Zack is ready

Zack looked in the mirror one last time, took a deep breath, then headed toward the living room. Ashley and Brandon were in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner. He was glad to see them talking again. Brandon was also tipping back a beer. He noticed Ashley had almost finished off another glass of wine. She'd had two or 3 during dinner. She turned and smiled at Zack and he reciprocated.

The scene in the living room was a little more concerning. Kurt and Chloe were on the couch and Kurt was pouring her another glass of wine. Zack wasn't sure how many she'd had but he also knew she didn't drink much and was kind of a lightweight. Luckily Heather was also there in one of the chairs to keep an eye on her cousin. Zack didn't want to cancel his plans but he also didn't want to have to be worried about Chloe the whole time. He walked up beside Heather.

"Vicky and I are going to go for a little hike, we probably won't be gone too long. You guys going to be all right?" he asked looking from Chloe to Heather.

"Everyone, will be fine," Heather responded, squeezing his shoulder. Her look further told him that she understood his real question.

"Maybe your goal should be to stay out as late as possible," Kurt taunted as Zack was walking away.

Zack turned back, but said nothing, heading out the back door.

Chloe playfully smacked Kurt.

"Rude!"

"What? Just trying to give the guy some encouragement."

Kurt might have felt a little jealous had his mind not been completely consumed with the red head beside him. He'd managed to secure a seat next to her at dinner and by joking around and keeping her wine glass full, he'd managed to get her into quite a playful mood. She'd probably be even more playful if not for his cousin's supervision.

Heather watched Zack intently as he left. She'd found herself thinking about him since their run-in earlier. But it appeared he had eyes elsewhere... for the moment. She wondered if the real Victoria would be like the one he'd put on the pedestal and crushed on for so long. "If not..." she thought as she ran her finger around the rim of her wine glass.

The sight of Vicky almost took Zack's breath away. Not that she was dressed up or looked any more beautiful than he thought she always looked, but because she was waiting for him, and the way she smiled when he'd come out the door.

"Talk to ya later Gavin," she turned and said as they headed toward the trail.

"Later," Zack added

"Have fun," Gavin replied.

"You two have a nice little chat?"

"Yeah he was telling me about his game. Then got embarrassed because he thought he was boring me. But... it was interesting."

"Haha, that's Gav. Hey, wait here just a second I need to tell him something."

Zack ran back up to the porch quickly and whispered to Gavin.

"Do you think you could keep an eye on Chloe? I think Kurt's trying to get her drunk."

"She can take care of herself!" He said angrily and turned and stormed back into the cabin.

Zack stood shocked for a moment, then ran back to Vicky.

"What was that about?"

"I don't know, he's pissed about something."

"Did you mention Chloe?"

"Yeah, why?"

"When I brought her up it got real tense so I dropped the topic quickly. That's when I asked him about his game."

"Hmmm," Zack responded.

He took a last look at the cabin, then to Vicky and smiled.

"Let's go."

Heather watched as Gavin stormed in the back door of the cabin and walked right back out the front door. She thought about chasing after her roommate to see what was going on but she didn't want to taker her eyes off of Kurt.