Little Runaway

"There's a place on the boardwalk we can go to," Zacky mentioned, giving Brittney's hand a small squeeze. He wasn't so sure that he wanted to go anywhere else because they would be in and out here, not like a sit down restaurant that would take an hour or two. They would run into more people that recognized him and while people were respectful for the most part, Zacky was hoping that they could avoid that all together at the small spot on the boardwalk.

It wasn't more than a few minutes later before Zacky had parked and ushered Brittney out of the car. "I think I might get a funnel cake sundae," he mentioned after a moment, scrunching his face a bit. "Been way too damn long since I had one," he said, chuckling. "I know it sounds like a lot but I mean.. when you see it, you'll just ask yourself: why not?" Zacky led the way toward the small shop, motioning her inside in front of him

Brittney nodded when Zacky mentioned the place on the boardwalk. He knew this town much better than she did so she would trust his choice. When the car came to a stop, Brittney was quick to slip out, walking around to meet Zacky at the front. She followed Zacky into the small shop, taking his hand as they approached the counter. "Funnel cake sundae sounds good," Brittney said. "I love funnel cakes. I haven't had one since I was little but I remember that they were really good. And adding ice cream? Even better."

Brittney glanced up at the menu, trying to decide what she wanted to order. She wasn't particularly hungry but after a quick scan, something stuck out to her. "I think I'll get the salted caramel sundae," she said. "I bet that'll be good." Brittney gave her order to the teenage girl behind the counter and stepped back to let Zacky order and pay. She didn't think it would take too long to prepare the sundaes so she stood next to the counter, watching them work behind the counter.

Zacky nodded at Brittney's choice, his hand resting on her lower back. "I'm sure it will be," he agreed with a small nod of his head. When the young girl's attention turned to him, Zacky took a small step forward and placed his order for a banana split funnel cake sundae. After he paid, Zacky stepped off to the side with Brittney to wait for them to be made. It didn't take more than a minute or so before Brittney's was handed to her and another few moments before Zacky received his.

Leading her over to a small table in the corner, Zacky was quick to sit down and dig into his sundae. He looked up after a few moments and scooped up a bit of the banana, ice cream, and funnel cake before holding it out to Brittney. "Did you want to try it?" Zacky offered, raising an eyebrow.

Brittney smiled and thanked the girl behind the counter when she handed her the sundae. She stood by until Zacky had his and then followed him over to a table in the corner. Once they were seated, she wasted no time in getting a taste of her sundae, which she was happy to discover tasted as good as she'd hoped it would. Brittney looked up when she heard Zacky speaking to her, smiling when she saw that he was offering her a bite of his ice cream. "Sure," she said, nodding her head. She took the bite of ice cream from Zacky's spoon, making a thoughtful face as she mulled over the flavors.

"I'm not crazy about the banana," Brittney said. "But everything else is amazing." She scooped a little of her ice cream onto her spoon and offered it up to Zacky. "Here, try mine. It's really good." She held out the spoon until Zacky had taken the bite and then pulled back. She almost couldn't believe how good of a day today had been. She could only hope that things stayed this way, that Zacky continued to mellow out the longer they were home and away from the stress of touring and being on the road.

"Yeah, I know. It's a weird combination..." Zacky trailed off, letting out a laugh as he shrugged his shoulders. He tilted his head to the side, glancing down to his sundae and taking a quick bite. He looked back up when Brittney offered him a bite of her sundae. He offered her a lopsided grin as he leaned forward, taking the offered bite. Taking a moment to consider it, Zacky nodded slightly. "It's good. I'm usually skeptical because I've had some bad caramel that just tastes like garbage before..." he trailed off, his face scrunching a bit at the memories.

It wasn't more than ten minutes before he had finished his sundae. Zacky settled back in his seat, studying Brittney for a moment. She still had a bit of hers left to finish so he was more than a bit relieved when she finally finished. He wanted to head home, he was getting a bit tired admittedly. "Come on. I want to get home before it gets dark so we can settle in," he murmured, dropped his plate by the garbage bin, in the specified bin. Zacky led the way out of the place, leading the way home.

Brittney was normally a slow eater when it came to ice cream but she was getting the sense that once Zacky was finished with his ice cream, he was ready to go. She ate as quickly as she could without giving herself a brain freeze, grabbing her trash as she got to her feet. She followed Zacky out of the little shop, dropping her empty bowl in the garbage on the way out. She climbed into the car and buckled her seatbelt, reaching for Zacky's hand once he'd pulled out of the parking lot. It was a short drive back to the house so she didn't bother with the radio, deciding to just ride in silence.

Once they were home, Brittney headed upstairs to change into something comfortable. Since they were just going to hang out at home for the rest of the evening, she decided on a pair of sweatpants and a shirt of Zacky's she pulled from the pile of clean laundry. And speaking of laundry, it probably wouldn't hurt for her to do a load or two. "Do you have anything else you want me to toss in?" Brittney asked as she emerged downstairs. "I'm going to start a load of laundry before I sit down and get comfortable."

