For Always, Forever.

Zack smiles lopsidedly at his boyfriend, who sits beside him at the wheel of the car. Zack doesn’t think he’s realized that he’s mumbling along to the Blink 182 song that’s playing softly from his car radio. Zack reaches out and places a gentle hand on his shoulder, making the younger glance over at him and smile.

“Jack, I really think you should leave the singing to Alex.”

Jack laughs a little and looks back at the road, taking a turn onto a different street.

“Thanks for that vote of confidence, Zack.”

Zack looks out of the windscreen too, and he sees a beautiful sunset of oranges and pinks, and a street sign he knows all too well.

The faded jade of the Charlotte Street sign that seems to be advancing on them stands out against nature’s background. Jack doesn’t even need it to know where he’s going; it’s where he and Zack always used to meet up when they got out of class when they were younger.

“I remember this place.” Zack says with a small smile as he looks over at Jack.

“I knew you would.” Jack grins back and parks up the car.

Zack was walking home from school, talking animatedly with Alex and Rian when he nearly mowed down some innocent citizen.

Who turned out to be one of the -really quite cute- private school boys.

“Sorry.” The boy said quietly, shuffling his bag up onto his shoulders and straightening his shirt before moving on quickly. Zack watched him go, his tall form meaning he has a somewhat ungainly gait. Alex elbowed him violently and he was thrust back into the conversation.

The next day, Zack hung around on the same corner, waiting for the boy to come back. Yeah, he knows it sounds kind of creepy, but he doesn’t really care. Sure enough, the boy came back, but this time he looked shaken up.

“Are you okay, kid?” Zack offered, sticking a hand out to the boy.

“Yeah… I’m fine, I guess.” The boy replied, not looking up at him. When he finally did, he recognized Zack’s face.

“Hey, didn’t we nearly kill each other here yesterday?” The boy asked, cocking his head to one side. Zack laughed and nodded, falling into step beside the boy as he continued walking.

“I guess we did.” He mused, “I don’t think I caught your name.”

Zack picked up on a hint of blush on the boy’s cheeks before he replied.

“Jack.”

*

It was three weeks later when Zack asked Jack out. He received a giggle, blush, and a nod as a response.

They met at the same old corner and went to see some cheap movie that they both ended up hating anyway. Zack slipped Jack’s hand into his as they left the theater and traversed the town.

Jack talked animatedly of how terrible his school was, and Zack smiled and chipped in humor about how Dulaney didn’t sound much better. Jack laughed and swung their interlinked hands as he walked with a spring in his step. Zack never wanted that night to be over. Talking about simple little things was always the best.

“What do you want to do when you’re older?” Jack asked and Zack shot him an appropriate smile.

“I’ve always wanted to be a surfing teacher.” Zack smiled, squeezing Jack’s hand gently.

“Oh, cool. I’d like to get into design but I think my dad will force me into accounting school or something. He really wants me to follow in his footsteps.” Zack picked up on the sadness in Jack’s voice.

“Well that sucks.” Zack commented, squeezing Jack’s hand again.

“I know. The only problem is I absolutely suck at math.” Jack replied, a smile playing on his lips.

*

It was a few years later, when the boys are older -granted, it was unlikely that they were wiser- that they became official. They had been nervously dancing around the topic of asking out since their first date, but it was Jack that asked Zack.

“Will you be my boyfriend?” It was a sudden noise on the serenity of the beach. The sun was rising up from the horizon in the distance and the two boys lounging on the beach had sat and watched it go down the night before. They’d fallen asleep at one point, simply because they didn’t want to go home and be apart from each other.

The sand was a comfortable warmth, the early morning summer sun basking them in a light orange glow.

Jack was snuggled tight against Zack’s toned chest, his face buried in the blonde’s neck as he asked the question.

Zack smiled and nodded, kissing Jack gently and feeling the slightly younger smile back through the kiss.

It wasn’t like they hadn’t battled their way through to be here; they’d been through more than enough trouble already. Zack’s dad had basically disowned him, harsh as it may seem and Jack’s older brother had made a point of bringing up the fact he’s a chef and so has access to sharp knives when Zack was over one time. Whether it was in a joking way or not, Zack was unsure. Jack assured him that it was. But Jack had almost been thrown out of school, down to stupid private school regulations. He couldn’t get thrown out, for the sake of his dad.

They weren’t quite sure how they made it out alive, but they did.

