He had reached in and grabbed a huge handful and shoved it in his mouth. I laughed a little at how childish he could be and he went to do it again. Zac was a ham and loved the attention, but before he could, my mother grabbed his hand, "Don't!" she said with a stern look and that was all it took.
"Sorry," he said looking defeated and preceded to take a piece of popcorn one by one.
"Do you boys want anything else to eat?" my Mom asked as she placed a couple of sandwiches down for the girls.
"No, I'm good Mom," I said.
"OO, oo can I have a peanut butter sandwich, but no Jelly and a big glass of milk?" Zac asked smiling widely.
My mother smiled back at him as much as he drove her nuts he was still Zac.
My Mom brought in Zac's sandwich a little later and then took a seat next to me. "It's nice to relax and breath," she said sounding exhausted.
My Mom was the hardest worker I knew. She does everything for us any time we need it and sometimes she works herself into the ground doing it. I looked over at her and I could see the exhaustion in her eyes, it's always there a little, but this time it was more pronounced. She seems worried underneath everything else and even though I hated thinking about it.
I think it has to do with me and the letters. Suddenly, the TV started playing loudly and Breaking News was flashing. It caught my attention:
“That’s cause he is,” my mother said with disgust in her voice.
Marshall Stone was released from prison five months ago on a technicality only serving half of his fifteen year sentence. Mrs. Stone told reporters threw a family spokes person that, “She had always feared he would come back for her or her children. And now that fear has become her reality.”
New evidence was discovered yesterday from a convenient store video camera, showing the young boy being restrained in the back seat of his father’s car. As of the date of this video, there have been no sightings or communication from either Marshall or Austin Stone.
There is a fifty thousand dollar reward in this case for any information leading to the capture of Mr. Stone or the return of Austin to his family. If you have any information regarding anything to do with this case, please contact your local authorities. You need not give your name.***
I don't know why the footage of something that is none of my business would bothered me too much. I guess it made me think of the letters and the stuff that he was talking about doing. I felt violated and exposed and all it was were some mans fantasies about me written on paper. I could only imagine what it is like to experience those horrendous things. Especially at the hands of someone who is supposed to protect you like your father. "Monster," my mother said suddenly under her breath.
I looked over at her and she caught my eye. I couldn't hide anything very well. I wear my worries on my sleeves however, the times that I am able to hide she always knows. It's like she has some kind of sixth sense that can feel my problems. "Taylor, sweetheart, come in the kitchen I want to talk to you," she said gently.
I got up from the couch slowly and followed her into the kitchen. I took a seat at the table and stared at her. "Your scared aren't you baby?" she asked pushing my hair out of my eyes.
"I guess," I said shrugging my shoulder.
I didn't like admitting I was scared. "Taylor, it's ok to be scared. It's ok to fear something."
"Mom, I'm more then scared. I go to sleep at night worrying that he is gonna climb through my window and try to kidnap me or something! Those letters were so.... gross! I didn't think it was possible to do some of those things and the who would want to? I don't want to leave the house. I just want to stay inside cause if I go outside he might be lurking in the yard ready to grab me! And then, I hear that we might have to quit the band and I don't want lose that. It's my dream what I love to do! I just want him to leave me alone so I can live my life!" I said letting it all come out.
I had bottle that in for awhile. It wasn't until my mother wiped my cheeks that I realized I was crying. God, I had been doing a lot of that lately. "I want you to listen to me Taylor ok?" she said taking my face in her hands, "He is not gonna hurt you! Your father and I are taking every necessary precaution to make sure your safe if this is even a real situation. You haven't gotten a letter in over a week and for all we know it could be someone playing a cruel mean joke on us. Nothing is going to happen to you, I swear to you!" she pulled me to her and I clung to her like a five year old.
I let her comfort me and hold me because and for once I felt safe. It was a few minutes of me crying and my Mom taking care of me like she used to until Zac's voice interrupted it. "Mommy, Mackie's up," he said.
We looked over in his direction and he was holding Mackenzie who was still half asleep. "Oh well, hello, sleepy head," my Mom said taking Mackie from Zac.
"Thank-you angel," she said to Zac kissing him on the forehead.
He smiled widely and took a seat next to me, "I'm bored Taylor, you want to do something?" he asked.
I really just wanted to say no and go crawl back in my bed and hide till all this was over, but I knew that I needed just to keep going on with my life. "Yeah sure. What do you want to do?"
"You want to play soccer?" he asked his lighting up like a Christmas Tree.
"Yeah that's cool. Go get my shoes ok?" I told him.
