Dirty Little Secret

*POV Switch*

I feel Zacky’s lips press against my hair and I smile; it’s oddly comforting to have him here. I close my eyes and drift off into a sleepy haze.

~

Zacky picks me up and walks me to the door. He fumbles with his keys before successfully unlocking the door and carries me into the living room. He places me down on the couch and looks like he’s proud of his accomplishment.

“See? That was a lot easier. You can stay in my room and I’ll just make myself comfortable on the couch. That sound okay?”

I simply nod my head, not quite sure if I can speak at the moment.

“Are you okay?” He sits down next to me.
“Is there something wrong with me, Zacky?” I ask, my speech slurred as if I’ve been drinking.

“Of course not, you’re perfectly fine the way you are.” He tucks my hair behind my ear.

“Chuck doesn’t think so.”

“Well Chuck’s an idiot if he can’t see how great you are.”

I smile weakly.

“Promise me something,” he murmurs.

“What?”

“Don’t hit me.”

“Why would I hit you?” I ask, thinking he’s crazy for even thinking I’d hit him.

“Just promise not to.”

“Okay, I promise.”

Our eyes meet, his green eyes burning into me. A fire burning inside them unlike any I’ve seen before. He cups my face in his hand and brushes his thumb across my cheekbone; chills run down my spine, but in a good way. He leans in and places a soft kiss on my lips. My heart begins to race.

But he quickly pulls away and I bring my fingers to my lips, wondering if I was imagining it all.

“Zacky.”

“I’m so--”

I shut him up with a kiss, wanting nothing more than to feel the cool metal of his lip rings and the warmth of his lips on my own. He tangles his fingers in my hair, deepening the kiss. A moan escapes my lips and I wrap my arms around him, never wanting to let him go. I take his bottom lip into my mouth, gently sucking on it and eliciting a moan from him.

We part for air and gaze into each other’s eyes. God, his eyes are gorgeous! I could get lost in them forever. He runs his fingers through my hair and I smile.

“I don’t wanna be alone tonight. Will you stay with me?” I whisper.

He kisses me. “Of course.”

He leads me to his room and I collapse on his bed. He lies down next to me, propping up his head with his hand, and brushes the hair out of my face.

“Zacky.”

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me.”

He happily obliges, gently leading my face up to his and placing a deep kiss on my lips. He slowly brings me up so that we’re sitting and I tangle my fingers in his hair. He pulls me closer to his body. He breaks the kiss and our eyes meet, his green eyes piercing into me.

My heart begins to race and my hands absentmindedly begin to travel up his shirt.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He whispers against my lips.

“I’m sure,” I whisper back, taking off his shirt. “I want you so bad, Zacky.”
~

I gasp as I wake up. I sit up, my eyes frantically looking around the room, making sure of where I am. I’m still in Simple Plan’s dressing room. I’m still on the beaten up couch. It was just a dream.

That’s the fifth time I’ve had this dream in the last three weeks; and every night it slowly progresses. Very slowly. It started with me talking to some guy named Erik, which I found very odd since I don’t know anyone by that name, and ended... Well you know that part…

“Angel, are you okay?” Zacky’s voice asks from behind me.

I turn to face him, those dazzling green eyes mesmerizing me as they always do. “Yeah, just a dream.”

He tucks my hair behind my ear. “You scared me there. I thought something was wrong.”

I rest my forehead against his. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” I run my fingers through his black hair.

“Oh, sorry, guys. I didn’t know you were in here,” Pat’s voice says.

I quickly pull away from Zacky. “Pat, it’s okay, you can be in here!” I call out.
He peeks back into the room. “Are you sure? I don’t want to interrupt anything,” he says, looking between me and Zacky.

“You weren’t interrupting anything,” Zacky replies. “There was nothing to interrupt.”

“Oh, it just looked like you guys were--”

“Oh, no!” Zacky and I both exclaim, realizing what it must have looked like.

