Mistakes We Wouldn't Learn From

[Matt]

“Hey Grieco,” I greeted as he walked up to me. “Where have you been?”

“Hey Matt. I’ve been hanging out with Zack, since Alex kept ditching him. How about you? We haven’t been able to find you all night,” Grieco responded.

“I was talking to Gabe until he started to get drunk. I made a run for it after that because I didn’t want him to drag me into any of his stupid drunken activities. I was hanging out with some other people until a few minutes ago,” I shrugged, taking a sip of my Mountain Dew. I had stopped drinking an hour or two ago because I didn’t want to get drunk. “Did you say that Alex keeps ditching Zack?”

Grieco nodded, “Derek kept coming over and pulling Alex away from Zack. Zack didn’t say anything but he was definitely getting annoyed. I was just upstairs with him, but Alex came in drunk and started kissing him, so I didn’t stick around.”

“He’s drunk?” I asked, eyes widening slightly. Shit.

“Yeah. As usual,” he sighed.

“He better not do anything stupid. I’ll kick his ass if he hurts Zack again,” I said, running a hand through my hair.

“That would be a sight to see,” Grieco laughed. “I’m going to find Evan and Jack, alright?”

I nodded, “Okay. Have fun.”

Grieco left the living room and I looked around, trying to spot someone to talk to. I suddenly saw someone run down the stairs quickly, looking scared as they ran for the front door. I did a double-take and my eyes widened. That’s Zack!

I set my can of pop down immediately, heading toward the door. Just as I got there, I changed my mind and went into the kitchen to find Rian. Zack wouldn’t want me. He would want Rian. Luckily, he was sitting right there at the counter. “Uh, Rian?”

“What, Matt?” Rian huffed, turning away from his conversation to look at me.

“I just saw Zack run out of the house, looking terrified. Do you wanna go out there and see what’s wrong?” I asked. I knew Zack was used to Rian coming after him.

Rian sighed heavily, “Can’t he just deal with his problems by himself for once? I can’t go running around behind him all the time.”

I frowned in surprise – I’d never heard Rian refuse to help Zack before. Those two were glued to each other just as much as Alex and Zack were, just in a different way. Then I looked at the counter in front of Rian and realized that he was drinking too. That might explain the bitchy attitude. “Fine, just stay here. I’ll go find him,” I muttered, walking away from Rian.

I ran outside and looked around. The van was probably the best place to check. I opened the van door and slid it open. I heard a stifled scream and dropped my hands away from the door, heart racing. I realized that it had just been Zack and I sighed in relief, “Jesus Christ, Zack! You scared the shit out of me!”

“S-sorry,” Zack stammered. “I-I thought you were A-Alex.”

“What did that dumbass do now?” I asked, shutting the van door behind me as I climbed into the van. I put the key in the ignition and turned the accessories on so that I could turn the light on and see him better. I sat beside Zack, who I could see trembling in the dim light. Wow, he looked pale. He didn’t answer my question, so I spoke more softly, “Seriously, Zack. What happened? I saw you run out of the house.”

“C-can you grab m-my medicine first? I-it’s hard to t-talk through a panic attack,” Zack said, his jaw quivering slightly as he spoke.

“Oh! Sorry,” I apologized, looking under the seat and finding Zack’s smaller bag with his medicine. “Um, I don’t know which one it is.”

“The Xanax. Smaller pill bottle,” he said, not even looking up.

“Here,” I said, taking out a pill and handing it to him with a water bottle. After he had swallowed the medicine, I stayed silent. I knew he would speak up when he was ready.

“Alex drank way too much tonight,” Zack spoke up quietly after a few minutes, breaking the awkward silence. “He was drinking with Derek and just kept getting more and more drunk. The asshole was probably trying to get him drunk on purpose. He saw what happened last time Alex got drunk.”

“Grieco told me he was drinking a lot. Did you guys get into another fight?” I questioned.

Zack shook his head. “H-he was being pushy when he was kissing me and still was when he started to give me a hand job. Sorry,” he added, seeing me grimace at the description. “But, uh, I told him to quit teasing and just finish already, and he told me he wouldn’t unless I let him have sex with me.”

“I thought you both said that he was waiting for you to be ready for that,” I said, surprised. I had a feeling he wasn’t giving me the whole story yet.

“We were! He’s such a dumbass. I don’t know why he drinks so much!” Zack said with a sudden burst of anger, throwing his water bottle against the floor of the van. He immediately winced afterward, rubbing his wrist in surprise. “Ouch.”

I frowned, “Your wrist hurts?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Zack mumbled, his face getting red. I reached out to touch his wrist and see if it was bruised, but he quickly pulled away from me, scooting over. “D-don’t touch me.”

“Zack, tell me what else happened. Did Alex try to force you into having sex or something?” I asked cautiously. I swear to god, if Alex hurt him...

“Y-yes,” Zack choked out, tears welling up in his eyes. Fuck, not the waterworks. “H-he held my wrists up against the wall s-so tightly that I couldn’t get away, even though I-I’m stronger. He wasn’t acting like himself. It was like the alcohol c-completely t-took over. It scared the shit out of m-me and I finally got away from him and ran.”

My eyes widened. “So he tried to rape you?!”

“In his defense, he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing right now,” Zack said shakily, wiping tears from his eyes. I glanced at his wrist and saw that there were faint bruises already forming on it.

“Don’t defend him! That still doesn’t make it okay!” I exclaimed angrily, getting up and starting to climb out of the van.

“W-where are you going?” he asked nervously.

“Just lie down and try to get some sleep. I’m going to go find Alex and talk some sense into him.”

••••••••••

“You are such a fucking asshole!” I yelled, shoving Alex up against the brick wall of the house. I had finally found him in the living room, grinding against Jack while dancing with him, some Mayday Parade guys, and people we didn’t know. I dragged him outside, not wanting to be within earshot of the other people. It was nearly two in the morning and quite a few people had gone to sleep inside already.

“Why’d you take me out here, Matt? There’s no music,” Alex whined.

I ignored him, continuing, “Why the fuck do you drink so much, Alex? You always end up doing stupid shit! You actually hurt your own boyfriend!”

“Boyfriend? My boyfriend is Zack. Not you,” Alex said, clearly not comprehending anything I was saying.

“It’s pointless to even talk to you. You’re drunk as shit,” I groaned.

“Shit can’t be drunk!”

“You know what? Go continue to do stupid shit. Go fuck someone for all I care. You can deal with all of it in the morning, when you wake up and realize what happened tonight. I’m done with covering your ass every time you and Jack get drunk at parties. I’ve been doing it for nearly two years now. Grow the fuck up and face all the consequences yourself,” I said, shoving him away from me. He stumbled back, falling into the grass as he lost his balance.

“Don’t push mee!” he whined, not even making any comment on my rant. I clenched my fists, turning and walking away from him. I was serious. Alex hadn’t seemed to have learned from the past two times he got drunk, and it was about time he grew up and dealt with his problems on his own.