Drama By Name

“Zee, just come inside."

“No! Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on!” Zack stood rooted to the spot, despite Matt's efforts to pull him inside.

“Zack, get your fucking ass inside and we’ll explain.” Jack sighed exasperatedly. Zack was slightly taken aback by his ex teachers use of language, and was taken off-guard enough for Matt to drop his bag and drag him through the front door. Jack pushed it shut and lead the small party into the living room, settling onto the small armchair in the corner and pulling Alex onto his lap, making the boy blush. Matt and Zack stood near the door still, looking just as confused as each other.

“Well, sit down then.” Jack said, waving a hand towards the sofa, the other wrapped around Alex's middle. Matt sat down, but Zack remained standing, not even looking at the seat.

“Tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“Zack, sit the fuck down.” Jack's words were once again effective. Zack sat down next to Matt, still looking furious, but a little less intimidating at least. Jack wrapped his arms tightly around Alex, giving him a gentle squeeze.

“Jay,” Matt spoke up, “I thought you said you met Alex at the music store?”

“That was a lie.” Jack said plainly, clearly not about to hide anything at all.

“So where did you meet?”

“He was mine and Zack's dramatic arts teacher.” Alex spoke quietly, knowing that the simplest thing could set Zack off, like a grenade with a loose pin.

“What the fuck! I thought that you were working at the middle school!” Matt was very confused.

“Well you obviously didn’t listen, did you? I said high school, Matt.”

“Fuck...”

"Honestly, we didn’t mean for it to happen,” Alex piped up, “It just kinda... did. I didn’t realise, when you said you want to set me up with your brother, that your brother was Jay.”

“Is that why you didn’t want to meet Alex either?”

“No, I just thought I’d be too busy with school work to see anyone properly.” Jack shrugged, “I’m glad I said no, otherwise me and Alex might never have happened.”

“Still fucking sick...” Zack muttered from the other side of Matt.

“What was that?” Alex asked defensively.

“It’s fucking sick, Alex!” Zack yelled, “He was our fucking teacher! It’s illegal! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Zack,” Jack spoke softly, using his ‘classroom voice’, “I know you’re angry, but everything is legal now. Sure, we overstepped some boundaries when I was still your teacher, but we didn’t do anything until Alex was eighteen, I swear."

“I don’t care! As far at the law goes, you’re a fucking paedophile! I should report you right now, get you locked up.” Zack was standing now, again trying to take the high ground. Alex wasn’t having any of it though. He stood and tried to square up to Zack as best he could, but was pulled backwards by Jack's gentle hand on his arm.

“Shut up, Zack. You don’t know a thing about what’s been going on! I care about him. I have been there for him all this time. Remember when you two nearly slept with each other? Yeah, well once he woke up, he came straight to me. He was fucking terrified of what might have happened. No offence, Zack, but he didn’t want any of that with you. He was waiting for me. He was waiting until him and I could be together properly. He was crying his fucking eyes out and all I could do was hold him. Do you know how fucking hard that is, to see the person you love hurting so much and you not being about to do anything about it? Because le-“

“Yes I do actually.” Zack cut in, a look of defiance on his face. Alex knew exactly what he meant and turned his gaze to Matt, sat hunched over on the sofa. He looked up, first to Zack, then Alex, then Jack. Matt slowly stood up and took his place next to Zack and reached for his fisted hand. At the touch, Zack's hands uncurled and he carefully intertwined his fingers with Matt's, his whole body relaxing.

“Don’t shout at him, Jack.” Matt's voice was quiet and soft, and he sounded a little scared.

“I’m sorry, Matt, but he’s supposed to be Alex's friend! If he can’t accept that Alex and I are happy, then-“

“Alex, are you actually happy?” Zack asked, doubting Jack's words.

“Of course I am, Zee. I am the happiest I’ve been in a long time. Jack is perfect. He’s one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever known and I honestly don’t know what I’d do without him.” Alex held onto Jack's hand as he spoke, the older man looking down at him, adoration filling his gaze.

“Why didn’t either of you tell either of us? Jay, I’m your fucking brother, for Christ sakes!” Matt sounded personally offended, which Alex could kind of understand.

“Because, I didn’t know how you’d react! I was scared that you’d call the police, or tell the school, or something like that!”

“I’m your brother! I have respected every decision you’ve ever made, even when you decided to stay with Jaime. I was shit-scared of what might happen to you, and to be fair I was right to be worried, but I let you because I knew that you’d do the right thing. You’re my big brother. I have always looked up to you and trusted you. If you’d told me that you and Alex were together then I would have accepted it. Alex is a great guy and I know that he would never hurt you, and that you would never hurt him.” Matt's voice was a little sodden with tears, obviously hurt by Jack's secretiveness or the memory of what happened to his brother.

“I’m sorry Matt. I was just scared.” He walked forwards, letting go of Alex's hand, and embraced his little brother, holding him close by way of apology.

