23. Bailey
I’m Standing Here Until You Make Me Move



We were sitting at the top of some hill somewhere on a blanket overlooking the city. The. Whole. City. Have you ever seen a picture of the city at night with all the lights that look almost like stars because there’s so many? It was like I was watching a movie, it was so unreal.

“You look cold.” He said shrugging off his jacket to drape it over my shoulders. It was 68 maybe 70 degrees, I was not cold… but I guess to Californians this is cold, so I brought the jacket closer to me and smiled a thank you at him.

“This is beautiful, Zack thank you.” I said leaning into his shoulder. His arm instinctively went around me and pulled me closer to him. He kissed the side of my head and then looked back at the city below us. “I like this part of LA.”

“Being on top of the world?” He laughed.

“Being alone with you.” I smiled.

He kissed me softly but the moment was stifled when my phone went off, I groaned when I saw it was Johnny.

“Hey.” I said standing up to walk around.

“Hey, how is it going?” He asked. “Having fun?”

“Yeah…”I looked at Zack and he just shrugged. “It’s going great.”

“That’s great. You coming back here or staying with Zack? I was thinking about going out to dinner with Lacey and didn’t wanna lock you out.”

Was this even Johnny I was talking to? Who was this? What did they do with my Johnny?
“You there?” He asked louder, I must’ve been quiet for too long.

“I uh.. I’ll have to ask Zack.”

“Okay, let me know within the hour – that’s about how long it takes for her to get ready.”
“Okay. Thank you.” I smiled meeting Zack’s eyes, he looked like he was ready for the bad news but I couldn’t wait to tell him that a spirit had possessed John and I might spend the night at his house instead.

“Let me guess, guard-dog wants you home.” He sighed getting up, putting everything back into the jeep.

“No, he wanted to know if I was going to stay with you or not. Said he’s taking Lacey out to dinner and needed to know about locking the door or not.”

The silence from earlier moved to Zack and he just kind of stood there like a stone for a moment, if you looked close you could see the steam coming from his ears from the gears in his head rotating too quickly.

“Zack…” I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, I felt his shoulders relax and his arms go around my waist.

“I guess that’s more up to you… I mean, you know where I stand.”

“Yeah, right in front of me.” I tried to joke.

“We’ve already spent the night together how many nights? I mean it wouldn’t be weird.” He said. “It’s up to you.”

“Do you have anything to do tomorrow?” I asked.

“Not really, my uh… birthday is in two days though... Have a party to set up for, Brian and Johnny insisted a few months ago.”

I did not know his birthday was in two days. I barely knew him.

Not really thought, right? We’ve done so much talking on the 18 hour car ride, and all the time we spent together at home and here… but it’s not like we were interrogating each other.
It wasn’t hi I’m 5 feet tall, I was born 2am on Oct. 31st… my first word was Car… you get the point.

“I have to get you something, Zack you didn’t tell me!”

“Hey, I missed your birthday this year so maybe just you being here can be my present.” He smiled. “I’m turning 25 anyhow like it’s not fun after you’re 21.”

“But I’m here for it.” I whined.

“And that’s the present.” He kissed me again. “You know, I can think of one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“I love it when you wrinkle your nose in confusion.” He chuckled with amusement in his voice. “You could say yes to being my girlfriend, I mean this has been a pretty cool day… in the perfect spot.”

I acted like I had to think about it and he actually looked concerned but I couldn’t hold in the laughter and let the smile wash over my face. “Of course. Yes.”

“Whoa, really?” Astonishment.

“Really? You thought I would say no?”

“Well I wasn’t sure.” He laughed hugging me. “You sure?”

“Yes, Zack. I’m sure.”

We got food on our way back to his house, I was a bit nervous to see it but I figured it couldn’t be worse than the motel we stayed in. right? He’s right we’ve spent so much time together it’s not weird between us at all, I feel like I’ve known him my whole life. His house was beautiful, it wasn’t huge but when you live alone it doesn’t need to be.

“You can have the guest room or my room… or whatever makes you happy.” He said nervously as he unlocked his door and flipped on the light.

It was definitely Zack’s house. He had guitars everywhere. They were hanging on walls, leaning against walls with big black boxes with stickers and ZV on them… he had clothes that looked like he had just bought or designed on his counter? There were a few beers in some places but over-all it was clean and nice looking. The living room was a darker theme with skulls and deep red walls, black furniture and a big cordless flatscreen mounted onto the wall.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered. “The guys all know the passcode to my house, the beer and disorientation is from them… I had it cleaned incase you wanted to stay here.”

“It’s fine.” I said putting my hand on his arm reassuringly. “Now, let’s eat dinner and then we’ll see if we’re maybe up for a movie?”

