The Art of Subconscious Illusion

Chapter Seven.

I awoke to being shaken, opening my eyes to a dark room with the sun shining through, how long had I been asleep? I finally looked at Zacky, he was wearing the same thing he wore last night, his clothes wrinkled, hair messy, stubble coming in and...something on the side of his neck.

“Lucy, did you wait up for me?” he asked in shock, as I realized how messed up I must look and how cramped my legs were. The dogs weren’t next to me anymore and so I decided to stretch out and relax a little more.

“No, I just couldn’t sleep so I cleaned up the puke, the dishes and came in here to start reading and I must have dozed off.” I explained, seeing him go over to turn on the light and I closed my eyes so my retinas wouldn’t get hurt. My glasses had slipped off my face sometime during the night and were close to falling off the couch.

“You didn’t have to go to all that trouble.” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck, causing my curiosity to get the better of me and I looked at his neck. He had one giant hickey from where the smaller ones had come together.

“Hey, I’m your guest, it would be rude of me not to help out…” I stated, fidgeting with my lip rings.

“Exactly, you’re my guest, don’t worry about doing things around the house.” he stated, rolling his eyes and I raised an eyebrow at him.

“You’re grumpy, not much sleep hmm?” I questioned, seeing his face heat up and that cured my suspicions for sure. “You can go ahead and go back to sleep, I may go for a swim...do you have any sunscreen? I don’t think that I packed any?”

“Should be in my bathroom.” he stated and I bite my lip. “I can show you the way.” he smiled awkwardly, as I followed him into his personal bathroom which was beautiful blue color, cerulean if I had to guess. He went through the cabinet, pulling out some bottle sunscreen and smiled at me.

“Thank you Zacky.” I smiled at him, grabbing the bottle as I made my way downstairs to my room, unlocking the door as I did so. I grabbed my bathing suit out of my bag and smiled down at it, it was one I had always wanted it and when opportunity struck, I made it mine. It was one of those highly classic, vintage pinup like bathing suits. Mine was a black and white polka dot Monroe high waist bikini, so it hid my pudge on my belly and was very low cut and tied in the back and a bow in the front. I went upstairs and out the back door, putting my towel on one of the chairs to begin putting on the sunscreen only to realize that I couldn’t reach my back.

“Let me help.” Zacky’s voice sounded behind me, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin as I turned around to see him shirtless, in swimming trunks with his hand out for the bottle. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the hickeys that decorated his chest. Geez, this woman was a vampire or something!

“Oh...sure.” I stated and handed him the bottle, turning around and pulling my red hair over one shoulder to reveal my porcelain skin. I felt the coldness of the sunscreen ripple against my back and inhaled sharply the instant it touched my warm skin. He ran his fingers over my back, working it into my back and shoulders. “So...decided to join me huh?” I asked him, biting my lip and turned to face those wretched hickeys once again. I cast my eyes down, trying not to stare.

“Yeah. I figured you wouldn’t mind some company.” he stated with a nervous smile. “Is...it alright if I swim with you? Besides, I don’t exactly want you to swim alone. Better safe than sorry, right?” he stated and I felt like rolling my eyes at him but I refrained.

“Your house hun, that is completely your call.” I state, putting the sunscreen on the front part of my body and the back of my legs. “Sure you don’t want any?” I offer it to him, seeing him shake his head no and I just put it down on the chair next to my towel. I didn’t bother going to the diving board and just dived in from the side, making it to the other side in a few strokes underwater. Zacky dove in after me and surfaced right next to where I came up for air.

“So… everything all patched up with Gena then?” I asked him with a bit more bite than I had wanted to let show. His cheeks turned crimson and took a decent sized back stroke to give us some more distance before he tried to answer.

“I...I don’t know really. I mean, I don’t really want to but...” he trailed off in thought and I tilted my head at him, leaning forward and gliding over to him to pick at his brain.

“Oh, then how on earth did you get all of these?” I pointed to his neck and chest, “Or did you have a nasty run in with some vampiric woman?” Every part of me wanted to add the sarcasm on thick, but I stopped myself to a teasing tone. “These tell outside people differently, not to mention you weren’t that drunk last night. Can’t blame it on the alcohol.”

“I just...she was begging for me to take her back and wouldn’t take no for an answer. And I guess I kind of gave in.” he explained, leaning back to float on the waters surface as he stared up at the clouds in the sky. I ran a hand through my wet hair and sighed.

“Just...be careful,” I whispered, biting my lip as I dove under water and underneath him before resurfacing by the diving board to see him looking at me. “What?”

