Zac's POV
I wait impatiently by the front doors of the school, tapping my foot. I scan the crowd of people coming out, only to be disappointed. Where is he?
"Boo!" Someone grabs my shoulders from behind me.
"What the shit?!" I scream as I jump from being scared. Then I realize it's Kyle. "That's the second time you scared me today. If you do that again, I'm going to have to rip your face off." I warn, jokingly. Kyle laughs.
"Got it."
We start making the short journey to my house. It only takes about five minutes to walk there from school. As we walked in the door, Kyle looked around.
"I like your house. It's nice."
"Thanks. No one's home, so we can do whatever." I tell him. "Come on."
I grab his hand and lead him up to my room. I open the door to reveal my room, which is surprisingly quite clean. I don't have much in here. I have my bed against one wall, my closet full of clothes, my desk that I never use, my piano that I play more often than I'd like to admit, my TV placed across from my bed (with my many epic gaming systems), and a giant shelf of games.
"So what do you want to do?" I ask as I drop his hand, realizing that I was still holding it. First I accidentally keep my arm around him, and now I hold his hand. He must know something's up. I decide if I ignore the fact that I was holding his hand, maybe he'd ignore it too.
"I don't know." He says, looking around. He notices my collection of video games and walks over to them. "Wow. How did you get so many games?"
"Years of begging parents for new games." I smile when I hear him laugh. "Wanna play one?"
"Sure."
"Okay. You can pick."
Kyle studies the shelf and looks at all the titles. He picks one out and tosses it to me. I, by some sort of miracle, catch it. I look at the case, seeing that he picked Guitar Hero.
"Good choice." I comment.
"Yeah. It's the only video game I'm actually good at." Kyle says. I grab the disk and put it in the system. I grab two guitars and walk over to Kyle.
"I'm pretty good at most video games." I brag a bit. I hand Kyle a guitar. "I'm even letting you use my favorite guitar."
"Well aren't I special?" Kyle smiled.
"You are." I reply, meaningfully. Kyle and I kind of just smile shyly at each other, both obviously blushing a bit.
"So let's play!" Kyle cheered, breaking the silence. I sat on the bed and Kyle plopped down next to me.
"Prepare to lose!" I say, acting bad-ass.
"Yeah right. I'm sure you're going to lose." Kyle replies, determined to beat me.
After we played five songs, I realize that I run my mouth too much. Out of the five games we played, Kyle won four of them. The only reason I won the other one was because I blocked the TV trying to sabotage Kyle. When I won that game, Kyle tackled me back onto the bed, pinning my arms down.
"Cheater!" He called, laughing loudly.
"Am not!" I retorted, also laughing.
"Yes you are! Admit it!"
"Never!"
Suddenly, I felt Kyle's hand on my neck. Damn myself for telling him my neck issues!
"Admit it!" Kyle repeated. I was squirming like mad under him, willing him to stop touching my neck. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.
"Okay! Fine! Yes, I cheated!"
"Ha!" He laughed, victorious. He got off of me and we continued playing, and Kyle continued winning.
By the time we finished a few more songs, it was around 6 PM. I was getting hungry, and I'm sure Kyle was too. I took out the disk from the system and put it back in its case.
"You hungry, Kyle?" I ask.
"Yeah. Are you?" He answers, handing me the guitar.
"Starving. I could order a pizza if you want. My parents won't be home until later, so pizza seems like a good option."
"Why? Can't cook?"
"Not really. I shouldn't be allowed in kitchens."
"Well I guess I'll have to teach you how to cook. But not tonight because pizza sounds good right now."
"Fine. I'm looking forward to that cooking lesson." I grab my phone and dial a nearby pizza place. "What kind?"
"Pepperoni." He answers.
I order the pizza and when I turn around, I see Kyle making himself comfortable on my bed. He's laying down, looking at the ceiling. I lay down next to him with almost no space in between our bodies.
"Thanks." Kyle says suddenly.
"What do you mean? What for?"
"I don't know. Everything." He turns his head to look at me. I turn to look back at him. "For showing me around school, for inviting me over, for buying me dinner. I've just never really had anyone be this nice to me and now I do. We've only known each other for a day, and I already feel really close to you." He smiles. I smile back.
"Of course, Kyle. That's what friends do for each other. At least I'm pretty sure that's what they do. I've never really had anyone this close either."
"Well, now we have each other."
"Yeah." I bite my lip. "We do."
We lay there in silence, totally comfortable. Just laying on my bed, looking at the ceiling above us. I wonder what he's thinking about. What if he's thinking about me? What about me, though? Or he could be thinking about something completely different. I turn to look at him only to see that's he's already looking at me.
