Something New
The next day, Zac and Taylor were both lucky not to have work until the evening. That meant Zac was free to accompany Taylor as he went to the big county courthouse to file the protective order. After staying up late discussing the options, they agreed that was best; it would keep Devin away without risking exposing them the way actually pressing charges and going to court might.
That was something they simply couldn’t risk. Devin was scary, but having their relationship revealed was worse.
Zac drove them to the courthouse, a ride that was full of awkward silence. Zac wanted to say something helpful, something encouraging, but he had run out of words. He hoped being a strong, silent presence would be enough support for Taylor right then.
“Are you sure you don’t need me to come in with you?” Zac asked, as they sat in the parking garage.
Taylor shook his head. “No, I need to prove that I can do this on my own. I need to prove it to myself. I can’t rely on you for all of my strength.”
“But you know you can rely on me when you need to.”
“Of course,” Taylor replied, giving Zac a smile. He leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “I’ll be back as soon as possible. Go get some lunch or something; don’t just wait here for me.”
“Alright, alright,” Zac replied. He just barely managed to contain an eye roll. Taylor knew him so well.
Once Taylor was out of sight, Zac dug his phone charger out of the glove compartment and plugged his phone in. With everything that had happened the night before, he had completely forgotten to charge it and thought he carried it with him that morning, it was dead. It took a moment to charge enough to power back on; when it did, the screen immediately lit up with notifications, all of them from Melissa.
Shit, Zac thought to himself. He had intended to call her the night before. She probably thought he was lying dead in a ditch somewhere, and somehow, he didn’t think that knowing the truth would make her feel any better.
He cleared all of the notifications without listening to them; he didn’t need any more of a guilt trip. He called her number, hoping she wasn’t busy with her family still. She answered on only the third ring.
“This better be really fucking good,” she said. “You better be in the hospital or the morgue. And yes, I would expect a phone call from your corpse to let me know he was fucking dead.”
“I’m at the courthouse,” Zac replied. “I mean—uh, so Taylor’s ex came back. It was him at the club, and he was at our apartment, too. I punched him. I haven’t gotten into a fight with anybody since I was a kid obsessed with watching WWF.”
“Oh my god, Zac! Do you need bail money?”
Zac let out a weak laugh. “I said courthouse, not police station, not jail.”
“Okay, so what are you doing there? The old one, downtown? I can be there in like fifteen.”
“That would be great, because I don’t want to eat lunch alone,” Zac replied. “So, one of my neighbors called 911 and vouched for us, that Devin was trespassing. And since apparently he has done this before and there are records—no charges then either, but medical records and stuff—the cops believed us. We’re not pressing charges, but Taylor’s getting an order of protection right now. Which is, it turns out, something you do at the courthouse.”
“You are terrible at telling stories, Zac. I’ve had like ten heart attacks in the time it took you to get to the point.”
“Are you going to come have lunch with me or not?” Zac asked.
“Of course,” Melissa replied. “I think there’s a coffee shop or deli or something nearby. I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
Zac waited in his car for a few more minutes, making sure his phone had a decent charge. He was sure that everything would go smoothly for Taylor, but he wanted to be available just in case he needed him for any reason. Once he felt it was sufficiently charged, he shut off his car and got out. He wasn’t entirely sure where the restaurant Melissa had referred to was located, but he figured he had a few minutes to wander around until he figured it out.
In the end, Zac discovered that there was a coffee shop just two doors down from the main entrance to the parking garage. That had to be the correct one, he decided. Even if it wasn’t what Melissa was referring to, he was easy enough to locate right there. He ordered an iced mocha, not trusting his frayed nerves with anything more caffeinated than that right then and sat down at a small table right in the window.
He had downed half the mocha by the time he saw Melissa’s familiar curly blonde hair bounding down the sidewalk. She gave him a smile through the window, then headed straight to the counter to order. She came back to the table a moment later with a number in her hand, which she plopped into the end of the table as she sat down.
“Okay,” she said, staring Zac down. “Now tell me exactly what the hell happened.”
“Before Taylor found me, he was dating this guy named Devin. They lived together for a while. And I didn’t realize, but apparently Devin, he–he hit him. I don’t know the details. It happened at least a couple times, I guess. And he still had some kind of hold on him. When we were… on our break… he weaseled his way back him. You know I thought he was seeing someone else.”
