Ever since opening night of my dad and Brian's business, my mind was like a revolving door, trying to understand Zac.

Confusion ran through me, causing my brain to be surrounded by fog, not allowing me to think clearly. The fog surrounding me stuck like glue.

Now that we were in the month of March, the presentation of our project was looming upon us. Luckily for us, we had pretty much completed most of it, meeting up on a regular basis wasn't needed.

Part of me was glad we didn't need to meet up. This meant I could focus on revising as well as keeping my distance from Zac. Every time I thought about the way Zac spoke to me the other night, it felt like my veins flooded with anger.

"Hey, what you doing? Revising?"

A voice snapped me out of my thoughts. When I turned my head up, I saw Zac, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

Seeing him, reminded me of his cocky behaviour. Blatantly, I rolled my eyes and shifted my focus back to revising.

"Hello? Hannah? I'm talking to you," Zac frustratedly called out.

I continued to ignore him, staring deep into my book. The more I looked at the words in front of me, the more it started to get blurry. Forcing myself to revise, just so I could ignore Zac, was not helping me in the slightest.

He started to tap the door frame, but I continued to keep my head bowed down. After a few seconds he gave up and marched over to the desk, setting himself opposite me.

"Why are you ignoring me?" He asked, impatiently wriggling in his seat.

I knew I couldn't keep it up for much longer, I lifted my head and narrowed my eyes, giving him an almost death stare. He was non the wiser as he shrugged his shoulders, waiting for me to fill the silence.

"You've got no problem talking to me now," I said, clenching my jaw.

And audible 'what?' Came out of Zac's mouth as he sat there trying to gather the situation. Nothing seemed to click in his head, so as I let out a great sigh, I closed my book and decided to take him out of his misery and confusion.

"The other day at the opening night," I started to explain. "When I came to say hi, you acted like a arsehole, acting up in front of your friends."

"That's why you're mardy?" Zac chuckled, taking the situation lightly.

I scoffed at his response, shaking my head in disapproval. "Nice of you to think it's a joke."

As I rolled my eyes clearly towards him, I opened up my revision book, and went back to burying my head in the endless words.

"Lighten up," Zac mumbled under his breath.

Those two words, sparked a temper within me. I clutched tightly onto the book, holding back my tongue but the annoyance was stirring around me, and I couldn't keep quite for much longer.

"Lighten up?" I repeated his words, slamming the book shut. "I really thought you had changed. I thought working together, we could have put our differences aside, but you're still the annoying twat you've always been."

My last words caught Zac off guard as his mouth fell open, unable to form a response. His brows were furrowed and he smouldered with resentment.

"Well you know what Hannah Montana," Zac rapidly responded as he got up. "You're still the stuck up and infuriating person you've always been."

He marched towards the door, but I wasn't going to let him have the last words. Anger and rage was consuming me, and I couldn't help but shoot up from my seat, charge towards him grabbing on to his arm and turning him to face me.

"Well, since I'm stuck up, good luck trying to find someone to help you revise," I snapped.

Zac edged forward, almost as if he was going to respond, but something stopped him. He clenched down his jaw and gazed deeply into my eyes. It was almost as if his sea of green pupils were consuming me. I knew I couldn't be the one to back down, so I continued to stare right back.

We both were gripped with rage, as if it surrounded and huddled us closer. I could feel both of us gravitating closer together, like we were two magnets. The remembrance of his rudeness and the person he was, flashed into my mind and I snapped out of the moment.

I abruptly backed away. For a few second he stood there, but I couldn't bring myself to face him again. Just as I tuned around, he was gone.

I let a large sigh escape my mouth. My mind was frazzled. Zac was infuriating yet he always drew me in with his presence.

***

After a long and gruelling day at school, I finally took a step into my house, but just as I entered, I was bombarded with my mothers chirpy mood.

"You're back," She chimed. "Get ready we need to go."

"Go? Go where?" I questioned, slumping myself on the sofa, stretching out the stress and tiredness.

"To the Carter's." She hurriedly made her way around the room, making sure everything was spic and span, as well as ushering me to get up.

"What? Why?" I questioned again.

"They've invited us to a birthday barbecue. It's Zac birthday today."

I turned my head towards my mum, frozen in my place trying to figure out if I heard her correctly.

"Zac's birthday?" I questioned once again with such confusion.

How did I not realise? I thought to myself. I peered down on to my phone. 10th March. I had been so preoccupied with revision and the little altercation with Zac, it didn't compute in my brain that it was his birthday.

