The Art of Subconscious Illusion

Chapter Five.

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Chapter Five.

Waking up with a hangover and puking was the last way I wanted to start my day. It was nine twenty seven in the morning and my phone was dead. I booked it to the bathroom, throwing up the contents in my stomach grumbling angrily from the terrible amount of sleep I had gotten. Weird dreams plagued my dreams, dreams of Zacky meeting my father and then having to watch them duke it out from anger. It went on from there with my adopted family telling me how they should have gotten a different child than myself because I was an ungrateful bitch. Then Zacky was my shoulder to cry on, which quickly turned to him kissing me and I responded by kissing him back. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was giving me as I brushed my teeth and got some aspirin and water.

There was still an hour and a half before we had to leave, so I went and plugged my phone in and began throwing things into my duffel bag. I estimated two or three bags total, putting a weeks worth of clothes, bathing suit, beach towel, toothbrush and paste, waiting to put some of my other stuff in there until I got dressed for the day and ready. I changed into a red v-neck Motley Crue shirt, black skinny jeans, black flats and put my hair into a bun.

I turned on my phone, finding a couple text messages from Zacky.

Hey, hope you’re feeling ok after a long night of drinking, you sounded so smashed when you called...I got a little worried.

I had called him? Oh dear god, what had I said? What if I made a fool of myself? Every nerve in my body was on high alert as I clicked over to the next message.

Figured I should let you know that there is going to be a party tonight, was wondering if you and your friends would like to come booze and food shopping with me an hour after you get here? Oh, sent you my address and feel free to call me if you get lost. Excited to see you!

I felt a blush overwhelm my face, looking up just as Rachel was going to use the bathroom, holding her head as well. Good to know that I wasn’t the only one that hit the bottle too hard, which meant that we all were going to be pretty grumpy. Melanie came out of her bedroom next, cursing at Rachel for stealing the bathroom once again. She made her way into my room, sitting on the bed next to me and I smiled at her.

“You disappeared on Sunday Funday, where did you go dude?” she asked me, laying her head onto my shoulder as she laid down on her stomach.

“Apparently I came in here and drunk called Zacky…” I stated sending him a text message to let him know that I had gotten his text messages along with his email, adding in that I couldn’t remember anything from the conversation and that I was feeling alright for how much that I had drank.

“Oh god, I wonder how that went...did he tell you what you said?” she asked, her eyes wide from the news that I had just told her. I shook my head no, leaning my head against hers as my phone started vibrating from an incoming text message. I opened it up, eager to see if he would inform me of what I had said.

I’m sorry that you’re not feeling all that great, I could try and find something for you to help you feel better. As for what you had said, that is for me to know and for you to slowly and surely find out at different points this week.

“Apparently he isn’t going to tell me what I said until I’m there and it will be in small intervals..well that is some crazy bullshit if I have ever heard it before.” I muttered, glaring at my phone wishing it was the man himself. “Speaking of some crazy bullshit...I had a pretty fucked up dream.”

“Dream? What did you dream about?” she asked me and I explained it to her and she sat there for a moment when I was finished explaining with this questioning look on her face.

“Wow dude! That’s some messed up shit.” she stated and I nodded. “Maybe...maybe Zacky is going to be your rock in the future. Or maybe subconsciously you want him to be. Or it could have something to do with confronting him about his bullying you and your mind is trying to tell you now that you have faced half of the pain from your past, you should confront your family for the other half of it. I don’t know. It could have several different meanings. Or it could just be complete shit, who knows.” She tried to analyze my dream and it sort of made sense the way she was thinking of it.

“Yeah...who knows. Do you think I’m doing the right thing here? Should I even give Zacky the time of day after what he did?” I asked her, questioning this whole thing.

“Well, if you ask me, I’ve always believed in second chances. Just see where this goes and if things regress, we’ll cut off all ties and walk away. You know we’re coming for you right? Just know you have friends to back you up.” she smiled genuinely at me and her eyes bugged out when she heard Rachel come out of the bathroom and she booked it out of my room. Rachel came into my room and replaced Melanie on my bed.

“Morning. How are you feeling?” she asked me, grabbing one of my fluffy pillows and cuddled up to it, hugging it to her chest as she rested her chin on it.

“Like I got hit by a semi, I either need to stop drinking completely or drink more in order to not have hangovers all the time.” I stated, answering Zacky back as I told him that he was a butthead. She chuckled, looking at my packed bags and her eyes widened.

