Foreign Intervention

With Chloe no longer standing in his way, Zack was free to charge straight ahead. Despite her caution that he should stay behind, and the guidance of both Gavin and Victoria that amounted to the same advice, Zack just couldn’t wait around. He had to act. Perhaps it was a reaction to his passivity, his willingness to just let things slide that had led to Ashley wanting another man, that was now empowering him. If he had been more decisive from the start, if he’d just really known what he wanted perhaps none of this would ever have happened. But it had happened and now it was up to him to fix it.

His hand tightly grasped the handle and yanked it open. He leapt back, eyes wide and his heart leaping in his chest. A figure stood in the doorway, hand up, preparing to knock. The brightness of the light behind it blinded Zack for a moment, though he tried to squint past, but could only make out the petite form and hair billowing in the breeze. For the briefest of seconds, he almost thought it was Ashley, however as his eyes adjusted he saw that the hair was too dark, the eyes were brown, and the face was all wrong. As cute as she was, when he looked at Madison all he saw was Brandon.

“M-Madison,” he stammered, slowly coming to the realisation that if Madison was here that implied that the girls had already retrieved Brandon and were on their way into town. He slid past the petite, dark haired girl, and stared down the lane towards the road, Heather’s car already a speck in the distance. “Shit.” He turned, barrelling back into the cabin. “Where are my keys?”

“I think I seen them in the bedroom,” Gavin suggested, following him down the hall.

“What the fuck is up with him?” Madison asked the Chloe and Victoria, lazily pointing at the space where Zack had been with her hand still hanging loosely by her hip.

“I don’t know,” Chloe replied slowly, taking a long look at Brandon’s little sister, dressed in Brandon’s hoodie, the sheer size of it draping over her like a dress. “How much did Ashley and Heather tell you?”

“Everything,” Madison insisted irritably.

Chole exhaled. “Fine. Well, he thinks Hannah framing Lisa is his fault and he wants to help fix it.”

“Funny, Ashley thinks it’s her fault,” Madison remarked, though she didn’t actually laugh, instead distractedly scanning the rest of the cabin. She’d never been here before, but it looked like a nice place.

“Regardless, he wants to go with them, to help with the plan to get Hannah to confess on tape,” Chloe finished explaining, as Zack and Gavin emerged from the hall, the keys shimmering in Zack’s hand. “I told him it was a bad idea to be in the same place as Ashley and Brandon, but he won’t listen to reason.”

“I am being reasonable. This is my fault, so I’m going to do something about it,” Zack said hurriedly as he rushed towards the door again. This time he found it blocked by Madison. He shook his head furiously. “For fucks sake, not again. Move!”

Though shorter than Chloe, with her hands on her hips and fury on her face, Madison looked twice as intimidating. She prodded Zack’s chest, making him take a step backward, and glared. “No way, Bishop. If I can’t go, neither can you.”

Zack rubbed his chest and argued, “This has nothing to do with you.”

“That’s right, and it also has nothing to do with Brandon but he’s still helping,” Madison countered angrily, matching Zack’s stare. “He already has to tolerate his slut ex-girlfriend hanging around. I’m not going to have him troubled by seeing your traitorous mug all day too.”

“Besides, they’ve already left,” Victoria added, placing a friendly, sympathetic hand on Zack’s shoulder. “And you don’t know where or when they’re meeting Hannah.”

Chloe walked past Madison and shut the door to the outside, effectively ending the discussion, but still offered one last reason for him to stay, “I know you feel helpless but think about what Lisa would want you to do. It might seem like you have to do something but sometimes nothing is the best kind of something. Getting involved might just make things worse.”

Slumping his shoulders Zack had to admit defeat. They were all right, every one of them. He was frustrated and wanting to do something just to make himself feel better, not really thinking of the situation they were in or the girls’ plan. He didn’t want to be the reason the plan went sideways, and Lisa ended up stuck in prison or rehab. And even if he was willing, the look on Madison’s face told him that there was no way he was getting from here to the door in one piece.

With the crisis averted, Victoria patted Zack’s shoulder. He glanced sideways at her, in a daze, as she said, “Well, now I know you’re not leaving us, I think I’ll go take a nap. You and Kurt really wore me out down at the lake.”