“I-I just don’t like secrets like this. We used to tell each other everything, remember?”

“Yeah... Look, no more secrets from now on, yeah?” Jack let go of Matt and held him by the shoulders, looking him in the eyes.

“Yeah, I promise.” Matt smiled weakly and wiped away the few tears that sprang from his eyes.

“So...” Alex stepped forwards, “Are you going to tell him, or does he already know?”

“What?” Matt sounded confused, scowling a little.

“Oh, so we’re not the only ones with a secret then.” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked at Matt and could physically see the colour drain from his face. He swallowed hard and looked back a Jack, looking scared.

“Matt...” Jack said in a warning tone.

“Matt, show him your arm.” Alex said, knowing that Matt needed to do this.

“No, Alex. It’s not important.”

“Matt,” Zack stepped forwards, carefully putting an arm around Matt's waist, “Show him. You can do this.” Zack gently pecked him on the cheek. Matt closed his eyes and lifted his arm, slowly pulling his sleeve up.

Alex hadn’t seen his arm, he’d only known about it because of Zack, he was shocked at what he saw.

Matt's arm, from wrist to elbow, was entirely laced with scars of pink red and purple. There were small criss-cross cuts, small collective patches, long deep looking ones, and ones that clearly looked like they had meant to have been the end for Matt. There was not a square centimetre of clean skin left, and even Matt couldn’t bring himself to look at it. He stood there, eyes shut and face screwed up, bracing himself for whatever reaction he got. Jack reached down and lifted Matt's arm up to see the marks better. As he reached out, Alex could see his hands shaking.

“Matt... why.... Why would do this?” Jack's voice was weak and full of tears as he looked at the self inflicted scars of his younger brother. “Matty...”

“It was Pete...” Matt said, his voice wavering as he tried not to cry, “Something was off about him for weeks. He wouldn’t answer my calls or texts, he’d only call me first when he was drunk, he was always busy, he wouldn’t.... like, care for me whenever we... you know? He’d leave after and he just didn’t act like he loved me. Then... H-he said he’d ch-cheated on me-e...” Matt broke down into sobs and threw himself into Jack's arms and he cried quietly.

“We were there,” Zack spoke up, voice quiet and calm, “me and Alex went to the store just after it happened. Matt was sat in the back room crying so I stayed and comforted him for a while. I helped to dress his cuts and made sure he was alright. We’ve, er... been seeing each other since. We’ve been helping each other.”

“Helping each other?”

“Yeah, to stop.” Zack looked down and took off his jacket, exposing his arms. As Alex looked, there were only one or two new cuts since he had seen Zack's arm in the first week back. “We were both hurting, but we healed each other. I haven’t cut for about a month and a half now. Matt's been taking it a bit harder, but I’ve honestly been trying to help him. He... means a lot to me.”

Jack looked at him with a mix of concern, pity and gratitude, still holding Matt and rubbing his back comfortingly.

-

After a while, Matt stopped crying, and him and Jack sat down together and had a brotherly talk. Alex and Zack decided to go into the kitchen and close the door, giving them some privacy. They stood on opposite sides of the kitchen, leaning against the sideboards and not looking at each other. A few minutes passed before things got awkward and Zack broke the silence.

“So...”

“What?”

“Look, Alex... I’m sorry, okay? I... I didn’t mean to be so rude, I-“

“Rude? Damn right you were rude! Calling me and Jack sick!”

“I’m said I’m sorry! I was just shocked is all, I mean, I thought you had a thing for Mr Barakat, I just didn’t think you’d act on it...”

“Yeah well, I thought it was a mistake.”

“What?”

“I mean... Yeah, I did fancy him. You remember the day I came in with a limp?”

“Er... yeah, I think so...”

“Yeah, well, I had a bad leg ‘cause I fainted after school, and he drove me home. He told my mum that he was my friend and I went to see him that day to ask why he hadn’t said he was a teacher. We got talking and I kissed him.”

“Why would anyone even do that? Kiss a teacher, I mean...”

“I don’t know! I just did! But... He kissed me back. We started kinda seeing each other after that, but one day Tay caught us, so-“

“Tay fucking knew!”

Alex sighed, knowing what was coming next. “Yes, she knew. He came round to see me then Tay caught us kissing... But, before you moan about me never telling you anything, you have to understand why I didn’t this time.”

“Yeah... I understand, just... That must have been before me and you... You know.”

“Jeez, Zee, we agreed that we would never talk about that again. But, yeah, I kissed him before that.”

“So why did you-“

“Because,” Alex sighed loudly, “I was drunk. I’ll admit, I did like you as more than a friend, but not that much. I woke up, left and, actually, I didn’t come here first. I collapsed crying in an alley and called Tay. I went to her house and she told me to tell Jay. So I came here and we sat crying for a while and I stayed the night.”

