Never Is A Long Time

Chapter 12

THE GETAWAY

He can't even get her out from his mind and now he knows why. She's his eye opener. She opened his eyes when he started to think that he will never love anyone after Paige. He never expected that she will be the second hole where he trapped in. He never know how to stop.

He keep on thinking about how messed up he was and how it would be a total different situation if he wasn't dating anyone else. There's a big regret and he can't even face that.

°°°°°°

Zach is on his way home when his dad suddenly calls him. "Yes dad? She was on the show but then she told me she need to clean up the studio. Why?"
"Her dad called me. She's not home yet. Can you check the studio for me?" Jack says. "Okay dad. I'll turn over from here. Bye." He put his phone back to his dashboard and take a turn on the next section. Considering it's raining outside, he assumed that Deenah stay at the studio, wait for the rain to stop. The rain is quite heavy, he needs to run real quick from his car to the building.

"Dee? You're in?" He open the door but he can't find her. Not until he enter the next room where he can see her, sitting on a chair. Clearly crying. "Deenah? What happened?" He lift her head, "Tell me." She doesn't even say a thing, she keep on turning her face from him. "Come one. You don't cry for no reason. Tell me what happened?" He keep on trying when surprisingly he hear someone enter the room. "Dee, I think I need to..." He turns his back and get really angry to see Josh there. He knows there's something to do with him, that makes her won't stop crying. "What did you do to her?" Zach got up on his feet and walk towards him. "Zach, listen, I need to..." Before he can even tell anything, Zach beats him down. "Zach! Oh my God!" Deenah quickly run to Josh, help him to get up. Josh, who just got back from heavy rain, now have blood running along with water down over his mouth. "She won't stop crying! And then all of sudden you showed up? Don't tell me nothing happened." Zach is clearly on his nerve and that's enough for her to stop him. "Zach! He did nothing. Stop that!"
"But Dee..."
"Don't babysit me! And you know you can't just beat up someone just because I was crying. He....he did nothing." She's shouting and now step back from both of them. "Please. I just wanna go home." She says, and Zach finally calmed down. "Alright...."
"Deenah. Please, I'm sorry. I need to say something....." Josh tries to reach out to her but then Zach stop him. "You hear her? Just go." He takes a deep breath, "Before I change my mind." Deenah won't any other conflict to happen so she quickly grab Zach's arms and forced him to leave and go home.

On her way home, they don't talk at all. Not even a single word. She keeps looking through the window and let the wind running passed her hair. It's so quiet that they can hear the sound of a cat across the street. Besides the fact that the vibe between them is quite tensed, Deenah herself still can't process what just happened and she just lost inside her mind. Neither Zach, who's still quite pissed but he managed to calm down a little bit this time. He stop before a red light and insists to turn on the radio, trying to ligh up the situation for her. But what he's about to hear is out of his expectation.

Say, what you need to say....

The first line does hit her as soon as she hear it. She knows for sure what the song is. She recognized it's Pink as Floyd and she can't help but looks down. Thinking about how stupid she was. But not only her, Zach also noticed the song as quick as she did. "You want to turn it off?"
"Umm, no. Let it go." She replies him immediately. "But... You sure you're..."
"I'm fine. It's just a song." Deenah stop his hand from turning it off. All Zach can do is just nods and keep focus to the road. "You were overreacting." She says. "Why did you beat him up?"
"It's just... I can't help it. He was clearly doing something to you."
"Don't... Don't stand up for me. That's enough. I can stand for myself."
"Can't you just..."
"I'm serious. It was me, who should be blamed. And you were beating up someone who did nothing to me. That was so wrong." She turns her face to him and then looking down. "But, thank you. Anyway. You did a lot for me. Now, stop doing that. You need to start thinking about yourself." Zach smiles, with a total sadness on his tone, "I know. But one thing that keeps me alive, is.... to see your smile, not tears. When you just smile, you do the justice for me." He turns his face to her, she didn't expect to see his smile, the sweetest she ever see.

"Well, at least I just want to protect you as a brother or a friend." He's now smiling with a different tendency. He sounded lighter. "I will be the one who beat people who pissed my sister off. Like, if a bully go aftermy sister, I will make sure he will go to hospital."
"Hahaha, come on. That joke doesn't work for me. Also, if you do that, the bully will go to hospital but you will definitely go into principal's room. Which is worse. "
"It does. You just laughed. Only good joke comes from my mouth." Zach makes funny gestures with his mouth and it makes her feel better. "No, you got a cheap taste of jokes."

°°°°°°

Meanwhile Josh is at a bus station, when no one's around. It's the heavy rain that makes him still awake. The cold is hurting his bones. He's looking at his phone and realized that it's almost midnight. Then suddenly he got a phone call from Anthony. "Yeah?"
"Me , Flea and Chad had a night out. And... We won't to wake our kids. Can we go to your place tonight?" He can hear a giggles through the phone. "She's not with you tonight, right?" They ask, referring to Geska. "No, she's not. But... I'm not home yet."
"What? Where are you? We're gonna pick you up." On his mind, he's kinda glad that his friends will spend the night with him, afer what happened. He doesn't feel like wanna spend this night alone. "Alright. Can you guys go back to the studio? I'm at the bus station across it."
"You there? Holy shit, what are you doing?"
"I was... Talking to her." He can't lie to them, obviously he can hear their suspicious through the phone. "You sounded awful. There must be something happened between you two. But anyway, we'll go there and we can talk later."

