Choke on Your Misery

Zack

"You know, in the nearly two months we've been dating, we haven't gone out on a date even once," Alex mused. We were in Alex's room, lying on his bed and watching a movie. Well, I was trying to watch it; Alex was keeping himself busy by tracing patterns on my stomach. It was beginning to get distracting.

“We haven’t, have we?” I said, turning my head to look at him.

Alex shook his head, “Nope. I need to take you out on a date. Your birthday is tomorrow; we could go out for dinner.”

“I don’t know if my parents have anything planned for me,” I admitted. “They might be planning the same thing.”

“Call your mom and ask her,” Alex suggested, going back to tracing patterns on my stomach. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed my mom’s number. She picked up on the third ring.

“Hi, honey,” my mom greeted.

“Hey mom. Um, I was wondering if you planned on doing anything for my birthday tomorrow; Alex wants to take me out to dinner...” I trailed off, swatting Alex’s hand away from my stomach. He was trailing along the line of my boxers. He pouted at me, and I rolled my eyes.

“Your father and I were planning on having a nice dinner here with you, actually. Your grandparents are coming over.”

“Oh, okay,” I frowned.

“Alex could take you out for dinner this weekend, if he wants to. Your father and I work a lot this weekend,” she added.

“I’ll ask him; hold on,” I took the phone away from my ear and turned to Alex, “My grandparents are coming over tomorrow, but my mom said we could go out this weekend.”

“Lemme talk to your mom,” Alex said, sitting up and holding his hand out.

“What? Why?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Just let me see the phone.”

“Um, Mom? Alex says he wants to talk to you... I have no idea why,” I said into the phone hesitantly.

“Really? Well, alright; give him the phone,” my mom said.

I sighed and handed the phone to Alex, who smiled triumphantly and put it up to his ear. “Hi, Mrs. Merrick. I just wanted to ask you something real quick,” he said, getting up from his bed and walking out of his room.

“Alex!” I protested, sitting up and trying to hear what he was saying. I couldn’t make out the words, because he had run down to the end of the hallway. Alex returned a few minutes later, smiling triumphantly and handing the phone back to me. My mom was still on the other line. “What did Alex say?” I questioned.

My mom chuckled, “I’m not allowed to tell you. I’ll see you later, honey; bye.”

“Mom!” I groaned, hanging up. I crossed my arms as I looked at Alex. “What did you need to talk to her about?”

“It’s a surprise,” Alex smirked, sitting beside me and leaning over to kiss me. I leaned away from him, and he pouted. “Hey, don’t back away from me.”

“Tell me what you talked to my mom about if you want a kiss,” I said, jabbing him in the shoulder with my finger. He reached out quickly, grabbing my hand in his.

“It’s a surprise; you’ll see this weekend.”

“I don’t like surprises,” I whined, leaning against him.

Alex chuckled, “I think you’ll like this one.”

“You should tell me.”

“You should stop asking, because I’m not going to.”

“You should stop being a jerk.”

“I’m not; I’m keeping a secret,” Alex smirked, lying back on his bed again. “Now, are you going to watch this movie with me or not?”

“Asshole, you weren’t even watching it before now,” I shook my head with a chuckle, lying down beside him.

“Yeah, I still don’t plan on watching it,” he admitted, smiling innocently and propping himself up by his elbow. He leaned in to kiss me, and I allowed it this time. The kiss turned a little more heated and I instinctively tangled a hand in his long hair to pull him closer. I felt Alex’s hand moving down, finally resting on my hip, close enough to my crotch to make my dick swell up. My breath hitched in my throat as he moved his hand in, rubbing circles over my crotch. My jeans were suddenly very tight.

Alex’s phone suddenly rang loudly, making us jump apart. Alex groaned and glared at his phone for a second before answering it. “Jack, I fucking hate you!”

I chuckled softly as Alex argued with Jack over the phone. I was kind of disappointed that we’d been interrupted, but also a little relieved. I wasn’t quite sure if I was ready to go farther with Alex yet.

••••••••••

"So, Zack, how is your new school?" my grandma asked. It was Thursday night; my 17th birthday. My grandparents had come over to have dinner with my parents and I. The five of us were sitting at the table, eating.

"It's good; I've got a few friends now," I replied, taking a bite of food.

"That's good!" my grandma smiled at me, and I smiled back. My grandma and I had always been close, but we had drifted apart a bit in the last year or so, when I shut everyone out.

"You got a girlfriend yet?" my grandpa asked teasingly. I flushed, looking down at my food. My grandparents knew I was bisexual but, like my dad, my grandpa wasn't too accepting of that fact.

"Um... no, not a girlfriend," I said, keeping my eyes on my plate. "A boyfriend."

"Oh." My grandpa's voice hardened a bit and I frowned.

My grandma spoke up, breaking the awkward silence, "That's nice; what's his name? When did you begin dating him?"

"His name is Alex, and almost two months ago," I said softly, finally looking up at them. Grandma smiled warmly, reassuring me.

"Alex is a very nice boy; he lives next door. He's been a great friend to Zack since we moved here, too," my mom said.

"Is he your age?" Grandpa asked gruffly.

I nodded, "Seventeen, like me."

"That's good; older boys pressure the younger ones more. You know, into something you don't want to do..."

I grimaced, "He doesn't."

"I'm just saying, at your age boys have raging hormones," Grandpa said bluntly, looking at me.

"He doesn't just want me for sex, Grandpa," I said, flushing.

"Well, good; it's not right anyway," Grandpa said, and I thought I saw my dad nod slightly.

"What do you mean, it isn't right?" I questioned, setting my fork down. "It's not right for me to be dating a guy? Is that your point?"

"No. Well, kind of. It's just not... normal," Grandpa frowned.

I frowned, anger building up inside me, "You and Dad seriously need to stop being fucking homophobes."

"Zachary!" my mom exclaimed. She and my grandma looked surprised at my outburst.

"I'm sorry, but it had to be said. Dad's been tense about the whole issue, and Grandpa is blatantly stating that he's against bisexuals. I'm not going to put up with this," I said, frowning at the four of them.

"I'm not against them; I just don't like them," Grandpa defended.

"So you don't like me? Thanks," I said, standing up.

"Zack, you're overreacting; sit down," Dad said, pointing at my seat.

"Accept me a little more, and maybe I will," I snapped, pushing my chair back and storming out of the room. I went up to my bedroom and slammed the door, shaking the walls. I looked around, clenching and unclenching my hands. I was upset and desperately wanted to cut, but I couldn't. I had only cut myself once in the two weeks since Alex and I had made up. I really was trying to stop cutting.

Maybe I was overreacting a bit, but I was honestly sick of my dad not accepting me for who I am. The fact that my grandpa was the same way just made it even worse. What was with my dad’s side of the family?