I'm Not Your Protege, Just Your Kid

Zack’s P.O.V

This whole process of me waking up, sitting on my ass all day on the couch, watching T.V and drinking beer is starting to get boring. I was home alone and it was pretty depressing. The guys were probably still sleeping. Jayden and Devon were over at Brian’s cleaning his house, not by choice, and Gena was at work and won’t be home until this evening around 6.

I continued flipping through the channels when an idea came to me. I grabbed my cell phone off the table and started scrolling through my contacts. I saw her name and pressed the call button. It rang three times until someone picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey Gabby,” I answered.

“Hey Zack, what’s up?”

“Nothing really I’m just sitting at home by myself. What about you?”

“Just some paperwork that isn’t due until Friday,” she sighed.

“That sucks. So I was thinking,”

“Did you bust another brain cell?” she giggled and I rolled my eyes, but nonetheless laughed too.

“No I didn’t Gabs,”

“Okay, so tell me what you were thinking about,” she said.

“Well since we’re both not doing anything you want to hang out? Maybe go for lunch?” I suggested, praying that she wouldn’t just laugh at me and reject my offer.

I heard her talking and I realized I started daydreaming after I asked her to go for lunch.

“I’m sorry what did you say?” I asked Gabby.

“Gees Zack, I knew you were old but I didn’t think you were going deaf either,” she joked.

“You’re just a year younger than me,”

“I know and I love every minute of it,”

“Whatever. Anyways what did you say?”

“Oh, I said that we’d be able to go. Where did you want to meet up?”

“How about Olive Garden?”

“Sure that’s fine, see you in 20,” she said and hung up.

I closed my cell phone and couldn’t help but let a childish grin stretch across my face. I took my keys from the table, stuffed my phone into my pocket and put on some shoes. I locked up behind me and nearly ran to my car, clearly excited to see Gabby is a few minutes. I pulled out of my driveway and sped off down the road.

I was walking down the sidewalk in front of Olive Garden when I saw Gabby waiting at the door. She heard and saw me coming and flashed me smile. I looked her over and I felt my blood start to rush through me. She had on a black business skirt that reached about an inch above her knee. Her light blue shirt had the top two buttons undone, exposing just the top of her cleavage and if you looked down her long tan legs she had on a pair of black heels. Her brown hair was blowing in the light breeze, sometimes covering her dark blue eyes.

“Hey,” I greeted when I finally reached her.

“Hey,” she answered back.

“Ready to eat?”

She nodded and I followed her into the restaurant. We were seated at a table and were handed our menus.

“So, how are Jayden and Devon doing?” she politely asked me, while looking over her menu.

I didn’t know how to answer her. What was I supposed to tell her?

‘Oh, they’re cleaning up all the guys houses for punishment,’

“They’re alright,” I shrugged.

She stared at me with a raised eyebrow and I swallowed the lump in my throat. She started to laugh and I calmed down.

“It’s okay Zack. You don’t have to tell me the truth,” she said and I let out a deep breath.

She smiled at me and went back to looking at her menu. I stared at her for a few more seconds and looked at my menu too.

Jayden’s P.O.V

“Can we go home now?” I asked Brian.

“No,”

“Why not?”

“Because you haven’t washed my car yet,” he shrugged.

I looked at Devon then looked at Brian like he was on crack or something.

“What the fuck? The punishment never included washing anyone’s car,” I argued.

“I’m making it a part of the punishment now,”

I wanted to rip his ugly hair out and punch him in the mouth. I was willing to do anything just to inflict pain on him somehow. Hell, I’d even run him over with his dirty car.

“I’m not doing it,” I said and crossed my arms.

“Yes you are,” he answered back.

“Nope,”

“Yeah,”

“Nope,”

“Do it or else I’ll call Zack,”

I huffed and stormed out the house with Devon in tow. If Brian thought he could boss me around he was sadly mistaken. I grabbed the watering hose from the side of the house and turned it on. I started wetting Brian’s car and ordered Devon to start digging up a small section of grass by the sidewalk. He gave me a confused look but still did it. Once Brian’s car was all wet I turned the hose to the patch of dirt Devon made and soaked it until it became mud. I turned off the hose and threw it on the grass.

I walked over to the now mud patch where Devon was standing.

“What are you doing?” Devon asked me as I picked up a handful of dirt.

“Washing Brian’s car,” I said.

“With dirt?” he asked while I patted the mud into a ball.

I gave him a smirk and pelted the mud ball at Brian’s car.

“Jayden, I don’t want to get into more trouble,” Devon said and just stood back, watching me throw mud all over Brian’s car.

“You won’t. I’ll take the blame,” I shrugged and continued throwing mud.

I stopped throwing dirt when Brian’s car was almost covered completely in it. I washed my hands off with the hose and wrapped it back up. I walked back in the house and saw Brian sitting on the couch.

“We’re done,” I said.

“Already?” he asked.

