Always HIS

Chapter 2

[ Zach ]

Day One:

I felt lost.

Quite literally, lost.

I didn't know what to do, or what not to, and I'm pretty sure the answer to that was not to isolate yourself from every one and lock yourself in your hotel room to beat yourself up over not knowing what to do but that is exactly what I did.

I think I must've called Anna a total of 71 times through the ungodly hours of the night, and all of the times, the answer to my call was the same as the previous one: nothing at all. Her phone came switched off. 

At 5 A.M, after spending hours of watching the news on my television and not eating anything while ignoring all calls and messages from my friends and Daisy and Cole, I fell asleep.

It was a hollow sleep that night, in which I saw a recurrent dream of falling into a nightmare and oddly enough, when I woke up, I didn't seem to feel any better. It was as if the nightmare was still going on, and I was still falling. It was an abyss.

Day Two:

After a sleep of only three hours, I woke up with a headache. And, the constant feeling to puke that comes after hours of starving yourself but oddly enough, I didn't feel like doing anything to make myself any better except taking a quick warm water shower. Of course, the first thing I did was call her as soon as I woke up, and the phone was still switched off.

I was sleepy and had a miserable migraine, and it didn't really help that every where I looked around in the hotel room was only filled with memories the three days we spent here, some times by the hot tub or the balcony or the bed and other times, it was only her presence that lingered in the air that kept reminding me of how she felt just like a infringement of my imagination, as if she was that dream that never existed in the first place, and it only made me feel more terrible.

After taking the shower though, I felt a little collected. I had been through this earlier, and I knew how to handle it, even if I couldn't get through to Anna. I could only hope she'd forgive me for bringing her into this mess in the first place. But again, that's Anna. Understanding and forgiveness was her second nature.

When I showed up downstairs for breakfast, my friends were already waiting. And with them, Rohit (the band PR) and Daisy was there too, along with Cole and Sia.

As soon as they caught sight of me, all of them stood up one by one, staring at me as if having nothing else to say.

"What? Is there a party I don't know about?" I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice as I walked to the table and took a croissant from Sia's place, passing her a half smile. She just blinked her eyes at me, and they all had continued staring.

"Are any of you going to say anything or what?" I huffed some air from my mouth. "It's nice to see you again though." My eyes flickered from my step brother to his girlfriend and then Daisy.

"Are you okay?" Daisy asked, when our eyes met.

"As okay as one can think of me to be." I shrug.

"Zach...." Justin's voice trailed. "What's the play?"

"Call off the tour." I sigh, then looking at Tara. "I know this meant a lot to you. I'm sorry... I just, I can't do this right now."

"Of course!" She nodded, "You don't even have to apologise. We had been talking about that only to Rohit when these guys came." Her eyes flicker to Cole, Daisy, and Sia. "There's no question that we should call it off; what Justin meant, I think... is what's your play with Anna? Have you spoken to her?"

"I couldn't get through." I say, suddenly feeling the hollowness rise again.

"I think she'll need a little time to herself," Ruth assured. "It's Anna... she's sensible. She'll reach out when she's ready to."

"I hope." My voice was only a whisper. I didn't want to lose her. Not because of something like this.

"Rohit suggested we should call in a conference and cancel the tour," Justin added.

"I.. I don't think I'm ready to face the media already." I say.

"Yeah, by we, I meant me and Tara and Ruth." He justified, "You should go back to Brooklyn, handle it your way."

"I'm going to come along with you." Cole said, looking at me.

"What?" I knit my eyebrows.

"I wasn't there for you the last time when something like this happened," Cole added. "I want to be there now."

"Come on, you don't have to..." I begin.

"We're family, Zach." Daisy cut in. "You've been there for me– for us– through thick and thin, and we want to return the favour. Family sticks together."

"What about you, ma'am?" I raise a teasing eyebrow at Sia, feeling composed again. For the first since the past twelve hours, I felt like I could see the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

"Well," something sparkles in her eyes as she raises one of her hands up and I notice the diamond ring in her second last finger. "Guess, I'm family too now."

"What the f**k?" My eyes widen. "When? How?"

"We'll tell you everything later," Cole says, "First, get your jet ready. We're flying to Brooklyn to meet your journalist friend who can help us out."

Day Three:

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather be celebrating your engagement travelling the world instead of coming with me to Brooklyn?" I turned to Sia, my eyes flickering to both the Wilson twins who had fallen asleep in the seat behind us. "You know I'm not a baby, right? I can handle this."

"We're an hour away from landing in Brooklyn, and there's no way you can get us out of this now." She says, firmly, turning to me as well. After a moment of silence, she adds, "You and Cole night not be related by blood, but y'all are actually really, really similar." 

