Conventional

“Did you put ice on it? Maybe the bruising will –”

“Yes; I put ice on it. Alex, I have to go. My mom’s calling me.”

“Oh, okay… well I’m gonna call you later, alright?”

I bite my lip as he assures me that yes, it’s okay if I call him later and I hear him hang up. Hearing the dial tone causes my frustrations to just overflow, and I throw my cell phone down to the floor. I watch as the battery pops out, causing the phone to turn off and lay there, completely useless until I decide to fix it.

Matt fucking touched Zack, and that’s not even remotely near okay. He touched my boyfriend, caused him pain, and I can’t do a damn thing about it. And even worse, he had the nerve to tell me all about it when I saw him in physics class. That was right after Art, when I saw Zack’s eye. He bragged about it, as if beating him up was something to be proud of. He makes me sick.

Jack voiced his concern to me. He said that Zack doesn’t really deserve any of the shit Matt’s doing to him. The fact that he feels bad for Zack sort of made me think about how he would react if I told him I was actually friends with Zack… He might not react badly. Actually, he probably wouldn’t. He would just be pissed that I kept it a secret for so long. But overall, he’d be okay with it… Maybe I should just tell him. Tell him everything. That I’m gay… that I love Zack. It would be nice to have someone else know my secret. I wouldn’t have to lie to Jack anymore.

*

Wednesday passes just like any other day. Until I get to Art class, that is. When I walk into the classroom I see Jack sitting awkwardly in his seat, and right behind him in his own seat is Zack, looking on the verge of tears. What the fuck?

“Hey…” I say, sitting down next to Jack.

“Hi. I have to talk to you after school…” Jack tells me quietly. His eyes dart quickly to Zack and then back to me. “It’s important.”

“Oh okay… Why does the kid look like he’s about to cry?” I ask, sounding like I don’t really care about the reason Zack looks so upset.

“Well… There are few reasons for that… But I’ll tell you after school. I’ll meet you at your car.”

“Right…”

I suddenly feel anxious. Something happened to Zack and Jack was there.

*

“Now listen, hear me out, okay?” Jack says the second I’m within earshot of him. He’s leaning against my car.

“Jack, what’s going on?”

“You know how Matt’s been after the Merrick kid since last week? When he wouldn’t hand over his English homework?”

“Yeah…how does it concern me?” I question, even though I know it completely concerns me. Jack doesn’t know that.

“Well, Zack’s in my Computer class. And so are Matt and Oliver. You can only imagine what happened-”

“Wait, what? What did they do?”

“Well class got out early. Zack was slow to leave. Apparently on Monday Matt took Zack’s English essay, and handed it in as his own. Zack had gone back to the library and printed a new copy and handed it in. Matt got an ‘F’ because the teacher didn’t believe that matt actually did the work. So, yeah, needless to say, Matt was fucking pissed.”

I feel light-headed, suddenly.

“So… what’d they do to him? And how does this concern me?”

“I’m getting to that,” Jack says, “They told me to stand by the door in case the teacher came back. They didn’t hurt him really… just pushed him around a bit and said some stupid shit. But they grabbed his English notebook and gave it to me to hold. While they were tormenting him, I flipped through the first few pages and found this,” Jack reaches into his hoodie pocket and pulls out a folded up piece of loose-leaf paper. He hands it to me.

I unfold it gently, trying not to rip it. I feel more than light-headed, now. I feel like I’m going to throw up all over Jack’s shoes.

‘Alex Gaskarth’ was written in sloppy handwriting on the page. There was a heart next to it. It was obvious what it was – just some scrap paper that Zack started writing on. Part of me filled with affection – he’s too adorable- but then the other part of me is so fucking pissed. By doing this, he could have told everyone our secret.

“Jack-”

“I ripped it out before the guys took the notebook back. They didn’t see it.”

“Oh…Well this is-”

“I talked to him, Alex. He ran off to the bathroom after Matt and Oliver left. They thought I went to my next class but I followed Zack. I felt so bad for him…”

“W-what’d he say?”

“He was hysterical. He thought Matt was going to read that paper and tell the whole school. I told him they wouldn’t because I have it, and his secret’s safe with me, for the most part. I said I’d have to tell you about it, and he seemed to calm down a bit.”

“Oh…fuck.”

“Don’t worry, Alex. He’s just… I mean, don’t blame him, okay?”

“Blame him? No, I don’t blame him. I just… it’s so weird…” I manage to lie. I make it as believable as I can.

Zack is so fucking lucky that Jack didn’t put some pieces together and figure out what’s really going on.