*~*Zacky’s POV*~*

I sank down onto the couch in Brian’s room, drinking the beer I stole from his fridge.

“I can’t fucking believe you right now!” Jimmy yelled at me as I rolled my eyes at him.

“What do you want from me Jimmy?! I can’t fucking go back over there and see her like that!” I shouted back at him, slamming the almost empty beer on the table.

“Fine. Whatever then. Be a selfish dumbass. I’ll just go over there and tell the girl crying in a mess on the floor that her best friend can’t deal with her right now… I’m sure that’s going to go over fucking fantastic Zack.” Jimmy replied before opening the door and slamming it behind him.

Great… Now Jimmy’s fucking pissed at me too. Let’s see if I can get Brian to do the same…

Brian looked at me broodingly, “You know, you should really go and apologize to her Zacky?”

“Yes, I fucking know that, Captain Obvious! I just can’t deal with this right now…”

“Well you need to! How do you expect her to ever want to be anything more to you than a friend, if you run away when you fuck up? She’s going to remember this shit that you weren’t there for her when she needed you most. You tell me you love her but your actions right now are proving otherwise. If she’s upset, you know that you are the first person she runs to.” Brian said calmly.

“I know but Brian, I just can’t. I can’t make this better.” I said drinking the rest of my beer.

“You can Zacky. You need to. If you ever want something more out of this relationship you have with her, you need to deal with this.” He replied sympathetically.

“You’re right man. I know you are. It’s just watching her cry like that…it’s just-” I started beforeJimmy came back thru the door with Matt.

“Good fucking job Baker.” Matt said severely.

“What? I was just going over there to apologize for yelling at her.”

“Don’t bother. She wants nothing to do with anyone right now. I just hope she isn’t actually hurt.” Jimmy said glaring at me.

“What do you mean you ‘hope she isn’t actually hurt’? What the fuck happened?” I said jumping up from the couch and heading towards the door.

Matt put a hand out, stopping me from going any further, “When Jimmy came back and told her you weren’t coming, she locked herself in the bathroom and then I guess, from what it sounded like, she broke some glass and started screaming and crying.”

“Then she told us all to leave her the fuck alone.” Jimmy said sadly.

“Fuck. This is all my fault.” I said.

“Yeah, it kinda is.” Matt replied.

I looked up at him for a minute before going back to the fridge and stealing yet another beer from Brian. I sat back on the couch, downing the beer as quickly as I could.

“That’s not going to solve anything Zacky.” Brian chimed in after watching me.

“Whatever. She fucking hates me, you guys fucking hate me. Does it look like I could give two fucks about life right now?” I asked, watching the anger flash behind Brian’s eyes.

“Finish that up and get out. I felt bad for you before, but now you’re just being an asshole and you can go. I don’t need to be in a shitty mood when Kelly comes back.” Brian said standing up from his spot at the edge of the bed.

I drank the last of the beer in my hand, “Thanks for the beer and the advice bro.”

I left the empty bottle on the table and walked out the door, slamming it behind me. I walked down the hall to Johnny’s room where he was oblivious to the whole thing going on. I knocked and could hear some soft giggles from inside. I waited another minute before Johnny cracked the door open, the chain lock still on the door.

“Hey man, what’s up?” he answered shirtless, looking back over his shoulder.

“Are you busy or can I come in?” I asked him.

“Yeah you can come in, hang on.” He replied as he closed the door again, sliding the chain off, telling someone else, “Go put something on. My brother’s here. We can finish this up later…”

He opened the door and let me in. There was a cute little brunette girl adjusting her shirt in a pile of messed up bed sheets on the bed. She smiled and giggled as I came in and sat down on the chair at the table.

“Sorry to interrupt man…”

“Nah, it’s fine dude. You ok?”

“Not really. You got any booze?”

“Sure. Here.” He said pulling a bottle of half drank Jack from his open suitcase close by, “Pour me some too. Baby you want some?”

“No thank you. Should I go?” She asked him.

“No it’s fine. I won’t be long. I just need a friend right now… I fucked up Johnny.” I told them both.

“What? What’d you do Zacky?” he asked as he sat down on the other chair, taking the glass of Jack I handed him.

I explained to him the previous events that led me to his doorstep, and waited for his response. He sat there quietly looking down at his now empty glass. I poured him another glass of the caramel liquid before refilling my own glass.

“You aren’t going to like what I have to say but you know that you are going to have to make this right with her. You need to tell her you’re sorry.” Johnny said, sipping his drink.

“You need to tell her how it made you feel. Just saying that you can’t take it doesn’t mean anything. Tell her how you feel.” The brunette sitting on the bed said.

I glanced over at her, realizing that was great advice from some stranger looking in. Johnny looked at her incredulously.

“Mandy.” He scolded her.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to butt in. It just seems like you didn’t really tell her anything about what you actually felt. If you really care about this girl then you should tell her how you feel. As a girl, we like feelings.” She smiled.

“It’s okay Johnny. She’s right. Thank you Mandy.” I said as I swirled the last swig of alcohol in the bottom of the glass.

I looked at the clock on the bedside table and realized it was later than I thought. I had sat here talking with Johnny and Mandy for over an hour.

