The Unofficial Zack Warren Fan Club by J.C. Isabella

I said.
    “So what are you doing today?” Zack yanked a big chunk off the wall and stuffed it in a garbage bag.
    Glenn rubbed his chin. He looked a little uncomfortable. Probably because he was wondering if we knew that he and my mom were having wild, hot, monkey sex.
    Oh, god.
    “Molly and I are putting the dining room table together, setting up the living room. I just wanted to tell you we’re having a new air conditioner installed, so you’ll have to bear the heat for a while. We’re going to order pizza for lunch later. What do you guys want?”
    “They have pizza out here?” Zack sounded skeptical.
    “No, in the next town over, they deliver. It will coast extra and they can’t guarantee it will be piping hot.”
    “I don’t care.” I said.
    “What’ll it be?” Glenn asked.
    Zack and I answered at the same time. “Pepperoni.”
    I shot him a sideways glance and he ignored me.
    “Is everything okay between you two?” Glenn hovered in the doorway, “I know this must be strange, sharing a bathroom with a member of the opposite sex you barely know.”
    Zack groaned. “We are fine dad, although it would have been nice if you’d given us a warning about that.”
    Glenn backed quickly out the door. “Must have slipped my mind.”
    “He’s lying.” Zack said once Glenn disappeared downstairs. “He chickened out of telling us.”
    I opened a second garbage bag for trash, holding it out so he could dump in an armload of wallpaper. “How would you have reacted had he told us?”
    “That’s why he conveniently forgot.”
    We finished Zack’s room faster than I anticipated. The wallpaper practically slid off it was so crappy. Underneath the paint was a yellowing white. Since we had to wait for the walls to dry, we moved to my room.
    In the daytime it felt like I was standing on the surface of the sun.
    Zack smirked. “I can’t believe you slept in here last night.”
    “My eyes were closed.” He helped move my furniture to the center of the room. Kirk was on the bed, flopped on his back, tongue hanging out one side of his wrinkly mouth. He let out a happy howl when Zack rubbed his tummy. While he was occupied, I took the nightlight from the outlet by my bed and stashed it in my closet.
    “You’re going to be his new best friend if you keep that up.” I observed. Thankful Zack hadn’t seen my secret. It was silly to have a fear of the dark, but I thought I was a pretty well adjusted person otherwise, and accepted my quirk. But I didn’t want anyone else to know.
    “I don’t mind. I like knowing that he can’t talk back or intentionally irritate me.” He said.
    I rolled my eyes.
    We tossed the tarp from Zack’s room over the furniture, Kirk howled again and burrowed around under it. Minutes later he was snoring, sounding more foghorn than bloodhound.
    For the next hour we didn’t say anything, just painted. It was a slightly uncomfortable silence. Part of me that wanted to flick paint at Zack, strike up a conversation about things we liked, something. I just wanted to know more about the star pitcher with the beastly truck. Figure out what was going on between us.
    It’s so hard to be mysterious with all the blogs and webpage’s, but Zack was doing a very good job of it. Even with a club of half crazed girls following his every move.
    But because I couldn’t read his behavior, it started making me crazy.
    One minute he was nice, helping me reach spots I couldn’t get at. The next he was glaring like he wanted to strangle me.
    For someone so great at charming girls, he sucked being around me.
    Wouldn’t be easier for him to be his heart throbbing self, instead of being a big grouch who annoyed me? Confused me?
    Or maybe he really didn’t like me, despite everything he’d said, despite what I saw in his eyes. Maybe he was just saying that to make it easier on us.
    The mixed signals weren’t helping.
    Was he trying to confuse me?
    I’d have to commend him on a job well done.
    “You