Guitars and Love Notes

For the two boys their one date quickly became two, then three and by the end of the week they had gone out together every night. In Alex’s head Zack had already been declared his boyfriend, but he couldn’t tell Zack that in fear he might run. Everyday Alex would find at least one chance to sneak a kiss in the middle of the hallway, and everyday Zack would blush. Knowing that Zack made him happy Alex realized he had to do one thing before the next weekend; introduce him to his mother, officially of course. He wanted his mom to be happy for him and know his new boyfriend, but with her flight to England being scheduled the next week he had to hurry.

"What's on your mind?" Zack asked nudging Alex as he started drifting off during class for the fifth time in the last ten minutes.

“I want you to meet my mom,” he said turning to look at Zack with a calculating look on his face. “I just don’t know how you’ll react to it. I mean you get nervous when I hold your hand in the hall. I could only imagine how much you’d freak out if you meet my mom.”

“Alex, are you forgetting I already know your mom,” the young boy said with a laugh.

“I know, but I want you to meet her officially; as my boyfriend.”

“Well when do you want me to meet her?”

“You’ll do it?” Alex asked excitedly gaining the attention of the rest of the class.

“Something you’d like to share with the class Alex?” Miss Martinez asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m just trying to convince Zack to come meet my mother before she leaves for England,” Alex said with a shrug as though it was no big deal since he knew their teacher was rooting for them to be together.

“Keep it down,” she said with a roll of her eyes before going back to her lecture.

“So you’ll do it?” he asked a little more quietly with a hopeful smile covering his face.

“Only if you shut up and let me actually learn something this class period,” the younger boy said shouting Alex a playful glare.

“Deal.”



Later that afternoon Alex was running around his house making sure everything was in place while his mom sat back and laughed at his antics. Having always had to fight with her son to get him to do the simplest things such as picking his underwear up off the bathroom floor it was funny to see him scrubbing the kitchen counter while swearing at a stain that had been there for the past three years. Finally giving up on the stain, she watched as he went to putting all the breakfast dishes into the half full dishwasher.

“Are you going to help me at all?” he asked as he slammed the dishwasher shut once he put the final dirty glass in and turning to his mother.

“Why? It looks like you’ve got everything perfectly under control.”

“Mom,” he whined just as the doorbell started to sound.

“Looks like Zack’s here. Should I get the door or would you like to?”

“I hate you,” he said with a playful glare as he left his mother in the kitchen so that he could go answer the door hearing his mother’s laughter behind him.

“Come on in,” Alex said with a bright wide smile as he opened the door and saw Zack standing on the other side looking as shy as could be.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked Alex once again making the older boy laugh.

“Yes, she excited to officially meet you. Don’t worry so much.”

“I can’t help it,” he mumbled as Alex put a hand on the small of his back and started leading him into the kitchen were Mrs. Gaskarth sat nursing a cup of coffee.

“Mom, I’d like to officially introduce you to my boyfriend, Zack,” the older boy said with a smile once he knew he had his mom’s attention.

“It’s so nice to officially meet you Zack,” she said with a smile as she came over and hugged the boy making him squeak in surprise.

“Better get used to that, moms a hugger,” Alex snickered getting a glare from Zack.

“Well it seems as though lunch is just about ready,” she said as she let go of Zack and took a small step back. “I hope you like homemade pizzas. Alex wasn’t too sure if you had any food allergy’s so if you have a problem with plain cheese just let me know. I won’t be offended at all.”

“That sounds just fine Mrs. Gaskarth,” he said with a smile as he took the plates Alex was carrying and put them on the table as Alex went back to grab glasses.

“You know you don’t have to be so proper with me,” she said with a laugh.

“I know, but I was raised to respect my elders and I feel most comfortable using your surname,” he said quietly as he put the last plate into place as she put the pizza in the middle of the table.

“Well alright, I guess I’ll let it slide. Just shows that you were raised right.”

With that said the three of them sat down around the table and started to dig into the meal that was prepared. Alex, being who he was made sure that he sitting right next to Zack so that he could subtly draw random patterns on the younger boy’s leg that caused him to blush. Zack, being who he was didn’t want to call out Alex on what he was doing because that would draw too much attention to him and he didn’t want any more attention than necessary at this point.

Even as they were talking at the table Zack couldn’t help but imagine everything that could possibly go wrong and make Alex’s mother not approve of their relationship anymore.

"Stop worrying so much," Alex whispered quietly as his mom went into the kitchen to get some more water. “She loves you already. Nothing you say or do today could make her disprove of our relationship.”

“Who says I’m worried?”

“Your shaking leg says everything you’re not.”