°°°°°°

Zach open the door and accompany her until she enter the yard. He can see Meatball is running towards them, ready to jumps into him. "Geez. Look at this boy. He's turning into a meatball. Literally." He pet Meatball like it's his dog. "Yeah, he was umm.... Eat a lot." She looks at it, giggles. But then something about Meatball just reminds her of those days when Josh stayed at her house back then. "I wonder how he can grow up like a monster." Zach pick it up, put it on his shoulder but she knows he struggles. Meatball is too big to be picked. "Well, but he turns into a goofball when he meets you." Deenah touch its head and let it licks her hand. "He's definitely a goofball, I wish I was the one who own him."

"It's late. You should changing clothes and go to sleep." Zach put Meatball down and turns to her. "If you need a talk, I'm on my phone."
"Right. Thanks Zach. Take care."
"Absolutely." He waves to her and take a step out while she watches him enter his car. "Go to sleep." He once again shout from his car. "I will."

MEMORY

After all of that, one thing keeps her calm is the way Meatball cuddling with her. This dog clearly knows how to comfort her. She is laying on her bed, with Meatball on her lap. If her dad knows she let Meatball on the bed, he's gonna be pissed. But she doesn't really care. "I don't care if John thought your species is annoying, but you're truly my best friend." She can't stop smiling when Meatball licks her face. "And I know you lick your balls with the same tongue so... Nevermind, I love you." After playing around with her dog, Deenah put her blanket, let her dog sleep after her, and just staring at the ceiling. There's a lot of memories passing by, and most of them are with Josh. Counting the time had passed since the first day they met.

°°°°°°
I should've known this is gonna be awkward

She talks to herself while hiding behind Zach. She doesn't know how to react to see these two. And when she knows Josh just noticed something that came out from her mouth, she lost it.

Shit. I'm not gonna like this guy. Seems like not a friendly person. Well, time to escape.

After told Zach that she wants to get out from there, she quickly close the door and wait outside. Hoping that all of things will work well.

°°°°°°

She start to laugh to remember that first awkward encounter. How immature she was, and still is. Not to mention, she also remembers how she insulted him at a dinner. "That's so stupid. To think it might be the very first point I get to close to him. Damn." She talks to herself, while drawing in the air with her finger. All these memories just drowned her in. And not only the memories of Josh, but also her memories of Zach. How she betrayed him, how she turned her heart from him. "Might be my karma."

When she's thinking about that all, slow but sure, she hears a soft melody from her living room. She's not sure who plays that, but she knows it's Sinatra at The Sands album. And she can hear Fly Me To The Moon from inside her room.

"What the hell? Who miss '66 this late?" She giggles and then get up and head to the living room. She's in the middle of the stairs when she see both her mom and dad dancing to a spinning vinyl. "I know mom love Sinatra. But you dad?" She's looking down, smirking to her dad. "Ah, you. Haha. We just umm... You know, recall some memories."
"Really? Tell me about that?"
"Me, and your mom used to go to an empty garage back in Ohio. There was a player and some records. The owner must left them there." He talks about that, giggles while his wife is blushing. "...and we took this, Sinatra at The Sands and played it everytime we go there. We were dancing in the midnight, you know, with a couple of whiskey or wine sometimes. That was the time... I guess, when we were making you." Both him and his wife chuckles to the last part. "Excuse me? I was made in a garage?" She can't help to laugh hard. "That's true." Her mom adds. "Don't underestimate the power of empty garage you know..."
"Of course. You made me there." She mocks him as he laugh harder. "But really... There always one spesific place that had a big manifestation of your memories, with your lover. Mine? Empty garage." Her mom smiling, recalling all of their sweetest moments. "Yeah. Mine was an empty stadium."
"What?"
"Nothing, forget that." She smiles and then waves to her parents. "Night dad. Night mom."

°°°°°°

They just enter his place and throw their selves on the couch. "God, what a night." Chad stretches his back, feeling a pain on it as he's getting tired. Josh chuckles, "Yeah. What a night."
"Right, what happened?" Suddenly Flea remember about their conversation through the phone. "And how the hell she made that bruise on your face?"
"Not her. It was Zach." He smirks, feeling a little pain on his face. "Zach? What the fuck happened between you guys?" Anthony is very curious because as long as he knows Zach, he was always a gentle man. Beating someone is not his style. "That's my fault. I.... Made her cried. Deenah. That's why Zach snapped at me."
"Stop there. Deenah was crying? Why? What did you do?"  Flea pick up an ice and put it on Josh's bruise. "Well, I guess I fall for her again. I confess it, I can't help it. But then she mentioned my girlfriend. I didn't really care about Geska, I cared about her, just her. So I told her I was going to break up with Geska. She snapped and.... As you can guess next, she told me to go." He press his own bruise while keep talking to them, "But then I go back to studio, just to say sorry. That was when I knew she was crying. And Zach was there, lost it when he saw me there."
"So basically you're not over her?" Anthony tries to make it clear. Josh nods, "Yeah. I still into her. I can't...." He take a deep breath before he can continue.

"Even worse, I regret my relationship with Geska. If I'm not her boyfriend today, I might finally get Deenah on my arms."