Again

Chapter 28

The next 24 hours felt like an eternity for Zac. He'd eventually forced himself to leave Kayla's room. Taylor and Isaac had both tried to reason with him, advising that the longer he allowed himself to mope, the harder the waiting would be. He'd heard them, even tried to listen and heed their advice, but nothing made him feel better.

Walker had come over and told him that he was still trying to work on getting their mother to come to her senses regarding Kayla. The only response Zac had given him was that he didn't care what his mother said or felt. If she was willing to throw everything they'd worked so hard over for the reputation that Kayla's mother once had, over 10 years ago, he was willing to throw away whatever relationship she thought she still had with him as well.

"Zac, you don't mean that," Walker said, following Zac into their kitchen.

Zac walked over to the island and sat down, pulling out his phone and checking it once again. He flipped it open and navigated to his call log; nothing. He opened his texts, praying silently that he'd missed a text and that magically, he'd have one from Kayla. Again, nothing. He slammed the phone closed and tossed it onto the island; he was sure he was going to break at any given moment.

"Zachary," his dad said, after a few more silent moments.

"Dad, if Mom is the type of woman who would push an abortion on a person, just because of what other people think, people who don't matter, people who hold absolutely no weight in our lives, because of the type of person her mother was; a mother who wasn't in her right state of mind for years may I add, then yes, I absolutely do mean that. Mom helped raise Kayla, and it's not her fault she got the mother she did!" he stood from his seat and took a step towards his father, holding back tears. "This isn't some stranger that just walked into my life. This isn't some fan that I had an irresponsible one night stand with, Dad, we've known Kayla for ten fucking years! If she honestly believes Kayla is anything like her mother, then she doesn't know her at all! I don't want to talk about this anymore. I mean it. At least not until Kayla is back and I've had a chance to talk with her. If she comes back at all," he finally finished.

As taken aback as Walker was, he couldn't blame Zac for his feelings. He'd never seen this side of his wife and wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. Least of all, he didn't know how to fix it. He wasn't sure if it was the emotions, or the fact that he'd always been able to fix anything wrong that happened in his children's lives, but he knew no one could go on like this.
"I understand," was all he was able to say.

"Thank you," Zac said before he got up and walked into the living room.  His father waited a few moments before following him and sitting down.

"That's Taylor's chair," Zac said, mostly out of habit. 

Walker snorted, "You all have assigned seating in this house?" he asked, facetiously. 

Zac just shrugged his shoulders, before turning on the T.V.  After a few moments, he turned back to his father, "I'm sorry dad, I don't really have any other way to ask this, but, why are you still here?"

Again, Walker snorted softly, "Truth be told, I don't really want to be around your mother right now," he answered honestly, "I'm not the biggest fan of hers at the moment."

"That makes two of us," Zac retorted.  Just then Taylor and Natalie walked in from the kitchen.

"That makes two of you what?" Taylor asked ask Natalie took a seat on the opposite end of the couch that Zac was sitting on.  Taylor grabbed a chair and set it next to her, then sat down.

"Two of us that don't wanna have shit to do with Mom right now," Zac answered.

"Zachary!" his father replied, almost roaring.