Chapter Thirty-Three
Isaac placed his hands on his hips and looked at his brother impatiently. "Zac. It doesn't
take that long to line up a shot!" he commented. Zac had been driving everyone crazy for
the past week. Alyson felt the day after she told Zac she had to go, and now Zac was
'making up for lost time', or so he says.
"Excuse me." Zac replied with 99% sarcasm in his voice. "I need to practice!
Especially if I want to make the team!" Zac had rummaged through about 30 newspapers,
and finally he found the date for the field hockey try-outs. Isaac laughed.
"You made the team four different times, each time you quit. What makes
you think you won't make or quit the team?" Ike stated. Zac rolled his eyes and shot the
ball.
"Ha!" he squealed as he watched the ball go directly into the net located
at the trunk of the tree that their family tree house rested on. Isaac pretended he was
impressed.
"Wow Zac, that was a one in a million shot!" he teased, smacking his
brother in the back of the head.
"I'm not in the mood to listen to your crap Ik-"
"Eee! Zac said a bad word. MOMMIE!" Jessica shrieked as she jumped out
from behind the tree and ran toward the house.
"What was she-"
"ZAC!" Mrs. Hanson interrupted three seconds later.
"Your in for it now." Isaac whispered, ruffling his brother's hair.
"Shut up." Zac muttered, as he dropped his hockey stick and walked into
the house. "Yes mom?" he asked softly. This bites. It's not my fault my, Ike was pissing me off!
Zac thought to himself. No, that won't work. He thought for a second as he went into the
rec room. Mom, can I take a nap? I have a really bad headache, and Ike was just making it even
worse!
"Zachary! Did you say crap in front of your sister?" Mrs. Hanson looked up
from her Family magazine. Zac closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.
"Sorry mom. I need to take a nap. I have a really bad migraine, and Ike was
only making it worse." he groaned. Mrs. Hanson knew he was lying, but when she looked at
his face and noticed he was extremely pale. He didn't have time to take a trip to the bathroom,
she thought to herself.
"That's the 5th time in the past 2 days. Are you sure your feeling okay?"
she asked. Opps. I knew I already used the excuse. He said to himself as he racked his brain
for another excuse. Now that I think about it, my head does kind of hurt. Zac sat next to his
mother.
"I'm just really stressed out I guess." he admitted. Mrs. Hanson brought
her hands to Zac's cheeks.
"Oh honey. Your burning up. Does your stomach hurt?" she asked. Zac
pondered.
"Not really. But, I'm not really hungry. I think I'll skip lunch." he said,
suddenly realizing his heart was beating to the rhythm of his temples.
"Zac." Mrs. Hanson replied sternly. "You skipped yesterday's breakfast,
lunch, dinner. Now today you dumped breakfast down the garbage disposal. I'm not sure I
want you to skip lunch." Zac winced.
"Mom. I'm fine." he lied. "I'm just not hungry." he paused. "How did you
know I trashed breakfast?" Mrs. Hanson let out a laugh.
"Who took out the garbage today?"
"Tay did, before he left." Zac said. Mrs. Hanson shook her head.
"Nope. I took out this morning's trash." she stated.
"Then what was that Tay was carrying outside this morning?" Zachary
questioned. Mrs. Hanson closed her magazine, stood up, and gave a mysterious wink.
"I guess we'll never know." she whispered, before leaving the room. That's
weird. Zac thought to himself. Why did Tay run off so early? Why did he lie about taking
out the trash..whats his problem? his mind questioned.
Taylor ran his finger along my jawline.
"Thanks." I whispered to him, as I turned over in my bed. He smiled and
placed his hands underneath his head and looked up at the ceiling.
"Anytime." he replied. I sucked in the nice scent of my vanilla candle I was
burning hear my bed. I've tried everything to get Duncan's smell out of my room. "Why
couldn't he just leave you alone?" Tay asked under his breath. I turned over and looked at
him.
"Not this again. Taylor..it happened almost two weeks go..." I trailed off.
Why wasn't I hurting as much as I should be? Shouldn't I be terrified to go outside, or afraid to
sleep without a million baseball bats in my room? I thought to myself. I wasn't suffering as
bad as Kristi was. She probably is still afraid to go to out with some kind of heavy duty
protection.
"I'm sorry. I'm just paranoid." Tay answered. I smiled.
"It's alright." I whispered, laying my head on his arm. "Thanks alot for
cleaning those sheets for me! I think mom's alittle too upset about not having Duncan
around, and if she found out I cleaned my sheets 17 more times just to get his smell off of
them, she'd be even more paranoid!" I added. I was sick of this. Patricia had been washing
Duncan's close as if he was still here., she even folded them and placed them on his bed
like she always did. The other day, I heard her say 'Duncan, why haven't you put your
clothes away yet?', as she walked out of his room. Taylor smiled and turned his head
toward me.
"I understand that." he paused, lowering his voice. "I've noticed she's
acting like he's still here!" I gasped softly and closed my eyes.
"It's stupid. But, I do get what she's trying to do."
"She's almost as annoying as Zac, huh?" Taylor joked. I smiled.
"Not even close!" I laughed, then continued; "When I was eating over your
house yesterday, I saw Zac place his food in his mouth, then ask to go to the bathroom.
He's doing what I'm trying not to do." I admitted. My disease was causing me to puke up
food that I placed on my tongue. I couldn't smell, or even look at food. I've been forcing
most of it down, because I can't face the fact that if I don't get better, I'd soon be fed
through a tube.
I shivered. "Did you see him?" I whispered. Deep inside, I knew Zac was terrified.
