| Emma sat in her car, trying desperately to get herself under control. She was so pissed, and so close to drunk that she couldn't see straight. She looked at her watch, and noticed that it was 11:30. She should hurry to meet Zac, she thought to herself. 'and find a way to tell him' the voice in he back of her head screamed, but she ignored it. She pulled a make up remover wipe from her purse and wiped the goop from her face as she sped down the highway, then slicked on her pink gloss. She sprayed some light perfume on her hair and ran her hands through her curls and shook them out, then groaned inwardly when she realized she couldn't do anything about the liquor on her breath. Oh well, she'd have to tell him sooner or later. She was just hoping for later, is all. Zac paced the studio parking lot and kept looking at his watch. He had no idea why he was so antsy, it was just barely midnight and he knew Emma would NOT stand him up. "Zac..chill." Tay said, his voice low so the girls they had brought along wouldn't hear. "It's JUST midmidnight, maybe it took her a few extra minutes to leave work..hey where does she work, anyway?" Tay asked. "She has a couple of jobs Tay. I don't know which one she's at tonight. She didn't say." Taylor gave him a puzzled look, but Zac was saved from explaining WHY he didn't know where she was coming from, by the sound of her screeching tires in the parking lot. "Sorry I'm late Hanson's..." she grinned as she stepped from her car, slammed the door and locked it. "Hey, Zac.." she gave him his own special smile as he took her hand and kissed her cheek. he looked at her strangely. "Why do you smell like smoke, Em? You don't smoke." he asked. "Ugh!" she quickly complained. "I was workin' the bar tonight. It's a giant smoky, dive and I'd just as soon not think about it. It's a hole but the tips are good. But I didn't have time to go home and shower, Brit was late.." Emma let her breath out in relief, when he didn't ask any further questions. And basically everything she had told him was true, but then Brit was always late. Zac smiled down at her and kissed her cheek. "I'm glad she wasn't any later." he told her softly, then turned to introduce her to his brother's dates. The girls decided they wanted to go to a club, since everything was just getting underway, and Emma fleetingly thought of the chaos going on at Danny's now that Brit had probably taken the stage. Brit could handle the crowd for quite a while, she was unfortunately a lifer for Danny. "Em?" Zac nudged her gently, "Is that okay with you?" he asked when he had her attention. "Oh..whatever you guys wanna do is fine with me." she smiled agreeably at the other two women."Sorry, I'm still a little wound from work," she s giggled. "Gimme another five minutes to recharge my brain cells. I tend to turn them off when I'm slingin' beer in that dump. It makes it easier." Zac grinned at Emma and took her hand, "Tay offered to drive baby. We're taking our lives in our hands, but I think it'll be alright." Zac teased. "Damn, Zac! THINK about who you just said that to.." Tay shook his head and grinned at Emma. Emma laughed and slipped her arm around Zac's waist. "He has a point, Zac." Zac laughed again and helped her into the back seat of the SUV they were driving tonight. The evening went rather well, thugh there was another close call whn Zac kissed her and then asked if she'd been drinking already. |
| "Just a couple of shots, Zac. No big. Better to let them buy me a drink or two than have them tearing up the bar." she sighed, kicking herself silently for telling half-truths. But she certainly didn't want to make the revelation in front of Tay and Ike too, or their girlfriends, whom she barely knew. He smiled down at her and kissed the top of her head. Tay pulled around back of the club they'd decided on and, recalling her earlier conversation with Danny (if you could call it that), quickly grabbed Zac's ballcap from behind the seat and anchored it securely on her head. She pulled her dark curls through the hole at the back, slipped off her jacket and took a deep breath. Zac wondered what was bothering Emma tonight when they went inside. She had been pretty quiet in the car, and then out of the blue she pulled on one of his ballcaps, so he could barely see her green eyes to talk to her. Now they were seated at a table near the bar, and Emma showed no sign of slowing down, even though she'd already had a few shots and chased them with beer. He put his arm around her shoulder and gave it a squeeze, "You okay?" he yelled in her ear a so she'd hear him over the loud music coming from the DJ's enormous system. "Yeah...I'm cool now, Zac. Should have warned you.." she told him. "Rough night at the bar, I just needed to wind down a bit." Emma gave him a bright smile and chastised herself silently for letting Danny get to her. She ordered another shot and then turned her attantion fully on Zac, his brothers and their dates. |
