Chapter 22: Wild Child

POV: Gabby

 

June 13, 2008

I’d gone in with Zac this morning, not for the day though. Nicole was picking me up about 10 and as she said in her text we were going to shop until we dropped, I totally didn’t want to be doing that but it was a chance to get out of the house for a while, so I was going for it. Workaholic was an understatement when it came to them, fourteen hour days wasn’t abnormal, I was now learning that. I spend most of the early morning in the office, cleaning. I was bored and it needed it. By the time Isaac came to tell me she was here their office was spotless.

“What happen to my desk? I can see it.”

“I cleaned it off but I didn’t unstack or move stuff, just alternately stacked.”

He looked at Zac’s. “And his?”

“I knew where stuff went or I found it. I don’t mind snooping in his desk.”

“Ah, Nicole is here.”

“Okay.”

I picked up my wallet from the desk and stuffed it into my back pocket, my phone was in the front, and then followed him to the lobby area. Nicole was there wearing a sleek pale green dress, stockings, black heels and her hair was fixed nicely in a bun. It totally made me look underdressed in my blue jeans shorts and Zac’s t-shirt, which I’d just grabbed in a hurry this morning. My hair was down but I didn’t honestly remember if I had brushed it. She smiled and we exchanged the hi’s and how are you’s.

I hadn’t spent much time with her really, more Stella than her. But she was always working and with classes too she just didn’t have a ton of time. Although, Nicole was sweet and she would be a great doctor and from what Ike had said she loved children.

“So, Zac don’t bother to wait I’ll just bring her home when we’re done.”

“Is that code for ‘Zac cook your own dinner?’” He asked.

“You know it is.” She said.

“I suppose I can manage one night. What will I ever do, I may starve!”

She rolled her eyes. “Only if you don’t cook your own dinner. Anyways, you know…you don’t have to check up or check in or stalk us either.”

“I have no idea what you mean.” He said.

“He’s a worry wart honey, I’m sure he’ll text at least twice.” Ike said then smiled.

I giggled. “More like more than ten times. I’m sure I’ll be fine. I do have a doctor with me.”

He smiled and we headed out to lunch first, it felt so weird to be there with her and us look so different. She was all prim and composed and I wasn’t.

“Do you always look so put together?”

“No. I just had all morning. Why? What you have on is fine.”

“Zac’s shirt and shorts compared to that dress is not fine.”

“Sure it is. I’m a girly girl. I generally have on scrubs so I dress up whenever I can. Not everyone is a girly girl though and it’s fine.”

“I don’t think I ever liked dresses much, maybe when I was a toddler or something but not much as a teen. Well, I guess I did for a bit.”

“I’ve seen some photos of you in a mini skirt or two.”

“Yeah, my favorite then. Not so much the last few years but then being a roadie isn’t really skirt friendly.”

“No, it’s not. Always crawling around and bending and stooping. I remember Ike telling me you were joining them and I thought about Zac, how he’d handle having a female around all the time.”

“Well, we see how that ended!”

“He obviously did well. Granted, like everyone I was a little skeptical, but he seems to have changed and when Ike said he really wasn’t like…I guess being the man whore he was before. I can’t think of a more polite way to say that.”

“It’s okay, yeah he has made a change there.”

Lunch came and conversation drifted to quietness, perhaps that was good it had gotten a bit awkward, exactly how much did his family know about his personal life? It seemed like everyone knew he was having one night stands all the time. Did they also know about our sex life?

“I didn’t mean to upset you. Just, Zac and I haven’t always seen eye to eye about things. I know Ike and Taylor both had questionable pasts when it came to that but I tried to tell Zac a couple times he needed to back off and he just told me to mind my own business. I understood but I was just trying to get him to see that you can’t always just find random girls.”

“You didn’t know Priscilla did you?”

She nodded. “I did, she was my friend but when Ike told me what she did that was pretty much it for me, the way she just lead him on was cruel. I shudder to think what she would have done if he had asked her.”

“Thankfully he didn’t, but you didn’t upset me.”

“Just making sure.”

We finished lunch and headed to the mall, where she apparently had us signed up for a manicure and a pedicure and I was just way out of my comfort zone. It had been a long time since I had even bothered to do this with a professional, usually done it myself.

“It’s okay to be girly sometimes, it’s even okay for the 17 year old Gabby to come back. I rather liked that look on you.”

“I did bring the black hair back, temporary dye back in October. So temporary that sweat had it running down my body, didn’t even think it would do that.”

