’d fallen asleep with Zacky last night, now we hadn’t slept together, but he had managed to get me out of my shirt. I woke up with my face buried in the pillow, I was on my stomach hugging the pillow and Zacky was nowhere to be found, but I could hear him talking to someone in the flat, I found my shirt and threw it on over my head, tiptoeing out of Zacky’s room and into my own.

I quickly changed into some pyjama pants and pulled my hair up into a messy bun before leaving the room, at least it looked like I’d slept in my own room last night.

I went into the hall to see Mason and Zacky staring each other down.

“What’s going on?” I asked, yawning for effect.

“Nothing, I was just coming over with some more of the stuff you left at mine” He said

“Oh, thank you babe” I said, kissing his cheek and taking the bag from him and taking it through to the washer in the kitchen, I shoved the rest of my clothes in and closed the door, pressed start and stood up. I went back into the hall where the two of them were still glaring at each other.

“Zacky are you gonna go get dressed?” I asked him

“I’m fine just here” He said

“Zacky, go get dressed” I repeated, he shot Mason one more death glare before turning on his heel and stalking out of the room. “I’m sorry about him” I said wrapping my arms around his shoulders.

“It’s okay, I know that he doesn’t like me, he’s too protective of you, you’d think he had a thing for you” He laughed and kissed the top of my head.

“Yeah…” I said unsurely.

“So, what do you want to do today seeing as you had to cancel last night?”

“I don’t mind, I really need to do some grocery shopping more than anything, all we have is bacon and waffles” I laughed.

“You don’t like bacon?”

“No, she’s a vegetarian, or did you not know that?” Zacky sneered from the doorway to the
living room.

“I do now” He said calmly, I squeezed his shoulders and smiled gently at him, I knew he was trying not to rise to Zacky’s bate, I knew what Zacky was doing, I knew he was jealous, I knew I should have felt bad, but right now I just had to work on breaking up with mason.

“Let me go take a shower and we can go” I said tugging Mason with me into my room. “I really am sorry about him, he’s still… sore about the breakup with Gena” I said quietly

“Yeah but why is he being such an asshole to me?”

“Because…” I bit my lip “My last… relationship didn’t end to well and I was left kinda… broken after that for a while, he just wants to make sure you’re not gonna hurt me or run away with some whore at the next opportunity” I said turning to look at him properly.

“Well I’m not leaving you anytime soon, so he has nothing to worry about” He smiled and kissed me softly.

“Well I need to leave because I need to get a shower” I said

“Want me to join you?”

“I don’t see why not, although we probably won’t get a lot of actual bathing done”

“Works just fine for me” I said.

X-X-X

By the time we actually left to go out it had been a good hour since Mason had shown up at our apartment, okay so it was only grocery shopping but it felt weirdly domesticated with Mason, usually Zacky and I just raced around the store with our carts and tried not to crash into anything. But it was more civilised with Mason, I found myself picking up a lot of the stuff Zacky usually bought, like for instance toaster waffles, I don’t like them much, I prefer pancakes swimming in syrup, but Zacky adores the waffles.

“What’re you thinking about babe?”

“How Zacky loves waffles but I like pancakes”

“You think about him a lot don’t you?” He sounded irritated.

“I worry about him”

“Why?”

“Because he’s my best friend”

“You’re just awfully close”

“Well duh like I said he’s been my best friend since I was five”

“I still don’t like it” He grumbled.

“Don’t get pissy with me about this Mason, I’m sure you have friends that are girls” I said loading everything onto the checkout.

“Yeah I do but I don’t live with them, and I’m not so protective of them that people would think there’s something going on”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me”

“We’re not having this conversation in the middle of Wal-Mart” I snapped bagging things up

“We’ll talk about it later”

“There’s nothing to talk about” He said

“Well evidently there is because you’re suddenly so hung up on the fact that I’m friends with Zacky”

“It’s not the fact that you’re friends with him, it just seems like there’s… there’s something
else going on there”

“You’re being stupid” I said as we got into the car.

“How can you call me stupid when all im saying is I don’t like him”

“Yeah well I really don’t give a shit if you don’t like him because Zacky has been a part of my life since I was three years old and that isn’t about to change now because you’re getting possessive over me”

“Who said that I wanted him out of your life”

“That’s what you’re implying” I said

“Well I didn’t mean that all I meant was it seems a little bit less than innocent, and I genuinely do wonder if there is anything going on between you two” His voice was rising.
“Well there’s nothing going on between us” I said, ending the conversation right there, we drove back to my apartment and he helped me carry everything inside, Zacky was there, sprawled across the couch drinking a beer and watching a baseball game, he didn’t pay any attention to us as we came in, or when I kicked the door shut and it slammed really loud.

“You don’t need to stay and help put this away” I said flatly.

“We need to talk about it” He said

“I don’t want to talk about it if you’re just gonna carry on being an asshole and accusing me
of having a thing with my best friend”

“Well excuse me for being a little bit paranoid, you live with a fucking rock star, I’m not blind
Riley, and I know about his reputation”

“Oh fuck off he was with Gena for the past three years, they only broke up recently”

“Don’t tell me to fuck off! When I’m only concerned about losing my girlfriend to some other guy!”

“You’re basically calling me a slut now? Because you think that I’m gonna run away with
every guy that comes my way?”

“What?! Ohmygod you’re being ridiculous now! I never said that!”

“Yeah well you fucking implied it!”

“Well maybe I meant it” I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand.

“I think you ought to leave now” Zacky was behind him.

“Says who”

“Says me, seeing as it’s my fucking house and you’re no longer welcome here, well really
you were never welcome here, but seeing as I don’t think Riley wants you here either, you should leave”

“I was going anyway, I don’t want to be near you and your whore” His words were like a slap to the face, each one. Mason stormed out of the house and I heard the door slam a minute later. Zacky was watching me, he was gaging my reaction, waiting to see what I was going to do or say.

I was numb for a few seconds before I could actually register what had happened.

“That was your fault” I said

“What? How—“

“We were fighting over you”

“Why?” He looked confused

“He was jealous of you, of our relationship, he figured there was something going on”

“What did you tell him”

“I told him that there wasn’t, because there isn’t, there can’t ever be”

“Riley what—“

“Zacky it’s never gonna work me and you?! It’s obvious already; I’ve been with Mason what? Three weeks and it’s already blown up in my face because you decided to tell me that you love me”

“Riley why ca—“

“Zacky just drop it okay?!” I was in tears at this point “It can’t work because it just can’t” I sobbed. He sighed and stepped closer to me pulling me against his chest tightly. I tried to fight against him but he kept ahold of me. “Zacky let me go” I sobbed

“No Riley, just calm down, you need to calm down” He said.

“It’s your fault”

“I know”

“I hate you”

“No you don’t”

“Yes I do” Okay I was being stupid and childish but I was upset. Zacky pulled back from the hug a little and I looked up at him.

“No you don’t” He said, and the he kissed me, just like that.

Notes

Title credit: I write sins not tragedies - Panic! At the disco.