Different Dimension

From: Sierra
To: Zack

To celebrate my birthday, Kennedy has said that I can invite friends over to his house, so I was thinking that Alex, Rian and I could all celebrate our birthdays together with pizza, beer and movies, and they’ve agreed, so make sure your boyyyyyyy is there too! xoxo

~

That text had come through on Zack’s phone two days ago, while Martin was still in Zack’s bed after a particularly enthusiastic make-out, and Martin’s only response had been to groan into Zack’s neck in dismay. Zack was kind of looking forward to it, to be honest, to have a night in with his friends seeing as they couldn’t actually drink anywhere legally, especially seeing as it was the first birthdays they'd be celebrating at college. He knew Martin was stressed at the moment with the amount of essays he was having to write, so he’d only been able to persuade Martin to come to take a stress break. Because he didn’t want Martin to have a break-down, obviously.

Paul wasn’t that happy about Zack and Rian drinking, seeing as he was responsible for them, but Sierra had intervened to say that it was only going to be their friends and Kennedy’s small group of friends, so the drinking could be contained. Paul didn’t have a come-back argument. Sierra was clearly a bad influence – not that Zack didn’t know that already.

When the evening rolled around, Zack headed over to Kennedy’s house with Rian, Alex and Jack in Paul’s car, and Sierra headed over with Tay and Martin in Kennedy’s car. John had been out for a beer run (and vodka and cranberry for Tay) while everyone else arrived, so as soon as they arrived, the fun started.

Like Zack had thought, it wasn’t big, it wasn’t rowdy, it really was just that small group. While they waited for the pizzas to arrive, Kennedy put one of the Fast and Furious movies on to play. Zack sat down on the sofa next to Martin, who was next to John, smiling as Martin tugged Zack’s legs over his lap so they could snuggle. This was nice. He could get used to this.

Martin was down three beers by the time Zack had finished his first, and it didn’t take long for Zack to notice that Martin was quiet. Extremely quiet. Almost too quiet. So Zack zoned out of the conversations around them, just focussing on how completely silent Martin was, his grip still fairly firm on Zack’s thighs, but eyes were planted on his empty beer can, as if he was lost in thought. He’d heard Martin could brood for hours (Paul had told him as soon as he realised Martin was serious), but he’d never seen it in person before.

What could he do?

“You shouldn’t worry about him, y’know,”

Zack startled slightly at John’s voice, but peered around his boyfriend to see the tall skinny boy smiling at him.

“Martin?” Zack said softly, before glancing at his boyfriend’s stoic face.

“Yeah, this asshole here. He does this sometimes, goes completely inside his own mind for a while,” John shrugged.

“Why though?” Zack frowned.

“No-one knows. He thinks too much as it is, obviously drinking heavily brings it out in him,” John explained, rolling his eyes fondly.

“Is there nothing I can do?” Zack asked, hand slipping over Martin’s on his leg.

John’s eyes followed the action and smiled. “No, he’s in his brooding zone at the moment. But he’ll come back,”

Zack frowned a little more but looked at Martin again. Yeah, he really wasn’t going to be moving any time soon. But if John said that there was nothing Zack could do, and if he said that Martin was going to be alright, then he could trust in that, right?

“PIZZA’S HERE!” Rian yelled from the hallway.

Well at least Zack had his own distraction for now.

*

An hour later, Martin still hasn’t moved. Like, at all. If anything, Zack was a little worried that he’d get a neck cramp, but least he was still breathing. And blinking occasionally. Yeah, his boyfriend was strange. Oh well, if Martin could put up with Zack being an over-cheerful freshman, Zack could put up with some of his odd quirks too.

The pizzas were finished now (although Zack had saved two pieces for Martin, just in case), and another movie was playing, with Kennedy having taken John’s seat on the sofa, and John was now sitting down on the floor next to Alex (yeah that was subtle), with Rian, Jack and Tay sharing a sofa. Zack wasn’t particularly sure where Sierra or Paul were (he vaguely remembered Sierra saying something about going to the bathroom), but there was one thing Zack was sure of, and that was that he needed another beer.

Eh, he might as well get one for Martin too while he was up.

Zack looked down at Martin, who was still lost in his thoughts but looked a little less tense now. Good. Maybe by the time Zack got back Martin would be back too. So Zack pressed a kiss to his cheek before standing up and walking out to the kitchen. There was still quite a lot of beer left, so Zack just grabbed two cans off the side. But just as he was about to walk away, he saw something in the backyard, out the corner of his eye. Focussing properly, what he saw made his jaw drop. Sierra and Paul were standing on the grass, arms wrapped around each other, frantically kissing. Wow. Just wow. That was an eye-opener.

But before they saw him, and before it got weird, Zack slowly walked away. He wasn’t touching that situation with a ten-foot pole. They could deal with the fall-out by themselves.

As soon as Zack walked back into the room he’d come from, he saw Martin looking around for him. Thank fuck. It was about time! Zack grinned and wiggled the fresh beer cans in the air, making Martin smile sheepishly back. Zack yelped as Martin tugged him down onto his lap properly, making Kennedy laugh but shuffle up to give them more room.

“Hey,” Martin murmured, taking one beer from Zack.

“Hey,” Zack murmured back, smiling softly.

Martin sighed and buried his face in Zack’s neck. He vaguely heard someone aww-ing (it was a toss up between Tay or Jack), but he ignored them, taking the time to stroke his fingers through Martin’s hair.

“As nice as this is, are you okay?” Zack asked softly.

He had been stuck in his thoughts for over an hour, after all.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Martin mumbled, words muffled.

“You sure? You were gone for quite a while,” Zack said, trying not to frown.

He felt Martin smile against his skin, shivering as the older boy pressed a light kiss in reassurance.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just need to hold you right now,” Martin shrugged.

Zack just smiled. He could deal with that.