fameless → ZACH HERRON ✓

t w e n t y - n i n e

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
( PAIN )

     ZACH LAYS BACK on the seat. He taps his foot on the floor impatiently, continuously checking his watch for the time. It had been hours, almost a full day, since he had saw Carmen.

And it was tearing him apart.

Daniel sighs as he watches Zach stress. The boy had relentlessly asked how long until they got off the plane, of which he got the same answer every time; "soon".

His patience and tolerance for everyone around him had run out. He needed Carmen, because she seemed to be the only one that held him together. And thinking of her calmed him down when he got restless.

"I need to see her, Daniel," Zach says, his voice cracking as he runs his fingers through his hair. "I'm losing my mind."

"You'll see her soon, I promise," Daniel says, patting his shoulder. He relaxes in his own seat, missing the girl's company too. "We all miss her, Zach."

"Where do you think she is?" Zach asks in a whisper, breaking at every word.

"I'm sure Jackson's mom will know," Daniel replies. "He probably didn't tell her, but she knows him like the back of her hand. She probably has a pretty good idea."

"I hope so," Zach murmers. "For the sake of everything that keeps me sane, I hope she knows the exact coordinates to where he's taken her."

---

A pure look of pain was sketched on her face as Jackson threw the baseball bat aside, pleased with his half hour of torture inflicted upon the girl. Cole stands far behind them, seemingly uncomfortable with his stance.

"You're a real pushover, you know," Jackson snickers, bending down to where Carmen lay. "You still don't want to tell me the truth?"

"I know the truth," Carmen breathes, clutching her stomach as she closes her eyes tightly. "And so does Cole."

"I will let you go," Jackson says in exasperation, standing once again. "Why won't you just admit what you did?"

"Because I didn't cheat on you!" She snaps, wincing as a burning sensation shoots through her ribs.

"Just admit it, Carmen! This could all be over if you'd just tell me!"

"Do what you want," Carmen whispers as she stares at the ceiling, tears falling onto her cheeks. "Torture me, yell at me, anything. But you'll never get what you want from me, because I didn't do it."

"Cole and Derek say otherwise. It's everyone else against you, and personally, I favor their word over yours. So until you decide to confess, you'll be staying here."

Jackson motions at the warehouse, a grin plastered onto his face. "And I promise your L.A. friends won't be able to find us."

And with that, Jackson and Cole file from the warehouse, cutting the power as they do so.

Carmen lays flat on her back, uncapable of moving due to the amount of injuries Jackson and his baseball bat had inflicted upon her legs and torso. Her lip was busted, and she felt as though her nose were shattered in three different places.

Even untied, she felt useless. She couldn't bare to even roll over- something as common as speaking hurt mercilessly. She wanted to scream for help- for someone to find her. But she knew she couldn't do anything in her condition.

Carmen's back ached from the concrete that she lay on, and her head was unsupported. She really missed her bed, and Zach.

Zach.

Where would he think she was? That she left him? That she made him sleep on the couch just so she could slip away?

Carmen's bottom lip begins to tremble as she thinks of all the possible scenarios that could've ran through his head as he found an empty bed this morning. And then it hit her like a ton of bricks.

What if he didn't miss her?

Of course Zach constantly worried about her, and was so overprotective all the time. But what if he did it to push her away? To make her distance herself from him? To get her to leave?

And what if he and the others weren't looking for her? What if she wasn't missed by any of the others, either?

Was it all an act?

Carmen tried to stop her thoughts, but she couldn't. They were endless. And the more she tried to stop thinking, the more she started to believe that no one was coming for her. That no one cared.

Maybe this is where she was meant to be- away from the others. So that she could finally understand her position. That she wasn't right for the boy of her dreams, or any of her friends.

What would've pushed them away?

Her immediate thought was her past- something that she remembered Zach wasn't too fond about. Did he believe the rumor like so many others in Oregon had? That she had slept with Cole?

If that was the case, her relationship with him was over.

But that was the thing.

She never really knew what she was with Zach.

Were they just friends with benefits? Or together? Perhaps they weren't anything at all. And that made her heart drop.

She wasn't famous like Zach. She wasn't rich, either. She didn't have talent. She was clingy and needy. She was too dependant.

Carmen was fameless, and had fallen for a boy she would never have.

So as she stared up at the ceiling, silently sobbing, she made a promise to herself.

She would never love, because she had been fooled twice. Love was for the weak, and for ones that deserved it. She wasn't either of those, and never again did she want to be tricked.

Because Carmen Elliott was no longer going to wait for a hero to burst through the door of the warehouse to save her. She wasn't that dependant person anymore.

She would not longer love. Because love was pain.

And she was sure as hell done with pain.

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