a half daze he lifted his beer and took a long swig.
"I dunno. My parents would kill me if they knew I was having a party."
Kate laughed.
"Yes they would."
Zac stood by the door, glancing down at the three soon to be really drunk teenagers that had made themselves comfortable in Mike's parent's guest room, and watched as his friends quickly positioned themselves in the awkward shaped circle.
"C'mon Zac, take a seat."
Zac did as he was told and leaned up against one of the twin beds.
"So how's the world turnin' for everyone?"
Zac smiled.
It was going to be a very long night.
As the two of them pulled up in front of the house, Taylor glanced around.
"Tay, Kate's car isn't here."
"That's not what I'm looking for."
Brent rolled his eyes as he stepped from the car.
"Yeah, whatever."
Taylor stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked in the direction of the front door.
There was loud music, people talking, and a whole lot of people just sitting on the lawn, and even more seemed to be making their way in and out of the house.
"Brent your real sure you won't just happen to get lost?"
Brent chuckled and patted Taylor on the back.
"Don't worry okay? It'll be fine, I assure you."
Taylor sighed and took a step towards the house.
"You better be damn right cause I am NOT going to deal with him well."
