After Zak and I changed out of our wet clothes and into nice and dry ones, we talked about our potential plans for the day.
"I was thinking we take Gracie for a walk and I show you around the neighbourhood" Zak suggested. He had just finished blending a smoothie and turned around to look at me for an answer. I took a long sip of awful coffee Zak tried to make for me and nodded.
"Sounds great" I faked a smile; my best attempt hide the fact I wanted to puke, but instead I pushed through and forced it down my throat.
"Good." He smiled.
Just as I was going to regretfully take another sip of my drink, the doorbell rang. Zak looked at me with a suspicious look and gently placed his smoothie on the counter next to him. I'm just going to assume by the way he was acting, he wasn't expecting anyone.
"Stay here." He told me.
I just shrugged my shoulders and silently followed him to the door (making sure to dump my coffee down the sink) without him knowing.
The second Zak opened the door, a very tall and very thin bald guy in loose clothing jumped in. His happiness made me feel slightly uncomfortable.
"Aaron!" Zak exclaimed and gave him a fist bump. "How are you doing? It's been a while!"
"I know!" Aaron laughed." I've been really busy painting and stuff, but I'm really excited to go on our first lockdown of the new season later this week. That's actually why I'm here, as soon as I heard you were back I wanted to talk with you about it. I even told Jay and Billy to meet us here as soon as they could."
"Who is this guy? And lockdown? What even is a lockdown?"
Zak let out a hollow laugh and awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, about that, we definitely need to have a talk."
Aaron furrowed his brows.
"Well. Do you remember the letter I got a few days ago from Marion? My ex from all those years ago?"
Aaron looked very confused and scratched his scruffy face, the moment of realization hit him and his eyes widened. "Wait a second. Are you talking about THE Marion? The one that got away? The one you keep a photo of in yo-"
"OKAY! Okay!" Zak interrupted; he knew I was listening.
"Wait, what letter? You didn't say anything about a letter."
Zak awkwardly chuckled. "Well, I got a letter from her saying some pretty important stuff, and well... I want you to meet someone." He paused and took a quick breath. "Charlie." Zak looked at me and nodded his head toward Aaron, hinting at me to come forward.
I stepped into Zak and Aarons' view with an awkward smile.
Aaron's eyes widened once more.
"Dude," Aaron said in a low voice. He looked between me and Zak over and over again. "No way." He whispered.
"Aaron, this is my daughter Charlie. Charlie, this is my co-worker and one of my closest friends, Aaron." Zak introduced.
Before I knew it, a 6ft tall bald guy ran at me and tackled me with a bear hug. I screamed at first but started laughing at how weird the situation was.
After he put me down, Aaron looked down and stuck his hand out to me. "It is very nice to meet you, Charlie Bagans."
That was when I realized it was the first time someone called me that.
Charlie Bagans... I loved it.
I smiled back at his friendly face. "It is very nice to meet you too, Aaron" He grinned.
His intense happiness was no longer uncomfortable to me.
After I met Aaron, he and Zak went to what I assumed to be Zak's office to talk about "official business" whatever that means. I tried to snoop and overhear what they were talking about, but all I could hear were mumbles I couldn't quite make out.
Instead, I resorted to looking in Zak's room. It looked the exact opposite of all the interior of the mansion. His walls were black, along with everything else in the room. Some of his things had a tinge of red to them, but it was so dark. The only light in the room was coming from the window, which took up most of the wall that started from the bottom and reached the ceiling. His room was almost elegant, everything was made and tidy, not even a stray sock was on the floor.
Above the fireplace, was a mantel full of pictures. A lot of them seemed like they were pictures of his fans or close friends, but only one caught my attention. Behind all, the most recent photos was an older one, probably about 20 years old. In it was a woman with blonde hair and a man, most likely a very young Zak. He had his arms wrapped around her waist as they looked over Las Vegas from a higher point. The longer I stared at it the more I realized this woman was my mother. I looked closer at the photo to see Marion with a very large ring on her finger! I carefully took the photo out of its frame and flipped it over. In feminine handwriting it wrote:
To my soon-to-be husband,
You will always be my forever. I cannot wait to see what life has in store for us next.
Love your soon-to-be wife,
Marion
If only I could jump into that picture and warn them exactly what life had in store for them. I looked at the bottom right corner underneath the writing to see the date the picture was taken.
July/21/99
Honestly, I was a little shaken. I always thought my parents dated for a short time before I was born, not fiancés. I had no idea my parents were so in love, but that's not all. I was born ten months after this photo was taken. Ten months! I didn't know what to do except make it look like I never saw the photo. Zak and I were getting along so well. Since he hadn't told me anything yet, I could only assume he was saving it for later.
I quickly put the photo back in its frame and placed it where I found it, but not before I pulled out my phone and took a photo of both sides. As fast as I could, I ran out of his room before anyone saw me. As I was rushing down the wooden stairs I came into contact with two men, and they definitely weren't Aaron and Zak.
They both looked like they were in their mid-thirties, the maybe early forties, and both were wearing a darker shade of clothing, nothing of which would belong in a rainbow.
"You look a little young to be Zak's type." The one with longer hair said.
"Especially since you're a brunette and not a blonde" Added the other one.
"Zak's type? What the hell are they talking about?"
Oh.
I looked at them with disgust. "I'm 17."
That's when they looked at each other and whispered the word "Ew" simultaneously.
"Oh my god," I grunted.
"I'm Zak's daughter. You must be Billy and Jay." I paused and waited for them to react, and watched their jaws dropped.
"Wait a second." The taller one (I assumed was Jay) asked.
I nodded for him to continue.
"Zak doesn't have a daughter."
I sighed. "He just found out. We just found out."
The two looked at each other with confusion.
I rubbed my face. "I think maybe you should go talk to Zak. He's down the hall in his office with Aaron."
Both nodded silently and made their way to Zak's office without saying a word. As soon as they opened the door to the office, Zak and Aaron's muffled voices came to a halt.
I tip-toes down the hallway and hid in one of the doorways as I listened to them speak.
"I can tell by your faces you met Charlie," Zak said, his voice was very loud in the silent house.
I watched as the two nodded once again. They walked into the office and closed the doors behind them.
Just after the sound of the doors slamming shut, I heard one of them very clearly yell, "Umm, why the hell didn't you tell us you had a daughter?!"
That was the clearest sentence I heard come out of that office all day.