My mother turned around and smiled at me, "That was good, Taylor. Just remember what I said ok? Everything is going to be fine." I could only hope she was right.
I took the soccer ball and kicked it back and forth. I was ok at soccer. Better then Zac but nowhere near as good as Isaac. I ran towards him with the ball, and kicked it. Zac dove off to stop the ball from going by him in the net. But to no such luck. "GOAL!" I yelled throwing my hands in the air and dancing like a retard.
Sometimes when I spend extra time with Zac the stupid side starts coming out of me again. I turned back around from my dance to see Zac still on the ground where he laid when he dove. Only now he had brought his knees up and he seemed to be trembling. Oh god I hope he didn't get hurt. Zac did dive hard. I ran over to him and put my hand on his back. "Zac, are you ok?" I asked.
"Ughh..." he moaned. It sounded like he was crying.
"What happened? Did you hurt yourself?" I asked concerned.
"Yeah," he moaned turning towards me.
He grabbed a hold of me and pulled me down. "You beat me you big retard!" he yelled laughing.
The little shit was toying with me. "I got you! I got you!" he yelled laughing.
"Oh yeah!!!" I yelled back, "Well, when your on the ground you’re a little defenseless against.... tickles!"
"NOOO!' he laughed as started grabbing at his sides.
Zac was the most ticklish person I knew by far, although I didn't really go around tickling people at random, but whatever. "Stop please, please!" he begged threw his laughing.
"Nope, this is for teasing me moron!" I said tickling him harder.
He laughed and squirming. "No please Tay!" he said and I finally stopped.
He laid on his back for a moment catching his breath and I sat there catching my own. "You want to go read the new comics I bought? I put them up in the tree house so mom doesn't see them and take them," he said suddenly sitting up.
"Yeah sure," I was very curious to see what was in these new comics.
Zac had started to hide them because my mother wasn’t to keen on what was in the comics and no it wasn't really the violence. Most of the comics Zac was reading had a tendency of showing a lot of risky pictures of woman. Zac just seemed so infatuated with these women’s large breasts.
We were up in the tree house and Zac pulled out a box from under the chair and opened it showing me his collection of comics. “Here these are the new ones,” he said handing me about six.
“Damn Zac you couldn’t get just one?” I said starting flip threw them.
“No, I didn’t have these and there all the really good ones,” he told me.
I flipped threw and then stumbled upon a picture that made my eyes pop out of my head. It was a drawn character of a young woman with a tiny waste and the biggest boobs I have ever seen. She was wearing a white top and you could make out the complete outline of breasts.
“Is this why these are the good ones?” I asked Zac as I showed him the picture.
he turned red instantly and looked away, “No, I like the stories,” he lied to me.
He was always embarrassed to admit that he was fascinated by a woman’s breasts. I guess it’s because he’s still young. I just laughed and shock my head.
I spent the next few minutes just flipping threw the comics not saying much just shocked that Zac was so obsessed with these things.
“Taylor?” Zac said in a questioning manner.
“Yeah?”
“Your not gonna get hurt right?” he was looking at his hands and twiddling his thumbs.
The tone in his voice was trouble and worried. I had no idea what exactly he was talking about. “What do you mean?”
“That guy... the one that is writing you those letters. Is he really gonna hurt you?”
It was a hard question for me to answer. I mean what exactly was I supposed to say. I didn’t even know how to explain these things to myself. But, I knew Zac was nervous and bothered by it and I could tell he really didn’t understand what was going on. I had to think of some explanation I could give him.
“I really don’t know Zac. I don’t know if he’s a real guy or if someone is just playing a mean joke.”
“But what if he’s real Taylor. What if he really wants to hurt you?” this time he looked me in the face and was pleading with me for answers.
I didn’t want to think about that. Actually having grasp that is hard for me to think about because I don’t know how I would deal with that. But I said what I hoped would be true, “Mom and Dad would never let anything happen Zac. They promised me that they would do whatever it takes to protect me.”
“But they are not always here Tay!” he was sounding like he was panicing.
“Zac, they will do whatever it takes. They are not gonna let anything happen!” I asked the same questions to myself that Zac just asked me but I had to believe what I was saying or else I would lose my sanity, “Why are you worrying about this anyway?”
“Because I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want you to leave me!” Zac said about to cry and wrapping his arms around my neck.
I was in shock but I hug him anyway, “I promise nothings going to happen to me! Please stop worrying about this!” I begged.
He didn’t say anything else but he also didn’t stop hugging me for awhile and I just held him hoping that the reassurance that I just gave him would also reassure my own fears.