“Yeah, I figured that I’d have to do it anyway so I hurried up and finished it,” I said.

“Alright, you can go home now,” he said.

“Alright, see you later,” I asked with a knowing smirk behind his back.

“Bye,”

I ran out the house and grabbed Devon’s hand. I started running down the sidewalk, away from Brian’s house before he could come outside and see the damage I’ve done. I don’t know how far we ran, all we know is that we were on Main Street, far away from Brian. We started walking down the street, occasionally looking into windows of different shops. We walked past an Olive Garden and saw Zack’s car in the parking lot.

“Come on,” I told Devon.

I walked into the restaurant and asked the hostess if she could lead me to Zack’s table. She agreed after eyeing up Devon and we saw Zack and Gabby sitting at a table laughing.

“Hey Zack,” I said and snatched the breadstick out of his hand.

I took a bite out of it and dragged a chair from an empty table up to Zack’s table. I called the waiter over and ordered a Dr. Pepper for both Devon and I.

“Hey Gabby,” Devon said and scooted his chair close to her.

“Hey,” she laughed and smiled at him.

I rolled my eyes and felt Zack nudge me.

“What?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Well you see, we finished cleaning Brian’s house along with his car and we decided to check out Huntington,” I said. I didn’t exactly lie to Zack we did clean his house and wanted to check out Huntington because we didn’t want Brian to kill us.

“Why are you cleaning this Brian person’s house?” Gabby asked me.

I explained everything to her in detail and when I finished I sat back and saw Zack get a guilty look on his face. He never bothered to ask us about our side of the story he just assumed that we started the fight.

“That’s horrible. Zack, did you hear their side of what happened?” she asked him.

He just scratched the back of his neck and sheepishly shook his head. Gabby gave him a look and fixed it when she turned to us.

“You guys don’t worry you had a good reason for getting into that fight. I’m not saying you should’ve but you were somewhat harassed by that football player,”

Devon and I nodded our heads and I had to fight with myself not to smile.

“On the other hand you guys did get into trouble so I think it’s fair that you complete your punishment,” I slumped in my seat and crossed my arms.

Zack’s phone started to ring and while he answered I grabbed another breadstick.

“Hello?”

“Brian, calm down, what happened?” Zack asked.

I looked at Devon and saw him swallow the chunk of bread in his throat.

“They did what?” Zack loudly asked and looked at Devon and I.

“Brian calm down, I’ll talk to them,” he sighed and hung up.

He looked at Devon and I and waited for us to say something.

“What did you guys do to Brian’s car?”

“We washed it,” I answered.

“No Zack, she washed it,” Devon said.

“Okay Jayden, why did you wash it with mud?”

“Brian never told me what to wash it with,”

He sighed and rubbed his face in aggravation.

“What am I supposed to do with you two?”

“Let us stay home and don’t allow us to come out of our rooms,”

He just shook his head and called a waiter over. He asked for the bill and looked at Gabby.

“I’m sorry to cut this lunch so short,” he apologized.

“No problem, we can always do this another time,”

Zack paid for the bill and all four of us left the restaurant. Gabby went the opposite way to her car and we went to Zack’s. We got in the back and the car ride home was silent. We pulled into the driveway and we walked into the house in silence.

“Sit,” he said and pointed to the couch.

Devon and I sat on the couch but Zack told Devon he could go. Devon gave me a confused look but left anyways and went upstairs to his room.

Zack stayed quiet and glared at me from the other side of the room.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asked me.

“Absolutely nothing,” I answered.

“The hell there isn’t!” he yelled suddenly that it made me flinch.

He sighed and sat on the coffee table across from me.

“Well Zack I’m sorry! Brian was taken advantage of me! He demanded me to wash his car when that wasn’t even part of the punishment,” I argued.

“So what? He’s older than you Jayden so you have to listen to him,”

“He’s not my father,”

“But I am Jayden! You don’t know how hard I’m trying to connect with you and Devon but you’re making it so fucking difficult!” he hollered.

I went to say something but he cut me off.

“Shut up! I’m talking so for once don’t argue!” he yelled.

I closed my mouth and I glared at him.

“Glare at me all you want it won’t change anything,”

He sighed and leaned his head down.

“Look, I know you don’t want to be here but you have to be. When you’re 18 you can run off and do whatever you want, but until then you’re my responsibility. Got it?” he asked.

I decided not to do anything and he sighed again for the millionth time.

“Go up to your room,” he said and left the room without even waiting for me to answer.

For some reason I felt a tiny ounce of guilt, but only a tiny ounce. I hadn’t realized how much Zack was trying to get through to me and Devon and make our stay here comfortable. I didn’t have anything to say to Zack so I just went upstairs. Devon’s door was open and I walked in. he was lying on his bed, watching T.V and I joined him.

He knew not to say anything about what he just heard and I silently thanked him for it. He just wrapped his long skinny arm around me and we silently watched movies together for the rest of the day.