He's been getting alot of my symptoms: the hot cold flashes, not eating is food, paleness,
weight loss, moodiness., basically all he was missing was dizziness, nausea, rapid heart
beats, and fainting spells.
"Yeah. I'm worried about him. When he told me that Alyson left, I was
shocked, but I didn't know he was so effected by it." Taylor whispered back. I sat up and
looked at him.
"Let's go talk to him?" I suggested. My eyes connected with Tay's and we
both nodded, and reached for our shoes.
Alyson tossed in her bed. "C'mon!" she groaned. This isn't working! she yelled to
herself. All week she couldn't sleep. She opened her eyes and glanced at her clock radio.
"9:35? I've slept 5 minutes?" she shrieked.
"Honey? Is that you? What's wrong?" Greg's girlfriend Vickie called from
outside Alyson's bedroom door.
"Yea. I'm fine." Alyson lied. I can't stand this. I have to go home! she
announced to herself. Carefully she got out of her bed, got dressed, did her make-up and
hair, and then made her way downstairs. "Where's dad?" she asked Vickie.
"Not home." Vickie replied, not bothering to look away from her laptop. She
was on-line. Keeping a safe distance, Alyson read an Instant Message someone just sent
her. Vickie, baby. Where have you been? I missed you. It read. Aly gasped.
"Um..where might he be?" she asked, in a snotty way. Vickie turned her
head toward Alyson, as she typed her response. Wow. Alyson thought. She can type
awesome. Sweets,. she wrote, I missed you too. kiss kiss. My boyfriend brought his baby
girl to live with us for a few weeks, as she's been too annoying, so I have to keep her
occupied. Vickie finished and sent the man her reply. Alyson assumed it was a man,
anyways.
"At work. Where else would he be?" Vickie bit back. Alyson snorted with
laughter.
"Excuse me for asking a question." she said, reaching over her keyboard and
pressing three buttons. Vickie looked at Alyson with a strange cockiness.
"What did you just do?" she asked, slapping Alyson's hand away from the
laptop.
"Nothing." Alyson lied. With a huge smile on her face, Aly walked away
laughing. I just saved your whole conversation..dad's gonna die! she laughed to herself. "I'll
be home soon, just wait it out!" Alyson whispered softly, all of her hoping Zac could hear
her.
Zac laid down on his bed and listened to his, well, Tay's 'FastBall' c.d. As he turned
his head to go to sleep, Taylor and I crept into the room. Zac didn't bother to open his
eyes, but when Taylor turned the music off, he's eyes flew open. "Oh, c'mon." he whined
when he saw me and Taylor glaring down at him.
"Zac.." I said, hoping Tay wouldn't jump in. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm feeling fine." he lied. I directed my gaze deep into his.
"I need to know..because you might hav-" Taylor cut in.
"Listen Zac.." he said, his tone caring but harsh. "We know your stressed
about Alyson..but you can't starve yourself under stress." he paused quickly. "You could get
her disease!" I gasped., and whipped my head in his direction.
"What?" Zac shrieked. His eyes full of confusion, but behind that fake
confusion was fear. "I'm not starving myself. So how would you know if I have...uh..what's
that name?" he asked, looked at me. I shrugged.
"I don't know. Its hard to pronounce." I stopped. "You can't eat can you?" I
burst.
"Yes I can!" Zac replied.
"No you can't!" Taylor shrieked. His face burning with aggravation. He has
the nerve to lie about it? Tay asked himself quietly. "We saw you. Everytime its time to eat,
you either A: lie about it. B: pretend to eat it, then trash it, or C: Tell mom you have a
headache and eating only makes it worse!"
"Zac please. Just try to eat..okay?" I begged, taking his hands. Zac stood
up and yanked his hands away.
"Don't you get it?" he shrieked, "She left me! Guys- okay I'm stressed. I
admit it! But don't you dare accuse me of starving myself!" he paused and looked up at
Taylor, "I talked to her yesterday, she's coming home! She's taking the next train out..she
doesn't want to live in California! She want's me to met her in one week at the edge of the
woods.-"
"That doesn't explain the food!" Taylor demanded.
"Yes it does!" Zac yelled back, "I'm keeping myself hungry for her! I'm
taking her to dinner, and I don't want her to feel weird..okay?"
"Weird?" I asked. "I don't get it." I added.
"That's just it," Zac commented, "Never mind." he gave in.
"ZAC!" Taylor said, grabbing Zac's arm. Zac looked at him, and pulled away.
"Leave me alone!" Zac screamed, and ran out of the room. I grabbed Taylor
around the waist to stop him from following Zac.
"I don't get him sometimes." Tay whispered and dropped down on his bed. I
looked into his eyes and smiled.
"I do." I told him.
"How?" Taylor asked, "He's utterly impossible!" he admitted. I let my smile
fade away.
"Alyson's not one to eat. She feels uncomfortable eating infront of people,
so she pretends she's really hungry, even though she not..get it?" I told him.
"Not really." he mused.
"She's going to feel weird around Zac, so she'll eat alot to keep from
noticing her discomfort. But, Zac figures she'll get even more weirded out, so he decided
he'll eat as much as she will...-" I trailed off, hoping Taylor would spark a light bulb sooner
or later.
"Therefore she's not uncomfortable!" Tay said. I smiled.
"Yep. He really does understand her sometimes." I said. Taylor smiled, took
my hands, pulled us both off his bed and tugged me toward the doorway.
"C'mon, let's go get something to eat." he said, and pulled me through the
doorway.
<----Ever Lonely
Ever Lonely
Email: thelittleone214@aol.com