“Did you dance that much?”

“Well, it didn’t run until later when we were alone.”

“Ah, was it hot sweaty sex that made the dye run?”

I nearly choked on the swallow of coke I took afterwards, she paused and looked at me. Waited to make sure I was okay. I just wasn’t use to anyone that they knew being so open. Stella and I rarely talked sex or anything like that. The fact she connected the dots and then asked was shocking!

“Yeah, it was actually. I didn’t…quite expect that question.”

“Yeah, around the others I try to be fairly quiet about sex. It’s not because I hate it or anything, just I know that Isaac doesn’t want his brothers knowing what we do or anything. Likewise, Stella and Taylor are pretty mum on what they do.”

“But you all talk about Zac’s sex life?”

“The last few years, yes. He’s about as vanilla as they come.”

“How does everyone know that? I am pretty sure he doesn’t go telling you and them what he does or doesn’t do.”

Although, I wouldn’t mention the handcuffs or anything we had at the apartment, he might would use them in a bad way if I did.

She adjusted some in her seat and looked at me. “Mostly tweets, posts we’ve seen from the women he has been with. A few have come up to me here in town and like bragged, as if Stella and I would care who he is having sex with. None of them ever said anything weird.”

That was weird as none had come up to me at all and bragged or complained, then again I was with him most the time around town, so that would be awkward for them to come to me and brag with him standing there.

“Let me guess, sweet little vanilla Zac isn’t so vanilla? You just looked like you don’t believe that.”

I shrugged. “I’m not one to judge what’s vanilla and what’s not.”

“Wild child past?”

“You saw the pictures, you tell me.”

She smiled and we finished our manicure and pedicures and then headed out into the shops. Clothing was not something I generally had fun shopping for, I liked a lot of things but it just wasn’t fun to me. Especially in this section where everything had frills, glitter, or lacy accents.

She held up this stupidly cute dress and I just shook my head, there was way too many pink and purple colors and it was definitely girly.

“I don’t do frilly.”

“Oh come on, give him something to grab a hold of and pull you closer!”

“He has plenty to do that with, my hair works great for that!”

She laughed and put it back. “Fine! I can’t argue with some hair pulling.”

She did find a very nice dress that she put in the cart, which we were sharing because really I didn’t need anything. We moved to a rack of pants that had designs, another frilly girly section.

“So, you and this Sierra chick, what’s the deal there? Saw those tweets and wellll….you were quite cozy with her.”

I picked up this disgustingly pink pair of pants and handed it to her smiled. “Sierra and I were friends.”

“Friend friends or the kind of friends you have sex with?”

She was close and her voice low but an older woman looked our way, made this disgusting face and then moved away from us rather quickly. I giggled a bit and so did she, glad to see our conversation can scare little old ladies.

“We were the other kind of friends and things just…”

I really wasn’t sure how to describe it or how to explain it. She was about to hand me those ugly pink pants back when she paused.

“Ohh, that sounds like you may have been a little more than just friends then.”

Zac understood but he was also a man and well, I was sure the images running through his head weren’t all g-rated. He kept telling me to talk to her because it would be good, but I wasn’t sure.

“I was dating Newton and she was on the tour with us, we kind of clicked and I really was attracted to her but I didn’t act on it. Newton kind of gave me to her for the night, with him photographing and joining eventually.”

“Sounds like fun.”

I giggled. “It was. But, once wasn’t enough and well, we kind of hooked up without him a few times. Anyway, she told me she loved me and it freaked me out. More because I realized that I loved her. So, I did the logical thing, I ran like hell.”

She handed the pants back and I put them back on the rack, she then laid a purple top with sequins all over it in the buggy and then looked at me.

“If you loved her why did you run?”

“The last two people I had loved left, I didn’t want that again. So, I left first. I caught Newton and Mary having sex, used that as my excuse. I just ran.”

“Do you regret running away?”

“I did at first, but then the tour ended and she came home for a few weeks and never bothered to come find me. She then left for California and I didn’t see her again until the tour started this year. She claimed to love me and she never bothered to find me.”

“Did you consider that she thought you didn’t want to be found?”

“I did. But, she actually knew where I was. She and I had just tension the whole time on the bus, I can’t go back to that.”

“So, then you have had a three-some before?”

“More than one actually, with more than one person.”

“More than one? Who?”

“Newton and I with Tera and Sierra.”

“You mentioned photos of these times?”

“Newton took pictures both times, before joining.”

