Dressed In Black

Pickup

Lockdown sucked, to say the very very least. Filming was complicated, Zak couldn't keep himself from yelling at me, I couldn't keep from yelling back, and on more than one occasion we had to stop filming entirely for a Billy-mandated 'mediation'. It felt like we were dramatic high schoolers getting over a breakup, not adults well into maturity. The second we finished up, I bought a plane ticket home. There was absolutely no way in hell that I was riding in that RV for an extended period of time with Zak, not after how perfectly swell the whole trip had gone. I planned on getting to his house first, grabbing some of my stuff and taking it to Lilyanne's, where I'd probably end up staying for a while. I told him what I was going to do, and he seemed dejected but was unwilling to talk about it. I was hoping with every shred of my being that he would try to stop me, that we could talk it out, but that didn't happen. I wasn't going to put myself out there when I was totally unsure of his feelings toward me, other than the complete and utter ugliness that he'd shown me in the previous week.

I went through with the plan, but not without a lot of tears as I packed up what I was taking and consolidated the rest of my stuff to the room that had been intended for me when I originally moved in with him.

God, a lot had happened in a few months.

---

Zak's POV

It'd been days since we had gotten back from lockdown, and Allison and I hadn't spoken since she moved out to Lilyanne's. I missed her, God I did, but everything kind of came to a head while we were working, and now I didn't know where we stood.

I was washing my dishes when I heard a bang on the front door and then keys jingle as it unlocked. With a sliver of hope that it was her, I walked to the door.

"What did you do to Allison?" Aaron questioned, yelling as he came in. I shook my head and turned away, walking back to the kitchen to avoid the third degree that was swiftly approaching.

"It's none of anybody else's business except for mine and hers." She must've said something.

"It's all of our business when you hurt her so badly that she's pissing drunk at some club on the strip." My stomach dropped-- we all knew that Allison didn't drink. She didn't even before I met her.

"Don't fuck around like that, you know she's an alcoholic. That's not fucking funny." I scoffed, gulping as I knew in he back of my mind that he wouldn't do that, but hoping it was just a bad joke.

"I'm not. She called me absolutely blasted like 20 minutes ago." He stood with his hand on the counter, staring me down.

"I'm sure Lilyanne is with her. " I tried to brush it off with the hope that she was. But even so, Lily could get wild and she wasn't always the best to have around for moral support.

"She's alone, I asked. You need to go get her."

"Why do I need to do it?" I questioned, putting down the dish I'd been occupying myself with. Aaron took a step in my direction and stared in disbelief.

"Because she probably thinks you hate her, and you need to just get over yourself! She loves you, Zak, and you love her, don't try to pretend that you don't. Playing this game where all you two do is yell at each other to avoid talking about the problem is stupid. You need to figure it out and deal with it. I don't care what you did, but you need to fix it. We're not losing her too. Not after losing Nick."

"You don't understand."

"Then help me, because I don't know why you're trying so hard to push her away." I sighed in response to Aaron's snark.

"It's complicated, Aaron. She...She walked in on Kelley kissing me, got mad, and went and hung with some random fuck at a club and kissed him. And after all this time I find out that she doesn't trust me." Silence fell for a minute before Aaron hesitated a response.