They sat and talked about their school lives and nights that had passed down to parties with friends or even about each other.

“We’re so lucky we found each other.” Zack said quietly, a smile on his lips.

“Well, we’re lucky you walked into me.” Jack giggles, arms moving around Zack’s waist and a smile on his lips as he kisses his neck.

But deep down, they were well aware of how so many couples like them couldn’t be happy or together because of some stupid circumstance beyond their control.

Jack and Zack were the lucky ones.

*

The hardest part came when Zack told Jack he was leaving for college and California. It was at the street corner when they met years previous and Jack tried oh-so hard not to cry. Zack hugged him tight and kissed him gently over and over, promising he’d come back as soon as he could. Jack just shook his head, turned and walked home.

When he got there, he asked his dad to help him apply to accounting college.

A few months passed and Jack got his replies in the mail. All of them except for one in Oregon are positive, and Jack’s dad was so proud of him. Jack stayed silent about Oregon, he didn’t want to go there anyway -it was way too close to Zack.

His dad helped him decide and in the end, Jack ended up in Florida. Far away enough from Zack for him and upper-class enough for his dad.

Jack left for Florida and gave his dad strict instructions not to forward any of his mail.

His dad insisted on doing so, and Jack was forced to relieve memories in letter after letter he received from Zack.

It was just unfortunate, however, that both Jack and Zack’s colleges happened to be on spring break at the same time.

It was even worse that Jack happened to be shopping when Zack descended upon him and kissed him. Jack stared at him for a second and Zack looked at him expectantly.

“You expect to leave and come back to everything just like it was?” Jack said quietly, and Zack’s eyes locked with his.

Zack stumbled on his words and Jack just shook his head.

“Well it isn’t.” Jack turned to walk away but Zack just followed him.

“Did you get into that design college you were looking at before I left?” Zack asked, matching his footsteps with the younger’s.

“No. Accounting. Florida.” Jack replied bluntly, pretending to peruse the bagels in front of him.

“I thought you didn’t like maths or the idea of being an accountant.”

“I don’t. But then, I didn’t like the idea of you leaving either and that made no difference.” Jack retorted, biting his lower lip.

Zack’s mouth dropped open and Jack walks quickly down the aisle but Zack caught up fast.

“That’s what this is about?”

Jack stared at him, a frown creasing his eyes.

“No, Zack, it’s about how the last thing you said to me before you left was ‘please don’t cry’. It wasn’t ‘I love you’ or anything sentimental like that. You wouldn’t even let me go to the damn airport with you!”

Zack stayed silent.

“You taught me this better than anyone or anything else; if you love someone or something, then let them go.” Jack’s voice was watery and on the verge of cracking before Zack’s very eyes.

“Jack, I…” Zack started, but Jack just held up a hand to silence him.

“Just save it.” He said quietly, turning and walking away.

But Zack was never one to back down without a fight. He followed Jack out of the store until Jack noticed.

“Would you just leave?” Jack asked desperately, eyes watery.

“I quit college.” Zack declared, and Jack looked wide-eyed at him.

“I figured being apart from you was going to hurt you. It looks like I was right.”

Jack didn’t say anything, but his chest heaved and he let Zack embrace him tight in a hug. As soon as his face was buried in the elder’s shoulder, he let a few tears fall.

“I swear to God, I’ll never let this happen again. We’ve made it this far and I’m not about to undo all the work it took for us to get here.”

Zack, as if sensing Jack’s thinking about the same times as he is, extends his hand out to the younger. Jack smiles sideways at him before taking his hand and swinging him into his chest.

“Told you we’d make it.” Zack says with a smile as he nuzzles against Jack’s neck.

“We made enough mistakes along the way, though.” Jack says, and if it was anyone other than Jack talking then Zack would think he was upset. They’ve had this conversation before, so Zack knows he isn’t.

“But they don’t matter.” Zack replies and he hugs Jack tighter, “Because we did what we wanted to and didn’t care what they thought.”

“Even though it dragged us to opposite sides of the country.” Jack says with a smile.

They both look up at the sign above their heads, with its flaking green and white paint and kiss with a smile.

There’s still a heart with the initials JB & ZM scraped into it on the sign, and it’s been securely there since high school. Zack should know, he wrote it.

And it’s a true marker to the couple that never seem to age; that for as long as Jack wants Zack and Zack wants Jack, then the heart on the street sign doesn’t lie.

Jack Barakat & Zack Merrick; for always, forever.