I laced my fingers through his as we walked home; he looked down at our hands but didn’t question it. Oh how I wished that I could grow a pair and tell him how I felt, but I couldn’t. It was impossible for me not to stumble over my words whenever he was around let alone telling him that I loved him. I ran my free hand through my hair, honestly wondering about if Zee was thinking about me. I hope.

I opened the door for him, smiling at me as he passed. Grinning to myself as I walked in behind him, sure it was a sweet thing but also it gave me the chance to admire his all too perfect ass. My dad coughed to get my attention; I looked up at him to see what he wants.

He motioned from me to Zee and back again, his eyes widening as he realized that I liked my best friend. He made kissy faces towards me as Zee suggested that we go up to my room to watch a movie, I shoved him into the fridge as I passed. He merely chuckled and went over to McKenna and Brent who were on the couch. Zee and I walked in silence up the staircase to where my room is, it was unusual for us as we never really ran out of things to say or talk about with each other.

He sat down on my bed, smiling up at me.
“So what movie to you want to –“, he cut me off with his index finger, shaking his head he motioned for me to come over to him. I made my way over to him with caution, cocking an eyebrow as I sat next to him. As soon as my ass it the mattress he wrapped me in a hug, I wasn’t complaining but it was unexpected.

“Can we cuddle?” he asked me looking up at me with his piercing green eyes. I nodded, not really trusting my voice. We stripped ourselves off of our clothes so we were in our boxers, he moved up to the bed, opened the comforter and climbed in, and then he held it open for me to hop in next to him.

He smiled as I snuggled up next to him; wrapping my arms around his waist, he sighed in content as he leant his head on my chest. You can’t just sit there and not tell me that there’s something going on between us. At least that’s what my mind’s telling me, forcing me to believe that he may possibly feel the same way. “Bri, I’ve got to tell you something,” Zee whispered to me; looking down at my tattooed arms, his gaze was fixated on my green and purple coloured, monster themed sleeves. I gently lifted his chin up so he had to look at me.

“What is it?” my voice was coated with concern and worry, he looked genuinely... scared. My arms re-snaked themselves around his waist, pulling him closer to my body.

“I.. I uh, need to head to my father’s tomorrow so I can get my clothes” he replied still managing to avoid my gaze. Now I understood why he was scared, he had every fucking right to be; so that’s why I made a snap decision.

“You stay here, I’ll go” I mumbled just loud enough so he could hear. He gasped, eyes wide he fully faced me, shaking his head.
“Brian Elwin! No!! I’m not allowing such a thing!” he choked out, clutching me closer to him.

“Zachary,” I said, I’d rarely used the full name card, but when I did he knew I was being serious. He looked up at me, curiosity filled is emerald green eyes. My heart melt a little at his gaze. “Do you really think that I’d let you go back to your father’s house?! Especially since that after all he’s put you through,” At that he loosened his grip on me. Nodding as he contemplated what I’d just said.

It was about 11:00pm when Zee finally decided to let me go to retrieve his clothes and any other things that he’d told me that he wanted. He walked down with me too the door. Zee turned to face me fully, before he pulled me against his chest into a bone-crushing hug. “Stay safe” he whispered into my ear, pulling back he placing a kiss to my cheek and made his way to the lounge room – grabbing a book from the coffee table – where he sat onto the sofa; propping up his feet on the coffee table.

He glanced my way before I left. As I closed the door behind me I couldn’t help my notice that there was something that was hidden beneath that perfectly sculpted mask which he’d worn for years. It looked all too much like love.

I climbed up the tree that was next to the window to Zee’s room; his room was lucky in the fact that it had a tree to climb up and a drainpipe to slide back down. Opening the window I pulled myself through, trying to be as quiet as I could possibly be, once I was in I quickly began to collect all of his stuff.

As I did I began to quietly hum to myself. I managed to get all of Zee’s stuff together and just as I was about to get his toothbrush I heard something outside; slightly cocking my head to the side I listened for a while… *bang* … I clasped a hand over my mouth as I realised that it was James. I couldn’t move – not because I was scared, but because I was busy fighting my inner demons.

A part of me was saying for me to go back to Zee – to comfort him and to hold him. Yet the other part of me was saying for me to stay here and to belt the fuck out of James. To inflict the pain and suffering that he’d caused Zee to go through for years; it was so fucking tempting. But I decided against it as my urge to be around Zee forever took over the impulse to bash James’ head in.

I got back pretty late – Zacky was half asleep when I walked into my room, he had stayed up waiting for me to get back. Smiling, I stripped down into my boxers and climbed in next to him. “Hey Bri.” he said groggily; tilting his head to the side and opened an eye to look at me, “did you get everything?”

“Of course, now go to sleep hun.” I replied, kissing his head as he moved closer to me. I decided against telling him about James until tomorrow, he needed the rest… Before Zee fell asleep he mumbled something - it sounded a lot like ‘I love you’, I smirked to myself and I told him that I loved him back and I could swear that I could see him smile slightly. It was about midnight when my brain finally decided it’d shut the hell up and let me go to bed.