Choke on Your Misery

Alex

"Alex, have you seen Grieco? His phone is over here ringing like crazy," Rian said. Zack had just gone into the back with Evan to check on Jack.

"I've been outside; I haven't seen him. I'll go find him," I offered. I headed into the main part of the house, where people were dancing and playing drinking games and such. I spotted Grieco's head over the crowd and tried to make my way through it, being bumped around as I did so. That wasn't helping me see straight; I was already dizzy to begin with. As I reached the other side, I was suddenly pushed up against the wall by someone. They started kissing me and I was confused at first. This wasn't Zack. It was a girl. My mind wasn't piecing things together because of the amount of alcohol I had been drinking, though, and I kissed the girl back.

After a minute, I heard something that made my heart almost stop. "A-Alex?" Zack whimpered.

My eyes shot open and I jumped, shoving the girl off me. “Fuck. Zack, I can explain-”

Zack cut me off, his eyes brimming with tears, “I don’t want to hear it. I-I should have fucking known." He ran back into the kitchen and I looked after him helplessly.

"His loss," the girl slurred, taking a step toward me.

"Fuck off, this is your fault," I snapped. I shoved past everyone, running to the kitchen. "Zack!" I called out. I got into the kitchen and skidded to a stop. He was gone, and so was Rian. I looked over at a group of people standing in the kitchen. "Where did Zack and Rian go?"

"They left a minute ago; the black haired kid seemed really upset," a boy said. My heart sank - he was already gone. I went into the back and found Jack lying on the floor of the bathroom. Evan was standing over him.

"What the fuck?" I said.

"He's drunk off his ass," Evan explained, taking a sip of his beer. "Why do you look worried?"

"I kind of, uh, got kissed by some girl and kissed her back. Zack saw and ran off; he and Rian are gone."

"You idiot; go talk to Zack!" Evan said.

"I need to talk to him at home, but I don't have a ride," I said, furrowing my eyebrows. "Rian was our ride."

"Take me home," Jack moaned from the floor.

"We'll get you to your house soon," Evan told him, poking him with his foot.

"Not my house - Alex's! My mom will kill me," Jack slurred.

I rolled my eyes, "Jack, I have things to deal with!"

"Take. Me. To. Your. House!" Jack shrieked, and I winced at the volume of the shriek. Jack wasn't someone to mess with when he was sick and drunk.

"Hang on," I grumbled, pulling my phone out. I dialed Matt's number.

"Hey, Alex. What's up?" Matt asked as he answered the phone.

"Hey Flyzik, can you do me a favor?" I asked.

"What kind of favor?"

"Can you drive Jack and I back to my house? We've both been drinking and I fucked things up with Zack," I told him.

Matt sighed, "I'll be right there. Tell me the address."

••••••••••

I opened my eyes in the morning and cringed at the bright light flooding into my room. I must have forgotten to shut my curtains last night. I staggered out of bed and over to my window, snapping the curtains shut. My room became dark once again, and my head stopped pounding quite so hard. Jack was lying on my bed, his head hanging off the edge. I had finally agreed to let him stay the night because his mom really would have killed him for coming home so drunk. Hell, I was lucky my mom hadn’t been awake to see either of us. I was drunk too, but not drunk off my ass like Jack had been. Jack had sobered up a bit when I got him home, calming down considerably when I put Home Alone on my TV.

I rubbed my temples, checking my phone. It was only nine in the morning. I scrolled through my phone and was upset to see that I had no calls or text from Zack. I had tried calling him four times last night before my phone died, and then another six times when I plugged it in to charge. He hadn’t answered any of the calls. I must have really made him upset – but it was just a drunken mistake! Didn’t he realize that?

I sighed and walked back to my bed, shaking Jack by the shoulder. “Jack, are you alive?”

Jack groaned and tried to roll over to get away from me, but rolled off the bed instead. He yelped and shot into a sitting position, rubbing his head. “Fuck, that hurt!” he said loudly, and then cringed at the loudness of his own voice. “Ouch; hangover.”

“You were completely wasted, I’m not surprised that you have a hangover,” I sighed, lying back on my bed.

“All I remember is puking and then coming here. What happened?” Jack asked, rubbing his head as he sat back down on my bed.

“For you, nothing. You just ran around like a drunken idiot, as usual. I fucked things up big time.”

“What do you mean?” Jack frowned.

“Some girl kissed me and I ended up kissing her back. I would never have done it if I wasn’t slightly drunk,” I grumbled, pulling a pillow over my face. “Zack saw and he got upset and left with Rian. He won’t answer any of my calls.”

“Wow, you really did fuck things up. Just go over to his house and talk to him,” Jack said with a shrug.

“I’ll try that later. I just hope he’ll understand it was a mistake.”

••••••••••

I tried going over to Zack’s house on Saturday and Sunday that weekend, but his parents said he was busy with homework and stuff. That was probably a lie; he just wanted to avoid me. By Monday morning, I had tried to call Zack over fifty times. All fifty calls went to voicemail or were rejected. In history class first period, Zack didn’t show up. Rian kept shooting me dirty looks. What was his issue?

After class ended, I caught up with Rian by his locker. “Hey Rian, where’s Zack?” I asked.

Rian turned and scowled when he saw me. He shoved me up against the locker, holding me by the shirt. “You’re a fucking asshole, Gaskarth.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“You broke his fucking heart! Zack’s been upset all weekend because of what you did at the party. He’s staying in the counselor’s office to do his work today because he doesn’t want to go to any of his classes!” Rian snapped. “I’m about two seconds away from punching the shit out of you for hurting him.”

“I-I didn’t mean to do it! It was a drunken mistake!” I exclaimed, trying to get out of his hold on my shirt. “You can’t seriously think I did it on purpose. I would never purposely hurt Zack.”

“Alex, you weren’t even totally drunk. You were sober enough to know what was going on. You could have stopped yourself from doing it,” Rian glared at me. “You’ll be lucky if Zack even talks to you again.”

“I’ve been trying to call him all weekend, but he won’t answer,” I snapped back. “At least I’ve made an attempt to contact him.”

“He won’t answer because he doesn’t want to talk to you. He told me that himself. If you upset him or hurt him again, I swear I’ll beat the hell out of you,” Rian let go of my shirt and slammed his locker, walking away from me.

I really need to talk to Zack.