"Shit!" Emma muttered under her breath as she stumbled slightly and had to grab Zac's shoulder to keep from falling flat on her ass. Zac chuckled and slipped his arm around her waist to steady her. "I'm sorry, Zac." she smiled up at him. "I don't usually drink that much." "Just as much my fault Em. You told me to order you water, but see.." he gave her a mischevious grin, "there was this hot lookin' babe on the dance floor...totally blew me away and I forgot.." The rest of them heard his comment and laughed. "Seriously, Emma...you should do something with that..." Dea offered and Emma stared, dumbfounded. That was the first time anyone besides Danny-the-pus-bucket ever seriously mentioned that. "Do something with what?" Emma asked. "DUH! Emma...you rock girlfriend.." Dea teased. "At LEAST let me pay you for lessons so I can keep up with Tay." "FOR WHAT?" Emma exclaimed. "Shakin' my ass so hard it might break?" she rolled her eyes. "That was really nothing you guys.." she said modestly and leaned back against the hood of the car. A thought crossed Taylor's mind and he decided he needed to know the answer right then. "NOTHING??" he teased Emma. "OH? But you said you could do BETTER. IF that was nothing I wanna see better. NOW." he challenged and Emma figured it was just the beer talking. "Gimme a break, Tay.." she tried to get him to let her be, her head was spinning now. "I can see you're still buzzed Emma. You need to work off those last FIVE shots anyway...put your money where YOUR mouth is." he grinned and turned the stereo system in the car up loud. "Unless..." he left that unfinished, but looked at Zac, knowingly. "Unless what?" Emma asked. "Unless you're handing me the same line of shit you gave me about that pier incident? Are you?" Taylor continued to tease her relentlessly and she could see that Zac was getting pissed. "Okay Hanson.." she told him. "But you ASKED for it." she grinned and kissed Zac for all she was worth right there. "He'll shut up for at least a week, baby." She slid in the passenger seat of the vehicle, changed the station and cranked it louder. Limp Bizkit's Rollin' blared and a small group started to form. Zac watched, arms folded across his chest as Emma's body relaxed and she went almost as limp as a wet noodle. She spun around and stuck her hands to the back of her hips, spun again and the hat flew off. Zac was awed as she moved, almost like she choreographed the damn video for the song. The crowd was moving with music as they all watched Emma, who was now lost in the beat. The song ended with Emma dead in front of Taylor, her hand on his chest. "Now..are you satisfied?" she asked. "You bet, sugar." he winked at her and tossed the keys at Ike, helped Dea into the car. Ike did the same for Kim. Emma reached in the back and grabbed her jacket, quickly slipping it on as she and Taylor locked eyes. 'Emma, you are a dumbass and you know better than to drink that much' she thought to herself as Zac urged her to get in so they could leave.

Emma rode in silence with her head on Zac's shoulder as Ike drove first Deanna, then Kim, home. Occasionally she'd see Taylor looking intently at her in the rearview and she KNEW. HE knew. 'Dammit Emma...' she admonished herself for the millionth time that night. She did NOT want to deal with this tonight. Her head was still slightly swimming and she couldn't form the words to tell Zac in her head, much less make them come out of her mouth correctly. 'You better get it over with and just TELL him' she argued with herself. But she knew how she felt about it, and couldn't bear to see that reflected in Zac's eyes. She closed her eyes, unwilling to endure Taylor's intent stares anymore, either. She wondered how HE KNEW just before she drifted off, unable to fight the effects of the alcohol any longer.

Zac wondered why Emma was so quiet for a while, then figured she just needed to sleep all those shots off, when he looked down and her eyes were closed. He felt bad that he let her drink so much, but then she seemed to be having fun, and he thought she deserved to have a good time if her night working the bar was so rough. It was then that he realized he never asked her where it was, or exactly what 'workin' the bar' meant. He squeezed her shoulder and whispered her name, but she only snuggled closer and sighed heavily. He grinned down at her and brushed her curls off her face. Taylor watched in the rearview as Zac settled Emma more comfortably against him and sincerely hoped that he could get Emma to tell him the truth about herself before he found out the hard way and it DID make a difference. Not only that, he didn't really want his parents to know that he actually BEEN to the bar where she worked. He thought he was imagining things when she was dancing inside the club, after all she was right, it wan't that hard to shake your ass to a ggod beat. But that number in the parking lot cinched it. It was the same number he'd seen her do last month, when he'd gone into Danny's with a friend of his. She had been wearing a large silver cowboy hat at the time and hadn't seen her face, because he stayed at the back of the bar, to make sure his picture wasn't taken in there. Not that there was anything wrong with it, he was of age now, but he didn't want to deal with the lecture his mother would have given him, and he'd always been curious. He did remember wondering WHY she was dancing THERE. She was a talented enough dancer that she didn't need to peel off most of her clothes in the process. That parking lot number he'd just witnessed was much better than the first time he'd seen it, because he could see her face and she didn't have to interrupt the flow to remove clothing items. He took another look in the rearview and sighed. Zac had turned his body so she could lay across him and her cheek was pressed to his chest. Zac had both his arms draped around her, and one hand was gently combing through her dark, curly hair. He could tell from the way Zac held her, talked to her and looked at her that he was completely head over heels for this girl. He promised himself he would talk to Emma, and find out what the whole story was. He liked her and was sure that the persona she put on for the stage was definately NOT her. He could see that Emma had it just as bad for Zac, and the look in her eyes when she realized that he knew almost made Tay want to cry for her. He didn't have to ask, he KNEW that Zac had no clue. He had to get the whole story. As much teasing and torture as he gave his brother, he didn't want to see Zac hurt. Taylor turned back to the window and watched the lights blur past as Ike drove the truck toward the studio and wondered how the hell they were going to get Emma home, she was in no shape to drive.

Back Home Next