Different Dimension

So Zack’s trip home for his sister’s birthday went well. It was great to see his family again, especially his sister Sam, since he hadn’t seen them in so long, but it was also great to be able to tell them about Martin. Why? Because they’d already guessed he had a boyfriend, by just the way he’d been smiling. Apparently they’d even held a betting pool on how much older Martin would be than Zack – his dad had won.

Yeah, his family were weird. At least their weirdness showed that they loved him.

After a lot of information digging from his sister, and a lot of fantastic home-cooked food from his mom, and a two hour spree of watching sports highlights in silence with his dad (it was their bonding thing, okay?), Zack’s sister drove him all the way back to UPenn. Why was Zack excited? Because the next day was Valentine’s Day, and Zack couldn’t wait to spend it with Martin.

Zack had never had much luck.

All morning Zack had been looking forward to seeing Martin, but his boyfriend was nowhere to be found. Sure, he was replying to Zack’s texts, but in no way indicating that he’d actually remembered it was Valentine’s Day. Like, not even one text. It was quite disheartening, to be honest. Zack was a romantic, he always had been, and he knew that Martin wasn’t particularly one to show his feelings, but he thought Martin would at least want to spend the day together.

Zack had seen the perfect event too. Well, he and Sierra had seen it when they came back from the library last week. UPenn was holding a romantic film night, and Zack had really wanted to go and snuggle with Martin there, to spend the time together there, but Martin hadn’t even shown any interest.

He really didn’t know why he bothered sometimes.

So instead, Zack was sitting in his dorm room, reading a book before he headed to class, while Rian chatted away about the girl he was taking on a date tonight (Cass? Maybe?). At least he could vicariously live through his dorm mate, if nothing else.

Three knocks on the door, and it swung open. Paul. It was always Paul.

“Hey guys! How was your weekend?”

“Good yeah. Yours?” Rian smiled.

Zack’s heart sank slightly as Paul rambled on about the great weekend he’d had with Martin. His boyfriend wasn’t even holed up somewhere – he just really didn’t care.

“…and don’t forget that we have the floor meeting tomorrow morning, so there’s no excuse if you’re out late tonight celebrating Valentine’s Day,”

Zack just sighed softly, frowning. Yeah, right.

“What’s wrong, Zack?”

Damn it. Of course Paul would notice.

“I can’t really talk about it with you, can I?” Zack murmured.

“Ah, so Martin is the problem. What has he done now?” Paul mused.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” Zack muttered.

Paul just snorted.

“He hasn’t made any plans for Valentine’s Day, has he?” Paul said, raising an eyebrow.

Zack sighed. “I’ve got to get to class. I’ll see you tomorrow,”

What was the point dwelling on what he’d wanted for today if he wasn’t going to get it?

*

Martin was in the library, talking with one of the girls from his classes, when his phone buzzed. Paul?

“I’ll talk to you later, yeah?” he said, apologetically.

“Yeah, sure. Bye Martin,” she said sweetly.

Martin grabbed the books he needed, before heading to the check-out machine, pulling his phone out while he scanned them.

To: Martin
From: Paul

Aren’t you forgetting it’s valentine’s day?

Martin scoffed, rolling his eyes.

To: Paul
From: Martin

Why would I celebrate that shitheap of commercialised bullshit?

He shoved the books into his bag before heading out the library, nodding to a few people he recognised.

To: Martin
From: Paul

Because your loving boyfriend celebrates it?

Of course. Of course Zack celebrates Valentine’s Day. Shit, he should’ve known. Zack was such the romantic type, and it wouldn’t help that he’d planned to tell his family about Martin when he was back home this weekend.

Great. Now he had to plan something. How the hell was he supposed to know what to plan? Martin barely had a romantic bone in his body. He couldn’t ask Zack because that would be obvious. And he didn’t know where Zack’s dorm mate would be.

So who?

Girls…Girls were good at this kind of thing…as sexist as that thought was…

Kennedy’s cousin! Sierra!

To: Kennedy
From: Martin

Can you send me your cousin’s number?

Martin sat down on a bench while he waited. There was no point pacing or walking off. Not when he didn’t know where he was meant to go.

To: Martin
From: Kennedy

Sierra? Why?

Martin rolled his eyes.

To: Kennedy
From: Martin

Nosy. It’s about Zack.

Martin chewed his bottom lip while he waited for a reply. What if she couldn’t help? And what if it got back to Zack that he’d been asking?

To: Martin
From: Kennedy

Say no more!

Martin smiled and quickly dialled the number Kennedy had sent over, taking a deep breath as it rang.

“Hello?”
“Hi Sierra, it’s Martin. Zack’s boyfriend,”
“Oh hi! You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Um, I was wondering if I could ask you something,”
“Sure!”

Martin swallowed nervously.

“Do you have any ideas of what Zack and I could do for Valentine’s Day?”

Sierra immediately burst into laughter. Fuck. She was too much like Kennedy.

“Don’t worry, I’ll ask someone else,”
“No, no, I’ll help!”

Martin paused, before clearing his throat.

“Okay, um, I think there was this flyer thing he was looking at the other day…something about a film night?”

A film night. That was low key. Martin could do that.

“Thanks, that’s a good start,”
“Good luck!”

Martin huffed as he ended the call. What had his life come to? At least he had an idea now though. And it was so like Zack too, a film night so they could be public without being in a huge crush of people. He headed over to the student events office, where sure enough, there was a flyer hanging up about the romantic film night.

“How much for two tickets?” Martin asked a student behind the desk.

“$20,” she said cheerfully.

Martin scowled slightly before handing over the money, earning a bigger smile and the two tickets.

“Have a fantastic night!”

Jeez, people were so joyful around here. Bleurgh.

Martin knew Zack had a class this morning, so he headed over to the building (he didn’t know the classroom number or he would’ve waited there) to wait outside for him. Luckily, it didn’t take long for Zack to come out, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw Martin.

“Hey! You didn’t have to wait for me!” Zack said happily, kissing Martin quickly.

Martin smiled into the kiss, squeezing Zack’s hips.

“I wanted to surprise you,” Martin said.

Zack looked confused, until Martin pulled out the tickets. His confusion went to a huge grin…and then to a suspicious frown.

“Did you talk to Sierra?” Zack asked, hand on hip.

Martin blushed heavily. Damn it.

“Maybe?” Martin said sheepishly.

Zack just laughed.

“The fact that you made this plan even and made the effort to ask my friends shows you care. So thank you,”

“I want to spend the evening with you, Zack. Regardless of this over commercialised crap,”

Zack just laughed again, rolling his eyes this time.

“I don’t have class for another hour…” Zack said, trailing off hopefully.

“Me neither?” Martin replied, frowning.

“ Good, let’s go make-out somewhere,”

Martin’s jaw dropped slightly in surprise. He was not expecting that.

Zack tugged him by the hand, smiling widely.

“What? Can’t I show appreciation to my boyfriend?” Zack said innocently.

Well Martin wasn’t going to say no to that.