“I’m sorry, but this is the first time I’ve ever had to meet the mom of someone I’m dating. I just want it to go well,” Zack explained with his eyes downcast.

"Please stop worrying so much. Everything will work out perfectly,” Alex said before leaning in and giving Zack a kiss on his cheek, making the younger boy blush as his mom walked into the room and awed at them. “Mom stop, you’re embarrassing Zack.”

“Why, you guys are so cute together,” she smiled as she sat down across from them again.

“Thank you,” Zack said quietly, looking down at his plate not wanting to make eye contact with Alex’s mom in fear of how badly he would be blushing.

"So you guys have been going out an awful lot lately,” she said making conversation. “Have you been having fun on your dates? Last I knew you guys went paintballing, seems like something that would be fun for you guys.”

“It was okay,” Zack said with a shrug of his shoulder, unconsciously reaching up to rub the bruise that was still on his right shoulder from that day.

“I thought it was fun until some idiot decided to shoot Zack in the arm with a paintball. But at least he got what he deserved afterwards,” the older boy said with a slight smile.

“What do you mean he got what he deserved?” Zack asked at the same time his mom gave him a disapproving look.

“I may have shot him in the leg with a paintball later, but he shot you first.”

Mrs. Gaskarth couldn’t help but sit back and laugh as the two boys started bickering over the outcome of their date. Alex was extremely proud of the fact that he went back and shot the boy, giving him an even bigger bruise than the one Zack was sporting. While Zack was extremely mad at Alex for getting revenge on the boy. Zack kept saying how he wished that Alex had just let it go, but Alex kept insisting that it was his duty to avenge Zack.

“I thought it was my job as your boyfriend to get revenge for someone hurting you. You can’t get mad at me for doing so,” he said throwing his hands up in exasperation.

“I’m not your boyfriend,” Zack said stopping Alex’s little rant in its tracks.

“What?”

“I’m not your boyfriend. You’ve never even asked me since the first time and I told you I wanted to get to know you better first. Hence I’m not your boyfriend,” Zack said trying to give Alex a subtle hint.

“You haven’t asked him to be your boyfriend yet? I thought I taught you better than that,” Alex’s mother said as she reached across the table and smacked his arm earning a glare. “You better get to it.”

“Mom,” he groaned making Zack laugh.

“I’m not kidding,” she said before turning to Zack. “It was so nice to meet the boy who has made my son so happy. Now if you boys will excuse me I need to go do some more packing. My flight to England is coming up sooner than I realized and I need to make sure everything is all set. Feel free to stay as long as you’d like Zack.”

“Thank you,” the young boy said with a smile before turning to Alex as the woman left and allowed the two to have some alone time. “So I believe there is something you’re supposed to be asking me.”

With a sigh Alex moved closer to Zack and grabbed his hands while looking the younger boy in the eye. “Zackary Merrick will you please do me the honor of being my boyfriend?”

“Only because you asked so nicely,” he laughed making Alex glare slightly.

“You know what you agreeing to be my boyfriend means?”

“No, what?”

“That I can do this whenever I want,” he said before reaching forward and grabbing Zack’s chin and kissing him. He couldn’t help but smile into the kiss as he thought about the face that he always seemed to be holding onto Zack’s chin when they kissed.

“You’re so weird,” Zack laughed.

“Might be so, but I’m your weirdo. So I have a question, why didn’t you correct me when I asked you to meet my mom?”

“Because you were already so nervous. But either way you finally got around to asking me so I guess I can’t really complain.”

With a smile on his face Zack got up before leading Alex out to the living room where they decided to put on a movie. Unlike when they were at Zack’s house watching a movie in his room the two quickly become a jumbled heap of limbs on the couch as they cuddled on the couch. Alex could tell that Zack was still nervous, not only about Alex’s mom not approving of their relationship, but their relationship in general. Once they finally started getting into the movie more, Zack started relaxing and started leaning into Alex a bit more making him smile.



Six days after the boys had gotten Mrs. Gaskarth’s blessing for their relationship and Alex was slightly depressed. Yes, his relationship with the younger boy was going along swimmingly and everything was great, but his mom was leaving for England the next morning and he couldn’t bear to see her go.

"You look like someone kicked your dog," Jack said that morning as he sat down on the steps beside Alex who was strumming a sad tone getting no response from the older boy. "No one kicked your dog right?"

"My mom leaves tomorrow morning," he finally said looking over at his best friend. "I don't think I'm ready to say goodbye to her yet. It’s too soon."

"Alex, she’s going to leave eventually. You have to let her go. It’s not like you’re losing her forever. So are you going to be taking her to the airport?"

"Yeah, she told me not to worry about it because she got the earliest flight, but I want to be there to see her off," he explained as he put his guitar back in his case before turning to fully face his friend.