“Nothing. Just noting that if I ever need a lifeguard to save me from drowning I know where to find one.” he stated, smirking at me as he dove under, resurfacing next to me. But I was already in the process of getting out of the pool to use the diving board.

“Swimming was one of my favorite things to do to pass my time. It’s not my fault you’re slow.” I point out, before I jumped a few times before doing a frontflip over his head. I hit the water perfectly and was shocked as I felt arms wrap around me and bring me to the surface. “Da fuck?” I asked, once I regained my ability to breathe.

“Sorry, I panicked. Thought you might have hurt yourself. Looks like I’m not so slow after all Lucy!” he stated in a smart ass tone, pushing away from me and swimming over the edge of the pool to dive in again via the diving board as well.

“I think you worry way too much,” I explained, rolling my eyes as I watched him. “You aren’t worried about your relationship?” I asked once he surfaced, seeing him smirking at me. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Someone is awfully interested in my relationship status all of a sudden.” he stated, swimming up next to me so that I was pressed up against the walls of the pool. His forever green eyes stared into my soul (or non soul since I’m a ginger) and I felt my cheeks heating up. Damnit! He was so confusing sometimes.

“What can I say? I’ve been known to worry about things that don’t require a lot of worry to be involved...not to mention, she seems like a terrible person. I mean, she cheated on you.” I started fidgeting with my lip rings and he took my hand into his to make me stop.

“Something tells me that’s not the only reason you’re upset about this.” he stated, pressing me further against the wall so much that our bodies were almost connecting. This felt...kind of heated. Like it was on the verge of becoming sexual with the tone his voice was taking.

“What makes you say that?” I counter, looking into his eyes and biting my lip as I did so. There was something that he wasn’t telling me, it was bad enough that I had heard some of the things from the other night’s drunken phone call.

“Oh I don’t know. Maybe just recalling some of those sweet nothings you told me on the phone the other night.” he stated, placing his hands on either side of me against the wall, pressing his wet forehead to mine. Was he serious right now? He goes and bangs his ex and then gets all up in my grill?

“Sweet nothings? You probably weren’t talking to me then.” I managed to swim away from him, before I went to the ladder as I sat on the edge of the pool. “Should be careful, don’t want your girlfriend to get upset.”

“She’s not my girlfriend anymore Lucy! I told her I didn’t want anything else to do with her. Yes, last night we got closer than we should have. But I realized my mistake and put an end to it once and for all. Its sad that I had to realize how much I couldn’t handle her when I was with her last night but she’s out of the picture once and for all...I thought maybe it would be okay and we could regain what we had with time but I looked at her phone this morning...It wasn’t just a one time thing. She’d been cheating on me...for months. And was still seeing and talking to that guy. I deleted my number from her phone and vice versa. I blocked her number and told her I wanted nothing to do with her and wanted to lose contact completely.” he stopped abruptly and paused for a moment, “But...I’m sorry, my drama not yours.” he stated and swam over to the side of the pool and hoisted himself up to sit on the edge and stared down at his feet in the water.

“What...what all did I say to you the other night?” I asked quietly, glancing over at him from where I sat.

“Does it matter? You probably think the worst of me still…” he replied, not looking at me still.

“Zacky, if I did then would I have been worried about you two getting back together?” I pointed out, looking down at my feet. “You may have pissed me off in the past, but I’ve been known to have too big of a heart that cares for just about anyone and everyone. Not many people take time to see that part of me though.”

“Well that isn’t exactly what I’m talking about. I mean...after coming home looking like this, you probably want nothing to do with me. You know...in THAT way.” he stated, looking over at me and I raised an eyebrow at him. What did he mean?

“Zacky, what are you talking about?” I asked, feeling my confusion get worse. “When you came home, I figured you two slept together. I think you should get tested since she has been sleeping around. I’m worried for you in that sense and I don’t know...You’re an idiot for giving in to her and letting her ruin your body like that” I whispered, going over to my chair and wrapping my towel around me as I sat down. How did this conversation get here?

“You’re right. I’m an idiot Lucy. For a lot of reasons apparently.” he muttered, visibly upset and he pushed up off of the ground and his eyes flashed over at me as he passed me and grabbed a towel sitting on one of the outside table near the door before going inside without another word.

I didn’t bother to turn to watch him go, he needed the time to calm down from whatever his issues were. I wasn’t going to spend my spring break dealing with the drama going on… he had promised to make it up to me and wasn’t having a good start. Whatever… after this week, I guess I could go back to my normal life and just live it normally.

Something about that caused my stomach to clench… I didn’t want it to, that is the terrifying part.