They Return To New Arrivals

Victoria and Chloe entered the tent and saw Zack in the midsts of packing up his clothes that laid on the ground. His anger still hadn't subsided, but the two girls had no trouble in seeing why, especially from everything he learned. Chloe looked over to Victoria, "You go help pack your stuff up, I'll be okay," She said with a weak smile,

"Are you sure?" Victoria tentatively asked Chloe nodded back, "Okay, I'll see you down at the beach then." Victoria quickly gave Chloe another hug before leaving the tent,

"Zack?" Chloe asked as she approached the black-haired man, "Zack...are you okay?"

Zack dropped what was in his hand and let out a sharp sigh, "No Chloe, I'm pretty far from okay," He replied, doing his best to not snap at her,

Chloe's lips trembled as she knelt down next to him, "Your hand..." She whispered while reaching out and taking his swollen hand that lightly dripped blood,

"It's nothing," Zack replied, this time much calmer, "I'll be okay,"

"I'm sorry Zack," Chloe whispered as she shook her head, "This is my fault,"

"No," Zack sternly said, "Chloe, out of the four of us involved, you're the only innocent one here," Zack replied before diverting his gaze from Chloe's, "We should seriously finish packing."

"Okay..." Chloe weakly replied, a pit still in her stomach, the way Zack was talking and keeping her at a distance was already hurting.

The two were packed up within a few minutes and walked out of their tent, neither even looking at the others once. They made it to the beach and saw Victoria and Gavin standing next to Brandon who was in the boat, ready to leave, "You guys ready? You didn't forget anything, right?" Brandon asked,

"If we did, it wouldn't be worth coming back for," Zack dryly replied as he tossed his back in the back of the rowboat and stepped on. He then turned and reached his hand out for Chloe helping her in, "We'll, um, we'll wait on the docks for you two." Zack tacked on to Gavin and Victoria,

"Don't worry about us, just get some distance from this place, hmm?" Victoria replied,

"Seriously, just get there safe." Gavin agreed as Brandon started to row.

The whole trip was made in complete silence, Brandon didn't know what to Zack, especially since Zack turned out to be the point of Ashley's obsession. Ironically, he felt better knowing that it was Zack and not Kurt, he wasn't as mad, sure a bit hurt but seeing what happened, he had to imagine Zack probably felt worse about it then he did. As for Chloe, Brandon couldn't think of a fucking thing, what she just went through was some of the worst shit he'd ever heard, it was like something you'd hear about on the news. He never thought something like that would happen to a friend, and worse yet by someone, he also knew too.

Chloe peered at Zack multiple times through the trip, his eyes were forward, and he didn't once look at anything besides the upcoming shoreline. Chloe didn't know what to do, she couldn't tell what he was thinking for once, whether he was angry with her, at himself, at Kurt and Ashley, or even all three at once. Still, she didn't want him facing his emotions alone, even if they were directed at her, she leaned her head over on his shoulder, in a silent attempt to comfort him.

Zack pursed his lips and quickly turned his head so Chloe couldn't see his face, she heard him take a slow breath before wrapping his arm around Chloe, pulling her closer to him. Still, he didn't say a word. They reached the dock after a few more minutes and got off the boat, Zack true to his word stood with Chloe and waited the twenty minutes for Victoria and Gavin. Though this wait felt like hours for Chloe who still couldn't get Zack to interact, hell, she couldn't even get him look at her.

Finally, the four were on the dock; Victoria noticed Chloe's worried and longing look at a distraught Zack. "You two..." Victoria started to asked but quickly switched the question; she didn't want to start asking about their relationship already, "You two ready to go inside?"

Chloe nodded back, and Zack put an arm around Chloe, leading her forward. The arm around Chloe didn't help comfort her; it felt almost emotionless like it was just merely expected of Zack to do it. As they walked up the hill from the docks, they suddenly heard a voice, "Oh, there they are!" They quickly looked to their right, where all the cars were parked and saw Lisa Rivera, Zack's ex-girlfriend, and Madison Cole, Brandon's twin.

"What are you guys doing here?" Victoria asked as the two girls ran towards them happily,

"Heather texted me this morning, telling me to come over here," Madison explained,

"Yeah, we were just around the corner at my cabin," Lisa added on, "Figured it would be more fun to hang out with you instead of just sitting alone in my dads."

"Whoa, you okay Zack?" Madison suddenly asked as she noticed his hand,

Lisa turned and noticed not only Zack's hand but Chloe's whole demeanor, something was very wrong. Add that Zack had an arm around her, and Chloe was staying very close to him, something she never knew the two friends to do, "Are you guys okay? What happened?"

"Not now Lisa, I just can't deal with this," Zack replied as he looked to Victoria, "Could you take her to our room, I need to handle this," He said flashing his wounded hand. Victoria let out a quick nod, replacing Zack's arm with her own, leading Chloe inside while Zack followed them inside.

Gavin was left outside, and the two girls looked at him expectantly, "What the hell is going on Gavin?" Madison snapped out,

"That's a really long story," Gavin replied while rubbing the back of his neck,

"Well great news, we have time," Madison replied as she crossed her arms,

"Please Gavin, what's going on with Zack and Chloe?" Lisa asked, almost begging at this point,

"Okay, okay, well...I guess it kinda started as soon as we got here..." Gavin began to say.