I forced myself to get up, there was no backing away or arguing with my parents. I dragged my feet to my room, where I found Ava sprawled out on my bed.

"Finally, you're here," She exclaimed, noticing me enter the room.

"Did you know-"

"Yes," Ava abruptly responded without letting me finish my question.

"I didn't even know, I haven't even got a present."

"So? Why are you bothered about getting him a present?" Ava looked at me quizzically, narrowing her eyes.

"Because he got me one." I shrugged my shoulders, making my way over to the large wardrobe that contained my clothes.

"Who cares," Ava scoffed. "Wear that."

Ava pointed at the black jumpsuit, embellished with red, green and white floral embroidery, at the top. I eyed the piece of clothing Ava told me to wear, realising that it was one of the gifts Ruby gave me for my birthday, I proceeded to send her a quick text.

H: Fancy going to a birthday barbecue?

Within two minutes her response pinged onto my phone.

R: Ooo sounds fun! Count me in! Who's birthday barbecue?

H: Zac's...

R: Say no more, meet you at yours in ten?

H: Perfect!

Relief washed over me, knowing I had Ava and Ruby to keep me in check, if I was to endure painless hours at Zac's house.

***

When we arrived at the Carters' house, the garden was alive with quite a few people. The barbecue was soaring with cooked food, the rich smell of smoke combined with the variety of meat cooking away, danced its way to my nose.

Mary welcomed us with open arms, flashing a wide smile. Soon dad went off chatting amongst all the men, mum went off with all the chirpy and preppy women. Ruby, Ava and I were left awkwardly, right in the centre of the garden, not knowing what to do.

We decided to huddle together at the side, out of prying eyes. Whilst Ava and Ruby were deep in conversation, I could feel an aura loom over me as if I was being watched.

When shifting my sight far across me, I noticed Zac's alluring eyes latched on to me, whilst he was chatting amongst his friends.

My posture changed as he continued to deeply gaze towards me. The way Zac's eyes were focused on me, I couldn't tell what his intentions were.

Deciding I wasn't going to let him affect me, I lifted my glass of drink towards him and flashed him a sarcastic smile. I flicked my hair and I turned back to Ava and Ruby.

Suddenly, a familiar shrieking laugh caught my attention. When I followed the sound, I realised it was Melissa. I internally groaned and rolled my eyes towards her. It had been a while since we had an altercation, but seeing her roam around like she's the Queen, sparked a fury within me.

I followed her movements, she started to walk towards Zac, exaggerating her movements and laughing extra hard to get his attention. My hand wrapped around the glass tighter as I couldn't stand the way she acted.

Much of the evening passed smoothly and calmly till Zac made his way to me.

"Can we talk?" He asked, approaching me.

After considering it for a short while, I gave in and waved for him to lead the way to the side. I stood in front of Zac, with my arms crossed and my head to the side waiting for him to say something.

"I didn't think you would come." Zac broke the silence, placing his hands in his pockets and standing in a cocky way.

"Well I was forced," I murmured.

Zac chuckled under his breath. "And my gift?"

I backed my head and shook my head quizzically, I scoffed at his question.

"You have some nerve," I snapped. "You don't even deserve-"

"If I remember correctly," Zac butted in, inching closer to me. "I gave you a gift, when I didn't need to."

Just as I opened my mouth to counter argue, it was like I had been slapped in the face, knocking the words out of me. My veins were pulsing with anger, Zac's whole demeanour radiated being big-headed.

As I didn't want to make a scene, I swallowed down my frustration, with my nostrils flared and my jaws clenched down.

"Screw you," I snapped, turning on my heels and marching away from him.

Although I was overpowered with such annoyance and anger, the rest of the night proceeded with Zac and I continuing to exchange looks. It was like we couldn't stop eyeing each other up.

Wherever I would go, he soon followed with his captivating deep green eyes. I found myself doing the same. It was like we were arguing with just the movement of our eyes.

There were times where I would feel a slight flush of heat wave over me, it was almost as if I was blushing under his gaze. I wanted to hate his presence and ignore him, but I couldn't.

The more I forced myself to be angry towards him, the more I felt myself blush. My mind was scrambled and I couldn't figure why he made me feel like this.

The day of our presentation was slowly approaching us, creeping quietly. I just had to push him out of my mind till then, but with how my mind overtook my thoughts, this was going to be harder than expected.

A/N

Well looks like we are back to square one, Zac and Hannah bickering again...

Their project is slowly approaching, will they be able to present together...

Thoughts on this chapter?

Don't forget to comment and vote!

Love _xxAMxx