In My Dreams It's Me And You

Early the next morning, I walked up to Zack's bunk and started pulling my bags out from underneath it. "Babe, what are you doing?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

Glaring daggers at him, I replied, "Don't fucking 'babe' me, Zack. I don't even want to see your face right now, so shut the fuck up and go back to sleep."

My tone woke him up faster than any cup of coffee ever would. "What the hell are you talking about? What's going on, Nat?" he asked me, sitting up in his bed. When he saw that I had all my bags out from underneath the bed he freaked out. "What are you doing? Are you leaving tour?"

I scoffed and grabbed a pair of underwear off the bed. "I'm not leaving tour, but I'm leaving your dumb ass, that's for sure," I answered.

Finally getting frustrated with my lack of complete answers, Zack grabbed my arm. "Natalie, would you just stop and answer me? What the fuck is going on?" he demanded.

Yanking my arm back, I stood up and placed my hands on my hips. "I am leaving you because I saw you last night with some little skank you picked up. I saw you bring her back to the bus, and I'm not stupid. I made it known when I got here that I don't like being fucked with, and that includes being cheated on. Therefore, I'm leaving you. End of story," I explained and picked up some of my bags.

Zack jumped out of his bed and grabbed on to my wrist. "Natalie, wait - "

"Don't fucking touch me again," I growled and pulled my arm back, "or I will make it so you can never cheat on another girl again."

"I can explain, Nat," Zack said while letting go of my hand. "Please, just let me explain."

"Explain what, Zack?" I asked, dropping my bags and rounding on him. This boy had chosen the wrong girl to fuck with. "How you weren't drunk when you found that slut and how you weren't thinking of me when you fucked her? I don't know if you think I'm stupid or what, but I don't need that explained to me."

Zack sighed and hung his head. "I'm so sorry, Nat. I don't know what I was thinking. But please, please don't end things between us. I made a mistake and I know that, but you need to understand that I will never do it again," he pleaded.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, right. Do you know how many men say that, and then what do they do? They go right back out and cheat on their girlfriends and wives. I won't go through that."

"This is all because of Brian, isn't it?" Zack suddenly asked.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I asked incredulously. "You think I'm ending this relationship because I have a thing for Brian? You're the one who cheated, Zack!"

"You might not have cheated on me, but you would have," he defended. "So you're just using this as an excuse to get out of a relationship with me. That's always how it works. And you wanna know what happens next? Brian gets sick of you and finds another girl."

I shook my head in disbelief and gave Zack a hard stare that made him take a step back. If he thought he had seen me go off before when Matt and I fought, he was mistaken. Zack was about to have the complete Sanders temper unleashed on him. "How fucking dare you," I hissed, taking a step forward. "You think I'm leaving you for Brian? Well, if I wanted Brian, I would have fucking chosen him over you in the first place, you jackass!" I screamed and Zack flinched. I was far from done, though. "I can't believe you, Zack. From the very beginning, everyone told me that you were just a player, that you would just use me for a good fuck. You told me, though, that you had changed, and you weren't like that anymore. I fucking trusted you, Zack. I trusted you when you said you genuinely liked me and that you wanted our relationship to work. I trusted you when you told me that you were better for me than Brian was. I know now that I was dead wrong to trust anything you ever said to me. And you know what else I know now? Maybe you were wrong, and Brian is better for me. I'm not breaking up with you for him, but if he's even a tiny bit different than you, then you may well have lost yet another girl to Brian. And all because you couldn't keep it in your pants."

"Natalie, I'm sorry," he cried and held my wrist yet again.

"Fuck you, Zack," I replied and punched him in the face.

I didn't look back at Zack, who was now groaning in pain, as I grabbed my bags and made my way towards the last of the bunks. I set my bags down outside the last one and then pulled the privacy curtain back before crawling into it and curling up next to the person inside.

"Nat? What are you doing here?" Brian asked tiredly, pulling me against his chest.

I wrapped my arms around his torso and buried my face in his neck. "I need a bunk to stay in, and I thought I might be welcome here."

Brian was silent as he held on to me. "You broke up with him." It was more of him stating it than asking me if I had.

"I don't want to talk about it. Just hold me, okay? Things are going to get bad today, and I want at least some sleep before everything blows up," I mumbled and pushed myself in closer to Brian.

"YOU WHAT?!?!" Matt shouted, making everyone on the bus jump. Having seen Zack's black eye (which was a result of me punching him that morning), Matt asked what had happened. Well, now he knew the whole story and needless to say, he wasn't very happy. "You fucking cheated on her? Natalie? You cheated on Natalie? My cousin?"