Zacky had decided to drop down onto the couch when they got home, figuring that Brittney would be upstairs to change. He sat, flipping through the channels on the television as anger brewed in the pit of his stomach. He'd just shown Brittney a wonderful day, or at least he thought he had, and she wasn't even caring to repay the favor. It seemed like she was preparing to simply lay back and not contribute anything.

His anger only continued to grow, his eyes narrowing as Brittney appeared from the stairs. Zacky huffed, grounding his teeth together for a moment before he decided to speak. "The sheets need to be changed," he declared, nodding toward the stairs that she had just come down. ""There's going to be spare sheets in the closet across from the room." The sheets didn't really need to be changed but the idea of Brittney changing the sheets was enough to help calm the brewing anger in him.

The sudden change in Zacky's demeanor when she came downstairs caught Brittney off guard. She immediately started to wrack her brain, trying to figure out what she possibly could have done to make him angry. "I-I'll do that," Brittney stammered. She darted back upstairs, going to the master bedroom to pull the sheets from the bed. That alone would be one load of laundry but since there was a spare set, Brittney would save that for after she'd done the load of actual clothes.

She made quick work of putting the spare set of sheets on the bed, gathering up as many dirty clothes as she could before she went down to the laundry room. Brittney had originally intended to relax on the couch once she's started on the laundry but Zacky's sudden hostility had her rethinking those plans. So instead, she decided to set about doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen a little.

Zacky's anger eased a bit when Brittney retreated back up the stairs, his eyes following her feet as they disappeared up them. He let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair as he did his best to distract himself. Logically, he knew he was being... a bit ridiculous. The sheets were clean and didn't really need to be cleaned but he wanted to feel like Brittney was attempting to earn her keep around here. They'd only been home for a bit but still, Zacky felt like she needed to do a bit more around the house. Sweep, mop, dust, the laundry, dishes, etc. There was no reason that he should ever really have to lift a finger when he provided so much for her. She was never going to ever have to worry about anything, ever again.

He pushed to his feet, moving into the kitchen to grab another beer. Zacky wasn't sure how long it was going to take Brittney to switch the sheets over and start the laundry so he wasn't too concerned about waiting for her to start the movie that he had picked out.

Brittney had just started on the dishes in the sink when she heard Zacky come into the kitchen. Even as he walked over to the fridge she kept her eyes on the task in front of her, almost scared to make eye contact with him. He was already angry with her, she didn't want to make it any worse. Because what if he decided to kick her out of his home? Then where would she go?

When she was finished with the dishes, Brittney moved on to cleaning the kitchen. It wasn't too terrible in here so she gave the counters a quick wipe with a clean rag before she went to grab the broom and when she was finished with that, the mop. When she thought the kitchen would be to Zacky's satisfaction, she went to find him in the living room.

'Is...Is there anything else you need me to do?" Brittney stammered, keeping her gaze on the floor.

Zacky's eyes narrowed as he fixed Brittney's form with an accusatory glare. He wasn't quite sure why he was as angry as he was with her but try as hard as he might, it seemed like there was no shaking the feeling. He grunted, twisting and disappearing back into the living room. At least Brittney was smart enough to realize that he wasn't all that keen on having her in the same room as him so she continued to work on household chores.

He'd relaxed, at least a it while sitting in the living with the television running. His frame tensed when Brittney reappeared but he didn't bother to look up, his grip tightening around the bottle in his hand.

"No," Zacky finally answered with a huff, not moving his eyes. "Grab me another beer before you come back in here. Got it?"

Brittney couldn't help but flinch at Zacky's harsh tone. She didn't understand why he was still upset with her but she knew better than to ask about it. Her best option was to remain silent and do what Zacky asked of her. "Yeah...Yeah, okay, I got it," Brittney stammered out. She hurried back into the kitchen to grab a beer for Zacky, making sure to grab the coldest one she could find.

Brittney offered the beer wordlessly to Zacky before taking a step back, standing somewhat awkwardly next to the end of the couch. She wasn't entirely sure what to do at this point. If she sat down next to him on the couch, would Zacky think she was being clingy and annoying? Or if she went upstairs to lay down, would he think she was being lazy? It seemed like there was no way to know for sure and right now Brittney was scared to do anything that might make Zacky any more angry.

Zacky tossed back a long swig of the cold beer in his hand, glancing up to Brittney with a scowl as he lowered the bottle from his lips. Hadn't he just told her to come back in there? To him, it was obvious that he wanted her to sit down and at least try to relax. "Would you sit down already? Standing there, staring at the ground isn't going to do anything but make me anxious," Zacky pointed out with a huff, rolling his eyes as he turned his attention back to the television.

Quite frankly, Zacky didn't give a damn if Brittney sat down like he'd invited her to or if she disappeared upstairs. So long as she stopped standing there awkwardly awaiting instructions from him. He picked up the remote, quickly fast forwarding through the commercials since he'd saved the movie to his cable box.

