I Found You, Something Told Me To Stay - (Jason/Zacky) Version Two.

Chapter Thirty-Six.

Umm...surprise update?! I know, I didn't really expect it either, but I restarted this chapter the other day after months of struggling over it and it kind of just flowed really well - I hope. I can't believe it's actually been seven months since I last updated this story, but I can't tell you how much trouble I've had with writing this chapter. I was really conflicted about it, because I didn't know how to write it without boring you with details that you already know, but considering it's been so long since I last updated this one, anybody who's still reading probably needs a recap by now! Haha. 

So, I'm going to try to get back on track with this one as well as keeping up "Searching For A Reason", now that I've managed to get this chapter finished!

I'm so, so, sooooo sorry it's been so long. I hope this isn't too boring for you to read.

Please vote, comment, and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!<3

**

I tucked my knees into my chest, my eyes watching as the tide calmly rolled in and out, washing over my toes every time it came to a stop in front of me.

My thoughts had been whirring uncomfortably around my brain for the past three days, right from the moment Zacky had dropped me home after my drunken run-in with him in Ronnie’s car. That entire day had been disastrous, when I thought about it – aside of how good the music had actually been at the gig, my argument with Zacky that had followed it had been bad enough, but to have had a second one in the same night with him, all because I’d been irresponsible and once again wandered off into the night with somebody who was nothing but toxic for me, hadn’t done me any favours in staying in his good books.

It was wrong of me, I knew, to care about Zacky’s opinion as much as my dad’s. My agenda for coming to Huntington Beach was to find my real father, to hopefully build a relationship with him and reward myself with a better life after seventeen years of torment. The additional family that came with meeting my dad was a bonus, and something I wouldn’t change for the world; but I was unsure, if I’d known what would have come with meeting Zacky, if I would even have bothered coming here. It was pathetic – I was entirely aware of that – but I could only stay in denial for so long before I finally had to admit to myself that these feelings I harboured the man who I was supposed to see as my as my uncle were real, and they were as strong as they were real.

The morning that had followed the night of the gig had been filled with uncomfortable silence. I’d half expected to wake up to Zacky immediately yelling at me – that finally, his justifiable anger had hit an all-time high and he was finally ready release it. Instead, he’d hardly said a word to me, and I couldn’t help feeling that was worse, in some ways. More surprisingly, upon dropping me off at home that morning, he’d proceeded to lie to my dad about what had happened, and brushed the situation off with a false story that he’d merely stumbled upon me in a drunken state the night before and had taken me back to his house to sleep it off. I was unsure as to why he’d done such a thing for me, but I’d only questioned it inside my head. Three days later, I’d not heard a thing from him.

I allowed a heavy sigh to leave my lips. It did nothing to ease up the heaviness that I felt inside of my head, and inside of my heart, and it was starting to feel that nothing would. I was irresponsible, idiotic, and every negative adjective I could I pin on myself as yet another metaphorical badge to show the world how pathetic I, and my situation, truly was. I appeared to be currently walking around in life as nothing more than a mess of unrequited love, and the uncanny ability to make every person I came into contact with mad at me.

“Hey…” A voice came from behind me. It was followed by a figure slumping down next to me so quickly that I almost didn’t take it in, but the flash of blonde hair and dark eye makeup told me exactly who it was, and that realisation made my stomach sink; also reminding me of why I was at even sat on the beach in the first place.