California Girl's

“Annabelle!” Grayson shouted up the stairs. “I’m going to be late for work if you don’t hurry up!”

“One second!” The little girl yelled.

Grayson sighed and pushed her wavy bangs from in front of her eyes. The last couple weeks had been particularly trying for her and she wasn’t sure how much more she could handle.

At this point she wasn’t sure if Zack was mad at her or not based on the few phone calls they had shared recently. She really didn’t blame him if he was mad thought.

”I just wish I would have known about this and I wouldn’t have bough the tickets.” Grayson sighed into the phone.

“Grayson, I’m sorry.” Zack sighed. “I’ll pay you back for my ticket.”

“That’s not the point,” Grayson sighed once again.

“Listen Grayson,” Zack started his voice taking on a sharp tone that Grayson wasn’t use to. “This is my job.”

“I understand that-“ Grayson started.

“I don’t think you do.” Zack interrupted her. “If I could change it I would, but this is my life. Things get changed and added all the time.”

Grayson was practically holding her breath to try to stop herself from crying. He was angry at her and that was the last thing she wanted.

“I really thought you would understand that and accept the fact that I won’t always be around. I know the distance is hard, but I figured we’d make it work.”

“I’m sorry,” She breathed out quietly as she heard him sigh on the other end of the phone.

“I have to go.” He spoke softly to his near tears girlfriend. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She only got out half her sentence before he ended the call.

Grayson would admit that when he first told her he couldn’t come to New York with her she was angry and didn’t even consider that it was his job; something that he loved to do.

She forgot at times that the four boys she had grown to know very well have thousands of fans. From what she learned the boys loved there fans and would do almost anything for them, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Zack was so committed to what he did.

After thinking it over for a little over a week she accepted it, but from Zack’s point of view it didn’t seem like that. They had only talked once since that phone call where he had pretty much hung up on her and it didn’t go well.

It was a simple ‘how are you’? ‘Good, you?’ Boring conversation that had never occurred between the two before. The only reassurance she had was that he still said ‘I love you’ at the end. She knew him well enough to know the word ‘love’ wasn’t used casually for him and that he did mean it and that gave her at least some hope.

Once Annabelle was finally ready for daycare, which she started to attend when school ended; Grayson drove her there listening to All Time Low at the little girl’s request. Hearing Zack voice, which complemented Alex’s so well, only brought down her mood even more.

When Grayson finally arrived at work she was already ready to go straight back home. To top it all off, the place was packed with patients and one of the other nurses called in sick so she had twice the work.

So when her break finally came she ran for the doors and didn’t look back. She decided that she needed to talk to Zack because he was the only thing that could calm her down.

With shaky fingers she dialed the familiar numbers and hit the ‘send’ button, bringing the phone up to her ear. It rang three times before she heard his voice.

“Hello?” Zack asked.

For some reason Grayson didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t spoken with him in almost a week and she was nervous.

“Baby?” He asked softly, which snapped Grayson out of her trance.

“Hi Zacky,” She mumbled as she sat down on the curb outside the hospital.

“Hi Gracie,” Zack replied. “Are you okay?”

Grayson contemplated lying to him, tell him she was completely fine, but decided against it because Zack was the only one could fix it. “Not really. I miss you.”

“I miss you too.” Zack cooed. “I’ll see you in just over two weeks.”

It would have only been a week had they not added the in-stores, but Grayson didn’t say anything about that.

“I’m sorry.” Grayson spit out quickly.

Zack knew what she was apologizing for and of course he forgave her. This was the first time in there relationship Zack had to go away on tour and he didn’t expect Grayson to fully understand right off the bat. But she seemed to really be beating herself up over making him feel like she blamed him for not being able to come to New York with them and he didn’t want her to feel like that.

“It’s okay Gracie,” Zack reassured her. “I’m sorry, too.”

“I just – this is all new to me and being away from you is really hard, but I understand that you are doing what you love and making all those kids so happy. I just hope it gets easier.”

“It probably won’t,” Zack answered honestly. “But you can come out and see me anytime, I would fly you out anytime, just ask. Especially now that Belle’s on summer vacation you guys could even come over to Europe with us for a week or something.”

“Really?” Grayson asked with a large smile on her face.

“Of course,” Zack confirmed. “Yes, being away from you is really difficult, but there’s always ways to make it better.”

“I love you,” Grayson said softly.

“I love you, too.” Zack chuckled.

The rest of the day didn’t seem all that bad after her phone call with Zack. And when she got home with Annabelle she listened intently, something she hadn’t been doing lately, as the little girl went into detail about all the fun things she got to do at daycare that day.

“Want to go get ice-cream?” Grayson asked and the five year olds face lit up and she shook her head ‘yes’ quickly. Grayson smiled as they walked out of the door quickly and down the street to a little ice-cream parlor Zack had taken her to once.