“Do you want me to go with you as moral support?”

“Thanks for the offer, but I was kind of hoping Zack would go with me. Not that you haven’t been supportive since you found out, but Zack’s been there since the very beginning so I want him to be there,” he explained hoping that he wasn’t hurting his best friends ego or anything. It’s not that he didn’t want Jack there, because his mom loved Jack like another son, but Zack had been leaving him reassuring notes since the day he found out about the divorce, even if he didn’t realize it was Zack at first.

“No worries I get it, but promise me you’ll call if you need anything.”

“Of course. Hopefully I won’t but you never know. My mom is leaving so I might need all the support I can get.”

“So when are you going to ask Zack to go with you? She leaves tomorrow morning so you kind of need to ask him, and soon.”

“I’m going to ask him later in class. Do you think it will be weird and way to forward of me to ask him to sleep over tonight as well? I told my mom I wanted him to come with me and she suggested he just stays the night since her flight is so early, but I’m afraid that will only scare him since he’s so shy,” Alex said before Jack slapped a hand over his mouth, effectively shutting him up.

“Dude, I know you’re nervous about asking Zack, but you need to keep that rambling in check. And as long as you tell him that your mom suggested the sleep over since she leaves so early, and that you’re not just suggesting it to get into his pants I’m sure he’ll agree to it.”

“I’m just so worried I’ll say or do something wrong and send him running. I just got him to agree to be my boyfriend, I don’t need him running away so soon,” Alex sighed, finally letting his friend in on the fears he’d been dealing with.

“Alex, the guys been leaving notes in your guitar case for months. I highly doubt he’s going to start running so soon.”

“Who’s running?” Zack asked as he took a seat next to Alex on the stairs earning a questioning look from the other two boys. Even though he was Alex’s boyfriend, he never sat with them in the morning before school so of course the other two were curious.

“No one,” Alex said quickly before Jack could say anything and embarrass him. “What are you doing here? Not that it’s a problem, but I don’t normally see you until class.”

“I heard that your mom is officially leaving tomorrow and I wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”

“Awe, that is so adorable,” Jack said as he clasped his hands together next to his head and fluttered his eyes like a love sick teenage girl, earning himself a smack in the head from Alex.

“Okay, I guess,” Alex said with a shrug. “But since you’re here I wanted to talk to you about that. I was hoping that you would be willing to take her to the airport with me tomorrow morning.”

“I’d love to,” Zack smiled. “What time will you guys be leaving for the airport?”

“4:30.”

“In the afternoon?”

“No, in the morning,” Alex said looking slightly guilty.

“So that means I’d have to get up at three so that I could meet you guys at your house before you leave,” he sighed.

“Or if you wanted, my mom suggested that you just sleepover at our house to save you the trouble of having to get up and get a ride over so early.”

“I’ll have to check with Caleb, but I’m sure that’d be fine,” he said with a smile.



The next morning the boys were both awoke at 3:30 so that they could get ready to leave for the airport. That also happened to be the same time Alex’s panic attack started.

“What if she meets someone in England and wants to start a family with him and forgets all about me. Or what if she doesn’t even make it to England because something goes wrong with the plane and they crash in the ocean? What if-,” he started before being cut off by Zack’s lips pressing into his.

“Stop worrying so much,” he whispered lips brushing against Alex’s as he talked.

“I think this is the first time you ever initiated a kiss between us,” Alex said in shock as his mind focused on the fact that Zack had just kissed him.

“It was the only way I could think of to stop you from freaking out so much,” he explained as he pulled back slightly so that he could look into Alex’s eyes. “But serious stop worrying. You’re her son and she loves you so much. She’s not going to forget about you no matter what happens once she gets to England. If anything she’s going to be so upset because she’ll be missing you like crazy and wishing you were with her.”

“I don’t want her to go,” Alex said quietly as he wrapped his arms around Zack’s neck and burrowed his face into Zack’s neck the best he could.

“I know you don’t, but you want her to be happy right?”

“Of course. She deserves it.”

“Well this move is going to make her very happy. You’ve got to let her go. You might not see her every day like you do now, but that’s why we have phones and Skype. You can still talk to her as much as you do now.”

“But it won’t be the same.”

“I know it won’t, but this needs to happen. So let’s get ready and take your mom to the airport and then tonight we can have a movie marathon or something.”

“Can we cuddle?”

“If you behave,” Zack said getting a laugh out of Alex before he shoved the older boy into the bathroom so that he would start getting ready.

Twenty minutes later the boys were ready and sitting at the island in the kitchen eating a pop tart before they left while Alex’s father worked on packing his now ex-wife’s bags into the trunk of Alex’s car.