“Damn, I probably should get my shit together and get it down in the car. Are we taking yours?” she asked curiously and I nodded, seeing her stand up. “Alright, we definitely should hit the road once Mel gets out of the shower and her stuff together.”

“You’re probably right, it’s getting to be that time and apparently there is going to be a house party tonight...that should be quite interesting. I’ll meet you downstairs if you’d like? Help you put your stuff into my car once you get done with that.” I stated, seeing her nod as she went to her room. Time to get down to business!

*********************************

It was about a quarter after twelve when we hit the road and almost one forty when we finally got to Zacky’s. From the look of it, no one was home and I bit my lip as I went up to the door, using the doorbell. The sound of dogs barking and someone yelling as the door opened, revealing Zacky who was in a pair of swimming trunks and was dripping wet.

“Oh hey, sorry for greeting you like this...I got bored while I was waiting, practiced and got overheated so took a dip in the pool.” he explained, shaking his head slightly and I ended up getting splashed in the face by water. “Oh sorry about that!”

“It’s fine, do you think you could help us with bringing stuff in? We kinda went overboard with blankets and pillows.” I laughed, smiling at him shyly and watched as he grinned at me.

“Well, that is what I’m here for.” He explained, looking over his shoulder, “Majesty, Ichabod, I will be right back, ok?” He told his puppies before I let him past me and he shut the door to the house. He headed over to my Buick and greeted Melanie and Rachel, grabbing a few bags from the trunk and I for some reason I just spaced and he was already passing me to the door again he looked at me and stopped at the door. “Are you alright? You look a little tired. Why don’t you come in and make yourself comfortable. I got this.” he offered and opened the door for me. I just nodded, not even arguing since I really didn’t want to bring stuff in at the moment. I still felt like shit.

I was greeted immediately by two dogs one being what looked like an adorable mixture of poodle and black lab and the other was a gorgeous grey great dane and I about fell over when both of them jumped up on me… actually that’s a lie, I did fall over when they jumped on me. I let out an eep and landed on my ass and they both attacked my face with love.

“Ichabod! Majesty! Down, now!” the dogs whined slightly and got off of me, coming over to their master and he put down my bags on the couch. He petted them for a moment and then came over to help me get up off the floor. “Sorry about that. They can be a little overly enthusiastic at times.” he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck nervously as Melanie and Rachel finally made their way inside.

“They are absolutely adorable.” I smile at him, Mel and Rach grinning at the two of us and I cleared my throat. “So, lead the way to our humble abode of the week.” I stated, seeing him pick up my bags once more and I picked up all the blankets and pillows.

“Like I said, it’s not much, but it’s made for extra guests especially after parties cause I don’t let people drive home if they get overly fucked up.” he explains as we head downstairs, in complete darkness and he finally flips on the light. They flickered for a second and turned on, illuminating the whole place and our mouths dropped open at the sight.

There was a black sectional couch, a thirty-two inch flat screen tv with multiple gaming consoles, some workout equipment, a pool table, a bar and kitchen and three rooms lined up along the back room. The doors were color coded red, blue and purple which made me curious if the inside followed that same scheme. There was also a giant bathroom on the right of the stairs, with a bathtub and shower combo and a double sink. He set my stuff down next to the couch and we followed suit, while I put the blankets and pillows down on the couch.

“Zacky, this is better than our own apartment…” Melanie spoke up and he turned around finally, to see our looks of utter shock.

“It’s really not all that bad.” He states, handing each of us a color coded key attached to a chain. “I would say lock your rooms, that’s normally what I do with anything important when it comes to big parties here. Keep them on your person at all times.” he explains smiling at all of us, “I’ll be upstairs so you girls can set up your rooms and get ready to go to the store.” With that, he went upstairs leaving us to investigate the rooms that we were assigned. I was given red, Mel got blue and Rach got purple...it was like he knew what our favorite colors were without asking.

We checked out the rooms and set up our things, each of them was king sized bed, a closet and dresser. My guess had been correct when I said that it would be matching color scheme, which I had no problem with. I set up my blankets and pillows on the bed, letting myself rest a little more before I walked upstairs before the others. The kitchen was a very modern style that was gold and red and was attached to the dining room that was white and blue.

“Feeling any better?” Zacky’s voice asked from behind me, causing me to jump and look at him, smiling softly.

