The Boy With the Pink Bass

The next day could not have gone by any slower. Alex was watching the clock nearly constantly, each second seeming to take longer and longer to pass. He didn’t focus for more than thirty seconds at a time on what his teachers were saying, what his friends were saying, his assignments (not that he did them anyways), etc. Anything that wasn’t the slowly ticking hands of the metronomic clock, Alex saw no point in paying attention to.

Today, he was supposed to go over to Zack’s house after school. Not only did this very idea plague him with a gut-wrenching, yet wonderful anxiety, but thinking about it seemed to make the day drag on even more than it already was. By lunch time, it seemed to Alex like the past four hours had been four days. Luckily, lunch was always distracting and fun, as all the All Time Low guys sat together. This, of course, usually ended in food becoming airborne or Jack with a French fry stuck up his nose.

Lunch was rather uneventful, probably because Alex wasn’t paying attention to anything that was going on around him. All he could do was look at the fucking clock. His eyes were drawn to it as if magnetically. Of course, he was also drifting into rather intense daydreams as to what was going to happen at Zack’s house in a few hours.

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!” Rian nearly shouted at his friend, accompanying it with a snap of his fingers in order to snap Alex out of his current trance.

“Huh?” Alex grunted, looking at Rian with an unimpressed and emotionless look.

“Dude, we gotta go,” Alex looked around to see a large crowd of students pushing toward the doors of the cafeteria, coming to the conclusion that he had to rise from his seat sometime in the near future. With a disgruntled groan, Alex hoisted himself up out of the uncomfortable chair and slung his backpack over one shoulder, walking absent-mindedly with Jack and Rian out of the cafeteria to finish the last two hours of this excruciating day.

Those last couple hours were the longest yet. Alex felt like each passing minute took an eternity, and each of his last two classes lasted an entire day. It was almost physically painful for Alex to have to sit through two hours listening to teachers drone on and on about shit nobody cares about while watching each individual second pass by.

Then, after what seemed like literally days, Alex’s ears were filled with the trilling, clanging sound of the school bell. Now he only had one thing on his mind; finding Zack. Alex walked hastily out of the classroom and into the crowded hallway. He at least had some idea where Zack was; all the 9th grade classes were in one wing of the school.

After only about 30 seconds of frantic walking down the crowed hallway and his eyes darting back and forth, Alex found the boy. He was leaned up against the wall, alone, holding his backpack timidly with both hands. God, it was cute. He seemed so insecure and shy, and Alex loved that about him. Zack wasn’t really paying attention to anything other than his feet, which were awkwardly slanted inwards to keep him from sliding down the wall. The boy didn’t look up until Alex approached him.

“Hey,” Alex said casually.

“Hi,” Zack said back, looking up just slightly to meet the other boy’s eyes with his own. Just like every other moment of eye contact before, this gave Alex the worst, yet most wonderful butterflies he had ever felt.

“So, should we get going?” Alex suggested, knees feeling a trifle weak.

“Yeah,” Zack responded, grunting and hoisting himself from against the wall. The two began to walk, making their way through the mobbed hallway with a bit of a struggle and out the nearest exit of the school.

“So is your dad gonna pick us up or do we walk?” Alex asked, hoping the answer was that they were going to walk, because that would give him more time with Zack. Plus, Alex didn’t know the other boy’s dad that well and it would have been a bit awkward.

“We walk,” Zack said, this answer drawing a silent sigh of relief from Alex, “My house is only like half a mile away from here.”

“Oh okay cool!”

The walk started off relatively silent, neither boy saying a word until Alex broke the silence after about 5 minutes.

“So… How was your day?” Alex looked at the other boy and grinned.

“Meh, not too good.” Zack left his response vague in order to prolong the conversation.

“Oh? What happened?”

“Got a History test back today. Failed.” The boy’s mouth slanted into a slight frown, and he looked over at Alex, who was staring at him. As the two boy’s eyes slid into one another’s gaze, it sent the wildest impulses of anxiety directly to the pit of Alex’s stomach, making him almost feel sick. The intensity of the butterflies seemed to increase every time Zack looked at him.

“Awww. I’m sorry,” Alex sympathized.

“Meh, no big deal. It’s my dad who’s probably gonna be pissed when he finds out.”

“Then just don’t tell him?” Alex suggested, looking again at the long-haired boy walking beside him.

“Good idea…” The two looked at each other and snickered, and with that Alex could feel himself turning redder than he had ever turned before. He hoped Zack didn’t notice, but the boy probably did. Whatever.

The rest of the walk went on as silently as before, though there wasn’t so much tension this time for Alex. Soon enough, the boys arrived at Zack’s house.

As the boys entered the house, they simultaneously dropped their backpacks by the door, creating an extremely audible thud on the ground, and slid off their shoes.

“Just leave ‘em here.” Zack instructed his friend.

“I’m home!” Zack yelled to his father, who was in the kitchen doing dishes, “Alex is here!”

“Hey guys,” The father yelled back, “Your mom made cookies, Zack, if you want them.”

Zack looked at his friend for a look of approval. Alex nodded, and Zack responded to his father, “Uhm, sure!”

Zack’s father walked into the front foyer area carrying a sizeable plate of chocolate chip cookies and handed them to Zack, not lingering for very long. He didn’t really say a word to Alex, just walked back into the kitchen and continued doing dishes.

“We’re going upstairs!” Zack told his dad, not receiving a response. With that, the boy took a step over to the staircase and began to ascend, immediately followed by a rather nervous Alex. The boys reached the top of the stairs and took a right, entering Zack’s room. The room was not very large, and kind of dark, with posters of metal bands and black curtains hung everywhere. The walls were a dark maroon, making Alex wonder why someone would want to live somewhere so dark. Off to one side lay a small bed, and other than that there wasn’t much for furniture.

