Seeing Is Believing

I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. I was actually sitting on the couch for the first time in a few weeks. Mason was channel flipping and he happened upon the Travel Channel. And, of course, of all things, Ghost Adventures had to be on.

“I’m sorry,” he replied.

“It’s not your fault,” I replied sadly.

“For what it’s worth, I thought he would call too…He seemed to really like you.”

“I never woulda guessed he wouldn’t‘ve. Damn city boys…” I wiped my eyes.

Mason changed the cannel and moved closer to me on the couch and I cried for the umpteenth time in the past month and a half since they all left. “I’m going to do something about this, Macy,” he said. “There’s gotta be a way to get in contact with them. You’re going to have to talk to him eventually…”

“What makes you think that?”

“You’re doctor called…She told me everything.”

“I…I need to be alone,” I stood from the couch and stormed off to my room and shut the door.

***Zak’s POV***
Las Vegas, Nevada
12:00 pm

“Bro, if she means that much to you, why don’t you fly back out there?” Aaron suggested, again.

“Because it’s been too long now, she probably thinks that I was just some asshole that decided to hit it and quit it,” I replied, drinking another beer.

“How do you figure it’s too late?”

“It’s been six weeks and I haven’t called her!” When I was walking out of the airport when we got back to Vegas, I dropped my phone and the screen shattered and they couldn’t recover the contacts.

“That still doesn’t mean that it’s too late! If she means something to you, you’ll do something about it!” Aaron snapped. I looked at him with surprise, he wasn’t ever like that. “Bro, I’ve gotta get home.”

I didn’t say anything to him as he left. I sighed and hit slammed the cabinet shut. I noticed my dog, Gracie, run to the other room; she always knew when I was particularly pissed off.

***Mason’s POV***
Middlefield, Tennessee
3:00 pm

After my aunt shut herself in her bedroom—again, I decided that it was time that I did something about it. I got on Twitter and scrolled though who I was following and found Aaron Goodwin, he was following me back and I was sure that he would answer me. I used the messaging part and told him to call me, it was important and I left my phone number. I just had to was wait. It took around an hour for Aaron to actually call me.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Mason! Oh my God, I don’t know I haven’t of this! I assume you’re referring to the Zak/Macy situation.”

“I am…She’s…she’s pregnant, Aaron. I don’t know why he hasn’t called her or answered her calls, but she’s going to need him…” I didn’t want to see my cousin to grow up with one parent. Macy was great, but she would need at the very least financial support. I wasn’t even sure how she afforded all of this on just tips, plus it was Zak’s responsibly!

“She’s…what?” he asked.

“She’s pregnant. I only know because her doctor called and I picked it up.

"I don't know how I'm going to tell Zak..."

"You won't," I said quickly. "That is Macy's job. You don't tell him anything about her being pregnant."

"Can I have him call her at least? He has a really good reason for not talking to her. He shattered his phone screen and they couldn't get any of his contacts out of it..."

"Is that that truth?" I couldn't be sure, not over the phone at least. I guess it made sense, but Zak could just be having Aaron say that so that he doesn't look like an asshole.

"Yes, Mason. He's been driving himself nuts. I swear I've almost had him on a plane back there a dozen times."

"I...yeah. Have him call her," I couldn't help but think about how it had affected my loving aunt. She had been very depressed these last few weeks. "I'll text you her phone number. I can't promise that she'll pick up-she won't know the number, but he can try."

***Zak's POV***

"Hey bro, I've got something for ya," I heard Aaron say on the other line. He had literally just left my house and now he was calling me! I swore that if he brought me a plane ticket, I might literally kill him.

"What?" I snapped.

"Jeez, you would think that when somebody tells you that they've got something for you, you wouldn't bite their head off! I got you Macy's phone number."

I was at a loss for words. "H-how?" I stammered.

"Mason got a hold of me and gave it to me," he explained. "I'm texting it to you now."

"Thank you, Aaron! I owe you!"

"Let me be the best man at your wedding," he laughed and hung up. I let the comment go as I received the text from Aaron. I clicked on her number to call her.

"Hello?" she sounded positively...sad, really, really sad. Where was the playful woman that I remembered? Was this my fault? I hadn't realized that it had been a few moments until she spoke again. "Hello?"

"Macy..." I breathed.

"Z-Zak?"

"It's me, I don't know where to begin. I-"

"Let's begin with you never calling me again. Asshole." All I heard was silence. She had hung up on me. I felt stupid for expecting anything different. Macy was a smart woman and I knew what she thought had happened; that was the reason that I hadn't gotten on a plane forever ago. After a week went by, I knew that my window was gone and it took the damn phone company that long to tell me that they couldn't recover my contacts! Instead of giving up, I called her again.

"Please just let me explain..." I didn't know what it was, but she didn't hang up.

"You have thirty seconds."

I quickly ran through the story about my phone shattering at the airport and that I hated myself for not calling her. "Forgive me Macy, please...I..." I trailed off and waited for the click of the phone, but it never came. She didn't hang up on me.

"Zak, I'm pregnant," she blurted out. "I would just stop talking to you but I can't..." I could hear the pain in her tone, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything. I didn't know how to respond to that, how could I? I didn't have time to have a kid right now. I wanted to just focus on the show, it had just gotten started!

"You're..."

"Look, if you don't want anything to do with the baby, then tell me now and I'll tell it good things about you. We can just be done with the whole situation. It's not like I don't know how to raise a child," her tone was harsh, but I couldn't blame her. But the thing was, I didn't want to just forget about my kid, it was my job to take care of it, no matter what.

"I don't want that, Macy. If I'm going to be a father, I'm going to be a father. I will take care of my child."

"Then it looks like we've got a lot to figure out..."

"I guess we do," I agreed. "Would you rather me fly out there or-?"

"We can just talk over the phone..."

"Who's going to live where?" I asked, that was the first question on my mind. I wanted to stay in Vegas, but I knew that she would want to stay in Middlefield.

"I don't know. And, don't you travel most of the year anyway?" she added.

"Shit. I'm off for the next three months, though..."

"That won't do us much good...how many months do you film?"

"Off and on for nine."

"This isn't going to work," I heard her words begin to get muffled, like she was holding her face against a pillow.

"It will because it has to."