I don’t think I ever fall asleep. I lay in bed and all I can think of is my encounter with Zack and how horrible it was. I’m still laying in bed when sunlight starts to peek its way into the windows between the curtains. I eventually crawl out of bed and order room service before going to the room next door to see if Rachel is awake. I knock twice but it’s silent on the other side, so I figure she’s still asleep.

I go back to my room and sit on the bed, reaching for the remote. Before I can even hit the power button there’s a loud knock at the door. I hop up, knowing my knocking must have woken up Rachel and walk to the door. I was in desperate need of getting out of this town. When I open the door, however, it’s not Rachel.

“Zack?” There’s no hiding how surprised I am.

Zack glares at me. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

I nod, still completely overwhelmed with surprise and Zack pushes past me. I close the door behind him slowly and then turn to him. “I’m sorry,” I blurted out before he could run out on me again. If I only told him one thing today, it was going to be an apology.

Zack doesn’t reply for a moment then he shakes his head. “For what, exactly? For last night or for the last six years?”

He’s angry. There’s no denying how angry he is. He has all the reason in the world to be angry, too. “I know, I know I have a lot of explaining to do.”

Zack stares at me. “I fucking waited for you. I waited for you to come back. Every god damn day I waited, and you never did.”

“I couldn’t!”

“You couldn’t?” Zack repeats, dryly laughing. “Just like you couldn’t wait to get on that fucking bus? Bullshit, Sheridan. You know, I don’t even fucking care. It’s been six years. I don’t even know why I came here. I’m just going to go.”

Zack makes his way back to the door and I watch him as if he’s moving in slow motion. As he grabs the handle, I take a step forward, reaching for him even though he’s feet away from me. “Zack, please don’t go. Please let me explain.”

Zack pauses, his hand still resting on the doorknob. If he stays, I don’t know what I’m going to tell him; I don’t know where I’m going to start. Before Zack can make his decision there’s a knock on the door.

“Room service!”

Zack opens the door and the hotel worker walks in, pushing a cart. I keep my eyes on Zack, hoping he doesn’t try to slip through the door when he thinks I'm not paying attention. I can hear the hotel employee behind me but I'm not paying much attention.

“Is there anything else I can get you, Ms. Baker?” he asks. Zack snaps his attention to me and I can’t help but purse my lips and close my eyes. Another thing I’m going to have to explain if he decides to stick around.

“No, thank you,” I mumble, grabbing a tip out of my wallet and handing it to him. He thanks me, and I nod, looking at the carpet. I don’t let out the breath of air I'm holding until I hear the door close. It’s quiet and I’m pretty sure Zack left with the employee, but still my heart pounds against my chest as I slowly start looking up and to the direction in which Zack once stood.

He was still there. He wasn’t looking at me, but he was there still there. Neither of us say anything for a moment. “Sheridan, what the fuck is going on? Did he just call you by my last name?”

“Yes,” I answer shortly, hoping that answer would suffice, but I knew that was asking for too much. “Sit down and we will talk. I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

Zack hesitates but eventually moves further into the room. He pulls the chair away from the desk
and sits in it while I sit away from him on the bed. I picked at my cuticles while Zack stared at his.

“You knew who I was last night, and you didn’t say shit,” Zack commented, shaking his head. “When were you going to tell me? Or were you?”

I nibble on my lip. “Well, to be fair you didn’t even recognize me, so…”

Zack scoffs. “I was drunk as fuck and you’ve cut off all your hair and dyed it, so you can’t really blame me.”

I took a deep breath. The last time Zack saw me my hair was down to my waist and dyed black because Eli had a thing for blondes. I run my hand through my hair now. It’s so short it doesn’t even touch my shoulders when its wet. “I cut it all off as soon as I left Huntington,” I tell him. “Since my picture was everywhere, I had to change what I looked like.”

Zack nods but doesn’t reply. The way his hands rest in his lap, I can see our matching tattoo on his arm. The ink from the tattoos around it dips into the letters, but the green SLD still stands out. He never tried to cover it up, that had to mean something, right?

“Zack, I’m sorry,” I tell him again.

“You said you were going to explain. Apologizing is not explaining,” he crosses his arms across his chest. The tattoo is no longer in view.

“You’re right,” I take a deep breath. “Okay, um…I just don’t know where to start.”

Zack rolls his eyes. “Where have you been all this time?”