“I’m sorry guys. I stayed way longer than I thought. I’m gonna head out, take a walk or something before I go talk to her.” I replied, downing the rest of my drink and standing to go.

“Here man, I think you need this more than me.” Johnny said handing me the rest of the bottle of Jack, “Take a breather, then go and apologize to her. Don’t get too drunk though.”

“Thanks Johnny. Oh, and you too Mandy. Thank you.”

“Good luck Zacky. I hope things work out for you hun!” Mandy called out as I let the door close behind me.

I walked down the hall, passing our room, and I stopped to put my ear up to the door. I couldn’t hear anything, but still thought it best to give Lei more time. I kept going down the hall, downing the rest of the bottle before getting to the elevator.

I had a good buzz going by the time I got outside of the hotel and started walking down the path along the beach. I walked for a short while before realizing I was too drunk to be walking all over the place and getting lost, so I made my way back towards the way I came, walking out to the beach just in front of the hotel we were staying. I found a spot in the sand that looked good and plopped down, looking out into the ocean.

Kamalei would love this. She loves all of this kind of stuff. What are we doing taking these girls away from their home? I want her to come home with us, but I don’t want her to be miserable doing it. I want her to be happy to come back to California with us… I made this so much worse. Why did I have to yell at her? Jimmy was right, I’m being selfish. This is so fucked up. I have to talk to her… I have to tell her I’m sorry.

I watched the waves crash against the shore as I thought more about what to say to her. I was surprisingly sobering up, even though I was out in the sun, which would make it worse usually. After a while of sitting there, smelling the ocean breeze, and clearing my thoughts, I got up and dusted off.

I made my way up to the room, standing in front of the door for a few moments, again collecting my thoughts. I took a few deep breaths before I grabbed the key card, sliding it in the door and opening it up.

There she was laying down with her back turned to me, quickly perking up and turning to the sound of the door opening.

“Hey.” I said quietly, “Is it okay if I come in?”

Kamalei jumped off the bed and ran to me, wrapping her arms around my neck as I stood in the small entryway. My arms found their way around her waist as we stood there for a minute.

“You came back…” she said thru her sobs as she looked up at me.

“Of course I did. I’d never leave you behind somewhere.” I said pulling back, seeing my shirt in her hand, “Is that my shirt?”

She looked down shamefully, “Yeah... I’m sorry… I was scared you left because I made you upset.”

“Hey, don’t worry about me getting upset. I just don’t like seeing you like that. I want you to be happy, not crying to go to California with us. I’m sorry my Lei girl. Were you crying this whole time because you thought you made me upset?” I questioned.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes not saying a word, instead nodding and burying her face in my chest. I pulled her away from me, looking deep in her eyes.

“Kamalei, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I lost it and it’s my fault, not yours. I care about you and you have become one of my best friends. I don’t want to ever see you like that again. Jimmy told me he heard something break. Are you alright?” I asked as I began inspecting her arms for any cuts.

“I'm not cut. I'm much better now that you're back Zacky.” She said quietly, wrapping her arms around me again.

I wrapped my arms around her waist again, leaning down and catching some of her lovely tropical smell from her hair before kissing the top of her head.

“I'm sorry I scared you my Lei girl. I never meant to scare you. I think it hurt me more to see you run from me, than anything else.” I told her, “I'm so sorry that I wasn't being the friend you needed. I was being selfish and not thinking about what you are going thru. I just couldn't handle not being able to help you, Lei.”

“I'm sorry too Zee. Sometimes when I'm really upset and depressed, I do things over and over without speaking to anyone. I think it might be some form of OCD or something. I'm sorry Zacky. I'm just really depressed about leaving my home for what seems like forever. It's just really hard Zee. I can't do it alone, but I also can't expect for you and my brother guys to understand it either.” She explained to me, more tears welling up in her swollen, puffy, red eyes.

I wiped them away with my thumb, “I know Lei. I'm sorry it has to be this way, but if you stay, we could never feel like you are safe. We care about you too much.”

“I know Zacky and that's what I love about all of you. You're all so protective of me and Kelly. You guys are the best and I'm so glad that I found my brother, so I could find all of you too.” She said.

“We still have a few hours left before we have to go. Is there something you want to go do? We can have everyone go...” I suggested, thinking it would cheer her up to leave her home with one last good memory and not this stupid situation I helped create.

“I do have somewhere I want to go one last time. If you don't mind, I'd rather just you and me go if that's okay with you?” she asked.

“I don't mind, you know that. I don't know if your brother is going to be okay with it though.” I replied thinking of how Matt was extremely mad with me, along with Jimmy and Brian.

“Who said we're going to tell them anything? Come on Zee... just us two, we'll run away for a bit. They won't even know, no one has come to check on me in hours. I think I kind of scared them away.” she said sheepishly.

“Alright. For you anything...” I replied as she grabbed my hand and pulled us out the door.

Notes

Okie dokies my little pretties... I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry about the slow updates... Busy busy busy as always... Let me know what you guys think! <3 Mahalo for all the comments! Much love and Aloha <3 <3 <3