“As good as I’ll ever be, thanks for asking and the terrible part about it is that I took some aspirin and it’s not doing much on the helping it go away.” I stated and watched as he went over to the fridge and got something out, pouring it into a glass before he came over and gave it to me. “What is it?”

“It’s my special hangover remedy, trust me when you called drunk off your ass I knew that you would need it.” He explained and I took a sip of it, the liquid smooth and tasting of strawberries, mint and cream. I quickly downed it and the sick feeling slowly started to go away, causing me to look at him in shock.

“You should sell this stuff, it is absolutely delicious and effective!” I state, going over and washing it. I turned around and had Ichabod staring up at me, on his hind paws as he stared at me curiously. “You, you are just a little cutie aren’t you?” I ask getting on my knees and letting him smell my hand, feeling his cold nose touch my hand. He instantly started licking it, before jumping into my lap and trying to get to my face.

“I could sell it maybe, but then it wouldn’t be unique and mass produced...only people close to me get to try it. You are pretty special, he never let Gena get that close to him without trying to take her face off.” He states, helping me off the ground once more and I was brought up and against him. My face began to heat up as he looked down into my eyes, this strange electricity forming between us and I felt a pull towards him. A cough drove us apart as we looked over to find Mel and Rach standing in the doorway. “We should get going…”

**************************

We had taken Zacky’s car to the store, silence filling the vehicle and I bit my lip, worrying that he was upset at me for what almost happened. What had almost happened? What would have happened if Mel and Rach hadn’t showed up? I was supposed to be slowly forgiving him, not all speedy like this. Especially not being pressed against him and damn near kissing one another. We finally got to the store, hopping out of the car while Mel and I went to grab two carts.

“How about Mel and I get the list of booze and mixers while you two get the food? That way the process goes faster and we will have more time to prepare for it.” Rachel spoke up, sensing the tension and wanting us to work it out before we left here.

“That sounds like a good idea.” Zacky stated, smiling at her and I bit my lip, feeling something act up in my stomach. What the hell? Whatever this was could stop rearing it’s ugly head.

“We’ll meet up at the cash register in about thirty-five minutes.” I stated, waving to them as we went off in the direction of the food. Zacky was so immersed in the list in his hand that he nearly ran into a mother who was yelling at her unruly child and I pulled him out of the way just in time. “Would you like me to look at the list? I’m pretty good at doing both.”

“Sure go ahead...thank you by the way, that could have been majorly embarrassing if you hadn’t pulled me out of the way.” He said, handing the list over and I scanned it, following the aisles to look for every item.

“I used to do this all the time when I was younger, it was apart of my chores to go out and get the food for the family since I refused to go to church with them. It always ended up with me having to walk home with about eight to ten bags with no help. The grocery store eventually just lended me a cart to bring back after I got it all home.” I explained, shocked that I was sharing something without him asking me to. Maybe Mel was right, maybe I was looking to make him the rock of my future.

“That was a pretty fucked up thing for them to do...why did they dislike you so much?” he questioned me, causing me to stop on the side of the aisle next to the hotdogs. I ran a hand through my hair and looked at him, biting my lip ring as I did so.

“I became their own personal Cinderella when they found out that I was going to be the black sheep of the family. I refused to sit through mass, let alone get baptized into a faith I didn’t believe in. I didn’t bow my head during prayer and confession was out of the question, so they just told me that it would be better to stay home. They told the church that I was involved in school activities on that day and wouldn’t be able to go anymore. They could have brought me back to the orphanage, but they knew how bad it would look at church if they gave up on one of God’s children. Eventually, when I finally turned eighteen...they told me that I was not to have any contact with them, but of course I tried. I sent cards for birthdays, Christmas and letters letting them know how I was doing. Never received one back from them though, which never surprised me honestly. Hurt like hell, but I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of the name and career I had planned for myself.” I stated, trying to hide the fact that I was a liar when it came to things not bugging me from my past. I guess my eyes felt the need to betray me as a single tear fell down my face and Zacky quickly wiped it away with his thumb.

“I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to bring up your past, seeing you cry was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.” he whispered, hugging me to his chest and I tensed up before I finally relaxed into him, his scent overwhelming my senses. I began to calm down, smiling up at him just as a familiar voice called out my name.

“Susan? Susan Lucinia, is that you?”

I looked over, just in time to see my step sister Victoria running up to greet me, her platinum blond hair swinging side to side as she did so.

Fuck.
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