The Edge

Brian:

“W-What am I supposed to do, Zacky? I can't take you away!” I said, staring at him.

“Yes!” He pleaded, keeping his eyes locked with mine, “Please! Let me stay at your house, Brian! I'll be good! She'll accept, I promise, she'll do anything to get me out of the house!”

I swallowed, turning to look at the withered and angry woman in the doorway, “Uh, Gale? Can Zacky stay with me for a few days? We're just next door, and I think it'd be good for him to spend some time away...”

Her beady eyes narrowed, scrutinizing me from afar. There was a moment of silence in which Zacky pressed his face into me again, before, “Alright. But if I tell you to come home, Zachary, you'd better get home. And keep your mouth shut.”

Zacky's arms, which were around me, squeezed lightly as he sighed contentedly into me. “Come on,” He said, releasing me except for one hand and dragging me back to my house, “I can't wait to see your room!”

Shouldn't I be leading? It's my house!

Ah, whatever, he's a kid, let him have his fun.

Should you really have agreed to let him stay over? I mean, do you really want this... weird kid on your hands? What if he has a... a dream? You haven't even asked Mom!

Pfft. Mom adores him, the one time she met him, she fell apart, saying 'what a handsome young man! Why couldn't my Brian look like him as a boy?' As for his dreams... you know you don't mind holding him and comforting him. He's like the little brother you never had. Or, a brother you want, at least. Just make sure the guys don't come over.

“Brian... Brian! Come on, I can't unlock your door! Brian... Hello?” Zacky said impatiently, snapping me out of my thought session. I smiled rather nervously and pulled out my keys, unlocking the door and pulling him inside.

My mom looked up from her perch on the couch as we passed her, “Hey Brian. Who's tha- Oh, Zachary! Hello! It's nice to see you again.”

Zacky smiled rather timidly and waved.

“Mom,” I said, casting her a glance, “I hope it's okay, I offered to let Zacky stay over here a few days. We won't be loud or anythi-”

“Oh, of course that's fine! Is there something in particular you'd like for dinner, Zack?” she asked, standing up and smoothing out her ankle-length floral printed skirt before heading into the kitchen.

Zacky glanced at me then back to my mom, “Can you make Mac and Cheese?”

I laughed out loud. My mom gave me a questioning look before nodding, “Can you eat home made, dear?”

“That's my favorite kind.” Zacky smiled endearingly at my mom.

Mom returned the smile, going through the cupboards and pulling out different ingredients. Zacky took my hand, but didn't move this time, waiting for me to lead him. I tugged him down a hallway to the last room on the left, mine. He seemed surprised at how quickly we got there, “Your house is very small.”

“Yup. But I really like it. Here, come on.” I opened my door and led him inside. As soon as the door was closed, he gasped loudly.

“What?” I asked, turning to look at him.

He had the biggest smile on his face, “Your room! It's awesome!”

My room was small, with stormy gray walls and a king-size bed that took up half the room shoved aggressively against a wall, the black comforter tangled. Next to my bed was a chestnut dresser, with several drawers open and clothes hanging out, and my tiny closet, open, and a desk with my backpack, computer, and several notebooks laying across it. On another small desk across from my bed was a large T.V, movies stacked sloppily next to it. What can I say, I'm not too organized. Plastered on the gray walls and ceiling were band posters of every band I loved, ranging from Guns N' Roses to Iron Maiden.

I smiled, “Well, thank you very much!”

He released my hand, and I walked over to the bed, falling across it with a sigh. Zacky soon joined me, stretching out on my large bed and humming softly. He must enjoy being able to sleep comfortably rather than the tiny bunk bed he had at his house.

“Do you want to sleep in here with me?” I asked. Honestly, I didn't see it as anything bad. The bed was huge. There was plenty of space for both of us

I didn't see it, but he blushed warmly, “Yes, please. I bet its nice and warm in here with these blankets.”

“Mmhm. Wanna watch a movie? Mom will be a while before she's done with the Macaroni” I asked, standing and gesturing to the stack. He sat up and nodded eagerly, watching me flick through the movies until I found a personal favorite of mine: The original Nightmare on Elm Street.

I glanced at him, slipping it into the DVD player. He was twelve, it was time he was exposed to some real freaky shit. “Do you like scary movies?” I asked him.

Zacky shrugged, “I guess it depends on how scary it is. If I get scared, will you hold me?”

“Course.” I pressed the play button before crawling back onto the bed next to him

~

When the movie ended, he was shaking and refused to pull his head away from my chest.

“Oh, come on, Zacky! It wasn't that scary! You dream about worse things!” I exclaimed, stroking his hair gently.

He stayed silent a moment before lifting his head and putting it on my shoulder, smiling slyly “Maybe I just needed an excuse to get you to hold me.”

“Oh, you tricky little boy! I see, you only wanted to watch it so you could snuggle with me? God, if you were any more forward, I'd call you a horn dog.” I teased him.

He stuck his tongue out at me, but I only rolled my eyes and ruffled his hair before lightly brushing my lips against his forehead. Zacky didn't remove himself from my arms, and for a long time we just sort of sat there, staring into each others eyes. It was the weirdest thing, like we didn't even need words. I'd never felt like a “deep” sort of guy, but I seemed to change when exposed to him.

After only a few minutes, or maybe it was hours, I couldn't tell, my mom popped her head in, smiling when she saw us, “Dinner's ready, boys...”

“We'd better go eat...” I whispered, neither of us moving.

He nodded, opening his mouth and whispering, “Brian, can I- never mind.”

“What, Zacky?”