“Sure, whatever you want.” He smiled. We sat at the bar in his kitchen, talking and laughing as we ate our food. He insisted we eat in the living room but I told him I didn’t feel comfortable that it was too nice and black would show crumbs way too well. After we ate we moved to the couch, he went and got all the pillows and blankets before popping in a random movie from his massive collection, which was mostly all horror films but I did notice some Disney and Pixar movies in there.

“What did you chose?” I asked after coming out of the bathroom after getting ready for bed. I had on flannel pants and a plain black AFI shirt complete with messy bun. He had changed into black guitar hero pajamas and a fender t-shirt.

“Fender?” I asked poking at his shirt.

“Hey, it’s not common to find a Schecter shirt.” He laughed. “My mom got it for me and I didn’t have the heart to tell her.”

“Uh huh.”

“Hey, it’s a cool shirt. Look at you anyways, Miss Murder.” He teased. “Little farm girl knows who AFI is?”

“Oh so I’m not allowed to know decent music?” I said defensively.

“Which cow showed you them? Annabelle or Otis.”

“That’s it.” I said tackling him back onto the couch. We play fought for a few seconds before we were both laughing too hard to even tickle each other anymore. When we stopped laughing I realized he was on top of me, his arms on either side of my head.

“It’s like I don’t even have control of myself when you’re around.” His voice was husky and his eyes were darker, he licked his lips before kissing me with more passion than we had ever kissed before. After a few minutes of very intense kissing he pulled away apologizing, saying that he wanted things to go slower.

“I don’t want this to burn out.” He said sitting up, brushing the hair out of my face. “I want this to last. The feelings that you’re making me feel… they’re amazing. I don’t want that to stop. And I feel like if I let that animal inside of me out, like if I let myself lose control with you that I’ll lose you.”

I didn’t completely understand, but I nodded anyways. I wasn’t afraid to love Zack.

Love? What did I know about love? Why would I think that? I had known him what a month or two? And I was thinking the word love?

Anyways, I wasn’t afraid to have feelings for Zack. He was amazing, he made me feel amazing. I’ve had boyfriends but nothing like this, of course if any of my other boyfriends made me feel the way that Zack did, I wouldn’t still have my virginity.
Face palm. I don’t like even admitting that to myself. I’m 18. What year is it? I mean I should be proud yeah.. but how embarrassing, if it ever gets to that point, is it going to be for me to tell Zack I’m a virgin….he’s 25 years old! Of course he’s had sex!

We’re getting off track.

“Zack, you don’t have to worry about scaring me off… or going too fast. I’m here, and I don’t think I’m gonna be leaving for a while.” I said kissing him again. I ran my hand under his shirt and up his chest, his mouth opened a bit to which I smiled because I was having an effect on him I’ve never had on anyone else.

“I just… I know you’re only 18. I know you’re probably…”He trailed off, but I understood. I nodded with a slight blush but he just ran his thumb across my cheek with a smile. “I just want to do all of this correctly. You’re not just some girl, you’re Bailey. My Bailey.”
“So what movie did you choose?” I smiled curling into his side, he smiled and pressed play.
To no one’s surprise he chose Rosemary’s Baby, I acted scared just so he would hold me which I’m sure was his tactic all along. He let me choose the next movie so I chose Tangled.
“Wow… Flynn looks like Brian…” I said, Zack looked mortified at the thought. This was my favorite movie, I felt a lot like Rapunzel sometimes… I felt trapped at the ranch, not because I was hostage or anything but because we lived so far from everything. I always wanted to see the city, I always wanted to be out and about but now that I’m out I’m really second guessing being away from home. Thankfully I have my very own Flynn Ryder to take care of me.

“Why do I feel like that’s you?” He laughed as she swung around the tree excitedly.

“If I could, I would.” I smiled.

He’d fallen asleep near the end, I was heavy eyed but not quite asleep. How could he sleep knowing so many cars were going by? That he had neighbors not too far away? I woke him up, scaring myself into thinking about all the things that could happen while living in the city. What if someone tried to rob us? Had he locked all the doors? His green eyes finally opened enough and long enough that I knew he was registering that I was at least trying to wake him. I cleaned up most of the stuff and started trying to get him to bed, he fought at first just wanting to stay asleep on the couch but then he finally managed to walk to the bedroom. He got two steps in before just face planting on his bed.

I stood in the doorway, not really sure if I should join him or not. He had said about a guest room, but I didn’t wanna sleep in the guest room.

He groaned and then got under the blanket, taking off his shirt. His sleepy eyes met mine and he held up the blanket, inviting me in. I smiled before crawling in, all my worries from earlier washing away.

Notes

The next chapter is...
let's just say alot of shits gonna happen. alot of OMG moments.
I just don't know if I should let the happiness continue for another day, another week... or just drop it on you now cause I can't wait. ^-^