Melissa nodded. “I did. And I thought you were being unfair and paranoid.”
“Maybe I was,” Zac admitted. “But I was right, and it was Devin. It was him Taylor was seeing, and it was him at the club. And he found our apartment, somehow, and he came there and—well, I told you the rest.”
“You did, but I’m still just… baffled. Shocked.” Melissa shook her head, falling silent as a barista walked up with her drink and a large bagel.
“It’s all a lot for me to process, too,” Zac admitted. “I just—I can’t understand how someone could do that to Taylor. I wanted to be so upset with him, and then I was upset with myself because I knew he was allowed to be with anybody else that he wanted to be. But to think… that anyone could want to possess him and destroy him like that at the same time.”
Zac shook his head. The words had come tumbling out, and he didn’t even know what he was trying to say. He realized he was getting louder and louder, and he took a sip of his drink just to shut himself up.
A flash of blonde by the door caught his attention, and he saw that Taylor had walked in. He sat down next to Melissa. “I’m glad you took my advice.”
“Sorry, I should have texted and let you know where I was going,” Zac said.
“I guess Zac told you what happened,” Taylor said softly, not meeting either of their eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Zac said. “I should have let you tell her—or not, if you didn’t want to. It wasn’t my place.”
Taylor shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s not like I can tell it in any way that makes it sound any better. My ex beat the shit out of me, and you may have cracked a rib trying to stop him. It is what it is.”
“I really don’t think I did that,” Zac replied. “Let me go get you a coffee, though. Do you want anything to eat?”
“Just an iced coffee for now,” Taylor replied. “Thanks, Zac.”
Zac took his time getting the drink. When he returned, Melissa’s hand was on Taylor’s; he was sure they had been discussing the whole situation. He had wanted to give them time for exactly that.
“You know,” Melissa said, clearing her throat as Zac sat back down and passed Taylor his drink. “I had an ulterior motive for suggesting we meet here. It’s only like a block from the central library branch where I’ll be working this summer. I was trying to figure out where my best lunch options were, and this one seems pretty good so far.”
“How long will you be there before you leave for California?” Taylor asked.
“What, what—California? You’re going to California?” Zac realized he really had been awful lately, if Taylor knew more about Melissa’s future plans than he did.
“Well, if you ever kept a promise to call me, maybe we would have had time to talk about it,” Melissa said, her tone mostly teasing. “You know, I’ve been working at the library since my sophomore year, and I really like it. I wasn’t sure what to do with a degree in multicultural studies anyway, so… I applied for grad school earlier this year, some different programs just to see what stuck. But the ones I wanted the most were on the coast, either coast. Big cities. And I got into USC and I accepted. I got the acceptance letter like two days before we went out on that date.”
Zac nodded. “I’m sorry, I’ve been awful lately. I couldn’t imagine a future for myself, so I didn’t even think to ask about what anybody else had planned. I couldn’t think that far ahead.”
“It’s understandable,” Melissa said. “But hey, you’ve gotten free now. You can build whatever sort of future you want for yourself.”
“I don’t know that we’re out of the woods yet,” Zac replied softly, glancing at Taylor, who nodded.
“I can see the way out,” Taylor said. “But things do feel… temporary. Unfinished.”
Zac nodded. Nothing was permanent. He couldn’t work at the Lego store forever, and he knew that Taylor was destined for greater things than color matching women’s foundation and fixing their eyebrows. He wasn’t sure he would ever amount to much, but Taylor would, if he could free himself from all the people who had held him down.
Zac only hoped he didn’t count amongst those.
“Something good is coming for you two,” Melissa said, stirring Zac from his thoughts. “I can just feel it. This is just the beginning of your story. It’s so cheesy and cliché, but I know the best is yet to come, because you just deserve it so much more than like anyone I have ever known.”
“I think you’re right,” Zac replied. “That was cheesy as hell.”
Melissa balled up her straw wrapper and flicked it at Zac, nailing him right on the tip of his nose. He couldn’t help but laugh, and so did she. It was infectious—Taylor joined in, too. If Zac couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Taylor genuinely smile, then a real laugh had to have been even further in the past.
Maybe Melissa was right. Maybe they were going to be okay after all, somehow.
Maybe this was just the beginning of something new, some fresh start on life, free of the things that had held them both back for so long.