She hid her smile and I raise my eyebrows at her.

"In both of your way of pretending that everything's fine when everything calling apart inside of you, for instance." She says.

"I really am fine," I insisted. "I got this."

"I'm sure." She nods, ridiculing what I just said. 

Silence spreads over.

"Raina's been worried about you," She goes on, "You haven't picked up her calls."

"I haven't picked up anyone's calls, actually." I said, sighingly, "I just...."

"It's okay," she cuts in, "You don't have to explain. But do you remember when I met you for the second time?"

"Matt's funeral." I replied, in a very low voice.

She nods. "You couldn't meet Cole then, but I remember having a small conversation with you, and I don't remember the details but I do faintly remember telling you I didn't know what to tell Cole and you told me that sometimes things get hard, and the only way to get through it is to show up. To let people know that you care and you're there for them. That's what we're doing here, Zach. You and I might not be as close as you are with Daisy, but I wanted to show up and all of us wanted to tell you that we're there for you. And we will be there by your side when you show up at Anna's to let her know that you're there for her."

A half smile makes its way to my lips and I press my eyes in gratitude. "Thank you." She smiles back, nodding. 

"We are practically family now," I add, my eyes flickering to her ring. Her smile widened. "The last I checked, the two of you were still... well, chasing each other. How did this happen?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I guess, it just felt like the right thing. For years now, I've been in Paris, living my writer life, and Cole's been up and down. I think we just felt tired of chasing each other. Growing up, I haven't had the perfect family and neither did he. But it feels good, you know, to be hopeful to settle and start our family someday."

"You both deserve it." I tell her, firmly.

"As do you, Zach," her eyes fix at me. "As do you."

Day Four:

It was late evening when Taylor drove the four of us from the Brooklyn airport, to Nish's house. Anna's old apartment.

It was also just then that the Wilson siblings hyped me up enough to be able to call Anna's father to speak to her, since her phone still remained switched off. I had been afraid earlier, afraid to even talk to him. Hell, I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror when I was taking a shower before leaving.

I called him when the plane landed, and he didn't pick up. It was when we reached Nish's building that he called back. Daisy, Sia and Cole stood in a corner a little away to give me place, while I leaned on the car.

"Hello?" My voice was so feeble.

"Zach." He greeted. No word up. No word down. Just to the point.

"Sir," I cleared my throat, "I was hoping to be able to talk to Anna."

"You can't."

"Please, Sir." I said, my voice a desperate plea. "I know you're angry and you wouldn't want me to buy it is really important for m-"

He cut me off. "No. It's not about me. I meant, you literally can't talk to her. She's been in her room since the past few days and I'd thought the only way to get her talking would be to mention your name, so I already lied and told her last night itself that you'd called. She didn't even reply."

"What do you mean by she didn't reply?" I panicked, my voice getting louder. "She hasn't spoken to you and you didn't bother? What if she's not fine?"

He cut me off again. "She has spoken to us a few times, she just didn't prefer replying when I took your name. She does come out for refilling her water bottle and all... when she thinks we aren't around."

I sigh. "Can you... can you please let her know I called?"

"If I see her, then yes, I will." He says, and soon, the phone goes dead.

Helplessly sighing, I walked to the three of them.

"How did it go?" Cole asked.

"Not great." I shake my head, taking deep breaths.

"It'll go better with Nish," Daisy reassured.

"Yeah, I'm hoping." I tried to give her a small half smile but failed, so leaving aside my futile tries to lift my mood, we took the elevator upstairs.

Ringing the bell, we stood outside, but my eyes were fixed at Anna's name on the name plate. They still hadn't removed it.

After what seemed like forever, the door was finally opened to Sam on the other end.

"Sam," I breathed, "Is Nish home–" 

My voice was faded when a punch landed on my right jaw, turning my face towards the other side. Cole clenched beside me, ready to step ahead, but I shook my head lightly, stopping him.

Taking a deep breath, I cracked my knuckles, facing him again. "Can I now see Nish?"

Sam just stepped aside, and then called Nish from her room, who didn't seem too surprised to see me at her door step, but not much happier than Sam either. At least, she didn't punch me. So that's good.

Day Five:

Spending almost the entire night at Nish's place had almost been futile. She had no idea this was going to happen, and she told us she would have warned me beforehand had she known. She was afraid things were bigger this time, out of her control and while she could work upon gradually covering the news completely step by step the same way she had helped me out last time, she didn't know how to get Anna's name out of it. The only thing that she could suggest was a joint statement by me and Anna or for me to give a public statement explaining all the lies and replacing them with the truth. Both of them, I couldn't do without Anna's permission.