“Has Zac seen these pictures?”

“He saw the ones with Tera, but I don’t have the ones with Sierra. Newton didn’t keep them but I am sure Sierra still has them.”

“I’ve had a three some before but two men and I, you haven’t had one like that, have you?”

I fiddled with the handle of the buggy. “I had one. It wasn’t really consensual on my behalf.”

“I’m sorry. Mine was and it was fun, perhaps you could talk Zac into it?”

I had to laugh at that thought, Zac willingly allowing another man to be there? That was beyond hilarious to me and she laughed with me.

“You don’t think he would? Why?”

“I think he would agree if I asked a girl, but not another man. He seems content with just me though. I’m fine actually, I don’t really want that. It really didn’t feel good to me and it’s not something I want to do again.”

“I understand.”

We moved from the frilly girl section into the underwear section, which I didn’t need anything of. Zac had made damn sure I had enough to last forever. Stella and I had done some underwear shopping with Jack last year around Christmas, but she’d only bought something I didn’t see for Taylor. Nor did she ever model anything, I was just waiting for Nicole to try on something and when she called my name I looked up and there she was in barely anything!

“What do you think? Sure to make him trip over himself?”

I blinked, the suit was lime green, it was a lace teddy with adjustable shoulders, keyhole cut out front, cut out sides and a panty bottom. It looked amazing on her and it would cause me to trip over myself.

“Yeah, he’d totally trip over himself.”

“Good, now you find something.”

“I don’t need anything really, well, maybe some pajamas but nothing like that. All I have to really do is touch him in the right spots with the right pressure. Zac is very easy in that sense.”

“I wish Ike were that easy! I sometimes have to spell it out.”

She went and got changed and she thought my two choices for pajamas were boring but it was just something cooler to sleep in. She got several pairs of underwear and bras before we left and went to the more generic parts of the mall for what she called requirements, which was make up. I heard Zac’s tone and checked the message.

Having fun?

Tons…but Ike will have much more fun when he sees that green lace thing she bought….

Green lace thing?! What the hell?

Lingerie item, lime green. Are you having fun?

Apparently…not near as much as you. Wait…YOU didn’t get anything did you!?

I did…found those same bambi pj’s in shorts!!!! So you get to enjoy them ALLLL year now!!!

NO! Take them back! If you don’t, I will!!!! I don’t know if I can handle them year round….

:- ) Kidding! I went with solid colors. Anything we need while I’m here?

Thankfully! And not that I can think of, well…unless you want to get something like her lime green thing in blue ;-)

Why? It’s just easier for you to take the panties and bra off. That thing looked complicated!

Oh…yeah, nothing complicated! She still planning to make me fend for myself?

Yep.

She looked at me. “He couldn’t resist could he?”

“Nope. I think he’s still afraid I’m going to run.”

She kept make up shopping and I kept texting with Zac until he had to go. We moved a few times to different sections and then we headed to her place for a while.

“Are you moving in with Ike?”

“We are talking about that right now, I spend more time there anyway but it’s just a big step to us. How did you adjust?”

“Adjust? I was suppose to adjust?! Shit. I didn’t really have much to adjust to, I’d been living on a 72 foot bus with him for months, so it was just a matter of adjusting to being right beside him all the time and having more space.”

“Have you had any issues at all?”

“Not really, I mean he basically let me do whatever I wanted, about the only thing he said not to do was make it extremely girly.”

“I haven’t seen his apartment in years. The last time I was there it was pretty bare.”

“It probably looked the same as it did years ago. I did hang some artwork up and put up some things, cleaned well. I think the dust bunnies behind the TV had set up a little town. It was insanely organized too, bank and jail, homes…”

She laughed. “I can imagine.”

“But beyond that it was just minor things, he’s just like do whatever. Long as I didn’t make it pink and put huge flowers everywhere.”

“I’m more clean lines and family things on the wall. I guess Ike and I have similar taste there, thankfully.”

“I haven’t seen Isaac’s apartment. I’ve seen Taylor’s once, when we picked him up last year.”

“Taylor and Stella have the same basic styles but she likes the more girl colors, he’s more bright and bold.”

“Have you two made wedding plans of any kind?”

“We’ve had serious talks about the date and if we wanted inside or outside. We’re differing on the season but I think he wants to do spring so we probably will do something outside.”

“Dress plans?”

“I’ve had my dress picked out for a long time. It’s the one my mom wore when she got married. Isaac hasn’t seen it.”

“What does it look like?”