“Everywhere, I guess. I’ve never stayed anywhere for too long because I knew Eli was still looking for me. This last year and a half I’ve been living in Los Angeles with a girl named Rachel. She doesn’t –”

“You’ve been fucking forty-five minutes away for almost two years and you didn’t even think about coming to Huntington Beach?”

My shoulders slump. “Zack, of course I’ve thought about coming here! I thought about it every day, it’s not that simple.”

“Do you know how many times I’ve been to LA in the last two years?” Zack asks me. I have a feeling it’s rhetorical. “Goddamnit, Sheridan!”

“I wanted to come back. I was just…scared, I guess. I’ve been running all this time and I didn’t know what was going on with your life. I knew you were with Gena, so you were happy, and I didn’t want my presence to compromise that.”

Zack is shaking his head. “Why did you tell me your name was Sutton? And what the hell is the Baker shit all about?”

I bit the inside of my cheek nervously as I replied. “It was one year after I ran away. I was checking into this shady motel, still only staying in one town for a couple of days at a time. Eli was still pulling the “concerned brother” act, telling the world I was mentally unfit after the tragic death of our mother and he just wanted me home, so he could take care of me. I was legally of age at this point, so he had to come up with some sort of lie, you know?” Zack's eyes were on me, narrowed and dark. “So, I went to check into the motel and I guess the guy recognized my name on my ID. He didn’t say anything, but the cops showed up. I had to climb out of the window to escape. All I knew at that point is that I couldn’t go by my given name anymore. It had been a year and Eli was still managing to find his way on the television. I didn’t know how much longer it would last, but one more day as Sheridan Davis could have ruined everything.”

I pause briefly before continuing, “I didn’t have any money, so I had to keep my head down until I scrounged up enough cash. I lived with the homeless and…since I couldn’t get a job, the only way I could make some real cash was to…well, it was really rough for a while. Finally, I had enough to get it legally changed. However, this meant telling someone my real name and the risk of getting caught. It took a lot of persuading since I didn’t have all the paperwork I needed to have and this and that, but finally, I was able to get a guy that would break some rules and change it for me. The place was on Sutton Avenue, so that’s why I went with Sutton. And…as for Baker…” I trail off and try to wet my lips. My mouth felt incredibly dry all of a sudden. “I never imagined taking anyone else’s last name except for yours. It felt right.”

Zack doesn’t move for a long moment. When he finally does move, it’s in a quick movement and he’s nearly to the door before I jump off the bed and beat him to it. “Move,” he tells me. “I have to go.”

I press my back against the door. Zack's hand is on the handle and he turns it, pulling it open but I push all my body weight into it, causing it to close again. “No,” I tell him. “You wanted me to explain everything and I will, but you don’t get to leave just because you hear something you don’t like!”

“Sheridan –”

“No.”

“I can’t do this right now.”

“I don’t care!”

Zack is inches away from me now. I can feel his breath on my lips. My heart is pounding in my chest and I want to kiss him. Zack looks directly at me, his green eyes burn into my soul and I look away. I focus on the bit of skin on his collarbone that’s sticking out from his shirt. I don’t say anything else, mostly because I can’t remember how to form words. Zack's hand is still on the door; I don’t know if he’s actually moving closer to me or if it’s my imagination, but my breath gets caught in my throat anyway.

“Move,” he mumbles.

I bite my lip out of nervousness and shake my head, still refusing to look at him. My knees feel weak, I push against the door even more to help hold myself up. Then, Zack kisses me, and I think my heart is going to pound its way out of my chest. I hear the door handle turn back to its original position as Zack lets go of it. He replaces it on my hip, gripping my slightly while pressing his body into mine.

Zack tugs at my lip and I wrap my arms around his neck, kissing him deeper. I didn’t know how we got to this moment, but I was going to enjoy it while it lasted. Zack pulls me from the door and I almost think this was just a distraction, so he could get me away from the door but instead, he leads me to the bed.

Zack pushes me onto the bed and quickly undoes his belt from his jeans, then unbuttons his jeans and pulls them down. He pulls my pants from me and then crawls between my legs.
His lips reconnect to mine and I feel his fingers as the push my panties to the side. He massages me gently for a moment before slipping two fingers inside me.

I let out a gasp, opening my legs up even wider for him. Zack takes my neck into his mouth, gently biting and sucking my flesh. He pulls his fingers from me and a moment later, I feel him guiding his dick to my opening.