The room smelled exactly like Zack. Fitting, because Zack lived there, but there it is. It was the smell of a stereotypical teenager; deodorant mostly, with the smell of energy drink thrown in there. It wasn’t too pungent of a smell, but Alex found it almost overwhelming. It gave him the same intense butterflies as before, and he just wanted to tackle Zack to the ground right then and there.

Zack walked over to his bed and sat down, placing the white plate of warm cookies next to him.

“Sit,” He suggested, patting a spot on the bed opposite the plate. Alex complied, plopping himself down on the bed. It squeaked when he sat, and Zack giggled cutely. The two simultaneously took a cookie from the plate in between them, and Alex watched as Zack ate his.

The boy nibbled on the edge of the cookie, taking his sweet time in eating it. He looked like a five year old with the way he ate, and Alex found it irresistibly adorable. Zack seemed to be focused on his nibbling, so Alex just sat and watched. It was too cute not to look at. He took small bites, chewing them subtly before taking another. He held it delicately with one hand, the other placed on the bed right next to the plate. It was after about thirty seconds that Zack paused and looked up at Alex, who was absent-mindedly staring at his friend with a huge, dopey grin on his face.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Zack questioned, flashing a little half-smile at his friend.

“Uh…” Alex hesitated, coming back to reality, “I… uh… you.”

“What about me?” Zack grinned, his eyes lighting up just slightly.

“Well…uh…you…um…” Alex was having trouble finishing his sentence, and the anxiety was really piling on. What if Zack thought he was weird? What if Zack was repulsed? What if the boy didn’t like him anymore after he said something? Eventually, he just said it. “…arekindareallycute,” Alex spat out the last four words with such speed that he hoped Zack wouldn’t understand them. Much to Alex’s dismay, he did.

Zack’s whole face flushed a deep, deep shade of crimson and he looked down for a second before a giggle escaped his lips, and he looked back up at his friend.

“Really?” Zack smiled giddily. Alex hadn’t expected this kind of reaction from his friend, but no use in making a big deal out of it.

“Uh… yeah,” Alex smiled back, drawing his eyes to meet Zack’s. The other boy’s eyes shone brighter than Alex had ever seen, giving them this extra dazzling quality that made Alex’s stomach jump up into his brain. He really thought he was about to puke. The tension and anxiety was almost too much for him, but it was also one of the more amazing things he had ever felt.

“Well…uh…” Zack looked at his feet shyly, “What’d you wanna do about it?” The boy looked back up to meet Alex’s gaze, and hesitantly leaned towards his friend until his face was over the plate of cookies.

“I…uh…I…” The sheer tension of the situation made Alex too incoherent to even form a sentence that consisted of anything other than subject pronouns and ‘uh’s. He leaned in towards Zack, whose eyes were now beginning to drift closed as Alex got nearer. Alex was shaking, and his heart was beating faster than humanly possible. It felt like all of his organs were in his throat, and he could barely breathe.

The boys’ faces were within inches of each other, their noses brushing up against one another’s. Alex could feel the other boy’s nervous breath on his mouth as he slowly brought his face closer. Zack’s lips were now ghosting his own, and he could feel the boy’s breath as well as his own catching.

Zack made the last movement in, bringing the boys’ lips together in a kiss. The soft, tender touch made Alex’s entire body feel weak, and he was shaking pretty noticeably. He felt as though a thousand fireworks were going off in his head, and the entire world seemed to melt around him. It was the best feeling Alex had felt, ever. He felt Zack’s lips move on his, and not long after he felt the tip of Zack’s tongue trace his bottom lip. Alex opened his mouth hesitantly and groaned into the kiss, which drew an equally as lustful groan from the other boy. Zack slid his tongue into Alex mouth, tracing the edge of Alex’s tongue with his own. The boys breathed slowly but deeply into one another’s mouth, flicking and sliding their tongues together and licking each other’s lips. Their mouths moved together in near perfect harmony, lips gliding and smacking together rather passionately. Alex was too wrapped up in the kiss to notice that his now erection was sticking out pretty prominently in his pants.

The boys continued to kiss like this for a couple minutes, before Zack pulled away, leaving Alex with his mouth wide open, lips swollen and glistening with saliva.

“So? How was that?” Zack asked. He seemed to be relatively together after that amazingly intense make-out session. But, Alex could still hear a slight tremble in his voice.

“Uh…that…uh…I…wow…” Alex couldn’t form a coherent sentence, so instead he just flopped down on Zack’s bed.

Zack laughed at his friend, and placed the plate of cookies that was next to him onto the floor. He scooted up closer to Alex, laying himself down juxtaposed to the singer. Zack took one hand and placed it on Alex’s hip, which sent a strong wave of feeling through Alex’s entire body. A sighing squeak escaped the boy’s mouth, making Zack giggle. Alex turned on his side towards Zack, staring into the boy’s beautiful hazel eyes and smiling.

The boys lay like that for several minutes, staring into each other’s eyes and smiling. Zack moved his hand along Alex’s side under his shirt, brushing the boy’s skin delicately with his fingertips. The contact sent static waves of feeling through Alex’s body, and he closed his eyes.

A few seconds later, he felt a pair of warm lips press firmly on his own. The soft lips made Alex’s entire body feel warm and safe, like all he needed in life was the other boy’s affection. Alex sunk into the kiss, wrapping his arm around the other boy’s back and kissing him back like he had never kissed before.