“Well, I’m still sorry for just barging in. I figured you guys were watching the show. Business was really slow tonight so I called it quits. I’ve got Allan watching the table just in case anyone decides to get something after the show. But until then I was just going to count up our totals for the night.”

“Mind if we help?” Zack asks. I look at him and smile; I never thought he’d offer to help.

“Sure, man.”

We each take a portion of the cash and start counting up.

“So why aren’t you guys watching the show?” Pat asks.

“Angel started to feel sick.”

“That has been happening a lot lately.”

I bite my lip, hoping that Pat keeps his mouth shut about the baby. “Yeah, David’s damn diet is going to be the death of me.” I bite my lip again. “I’ve got one thousand here.”

“I’ve got two thousand,” Zack chimes a couple moments later.

“I say we did a pretty good job tonight for a slow night. If we all counted right then that means we made about four thousand bucks tonight on merch.”

“That’s not bad at all for a slow night. Most slow nights we only make it out with two thousand,” I say.

The door opens and the guys file into the room. All of them are sweaty and exhausted, as usual.

“Angel, Zack, where were you guys?” David asks, flopping down on the couch next to me and draping an arm around my shoulders.

“We decided to skip the show. I wasn’t feeing too well,” I reply.

“Yeah, her blood sugar dropped a bit. I gave her some chips before she passed out,” Zacky says.

I watch David’s face, waiting for him to explode with anger.

“The last thing we want is a passed out Angel. Thanks for watching out for her, man.” David smiles, stretching out the arm he has around me and pats Zacky on the back.

“No problem. I’m sorry I missed your show.”

“You didn’t miss much,” Pierre says, taking a sip of water. “Except for Chuck royally fucking up on Addicted.”

My eyes quickly dart to Chuck, who is sitting in the far corner of the room playing on his laptop.

“I didn’t mess up that bad.”

“You started playing a completely different song half-way through!” Jeff shoots back. “I think that counts as fucking up.”

“Sorry, I had my mind on something else. It won’t happen again,” he mutters.

“Yeah, shit like that happens all the time,” Zacky says. “One time I completely fucked up on Scream and it was terrible. The sound guy working the show had my guitar up way too loud and Syn was too quiet so no one could hear him cover up my goof. It sucked, people started going around saying that I’m a shitty guitarist after that fiasco.”

“You know what, Zack, not everything’s about you. And you are a shitty guitarist, especially when you’re compared to Brian,” Chuck shoots coldly.

“What the hell’s your problem?” I ask, glaring daggers at him.

“Just having a bad day. Sorry, Zack, I didn’t mean to call you a shitty guitarist.”

“It’s no big deal. Everyone has their off days,” Zacky replies, accepting the half-assed apology. He looks at his watch and turns to me. “I should really get going. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Alright. Let me walk you out.”

We get up and Zacky says his good-byes to the guys. I tell them that I’ll be right back and we head out. We walk silently down the hall until we reach the exit.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, anytime that you want me to be there?”

“Just anytime before the show; we start at eight.”

“Okay. I’ll call you whenever I head over. And remember, you promised me a burger.”

“I do remember and you will get that burger.”

I smile. “Thanks.”

He gives me a hug. “No problem.”

The smell of cigarette smoke and his cologne fill my senses, giving me a sense of calm. I don’t want to let go of him, not yet, but I know that I have to.

“It was great seeing you; I’m really glad you stopped by! So you be safe and I will see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, tomorrow. Bye, Angel.”

“Bye, Zacky.”

He leaves and I sigh. I don’t know why, but I miss him already. I turn around and head back to the dressing room. I flop down on the couch next to David and listen on as the guys razz Chuck for his screw up.

"So you and Zack?" David asks quietly.

"What?"

"Are you guys together?"

"No, it's not like that."

"Maybe you should tell that to Chuck."

I look across the room to Chuck, still playing on his computer. What did David mean?