"What are you thinking about?" I ask, quietly.
"You." He answers, even quieter.
I lean in closer to him, not entirely sure what I'm doing. All I can think about is what it would feel like to just... Kiss him. What would he think? What would he do? Maybe I should just-.
I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of the doorbell. I reluctantly move my face away from Kyle's, only now realizing how close I was to actually kissing him. Damn that pizza for getting here fast.
"I'll be right back." I say as I grab my wallet.
I rush downstairs after pulling out money for the pizza. I open the door to a girl with reddish-blonde hair. Was she wearing... A fake mustache? I glance at her name tag, which says "Monica" on it.
"Hello yes I have your pizza!" She says in a fake Italian accent. I take the pizza from her and give her my money.
"Um thanks." I say, thoroughly freaked out. She hands me my change, which I just shove carelessly in my pocket.
"Oh you are very welcome!" She says as she twirls, literally twirls, away. I slowly shut the door, unsure of what to think of that experience.
I walk into the kitchen and grab two plates and some napkins for me and Kyle. I also grab two cans of coke, struggling to carry all of this. I kick open the door with my foot and put the pizza box on the bed. I hand Kyle a plate and a coke.
"Thanks." Kyle says as I sit down next to him. We both grab some pizza and start eating.
"You already said that. You don't need to thank me for everything."
"I know, but I really mean it. Thank you." He says. I know he isn't just talking about me buying him dinner.
"I mean it too. Don't worry about it." After we ate, we got right back to talking again. As if that almost-kiss didn't happen.
"So why isn't your family home?" Kyle asked.
"Well mum and dad both work a lot, so they usually get home really late. Usually 9, but sometimes earlier, sometimes later. I don't really mind though. I've learned how to fend for myself." I laugh a bit. "What about you? What's your family like?"
"My dad travels, so I hardly get to see him. Right now, he's in Africa. It's pretty cool that he travels, but sometimes I miss him. Then my mum is usually always home. She works from her office in our house, but she sometimes has to go to her office building downtown. Then I have a brother, but he's years older than me. He lives a few hours away with his wife."
"I have a brother too. He's younger, but he's never home. He practically lives at his friend's house."
"Do you like having the house to yourself?"
"Yeah I guess. What teenaged boy wouldn't like it? I get kind of lonely sometimes though, but it's not like I wouldn't be alone in my room if they were home."
"Well, you don't always have to be alone. You could come to my house sometime." Kyle smiled.
"Yeah. I'd like that." I say. Suddenly, my door opened. It's my mum.
"Zac, I'm home. Who's this?" She asks, indicating Kyle.
"Mum, this is Kyle, my friend from school. Kyle, this is my mum."
"Hi."
"Oh hello, Kyle. Nice to meet you." She smiles. "How come I've never met you before?"
"I'm new at school. Today was my first day."
"Oh. Well, I hope you enjoy it here." She keeps her smile as she exits.
"Your mum seems nice. Much nicer than mine."
"Yeah. I'm surprised she's home so early. It's only 7:45."
"Really? I should probably get home soon. Mum might want me home."
"She doesn't let you stay out late?"
"She usually does, it's just that she has a lot of work this week and when she has a lot of work, she gets worried about everything." He explains while slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
"Do you need a ride?" I ask.
"No I can walk."
"But it's dark outside. It's not safe." I say, genuinely concerned about his safety.
"I don't live that far." He reasons.
"How far?"
"I don't know. Um probably a mile." He guesses. I stand up with him.
"Hell no. Kyle, you're getting a ride."
"Alright."
"Let's go." I say, walking through the house to the front door. I grab my mum's keys and head to the car.
"Your mum doesn't mind that you're taking her car?" Kyle asks.
"Nah." I say as we pull away from my house.. "I take it all the time. She doesn't care." Kyle directs me down streets, telling me how to get to his house.
"Third house on the right." He says. I pull in to the driveway of a big house. It's very nice looking and elegant. It's white with a pale blue door and matching pale blue shutters. It must be at least three floors. Kyle opens the door and gets out. "Thanks again, Zac. I really appreciate it." His blue eyes light up.
"Anytime. It's the least I could do." I smile back.
"See you tomorrow." He says before closing the car door. He turns and starts to make his way to his house. When he's out of hearing range, I put my head against the head rest and whisper to myself.
"Tomorrow. I can't wait."
I wait until he's safely inside before I pull away and start driving home. Only then do I allow myself to think what has been tugging at my mind all day.
I've got it bad for Kyle.