Zack froze as Chloe, Madison and Gavin all stared at him, some of them blinking, others just bug eyed, and another still with their mouth hanging open. Victoria cheerily skipped off down the hall towards the master bedroom, leaving the others to deal with the shrapnel from the bombshell she’d just dropped. Zack ran a hand through his hair, trying to think of where to even beginning justifying what Victoria had revealed.

“Fucking the best friend, niiiice,” Madison jeered sarcastically, the derision dripping from every word. “Not that I mind you breaking the little whore’s heart like she broke Bran’s.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Zack growled, tucking his chin and looking away. “It just happened. But I don’t regret it. She gets to do enough fucking around behind my back.”

“Oh, not this again,” Gavin hung his head in his hands. “I already told you there was nothing going on. Whatever happened between me and Ashley, just happened, just like you said it did with you and Victoria. Except, we actually regret it.”

“Sure, there’s nothing going on. Just my girlfriend wanting to suck your dick and sit on your face and god knows what else,” Zack shot back defensively. “And isn’t the tit for tat thing Ashley’s preferred method of apologising? Let’s call it even for you fucking her last night.”

“I don’t know what you’re crying about,” Madison declared, laughing lightly. “She’s not even your girlfriend anymore.”

“W-what?” Zack did a double take, realising what she’d said.

“When Brandon asked, she said you’d practically broken up,” Madison lied, with a shrug, pretending like she didn’t care. “I guess she meant ‘practically’ as in, she hadn’t told you. So, feel free to fuck around all you like. Seems like the only thing you’re good for.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes at the short brunette. Ashley hadn’t mentioned anything like that during the whole time they’d been hanging out. But it wasn’t like Chloe would be the first person Ashley would rush to tell, given Chloe’s own previous experiences with Zack and the blonde cheerleader’s role in that. And there had been bigger, more pressing issues to deal with. Yet, Chloe found it difficult to believe that Ashley wouldn’t have mentioned something about it. That kind of thing would have come up, right? It wasn’t like Madison was exactly short on reasons to lie.

“I…I bet she just said that to spare Brandon’s feelings,” Gavin replied quickly, not wanting to be responsible for actually breaking Zack and Ashley up. “She loves you. She wants to work things out with you. She told me herself last night.”

“Was that before or after you fucked her?” Zack challenged him, but Gavin just silently bit his lip and frowned. He knew he shouldn’t say ‘both’. In lieu of a response, Zack looked to Madison. “Did it seem like she was just saying it for Brandon’s benefit?”

She shook her head, her long brown hair bouncing with every turn. “Not at all.”

Chloe pursed her lips thoughtfully. Madison was a good actress. It was difficult to really tell if she was lying or not.

“Why don’t you just wait and ask her about it?” Gavin suggested wisely, though unwisely, instead of stopping there, he added, “Like you said you would do earlier?”

“I’m tired of waiting,” Zack snapped, his voice filling the cabin, thundering so loud he was sure Victoria could hear. “I’m tired of waiting for Ashley to satisfied with me. I’m tired of waiting for Lisa to be free. I’m tired of just waiting to hear what the fuck is going on in this cabin.” His tirade became more furious, more uncontrolled. “I’m tired of waking up every day to hear how someone has cheated or betrayed me. I’m tired of all of this drama. I’m tired of not knowing who I am or who the fuck my father is.”

Shit. Zack bowed his head, grasping at his hair with his hands. He hadn’t meant to say that. He’d gotten so angry the words slipped from his tongue before he could stop them. And now everyone knew that his dad might not be his biological father. Shit shit shit shit shit.

“Gregory…” Chloe gaped, having known Zack the longest, the idea of Gregory Bishop not being Zack’s father was unthinkable to her. “…isn’t your dad?”

“You know, I am tired,” Zack stood limply, sighing wearily. “I’m just…tired. Victoria had the right idea, I think.”

As Zack slumped off, Madison shrugged and hopped on the couch. She grabbed the remote, eager to watch something, anything, after being cut off from most forms of technology for the last few days. She didn’t care about Zack’s plight. She’d already done her job of twisting the knife.

But Chloe and Gavin looked down the hall towards Zack’s lumbering body, watching it disappear into the room he shared with his best friend. They knew someone should talk to him, but perhaps someone should also talk to Madison and get the details on this fabled break up Ashley supposedly spoke of. The question was, who should speak to who?