Taylor
Zac had insisted upon meeting Melissa at the restaurant, in hopes of making the date as much not like a date as possible. In his haste to get it over with, he had shown up early, leaving him standing awkwardly on the sidewalk waiting for Melissa. When he finally saw her walking up, he forced a smile.
Seeing her only made Zac feel guiltier about the whole thing. Melissa really was cute, especially outside of her usual library environment. She wore a short sundress and just a little bit of makeup, but it was enough for the effect to be fairly stunning. Was this the same nerdy girl Zac had been trying to ignore all semester? He suddenly saw what Shaun seemed to see, but in spite of the twinge of guilt in his stomach, he couldn’t honestly say he was interested in her.
Freedman’s was busy on a Friday night, so there was little room for small talk while the two of them made their way inside and waited to be seated. The crowd was raucous and Zac couldn’t help thinking Melissa looked horribly out of place amongst the frat guys and girls in tight skirts at the bar. He supposed he probably looked out of place, too. He certainly felt it.
Finally, after ordering and having their drinks—Lone Star for Zac and a glass of something sparkling that he couldn’t pronounce for Melissa—delivered, the two were able to breathe a bit and truly begin their date.
“I’m sorry about this,” Melissa said suddenly.
Zac stared at her blankly. “Sorry? For what?”
“I’m not an idiot, Zac,” she replied. “I know Shaun set this all up. I appreciate that you went along with it and weren’t enough of a jerk to say to my face that you didn’t want to go out with me. And I don’t think you’re going to try to embarrass me now that we’re here. So… thanks.”
Zac stuttered a few non-words, unable to collect his thoughts in the face of such bluntness. He felt like an ass for being so obvious about his lack of interest in her, yet here she was thanking him for also being spineless. Underneath the bluntness, though, was the same lack of self-esteem that Zac recognized all so well, and much like her sundress, that made him reconsider what he knew about this girl.
“Sorry,” she said when Zac was still speechless. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No,” Zac replied. “I mean, it’s okay. I’m just sorry that Shaun put us in this position. He can be a little… overbearing.”
Melissa tilted her head to the side. “Why do you put up with him, then? Although, I guess it kinda makes sense. I mean, if you’re shy, having an outgoing friend would balance things out.”
“I guess,” Zac replied. “All my friends are like that, though. Louder and friendlier than me. Lets me just fade into the background.”
Zac felt a little embarrassed for admitting something like that, and he was glad to see their food being delivered before he could stick his foot further into his mouth. He dug into his chicken barbeque while Melissa daintily ate her chili, and for a few minutes both of them were silent.
“Well,” Melissa finally said. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt us to at least pretend this is a normal date. Maybe we could get to know each other a little better.”
“How?” Zac asked, feeling idiotic and unprepared for how bold Melissa was outside of her usual environment. Perhaps he had completely misjudged her.
“Well, other than the fact that you like to study in room three and you’re an art history major, I don’t think I know anything about you.”
“What do you want to know?” Zac asked, trying not to sound defensive. The most interesting things about him weren’t things he really wanted to share with her.
Melissa shrugged. “For starters, where are you from? Why did you decide to come here? I’ll answer, too. I grew up in a tiny little town south of here, and my parents are obsessed with UT. There was no way I was going anywhere else. Plus, all things considered, it wasn’t too expensive, even after sending three other kids here.”
“You’re one of four?” Zac asked.
“Nope,” Melissa replied, shaking her head. “One of seven. I’m right in the middle. That’s why I work so much—it’s expensive as hell to send that many kids to college. The youngest ones won’t be here for a while, though.”
“Wow,” Zac breathed out. “I just had—have one brother.”
Melissa’s eyes widened, and Zac was sure she had caught his little slip-up. It was so easy to fall into thinking of Taylor in the past tense, even though that wasn’t fair. He had to be alive out there somewhere. Making a pretty obvious effort to keep her expression neutral, Melissa asked, “Did he go here, too?”
“No, he—” Zac broke off and sighed. She had inadvertently backed him into a corner. He would have to provide at least a few honest answers. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since I was fifteen. Our parents… they, umm, they kicked him out.”
“That’s horrible!” Melissa screeched, then clapped her hand over her mouth, finally showing some signs of the shyness Zac was used to. It was pointless; the restaurant was so loud that not even the table next to them had noticed her outburst. “My parents can be kind of crazy, but I can’t imagine… I mean, how could someone do that to their own child?”
“It wasn’t… it wasn’t really like that. I mean, they didn’t make him pack a bag and hit the road or anything. But they made it pretty clear that once he graduated high school, he wasn’t welcome in their home anymore. He was on his own.”
