Rush Together.

I woke up in the morning with a pounding headache, my skin cold, my muscles aching, and most noticeably in nothing but my underwear and a sleeping Brian next to me. I automatically shot up out of bed and rushed to wake him up.

"Brian? Brian?! Get the fuck up!" I said, shaking him violently

"What? What the hell?" he said, rubbing his eyes and looking up at me.

"We..we didn't..you know..sleep together did we?" I stood out of bed, plundering the messy floor for any sign of clothing to cover myself.

Brian laughed and sat up in bed, throwing a v-neck at me. "If you mean 'sleep together' in the sense that we slept in the same bed, then yes. If you mean in the sense did we fuck, then no. Unfortunately not."

Brian always flirted with me. Nothing ever came of it. He had too much respect for Zack to do that, but I guess with everything being like it was, what did he have to lose?

"Did anything else happen?" I said, walking up to him. Our faces close together.

"Uh...You want me to be honest?" He nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh, God. What did I do?" I covered my face.

Brian placed his hands over mine, pulling them away from my face and brushing a piece of hair from my face ."You kissed me. Begged me to touch you. But you didn't do anything I wouldn't want you to do. Chill."

He was being so much more flirtatious than he ever had been in our whole lives. I told him okay and went about getting dressed, finding my clothes halfway across the room on the floor in their own little pile. I slid my pants on, but was stopped as I buttoned them by a still shirtless Brian.

"Let me take you out for breakfast." He offered, handing me my shirt.

"What?" I laughed as I slid the top over my head. I hadn't been taken out for breakfast in years.

"You heard me. Let me take you out for breakfast. I know you love IHOP."

I thought about it to myself for a minute. Should I? It would be a good opportunity to talk to him about everything and possibly clear my slate with Zack. I couldn't place my finger on why he was why he was still on my mind. I threw a shirt at Brian and told him a happy yes. He grinned at me like a little kid getting exactly what he wanted for Christmas and grabbed our phones and his keys off of the table. I had completely forgotten about my phone existing. God knows hour many times Kat or Jimmy had called me.

"What time is it?" I asked as we walked to the car.

Brian slipped his phone out of his pocket and winced at the time. "You still down for breakfast? Because it's one."

"One?! Are you shitting me?" I freaked out, yanking my phone from Brian's hand as we got into the car.

Seven missed calls. Three from Katrina, four from Jimmy and countless texts from them both.

"Call me."
"Did you go to Brian's?"
"Did you sleep with Brian?"
"Call me when you wake up."
And my personal favorite, "Zack is worried. Where are you?"

I quickly dialed Katrina's number, and if course, she answered just as fast.

"Oh my God, hello sunshine!" she said sounding cheerful as ever. A painfully annoying quality she possessed.

"Hey. What is going on? What do you mean Zack is worried?" Brian looked over at me as I asked.

"Oh, he just got a little drunk last night and called Matt, asking where you were and he kind of freaked out when we told him you left with Brian and--"

"WHAT? You told him I left with Brian? Why would you ever do that in a million years?!"

"Hey, sitting right here." Brian interjected.

"Well, what was I supposed to tell him?! Jimmy told him you weren't there. I panicked!" She yelled from the other line.

"He's gonna think I slept with Brian or something knowing him. Damnit, Kat."

"Look, Zack was drunk. I bet he doesn't even remember. I'll have Jimmy talk to him."

"Fine."

I was furious at this point. I hung up the phone and laid my head in my lap, exhaling and grunting to myself. Reluctantly, I dialed Jimmy's number, to which he took forever to answer.

"Yellow?" Jimmy answered with Pantera blasting in the background.

"Jimmy, turn the goddamn music down and talk to me." I yelled.

He turned it down to a faint whisper in the background and asked me what was up.

"You tell me what's up. Why are you guys texting me about Zack? Why is he freaking out?"

Jimmy scoffed on the other line, "Because he loves you."

Those words made my stomach turn. "Don't say that. That was then and this is now."

He simply laughed and said "Jimbo knows all. Love like that doesn't go anywhere."

I just hung up on him. I didn't need to hear him and his insane theories. Jimmy had this fantasy that Zack and I were soulmates, destined to be together from the moment we laid eyes on each other. His reasoning for everything between Zack and I was always 'because you love each other'. But we left that all behind in high school. Just a silly little high school sweetheart thing...right?

"Why are you even worried about Zack?" Brian asked with a tinge of hatefulness in his voice.

"I..I honestly don't know. Good fucking question."

"He'll get over it." Brian said as we pulled up.

I hadn't eaten IHOP in so long. It's not like I was asked to eat much. Being a model required you to eat next to nothing and you could only eat next to nothing at the finest restaurants. Our waitress was cute and mousey with dark red hair and glasses. She seated us away from everyone else, giving us a little privacy from any of Brian's fans that might have been lurking about.

"I missed eating at places like this." I said looking around at the dinky restaurant.

"What, they don't gave places like this in New York?"

I sipped my tea and laughed at Brian "Nah, it's not that. I just wasn't..allowed to eat at places like this. Strict diet."

"Well, maybe now that you're back home you can get some meat on your bones."

"Hey, I look a lot better than I used to. Don't deny it."

Brian reached across the table and laid his hand on top of mind, "You've been beautiful for as long as I've known you."

I felt my face turn 50 shades of red as I covered it with my jacket sleeve. He made me blush. Why was Brian making me blush? Thankfully, to end the embarrassing moment, our waitress walked back up.

"Alright, guys. What will it be?" she said, getting out her little notepad.

"Uhm, I'll have the strawberry shortcake pancakes and some sausage."

"Alrighty. And you sir?"

"Uh, just coffee. Plain black." He said, handing her our menus.

"Coffee? Why'd you invite me out if all you were going to get was coffee?" I asked, slightly annoyed.

"I wanted your first meal back home to be your favorite, but I wasn't that hungry. So, coffee."

Typical Brian, to be sweet like that. I smiled at him and we chit-chatted until our food arrived. Cutting into that pancake was such a satisfying feeling. As I placed that first bite in my mouth, I moaned out loud unintentionally. Five long years since I'd had a strawberry pancake. I looked up at Brian, who was suppressing a laugh at me scarfing down the most amazing meal I'd ever had.

"What?" I asked as I stuffed a chunk of food in my mouth.

"Let me take you on a real date." He said, quietly, almost shyly.

"Brian, I--"

I was interrupted by a voice I didn't expect to hear. One that sent shivers down my spine.

"Dolly?"

Notes

I had actually written smut in this chapter but changed my mind last minute. I'm trying to save the raunchyness for later. XD this is still a Zacky story, guys! He'll be back soon!