| Emma finally relaxed, but she wasn't sure whether it was because she was with Zac, who made her feel so completely opposite of what she had felt when she left Danny's, or because she had just finished half a fifth of whiskey, chased with beer. Either way, Zac was smiling again and she was thoroughly enjoying the company of the whole group, though Tay and Ike's dates occasionally mentioned the fact that Emma could drink the rest of the entire place under the table, jokingly of course. But after the second reference to her ability to hold hard liquor, she switched to straight beer. Emma also noticed that Taylor had had a few too many and it was showing. He was in the mood to dance, but his date was feeling a little self conscious and didn't want to get up. "Well why the hell did you wanna come here then? Come on, babe..." he tugged at her hand, but she only blushed and begged off, swearing she wasn't a very good dancer, that she just liked to watch. Ike and his date were all wrapped up in each other, and Emma and Zac were just relaxed, talking loudly with both Tay and his date about a whole lot of nothing. Tay was starting to squrim in his chair, tapping his fingers on the table. Emma could see he was frustrated with his date, Deanna she thought her name was, and Emma realized that this was probably only their first or second date. If Dea didn't relax and just get up, it would probably be their last, which would be too bad, considering Emma could tell that aside from the whole dancing thing, she really liked him. "'Scuse us guys.." Emma said, kissed Zac on the cheek and grabbed Dea by the hand. "Ladies' room.." she explained, "Zac order me a double and then water after that, please?" Zac nodded as Taylor stared after them. "Wonder what that's about?" he mused as Zac shrugged his shoulders and waved down the waitress. Once in the ladies' room, Emma took the opprtunity to get rid of some of the whiskey she inhaled, washed her hands, pulled off the ballcap and shook out her curls, thinking it was late enough that she wouldn't have to worry. Then she turned to Dea. "Deanna, how many times have you been out with Tay?" she asked casually. "Three.." she answered fixing her straight, blonde hair and reapplying lipstick. "Why?" "And you've known him for..?" Emma urged. "A couple months, WHY?" she asked wondering what Emma was getting at, or if she was actually drunk now. "So then you KNOW that music is what drives the man? Right?" Emma stresses. "Jeez, Emma! He IS a musician." she smiled. "Then why won't you dance with him? He wants you to, and his whole body is twitching, Dea.." Emma asked. "I can't.." Dea answered, looking at the floor. "Whaddaya mean you CAN'T? Shake your booty while he does his thing, no big.." Emma giggled, "...all ya have to do is stand there and wiggle your hips." "I can't even DO THAT.." Dea sighed. "No rythym..not like his anyway." "HELLLOOOO???? Okay. I KNOW you like him. I saw you watching him. If you wanna keep him calling you, YOU are gonna get your ass on that dancefloor right NOW. Lessons start in three seconds...MOVE.." she grabbed the ballcap, stuck it back on her head, and dragged Dea out of the ladies' room, Dea protesting loudly. "Just tonight Dea..then when he asks what you wanna do, DON'T mention clubbing again." Emma yelled in her ear as they approached their table. Dea looked at Emma in shock as Emma grabbed the double Zac ordered her, downed it without wincing. "You and you.." she grinned and pointed at Tay and Zac, "dancefloor.." Emma winked at Zac as Taylor about flew out of his chair, practically pulling Dea's arm out of the socket. Zac followed, just to see what the hell was up and Emma grabbed a waitress, took two more full shot glasses from her tray and slipped her some money. |