“And he just left?” Melissa asked. “You haven’t spoken to him at all?”
Zac shook his head. “They also made it pretty clear that I wasn’t going to have anything to do with him anymore. That he was a bad influence or whatever.”
Melissa just shook her head in disbelief, and Zac wasn’t sure how to make it any clearer without just saying it. He supposed he didn’t have a choice now that they’d gone down this road.
“He was…” Zac began, then sighed. “Taylor… my brother… he was—he is gay. I never told our parents, because I knew to some extent how they would react, but I knew. If I had known what they would have done… how badly they would have taken it, I would have tried to protect him. I don’t know. I guess I couldn’t have done anything. Once he got caught with his—his boyfriend or whatever, they just lost it.”
“Oh, Zac,” Melissa breathed out, reaching her hand across the table to grasp his. “I really am sorry about this date now. As if it wasn’t bad enough, now we’re having the most depressing first date conversation ever.”
“I’m a pretty depressing guy,” Zac admitted. “Between that and getting cheated on by the girl I thought I was going to marry, I’m not exactly a ray of sunshine.”
Melissa gave him a weak smile. “Then I’ll have to be cheerful enough for both of us, huh? Wanna hear about the time I tried to pledge a sorority?”
Zac wasn’t sure that he really did, but he nodded anyway and took a long sip of his beer while Melissa began her tale. As she talked, becoming more and more animated throughout her story of brainless bleach blondes and insane parties, Zac decided she wasn’t so bad. Somehow, knowing that he wasn’t interested in her actually seemed to let her relax and show her personality more; he supposed she saw no reason to try to impress him anymore. What she probably didn’t realize was that he liked this girl better than the timid one he saw in the library. He still had no interest in dating her, but maybe they could be friends. Having a friend who didn’t think getting laid was the way to cheer him up might be a good thing.
Maybe Shaun’s plan had worked out after all—though not in exactly the way Shaun had intended, Zac supposed.
Until he’d downed three more Lone Stars and started to feel a little warm and fuzzy, Zac didn’t realize how long the two of them had been sitting there. Their waitress seemed a little bit more perturbed each time she returned to the table to make sure there wasn’t anything else she could get them, and they had talked so much, sharing so many stories, that it felt like he had known Melissa for years.
To Zac’s surprise, he was a little sad to see the date end. He insisted upon paying their bill, since he felt responsible for her being in such an awkward situation that she’d somehow made the best of. He took his time deciding how much to tip, and even drew out their walk out of the restaurant, growing more and more depressed as he thought of going home to his empty, lonely apartment. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to invite Melissa home with him and give her false hopes.
But maybe…
No. Zac shook his head slightly as he watched Melissa walk down the sidewalk toward her car. Raising his voice a little, he called out to her. “Melissa?”
“Yeah?” She asked, spinning back around to face him.
“I’m sorry about… well, you know. But I had fun. Maybe we can—I mean, just as friends? But maybe we can do this again.”
“Just as friends,” Melissa repeated, and Zac feared he had hurt her feelings. “I think that’s a great idea. I think we could both use a good friend. You especially.”
“Yeah, well,” Zac replied, suddenly feeling embarrassed—again. “But thanks. Seriously. I’ll see you at the library?”
Melissa smiled. “Yeah. See you later, Zac.”
Satisfied that they had parted on good terms and he hadn’t given her the wrong idea, Zac headed to his car and began the short drive back to his apartment. As he drove, he tried to decide what he would tell Shaun when he inevitably asked about the date. Zac really didn’t have a good plan for that, but that didn’t get him down. It had been a good night, even if it wasn’t really a date in the traditional sense.
He was in such a good mood that he only barely registered the strange car parked next to his usual spot in the apartment complex. It was a complex mostly occupied by college students; there were always different cars coming and going. The only truly unusual feature of this one were the piles of someone’s belongings—clothes, mostly, it seemed—heaped in the backseat all the way up to the roof.
Locking his car, Zac turned away from the strange little sedan and didn’t give it another thought as he scurried up the stairs to his apartment. He hadn’t been happy about moving onto the second floor, but he was glad to be away from the one he’d shared with Carly, and this older section nearer the front of the complex was cheaper due to its un-remodeled condition. All in all, it wasn’t so bad, and in his current mood, Zac couldn’t even be too upset about the climb.
Until he reached the top of the stairs and saw a figure standing by his door.
With their back turned, there was no way Zac could know for certain, but his stomach still turned a somersault, some part of him deep inside recognizing what his brain couldn’t. When the tall, thin figure turned to face him, that instinct of Zac’s was confirmed.
It was Taylor.