It was very early morning when the four of us got to my house. Anita had kept breakfast ready. At this point, it had been three days of barely any sleep and I felt like if I didn't close my eyes, I'd probably faint, and with so much already happening around me, that wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

Besides, the other still had a jet lag. And so, after breakfast, we all slept. Me in my room and the others in the guest rooms I had asked Anita to clear up for them.

It was evening when I woke up. My sleep, for the first time in days, had been dreamless. I think I was too tired to even dream. And despite that, I could barely sleep for more than seven hours. For a man who hasn't slept in a long time, one would expect me to be out until night. But with the back of my mind only thinking about what Anna was going through and how she hadn't even spoken to her father yet, I could barely sleep.

It was around seven in the evening, and Daisy was the first one to wake up. I was just done with a call with Justin, who was updating me about how the press conference went. Of course, there were questions about me and of course, they dodged it. 

"Good evening." Daisy's voice was groggy and she was still rubbing her eyes when I turned to her with a smile.

"You're smiling," she said, before I could even speak one word. "Update me. What's right?"

My smile only increased. "Let's wake your doofus brother and his fiancé up and then I'll tell you exactly what's right."

Her eyes sparkled. "I live for annoyingly waking my brother up. Let's go!"

Within a few moments, we were in Cole and Sia's guest room. 

"My eyes are half shut and you have four full minutes to get dressed if you're inappropriate." Daisy announced, walking in, and I stood outside for the same reason.

"You can come in!" She then turned to me. "You can come in now."

When I walked in, Sia was already up from the noise. However, Cole seemed fast asleep. They were both on different corners of their bed, or Sia had probably moved away from him when Daisy not so slowly announced her arrival.

Picking up a cushion from the couch, I threw it at Cole.

"He's very ticklish." Daisy smirked, sliding the edges of her fingertips on his feet, and he immediately stirred, kicking his sister in return. Sia laughed.

Sleepily, he opened half his eyes to look at me. "What is it?"

"Get up, idiots. I'm going to Idaho." I announced. Immediately, Cole was up. 

"You are?" Daisy's eyes widened, and all eyes were fixed at me.

"Just made the call. I'm leaving soon." I tell them.

"Yeah, you're not going alone," Cole added nonchalantly, "I'm coming along."

"So are we." Sia said from behind.

I rolled my eyes at them.

"Come on, don't you think it's high time you introduce your family to your girlfriend?" Daisy smirked.

"Guys, you don't have to–" I begin.

"Shut up, Zach." Cole sarcastically smiled.

"Okay then," I sigh, shrugging. "We leave tomorrow morning."

Anna Collins, you can't hide in your room anymore. Here I come.

Day Six:

If I didn't know any better, I'd be quick in believing that the universe is conspiring against me and Anna to meet.

When I got to the airport the next day, along with my little team who was hell bent on being with me through it all, we learnt about a storm in Sun Balley, was high had disrupted all direct flight routes as of now. The only way to travel to Idaho was an indirect flight with one halt. Even the guy with a private jet had to take a twenty hour flight instead of a direct eight hour one, but I wasn't complaining. Being in the flight made me one step closer to being with Anna, and I couldn't complain about that.

And so, we took what was available.

The sky was crimson and the sun was setting when were about to take off after our one hour halt in Los Angeles. 

Sky flight had only just begun taking off when my phone rang, catching everyone's attention.

"Don't you know that your phone is supposed to be on flight mode when you take off?" Cole teased, turning towards me.

I rolled my eyes. "It slipped my min–" my voice faded when my eyes fell on the caller's name.

Mr. Collins.

Shit. Instantly, I picked up.

"Hello?"

I paused. There was no reply but an uneven breathing from the other end. I shut my eyes for a second. I knew that breathing. I knew whom it belonged to, the sound of her breath when she was nervous and breathing through her mouth.

"Anna." I said, hastily, afraid of our time running out. All three pairs of eyes turn to me again. "I know it's you..." I say, hoping to hear her voice only once.

"Za–" her voice was low, a broken whisper, and I shut my eyes hearing her after almost a full week, my heart hurting at how I couldn't even hear her completely.

With gritting lips and trembling hands, I put my phone away, staring at the clouds outside the plane's window.

The network had been lost.

*       *        *

A/N: It's been a while since I dropped in to tell you how grateful I am to everyone who comments very uplifting words whenever I feel down. I might not reply instantly, but I've read them all, and there are no words in me to express how thankful I am, for your reads, and your love. Team HIS, y'all rock! 

Besides, I want to also concentrate on 'If You Leave Me Now', now. So the updates here might be a little shorter than my regular length as I'm planning to update that book everyday too, starting today.

To the readers of that story, I'll see you again in a few hours. Sia and Cole's story is about to get crazy. ;)

All love.