Neighbors [boyxboy] [ON HOLD!!!]

Chapter 7

"Bullshit! Total Bullshit!", Brenda snapped, turning around to face me with a fiery glare. "We both know that it wasn't the alcohol, so you can stop trying to look for stupid excuses to cover up for the nonsense you pulled on Sunday."

"Alright I'm sorry. I know what I did was really stupid and mean, okay? I don't know what came over me. I wasn't thinking. You have to believe me. I never intended to lash out at him like that, I swear.", I apologized.

Isabel left the kitchen and Brenda walked up to me and folded her arms staring at me with a stern gaze. "You don't need to tell me the reason you did what you did if you don't want to. I know you've been having a tough time and all but that didn't give you any right to do what you did to Zak. He didn't deserve any of that. You should be apologizing to him and not us."

"I can't do that. You have to understand.", I whined.

"Yes, you can and I'm giving you the silent treatment until you do what's right and set things right between you two.", she stroked my arm and walked towards the stairs.

"Can't you do it for me?", I begged.

She didn't answer me and continued to walk up the stairs, probably to her room.

I groaned in frustration, pushing my hand through my hair. How the hell was I going to apologize to him now? I didn't think I could even approach him now, after what I did to him.

'Would he even forgive me if I apologized? This was going to be hard. Darn it!'

<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>

Zak's P.O.V.

I had managed to avoid Oliver for most of the week. The few times that we happened to be in the same room, I turned away or tilted my gaze downward, avoiding any sort of eye contact with him.

After our eventful encounter at the barbeque, I told myself not to look into his eyes anymore because they sort of drew me. Every time I looked into them I would lose my train of thought. That was how he caught staring at him in the first place. I had been so lost in his beautiful hazel pools, it took me forever to clue into the angry gaze behind them, prompting his tantrum. It wasn't my fault though. He had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen on a man, on anyone - ever, if I was being totally honest.

I had to stop thinking about him because I was tired of feeling this pain in my chest. It was a nagging reminder that we were never going to happen.

Avoiding him reduced the pain, if only by a bit. I had also taken to overworking myself at the office the last few days to try to keep my mind off of him. He still managed to slip in every once in awhile.

I found that I was constantly reminding myself that I shouldn't feel attracted to him anymore because his inside obviously did not reflect his stunningly beautiful outer one. No, he had shown,not only me, but the rest of his party guests just how ugly he really was. That being said, I guess my hormones disagreed with me because on more than one occasion my traitorous body had involuntarily reacted to visions of him in my head.

It was Saturday and since they were always so uneventful for me, I had decided to use the time to do some fall cleaning. I was currently sorting through boxes of some of my brother's old junk. He had also lived in this house when he was in college and when he married and moved in with his wife, he had simply left everything here.

He claimed that he would come by eventually and clear it out, but, I had suspected that in actuality, his wife had forbid him from taking any of his college crap with him and he was just too damn lazy to get rid of it. The guy was definitely a hoarder and based on some of the stuff I had found, he had a weakness for useless junk.

So, in the spirit of 'one man's junk is another man's treasure', I decided to donate everything to charity. I had already spent the last several hours sorting and boxing everything up. Now, all that was left, was to put the boxes in the storage shed in the backyard until the charity van to come to take them.

As I dropped a few of the boxes in the growing pile outside, planning on going back in to retrieve the rest, I saw Oliver coming out the backdoor of his house with a trash bag in his hands.

Our houses were only separated by a picket fence. He was on his phone and didn't realize I was there. As he opened the trash can and dropped the bag, he looked up and saw me.

I didn't realize I had frozen on the spot from the time he came out of his house. I had never been alone with him before. Now that he had noticed me, my heart had picked up its beat and I began to sweat furiously.

He was also staring at me but this time there was no anger or fury in his eyes, only guilt? I couldn't really read his eyes but they seemed to hold a compassionate gaze.

We stared at each other for a few more seconds before I snapped back to reality, when he quickly spoke into his phone before snapping it shut. Realizing I wasn't moving, I immediately turned and began to take quick steps back to my house.

"Wait!", he called to me.

I stopped immediately. My hands began to shake and my throat felt dry. I turned around slowly to face him.

"Look, Zak. I'm sorry for yelling at you and saying all those harsh things to you the other day. I didn't really mean it. I have been going through a lot lately and I am not ready to get into a relationship and quite frankly you refused to get any of the signals I sent to you that I wasn't interested so, it made me transfer the frustration onto you. Anyways, let's just put all this behind us and be FRIENDS.", he said, putting emphasis on "friends", as he came towards the fence separating us and held out his hand for me to shake.

I stood there unable to form words. He apologized to me and wanted to be friends. I was supposed to feel happy about that but I didn't. Instead, this sudden overwhelming feeling of anger washed over me.

'Why did I feel angry instead of excited?' Maybe, it was because he blamed me for the way he acted.

How dare he blame me for what he did? I just happened to be attracted to him. Where was the wrong in that? Could I help who I fell for? Hell no! And it wasn't as if I had even acted on that attraction other than by smiling at him. I hadn't even flirted with him. And here he was blaming me for his actions.

My expression immediately contorted into one of anger as I glared at him. He sensed it and he drew back his hand slowly, confusion written all over his face.

"How dare you blame me for your actions? You have no right to do that! I didn't ask to feel attracted to you. In fact, if I had a way to shut down whatever feelings I have for you, I would. Whatever you are going through doesn't give you the right to treat me like that, like a fucking kid. What you did just shows me and everyone else that you are an immature asshole who doesn't know how to handle things like an adult!", I spat at him before swiftly turning around and beelining it into my house, letting the door slam behind me.

As I sat on my couch, the realization of what I had just done began to sink in. I was stunned by the way I acted. I had never talked to someone like that in my entire life. In 'flight or fight' situations, I was always 'flight'. I was too much of a coward for anything else. Whenever I was angry at someone, I just avoided them until I got over it because I never had the guts to scold them or even discuss the issue, for that matter.

Oliver was bringing out these new emotions I had never experienced or explored before. I didn't know if it was a good or bad thing. But, I decided not to dwell on that for now because, at the moment, I was too busy celebrating the look of shock and confusion painted on his face, as I left him standing in his backyard.

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A/N: Vote, comment and share plsssssss. Help me spread the word about Neighbors. Thanks. Muah. <333
And for being awesome, I am gonna post another chapter this week for you guys as a Christmas gift from me. You're welcome. :))