Zack was standing across the living area from Matt, looking quite pale except for the huge bruise over his left eye. Jimmy and Johnny were sitting at the miniature table we had while I was sat on the couch with Val on my left, hugging me from the side. Brian was sat on my right, keeping an appropriate distance between us, although from his body language I could tell he wanted to be doing the same as Val.

"It was an accident, Matt," Zack defended, his barely noticeable lisp being brought out by his fear.

Matt's eyes widened and he looked like he wanted to hit Zack something. "An accident? You don't fucking cheat on somebody by accident, Zack. And don't you dare claim you were drunk, I know you weren't. So since it wasn't an accident, and you weren't drunk, tell me: why did you cheat on my cousin?"

"I don't know," he whispered, now looking down at the floor.

"I told you when she first got here, not to fuck with her. Then when you two decided to be a couple, I went along with it because she really liked you. But I told you, Zack, not to hurt her. And now look what you've fucking done. She might not be crying, but she's hurting, Zack. Because of you," Matt said, seemingly calming down a little bit.

Zack's head shot up and anger was present in his features. "Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I know how much I've hurt her, and how bad I've fucked up? I never meant to hurt her, Matt. It was a stupid, horrible mistake, and I regret it more than anything I've ever done wrong in my life," he shot out.

"Then why did you fucking do it?" Brian asked, jumping up from his spot and clenching his fists.

Matt looked over at him and said, "Stay out of this, Haner. It isn't your business."

"This isn't my business?" he asked, his voice getting louder. "You and I both knew this was coming, Matt. We knew he was going to hurt her at some point, and I told you that when it happened, I wasn't going to stand by and let it go unnoticed."

"Now isn't the time, Brian," Matt replied coolly. "I know how you feel about this whole situation, but right now just isn't the time, okay?"

Wait a minute, what? Brian and Matt have talked about my relationship with Zack? And what exactly does Matt know about Brian's feeling about our relationship? Oh God, I swear if he told Matt about him and I -

"Brian, just sit down," Val urged and motioned for him to sit next to me. "We can talk about it later." Is Val in on this too? Geez, why not Jimmy and Johnny, too?

Sending a murderous glare to Zack, Brian dropped down onto the couch next to me and slung his arm over my shoulders across the back. I could literally feel how tense he was, and I knew it was taking a lot of self-control for him not to jump up from the couch again and lunge at Zack.

Matt nodded at Brian once he was seated and turned back to Zack, whose face was showing both remorse and anger. "Now normally, I would have beaten your ass like I did to Brian when he called Natalie a bitch, but it looks to me as though she's already did at least a little bit of that for me," he stated and Jimmy snickered on the sidelines. He shut up when both Matt and Zack glared at him. "You're one of my best friends, Zack, and you have been since high school. But you've hurt someone I care about, and I can't let you get away with that."

"So hit me," Zack interjected. "You could never hurt me enough to make up for what I've done to Nat. Besides, I deserve it."

Shaking his head, Matt turned to me. "It's up to you, Nat. I won't hurt him if you don't want me to."

It was up to me? Why was this my decision? Any other time, Matt would have just beat the living shit out of him and then asked questions later. Looking over to Zack, I could see that he was expecting me to OK his ass-kicking. Instead, I shook my head. "Don't," I said. "He's not worth it. And besides that, we don't want him in the hospital. A black eye is good enough."

Respecting my decision, Matt nodded his head. "Okay. You got lucky this time, Zack. You better be thankful; it could have been a lot worse."

"I know that," he mumbled in response.

Zack sauntered off to the bunks once we were done and although he had left, there was still tension in the room. Matt took one look at Brian, whose arm was still in the place it landed in when he sat down, and told him to follow him. They left the bus shortly after and it was just me, Val, Jimmy, and Johnny in the living area.

"So are you okay, Nat?" Johnny asked, breaking the silence.

I met his hazel eyes and gave him a sad smile. "I guess so. I just should have seen it coming, though," I explained. "Everyone warned me."

"It wasn't your fault, hun," Val cut in. "You probably couldn't have stopped it even if you tried. That's just how Zack is."

"I just... I don't know... I thought...." I tried to say, and Jimmy finished for me.

"You thought you were different," he said. "So did all of us. It seemed like he really liked you. In fact, I think he still does, he just made a mistake. We all do at some point."

I let the first tear of many fall. "But he promised he wouldn't do that to me," I whispered, letting Val wrap her arms around me as I started to cry. I had promised myself I wouldn't cry over Zack. He had hurt me, and he wasn't worth my tears. But I couldn't stop myself once I started, and Val rocked me back and forth and whispered comforting things in my ear while Jimmy and Johnny went to talk to Zack.

Throughout the hour and a half that I cried on Val's shoulder, Matt and Brian didn't come back. I couldn't help but wonder what they were doing, and what exactly they were talking about.