“N-Nothing. Lets go...” He mumbled, shifting out of my lap and standing up. He waited until I was standing next to him and grabbed my hand, letting me lead him out to our dinner table. I couldn't keep the smile off of my lips. The boy just brought out the best in me.

When we got to the table, he sat next to me, starting up a conversation about how wonderful the food looked and tasted with my mother, who was flattered, of course. I noticed she kept shooting me glances, which made me apprehensive, of course. What could I have done this time?

We ate, my mom and Zacky talking about all sorts of things, eventually coming to me.

“I just wish he had behaved as well as you do when he was your age! I mean... even now, he is such an ass, excuse my language, in the mornings.” Mom informed Zacky, who was nodding and looking interested.

I cleared my throat irritably, causing both to look at me and Zacky to emit a girlish giggle.

“What's wrong, Brian?” Zacky asked, “Wouldn't you rather us say it to your face?”

I sighed, “Okay, well if you girls want to gossip, I'll just go sit in my room all alone.”

I stood up and walked away, and as I had expected, Zacky followed moments later yelling about my abusing him by not giving him sufficient amounts of attention. I slipped back into my room again, turning the T.V on to some random channel, and listening as Zacky sat outside my door, scratching at it like some monstrous cat would. He even started whining.

I rolled my eyes and opened the door, stooping down to pick him up. His legs wrapped around my waist, and he pressed his face into my neck, sighing softly. I walked back to my bed, sitting on it and resting my back against the wall, as I had no headboard, his arms and legs still around me.

My eyes closed, and he relaxed in my arms, both of us very comfortable. After a moment, my phone started ringing, causing Zacky to jump.

Sighing in agitation, I raised my phone to my ear and snapped, “Hello?”

“Jeeze, man, what's eating you? Come hang out with us!” Matt's voice rang through the receiver.

“Uh, I can't I've got Za- I'm busy.”

“Your boyfriend's over? Well, we'll just come over there and meet him. You said he was cool.”

“Matt, please!” I pleaded, “I don't want you to corrupt his childhood!”

“Pfft, come on, Brian, he'll be fine. We'll be over in ten minutes.”

“Matt-” I was cut off by the dial tone. God, did I hate my friends.

I looked down at the tiny figure curled up against me, “Zacky?”

He looked at me, yawning like some adorable and exhausted puppy, “Yes, Brian?”

“Is it okay with you that some of my friends are coming over?” I asked nervously.

“Of course,” He smiled widely, “I'd love to meet them.”

“Okay, that's good, but if they get too rough with you or anything, let me know. I won't allow them to hurt you.”

He let out that feminine giggle, “I'll be fine. I may act girl sometimes, but I've had to defend myself from the shit people give me all my life. Besides, I bet your friends are nice, like you are. They'd better not treat me like I'm five, though.”

I was more than slightly surprised by his language, “They won't. If there's one thing Matt understands, it's that I won't let him give you any shit. Don't worry about it, okay? If something goes wrong, I'll throw them out of the house and beat the shit out of Matt outside. I won't touch Jimmy, because he could destroy me. He broke my arm in three places last year because I called his girlfriend a slut.”

“What's a slut?”

Whoops, little kid here, Brian, “Er... Nothing. Nothing at all.”

About five minutes later, the doorbell rang and Mom yelled for me to answer it. I told Zacky to wait in my room, to his distress, and headed for the door. I opened it, revealing a laughing Matt and a grimacing Jimmy, apparently Matt had just shared an extremely bad joke.

“Brian!” He said, throwing himself at me in a bear hug.

“Er... Matt...?” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic, patting him on the back.

“Well...” Matt said, pulling away from me with a huge grin still plastered on his face, “Let's go meet your boyfriend!”

“He isn't my boyfriend.”

I led them through my house and to my room, where Zacky was laying on my bed reading though my journal. My very private and sexually descriptive journal.

I leaped at him, trying to grab the journal from his hands, “Fuck! Zacky, give it back! Please! You can't look at this, it'll scar you for life!”

He laughed, “So Brian, this is what you do when you touch yourself?”

“Fuck! Give it back! And don't you dare read anything out loud!”

My efforts were in vain and a moment later he started reading a page out loud, “Oh my god, I feel like a ten year old girl writing in this. But I'm soo horny, so here goes. Last night, I was fucking Dayna-”

I slapped a hand over his mouth, grabbing the book from him and shoving it aggressively under my bed and under the secret loose piece of carpet that I hid it under regularly, “Damn it, kid, I swear, I'll-”

“You'll what, Brian?” asked Matt, who had watched us with a bemused smile upon his face. I glared at him, removing my hand from Zacky's mouth and sighing in defeat as Matt continued, “Anyway, I like this kid already. He's got spunk. Not many people would delve into Brian Haner's sex book.”

Zacky flashed a stunning smile, “Thanks so much. And Brian had me worried you guys would rape me or something.”

“Only if you're good!” Matt said, winking.

Zacky blushed lightly, glancing at me and then away. I wondered what he was thinking.

Matt and Jimmy only stayed for an hour or so after that, telling us they had to go do some “business” which meant "go pay a hobo to buy us beer from the corner store."

When they were gone, I turned to my undersized counterpart, “Did you like them?”

“Of course I did,” he said, “They were funny and cool and I liked them a lot. But you know what I like more?”

“What's that, Zacky?” I asked as he buried his face in my neck again. He seemed to have a thing about hiding in me. Not literally, but...well... you know... right?

He was silent, but he brought his lips to my ear and whispered, “You, Brian. I like you a lot more than I've ever like anyone before...”