The Unofficial Zack Warren Fan Club (4 page)

I sank down in my seat, knowing our ruse was going to go one of two ways. We’d end up really hating each other…or actually become friends.

“What did we do to deserve this?” I asked.

“Hell, your guess is as good as mine.”

Chapter 4

The only bright spot during this dismal drive was that Zack and I enjoyed the same music. We agreed on a rock station that played a mix of the classics and new favorites.

“How can you drive this thing?” I asked.

“It’s not that hard. My truck is pretty big.”

I knew plenty about his truck. Glenn originally bought it for himself, but then he found a sports car he liked better. Zack gladly took it off his hands. He outfitted it with an earth shaking sound system and tires that went up to my waist.

And that wasn’t all.

Supposedly, girls get into Zack’s truck in as girls, and came out as women.

Tales I’ve heard make him sound like a sex machine, a god. The Mason twins were bold enough to start a rumor that he kept an inflatable mattress hidden under the spare tire.

Of course, that could all be fabricated by the fan club.

Zack lived in the same dorm as me. It was coed. Guys on the top floor, girls on the bottom. He parked his truck right next to Lana’s little blue Nissan outside the dorm. Each time I pass it I’m tempted to take a peek to see if the mattress rumor was true. Now I was kicking myself for not satisfying my curiosity.

“Then why were those rumors flying around?” I couldn’t help my curiosity, even though I wasn’t a big Zack fan, having him live up to those stories would be disappointing. Especially the one about him making out with the French tutor in the custodians closet.

“One of the guys on a rival team started a rumor because I struck out their best hitter more than once. I ignore it, so should you.”

“Don’t you care about your reputation?”

“It’s not important.” He said. “There are a couple girls giggling behind my back, trying to figure out how many times I screwed in the back of my truck. So what?”

I was feeling a tad warm, but it was the heat. Had to be. I hated Zack Warren. “Right, so you’re telling me that you’d just rather not date,” and have sex with any girl willing to get in his truck? I couldn’t make myself believe that, no matter how hard I tried.

“No, I’d rather not date flirty idiots. There’s a difference.”

“But you can’t do that with your reputation.” I began to argue, trying to make him see he had to fix this some how. Then I remembered I wasn’t supposed to care.

Did he not get the message that went out to every other guy his age? If he did, he must have ignored the part instructing him to be a horny pitcher, intent on sleeping his way through half the females in our school. Or at least striving for that like so many other guys I knew. I just wasn’t sure he could be the gentleman jock.

So he wanted to keep it a secret. No biggie. I wasn’t sure if I could believe anything he said to me. He seemed truthful, had never been the type to lie, and I never thought of him as untrustworthy in that sense. In fact, he was known for brutal honesty.

For some strange reason we never clicked.

Zack and I always seemed to run into each other at the worst times, mostly when he was pulling pranks. Like putting snakes in the teacher’s desk, or sneaking out of class. A more brilliant scheme involved switching the signs on the girls and boys bathrooms. The school was in an uproar of excitement and fascination. In eighth grade his antics escalated and he pulled the fire alarm during a thunderstorm, right in front of me, as if I’d never tell anyone.

And I didn’t.

I could have ratted him out…but no matter how much I said I hated him, I had a secret soft spot for my enemy. Then he started playing baseball and stopped breaking the rules. I figured the girls would find another boy to idolize and drool over.

They didn’t.

Apparently a baseball player is every bit as hot as a bad boy.

Keeping up my dislike of him almost seems silly now. If I allowed myself, I might find him an interesting person to be around. But I wasn’t going to send up the white flag. No way. The streamer stealer would have to call a truce.

Holding my breath, eyes watering, I tried to roll it down. The window was one of those old fashioned jobbies, the kind you had to crank.

“Sure, just as soon as my head stops spinning.” He too was hunched over, hands on his knees. “The government would pay big bucks to have that mutt. You could take out an army.”

I pressed my face into my shoulder to hide a smile.

The other moving van pulled up. Our parents jumped out with horrified expressions on their faces and cell phones in hand, no doubt ready to dial 911.

“We’re fine.” Zack straitened. He had one of those convincing voices, authoritative sounding. He controlled a team of testosterone-laden jocks without raising his voice in the slightest, and I guess it worked on our parents as well. They actually relaxed, just hearing those two words.

“What happened?” Glenn glanced between us. The sun reflected off his bald, shiny head.

“It was Kirk, we couldn’t breathe.” I said, wondering what magical powers Zack possessed, and if he would be kind enough to impart his knowledge.

“It can get pretty bad.” Mom leaned into Glenn, winding her arms around his waist. PDA alert. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. And judging by the southward movement of Glenn’s left hand, he was wedging his fingers in mom’s back pocket.

Zack rolled his eyes, hating the display as much as me. “Are we good?”

Glenn and mom headed back for their moving van, making goo-goo eyes at each other. He added, halfheartedly, since he was busy grabbing my mom’s ass. “Sure, no more funny stuff. Let’s get to the new house in one piece.”

Chapter 5

Zack and I went back to ignoring each other once we were on the road again. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as it was earlier, which had to be a step in the right direction…or maybe I was becoming immune.

I forced Kirk to sit. He was being stubborn, and ended up sitting—not next to me like I wanted—but on me. Kirk is a big boy. Not fat, just big bones, wrinkles, and lots of muscle. He weighed one hundred and ten pounds last time I took him to the vet. So it wasn’t like I could use my superior size to move him. Not when I weighed a measly fifteen pounds more.

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in time with a song on the radio. “My dad is driving in the slow lane because—and this is just my opinion—he’s occupied with something other than the GPS.”

“I thought they were supposed to be responsible adults!”

“It’s a good thing we’re past an impressionable stage of youth.”

“We should have insisted they take a honeymoon. One night in Vegas wasn’t enough.” Zack and I told them to go away for a week. Heck, even a weekend. But Glenn and mom were so excited about the new house they didn’t want to wait.

“I tried, you know how my dad is.”

“Yeah,” I shoved my phone in my pocket. It wasn’t easy with Kirk doing his impression of a lap cat. “This must be some sort of lust stage.”

“How do you figure?”

“I’m no expert,” I leaned my head back against the seat, trying to look at Zack with an unobstructed view. “I read an article in biology and it said the first few months of a physical relationship are…intense.” I really didn’t want to go into detail. I’m sure he got the gist of it.

Kirk was so happy when I opened my door he leapt from the van with a howl, rolling around in the dirt next to me. We hadn’t been on the road long, but he was the only dog I ever met who hated car rides. Maybe it had something to do with his tummy problems. Maybe he got carsick. Or maybe my dog is freak.