“How are you doing?” Zack asked Alex, startling the older man slightly.

“I’m still not ready to say goodbye,” he said quietly as he set his food down and looked at Zack.

“But you’re not saying goodbye; you’re saying see you later,” he said with a smile as he reached over and grabbed Alex’s hand. “Like I’ve been telling you since the first day I left you a note, you won’t be every day like you’re used to, but you will see her again.”

“You’re right,” he said as he buried his head in Zack’s shoulder. “I just don’t like seeing her go.”

“Would you have preferred if it was your dad going,” Zack joked not expecting a real response from Alex.

“Honestly, I would. I’m not that close to him. It’s going to be so awkward and quiet without mom asking me how my day was every day after school.”

“Come on, it looks like your mom’s ready,” Zack said as he looked over Alex’s shoulder and saw his mom putting on a jacket.



“Are you sure you have to go? I mean you could just buy a new house here. I would be more than happy to move in with you,” Alex said as he hugged his mother tightly while standing right outside the security check point at the airport.

“Alex, we already went over this. I’m going back and you’re going to stay here and finish school. If you really want to come live with me once you’re done I will gladly have you, but until then I want you to finish school here,” she said petting down the hair on the back of Alex’s head.

“Okay,” he said through a sniffle. “I love you.”

“I love you too sweetie. I’ll call you the second I land so that you can stop worrying about me.”

“Bye mom,” he said one last time before he let her go and let her make her way through the security check point.

“Bye baby,” she said waving at him one last time before walking through the check point and away from her son.

With tears falling down his cheeks Alex watched his mom walk away until he couldn’t see her anymore.

“I can’t believe she’s actually gone,” he said as he pulled his sweatshirt down over his hands and used it to wipe away the tears from his cheeks.

“I promise it’ll be okay. The flights only about eight hours and then your mom will be calling you and telling you about the shitty in flight food and how your grandparents were waiting for her at the airport with an embarrassing sign,” he said as he pulled the boy closer and hugged him in what he hoped was a comforting manner.

“Can we go home and cuddle now?”

“Of course, as long as you promise me you’ll work on drying your tears and let me see that beautiful smile of yours,” he said getting a small, slightly sad smile out of Alex. “Now the biggest question is, do you want to go to your house or mine?”

“Let’s go to yours I feel like my house would be too empty without my mom there.”

“Of course, let’s get going,” he said as he pulled away from Alex slightly and put an arm around his shoulder so that he could lead the boy out to the parking lot and to Alex’s car.

On their way to Zack’s brothers house the two boys stopped off at the local grocery store in hopes of grabbing as much sugar as they could get to help make Alex feel better about his current situation.

“Should we get one or two pints of ice cream?” Alex asked as he held up two pints of ice cream in Zack’s direction.

“Just get them both,” the younger boy laughed as he grabbed them out of Alex’s hand and put them into the cart they had. “I’m going to go grab a few things, I’ll be right back.”

With a nod Alex let Zack go and continued looking through the freezer section in hopes of finding something that they could snack on.



“Zack, is that you?” Caleb yelled as the two boys walked through the front door with their arms loaded up with grocery bags.

“Nope, just a common criminal with a key to the house,” he shot back earning a smile out of Alex.

“Can you run to the store for me?” he asked as he walked into the kitchen only to see the two boys unloading their bags.

“Was already there? Why, what could you possibly need? We just went grocery shopping two days ago?”

“We were thinking of having a party tonight and I thought since you are such an awesome brother you could go get everything while we worked on hiding all the breakables,” the eldest explained as he looked through the bags on the counter to see if there was anything worth stealing in them.

“Sorry but I promised Alex we would spend the whole day watching movies, so you’re on your own.”

“Are you guys going to cuddle too,” one of Caleb’s friends said with a laugh as he walked into the kitchen to grab a beer out of the fridge.

“Yeah, we are. Do you have a problem with it?” Alex asked challenging the boy. He was already upset over his mother; he didn’t need it to be made worse by this guy making fun of him and Zack too.

“Max, just go back into the living room and leave these two alone,” Caleb told his friend with a sigh. Zack had told him what was going on today and he knew why Alex was upset and he also knew that Alex had a perfectly good reason to be upset; he didn’t need his stupid friends saying shit and making things worse for the boy. “But don’t worry about it; I’ll have one of the guys run to the store and grab the shit.”

“Okay, just make sure you remember to hide everything this time. I really don’t feel like having to go and order another lamp for you,” Zack said as he grabbed two sodas off the counter before making his way upstairs with Alex close on his tail with a bag full of candy.

“Party starts at seven,” Caleb yelled up knowing that his brother liked to be hidden away in his room long before the party started.