Years as Maddie's big brother had taught him how to read her well. Zach didn't entirely believe the correction to her words, but he wasn't about to start something over it. They all had their secrets, he wouldn't want Maddie trying to drum up his, so he wasn't going to force her into admitting anything to him either. "Good, because I'd track your ass down and haul you back here if you were planning on going somewhere." his words were said with a note of teasing, but it was all a show. He was deadly serious about tracking her down if she ever did decide to do something idiotic like leave.
He winced at the mention of his radio silence. Maddie had every right to bring it up, didn't mean he enjoyed being reminded of it. "Yeah, I've thought about asking Marchand or someone if we could unplug those things," it wasn't a secret Zach was less than a fan of the arcade games, or more so the excuse they gave Dillon to be disconnected. "We'd probably get our brother back if we did that, maybe." He laughed at the mention of Dillon pulling ahead in the competition. "I've got a feeling he'll always be ahead of me in this." Unless Zach went and did something stupid again.
Shrugging his shoulders up slightly, Zach smirked. "Just trying to help keep the peace, Munchkin." Or get what he deserved for being the world's worst older brother for awhile, at least in his mind.
Zach couldn't keep from chuckling softly. "Maybe, but how many super drunk blind ladies do you think he'll come across in his lifetime," not many. He'd met the rocker a couple of times and in his lifetime Zach had come across a lot of drunk women, he had a feeling most of those women would never be drunk enough to sleep with the creepy rocker. "Something tells me that guy doesn't have a chance in hell in getting laid, ever."
It was truly a helpful attempt to make Maddie feel like she could do something productive, but Zach also knew what it was liked to be pushed to do something you didn't want to do. So he made a mental note to stop suggesting she help him out, or at least back off on it some. His eyebrows were still up near his hairline as Maddie continued to tell him about what Charlie had been up to lately and the fact she seemed to be showing an interest in the medical field again. "Not when I've been around, but I'm not always there," he didn't live in the place after all, though the thought had crossed his mind a couple of times. "I'll have to ask her about it sometime, we could always use another capable and knowledgeable person around the place." Plus it might give him a chance to mend bridges with Charlie as well.
Holding his hands up in surrender, he gave her a sheepish smile as he responded. "Okay, okay, I shouldn't have implied anything. Want to hit me with the notebook again as payback?" The last part was a joke, but he wouldn't duck away if she did hit him. "Also, I'm well aware your hobbies are far more creative and annoying." He pouted at Maddie when she told him she wasn't going to tell him the nickname he had been dubbed. "Fine, that makes it fair game for me to call you Munchkin in front of your friends, then."
"Pretending? I'm hurt." Zach threw a hand over his heart in an overly dramatic gesture. So yeah, he had been wasting time and he should have expected Maddie to pick up on that, she knew him better than most people after all. "Nope, just saw the last person I needed to check up on," he paused a moment, letting a grin spread across his features. "I wouldn't mind walking around with you," He hadn't had much of a chance to spend quality time with Maddie since they began talking again, so he plans of sticking with her for as long as she'd let him. "I can act as your bodyguard and ward off creepy rocker types who have no right to be ogling my baby sister anyway."