“It’s a Cinderella style dress, so the top is fitted and has a beaded and lace top with sleeves. The waist down is organza material, it’s like real thin and light but it has a huge bottom. It’ll balloon out around me pretty wide.”

I tried to imagine myself in a balloon dress? Cringe worthy, but I bet she’d look stunning in the dress. She pulled into her apartment parking lot and after parking we got her things and went inside. Her apartment was modern, clean lines, and a ton of pictures of her and Ike, parents, and other family members.

“Do you want to see the dress?”

“It’s here?”

“Yeah. I keep it here.”

“Sure.”

It took her a few minutes and good god the bottom was huge, it was going to swallow her whole! But the top was pretty with the lace and beading accents, it would completely cover her though, except for a space right at her neckline.

“My mom loved it and I like the top but the bottom is huge.”

“That it is. Makes me glad I wore a Leia outfit.”

She giggled. “That had to be weird, but totally Zac.”

“If memory serves me right, he chose the theme. I just suggested going.”

She had made some kind of crock pot soup for dinner, but it was early so she checked it and we sat down in the living room.

“I think you made a good suggestion, I know everyone seemed to be pissed off, upset, or disappointed in everything but I think you both made a good choice. I mean, you both recognized it wasn’t ideal, but you didn’t jump right to an annulment.”

“Well, I kind of stopped talking to him after that and then I nearly made him a widow. But I think those events are what kind of sealed that we wouldn’t be filing and it was upsetting to his family but my friends just flatly disagreed.”

“Not their life, you made the choice to move in with Zac and give this a try. No one else has to live with the crazy guy but you.”

“If I could just get the fans to realize that, I think the entire fandom hates me.”

She was quiet for what felt like a long time, but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes.

“The fans can be very nice, the ones around town know who Stella and I are and for the most part they leave us alone. The few times I traveled with them was different. The fans in other states and cities vary from very nice to you need a restraining order.”

“I’ve not met any nice ones, well, Bailey in New York but even that encounter was skewed to be bad.”

“I’ve seen a lot of the messages that you got and I never really told Isaac or the other two but I did get some like those also. They were just as bad, just not the same quantity. I think yours are only that way because you aren’t dating Zac, you are married to him. He’s saying that he’s fully committed to you and he wants to be that way for the rest of his life.”

“So they have to call me a fat whale and a cow? I don’t understand the logic and you and Stella also took them off the market.”

“Yes, but Stella and I are only dating them, there is a fifty-fifty chance that in a few weeks or months or even years we’ll break up and they’ll be single again. Added, between their whore stage and their long-term stable relationship there was some time for fans to kind of see, oh he’s not that way anymore.”

“So, you think they are what?”

“I think these girls are blondes for starters because yes, I will admit it, Zac’s preferred hair color was blonde. Every girl I saw him with had blonde hair, natural or not it was blonde. What you did, is beyond even me.”

I laughed. “That’s simple, I told him no.”

She laughed. “Could very well be that. But, I think these girls are just upset and jealous that you have him. Him getting married shocked everyone in the family and I suspect the fans felt the same way. I know it’s hurtful, those comments are downright mean.”

“I figured Stella would have the mean ones.”

“I did too honestly, but she had some too but Taylor by that point had already had a few longer relationships, most didn’t think she’d last.”

“She proved them wrong.”

“Just like you will. I know it’s been rough and you think they all hate you, but not all of them do. Don’t let them get you down because it’s not worth it.”

“How did you just ignore them?”

“Well, I did like you did, privatized my accounts. That way I can see my friends and families post, without seeing 50 negative messages first. Also, if they post something about you just ignore it. Unless it’s an actual threat then you pay attention, blowing steam or not those can be serious. I wouldn’t dwell on what they said either, their intention is to project their hurt feelings onto you.”

“They did a very good job, in person and online.”

“In person was hard to ignore for me too, I wanted to beat the crap out of them.”

“I nearly did!”

“Isaac told me about that, I would have paid to see that video. I think the soup might be done though.”

She got up and checked and it was, so we moved to the kitchen and while we ate she talked more about the fans she’d met that were nice, that thought they were just the best couple and cutest, she talked about how Isaac was a diehard romantic and Zac being romantic was a foreign concept to her. We talked more about dealing with fans and then she ran me home about 8:30. It had been a good day over all, and thankfully Zac approved on the pajamas. Why? Because they were short and fit well. He’d managed dinner without burning the house down too, which was a good sign. By ten we were in bed.

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