He slowly pushes into me, then pulls completely out before sinking back into me. He does this a couple of times before he begins thrusting at a steady pace. I arch my back and dig my nails into the sheets as he fucks me.

If you would have asked me two days what I would be doing at this exact moment, it definitely would not have been this. I lose myself in the heavy breathing and soft moans.
Zack’s hands caress every inch of my body, his lips trace every curve. I feel his muscles flex with each push. My body craved him more than it ever had before. I pulled him closer to me and he buried his face in my neck.

It was over too soon but I knew that was only because I would never get enough. I forgot how it felt to be with Zack. He laid on the bed beside me with his eyes closed and didn’t say anything while I got up and went to the bathroom.

I clean myself up and pulled on my robe. I was hot and needed a shower but decided to settle for tying my hair up in a bun and waiting for Zack to leave first. Upon pulling my hair off my neck, I noticed a small hickey Zack had left. I traced it with my fingers for a moment before finishing putting my hair up and washing my hands. When I exit the bathroom, Zack is sitting on the edge of the bed, fully dressed, and tying his converses.

“You’re leaving?” I ask, trying to keep my voice nonchalant.

Zack clears his throat. “Yeah, I have to meet Gena for lunch.”

Wait, Gena? I furrow my brows. “Wait. Are you still with her?” I ask him,

At this point, Zack is standing and trying to flatten his hair. He shrugs. “Yeah.”

I watch him as he makes his way to the door. “Wait, if you’re with Gena then what the fuck were you doing in the bar last night hitting on me?”

Zack laughs dryly. “Oh, you do don’t get to lecture me about my life.”

I scoff. “Are you serious? Zack, we just had sex and now you’re off to lunch with your girlfriend? I’m kind of involved now, you owe me an explanation.”

“I was involved when you decided to skip town was your best option. Do you know how long Eli kept me at the police station, how many times he brought me back in? You owed me more than just an explanation and you were never there! You didn’t even show up on your eighteenth birthday like you promised!” Zack yells.

I clench my jaw and look away. I didn’t like this; I didn’t like the way I felt, I didn’t like the way he was acting. I felt guilty and pissed off at the same time. “I did show up,” I tell him. “I was at the pier like we planned.”

“No, you fucking weren’t, Sheridan. I know that because I was there. I waited there all god damn day for you to show up and you never did. You were too busy changing your name to fucking Sutton,” he shakes his head.

“I was there. I didn’t…I couldn’t…I saw you there on the pier. I saw the flowers you had brought and the smile you wore. Zack, I can tell you exactly what you were wearing if you want me too. I was there.”

“You were there? You were there?! Fuck, that makes it even worse! You were fucking there, and you didn’t even let me know? What did you do, watch me wait for you? You just sat back and laughed at how miserable I got when you didn’t show?” Every muscle in Zack’s body was tense.

“Of course not,” I shake my head. “I wanted to tell you I was there. I waited for months for that moment and…it killed me Zack. It hurt me more than it hurt you to not run up to you and kiss you and just…be happy again. I knew I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t trust Eli to leave me alone. He fought harder to get me back than I thought he would and I didn’t know what kind of shit he would have pulled if he had seen me again. I knew that if I talked to you, you would ask me to stay and I would have. I knew I couldn’t, so I just didn’t talk to you. It killed me, but it was for the best.”

“It was for the best?” Zack spits. He purses his lips and looks up at the ceiling before closing his eyes and he shakes his head. “Fuck you, Sutton,” he says quietly, opening the door. “And get the hell out of Huntington Beach.”

Notes

This was meant to come out earlier today but I was having computer problems. Anyway, it's out now! Is anyone going to see the guys on their End of the World Tour? I bought tickets for Dallas, so I'm super excited to be seeing them again. Hate that I have to wait until September though, but that's alright because it gives me time to save up money for the road trip down there (about 4 hours away). I was going to buy tickets for Houston too, but couldn't because of the prices this time around. It'll be well worth it though!

Thank you so much for reading! I know it's a little slow right now, but things will pick up and hopefully, things will get better between Sheridan and ZAck too...but we'll see, as of right now, Zack is super pissed and hurt.

Don't forget to comment, vote and subscribe! Thank you Kimmie, countzackula6661 and Holly for commenting on chapter 2!

Title credit: Hollywood Undead “Black Dahlia”