Brittney felt her heart drop just a little bit more when Zacky looked at her with a scowl. She'd obviously chosen the wrong course of action. When Zacky told her to sit down, she quickly dropped down onto the couch, although she couldn't relax. It was still more than obvious that Zacky was still in a foul mood and that kept Brittney on edge.

It almost reminded her of the way she'd been at her home before, always on guard for the next attack. She liked to think that Zacky would never hurt her the way her parents had, but after seeing the way he'd been with Mitch on the tour, she couldn't be so sure. All she could do was stay on his good side and hope for the best.

Zacky exhaled slowly, only managing to relax slightly when Brittney finally sat down. He couldn't understand why she had seemingly gotten so.. so stupid. It seemed like she had suddenly begun needing his every instruction to do the simplest of tasks and that was more than a bit annoying to him. He didn't understand why, only assuming that it was Brittney who was at fault. Not him.

The movie ended and Zacky looked up finally, fixing Brittney with a heavy glare. "I'm going upstairs," he grumbled,d eciding to leave what Brittney did up to her. If she wanted to come with him, she was more than able to.

Brittney was eventually able to relax but she was tense enough that she was sure it was obvious to Zacky. She couldn't help herself. She just felt so on-edge around Zacky today and she was afraid of having him lash out at her again. It wasn't long before the movie ended and Brittney barely caught what Zacky grumbled at her, her face immediately falling.

"Oh...okay," Brittney said. She got the idea that Zacky didn't really want her around so while Zacky headed upstairs, she lingered in the living room. She took a few minutes to remove the sheets from the dryer, folding them and putting them away in the linen closet before she settled back on the couch. She curled up on the couch, where she eventually fell into a fitful sleep.

Zacky settled down on the bed and it wasn't too long before he drifted off to sleep, not waking until the next morning. Rolling out of bed, Zacky headed into the bathroom to relieve himself before making his way downstairs. Scoffing when he noticed Brittney on the couch, he turned into the kitchen. He was quick to put together a pancake mix, tossing chocolate chips in them because he decided that he wanted to.

He had started a pot of coffee, letting out a groan as he finally poured a mug and was able to take a sip while the first pancake was cooking. Zacky didn't even bat an eye when he heard the telltale sounds of Brittney waking up - he was still mildly annoyed that she'd stayed downstairs throughout the entire night. Didn't she want to spend time with him?

Brittney hadn't meant to fall asleep downstairs but when she woke up the next morning on the couch, she realized that was what had happened. She'd gotten the idea that Zacky hadn't wanted her around last night, anyway, so she hoped he wouldn't be too upset that she hadn't gone upstairs to bed. Speaking of Zacky, Brittney could hear him moving around in the kitchen. He must be cooking something because it smelled fantastic but she wasn't going to assume that he'd made any for her and she didn't dare ask. She was honestly a bit nervous about even going into the kitchen with Zacky but she was sure that continuing to avoid him would only worsen the situation.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm her nerves, Brittney pushed to her feet and went into the kitchen where Zacky was currently standing, drinking from a mug of coffee as he watched what Brittney now knew was a pancake cook on the stove. It only took a single glance for Brittney to realize that Zacky was still irritated and her first instinct was to back away but remembering how irritated that had made him last night she decided to try a different tactic. "Did you um, did you sleep well last night?" Brittney asked, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt.

Zacky dropped the third pancake that he had made on top of the other two, satisfied with the number he'd made. He reached forward, flicking off the burner before he set about buttering his pancakes. Of course he had pure maple syrup, there was no other way to really eat pancakes as far as he was concerned. Dropping the plate down by the breakfast bar, Zacky grunted when Brittney finally spoke to him. He didn't say anything initially, sliding onto the stool before he gave a onesided shrug of his shoulders.

"Slept fine," he muttered, stabbing his fork into the pile of the pancakes. "There's batter left if you're hungry," he said, motioning vaguely with the end of his fork. "Else you can find something else to eat if you don't want pancakes," he said, looking up to Brittney finally. Zacky's heart softened slightly, his eyes roaming her features before he returned his attention back to the food in front of him.

Brittney honestly wasn't sure what to say so she settled simply for silence, nodding as she moved over to the counter. She wasn't all that hungry at the moment but she knew she would regret not eating later. And she had an irrational fear that turning down Zacky's offer would make him more irritated than she was sure he still was. Brittney made herself a small pancake, taking the time to drizzle a bit of syrup over the top before she joined Zacky at the table.

"So uh, what are the plans for today?" she asked, just wanting to break the silence. "I'm sure you just want to relax after being on the road for so long." Brittney would go along with whatever Zacky wanted to do, if only to keep some sort of peace. It was the same sort of rhythm she'd been in back at home, just coasting along hoping she didn't get knocked under by a wave. And oddly enough, she wanted to keep Zacky happy even when he was being cruel to her. If she could even really consider his behavior cruel. She'd pissed him off and he'd reacted.