“Stayed the night? What the fuck did-“

“No, Zee! I stayed the night, that’s it. Yes I slept in his bed, but I was still seventeen and he completely understood. It wasn’t until the party that we...” Alex trailed off, hoping that he didn’t have to say what happened for Zack to understand.

“Oh. So that... That’s where you... You left early and... Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“But, Rian walked in on you... You didn’t... At Matt's house?”

“Ew, no! We went to mine...”

“Oh.”

“Yeah... I’d rather not talk about this, okay?”

“Oh, oh yeah, sure!” Zack said quickly nodding in agreement, “I totally understand, sure.”

Zack and Alex went back to their awkward silence for a few moments before Alex spoke up again. "So... You're not angry, are you?"

“No, I’m not angry. I’m... a little confused, a bit weirded out though. I mean,” he slumped slightly and sighed, “he was our teacher. He’s twenty four years old... I’m not angry, just... If you’re happy, then everything’s fine with me. I’ll get used to it eventually. I mean, he’s Matt's brother, so I guess I’ll be seeing a little more of him-"

“Why would you be seeing more of him?”

“Oh...” Zack blushed, scratching the back of his head, “well, erm... things are going really well between me and him. We’ve only been together for, like, six weeks, but... God, I don’t know...” He sighed again, “I’ve been waiting for the right moment to say... that I love him. Because I do. And he knows about my mom sending me to that camp, and everything that happened, and he’s even mentioned that, if I wanted, I could move in with him.”

“Aw Zee! That’s so cute!” Alex laughed and smiled, making Zack grin a little and look down again.

“Yeah, and I really want to, but I don’t want him to do it out of sympathy, and I don’t want to feel like I’m, like, leeching off him, if you know what I mean. And I really do want to this properly. I want to be with him because we love each other, not because he feels sorry for me.”

“Well, why don’t you just tell him that?”

“Because, it’s harder than you think, Alex...”

“Zee, if you really mean it, and the moment’s right, it’ll come naturally. Trust me.”

“It’s not like I haven’t tried. Like in there, I tried to say that I love him, but I said that he ‘means a lot to me’ instead.” Zack put finger quotations around the words. He sighed again and shook his head, “What am I supposed to do when I can’t even say that I love him?”

“Kiss me.”

Zack and Alex looked towards the kitchen door. Matt stood there, eyes shining and a small smile playing on his tear stained face. Zack turned his body and Matt rushed forwards, wrapping his arms around Zack's neck and pulling him into a kiss. Zack made a small surprised noise, but wrapped his arms around Matt's skinny waist, holding him close and kissing him back. Jack appeared in the doorway and looked at Alex, smiling a little. Alex smiled back, and took a few steps towards the man. Matt pulled out of the kiss and looked up at Zack, smiling widely, chest still pressed against Zack's.

“I love you, you big idiot.” They both laughed as Zack bend down to gently kiss Matt again

“I love you too, Matt.”

They locked lips again, and Alex backed away into the living room, closing the door behind him. He looked over at Jack and smiled.

“So?”

“So, everything’s fine.” Alex smiled up at him and looped an arm around his middle, standing on tip toes and kissing him. Jack pressed down against his lips and hummed into the kiss, smiling and running a hand through Alex's still messy bed hair

They sat down on the sofa and cuddled up to each other, watching some music channel on the television. A few minutes later Matt and Zack came out of the kitchen, Matt tucked tightly under Zack's arm as they walked. They sat in the small seat in the corner, Matt curled up on Zack's lap, and Matt looked over at Jack.

“Well?” Jack asked.

“Well... We’re still taking it slow, but Zack is staying at mine whenever he wants.” He looked back the muscular boy and kissed his cheek, but Zack caught his lips instead, making Matt blush and giggle. Alex tutted and shook his head.

“Okay, love birds,” Jack piped up, “what did you bring?”

“Er... can’t remember, check my bag.”

Jack stood up and walked into the hall and brought Matt's ratty old rucksack into the room and opened it up.

“Bring? What?” Alex was curious.

“Oh, every first Sunday of the month, me and Matt have movie and game marathons. We didn’t last weekend because of the party, so we rescheduled for today. I guess I forgot to say, sorry!”

“Nah, it’s cool.” Alex smiled and peered into the bag. There were three cases in the bag: Texas Chainsaw Massacre on DVD, and two games, House of The Dead: Overkill and Super Mario Bros.

“So,” Jack pulled out the cases, “Film first?”

There was a chorus of agreement around the room and Jack went to put the disk on. Alex stood up and took a few steps towards the kitchen. “Drinks? Popcorn?”

“Oh, Lex, popcorns in the cupboard above the sink and left one.”

-

The four boys spent the day watching the film and playing the games, couple versus couple. There were a few incidents, one involving an exploding can of Coke, another involving a flying xbox remote.
They sat and laughed together for hours until Alex's mom called him, asking him to come home. Jack walked him to the door and said goodbye.

“Last night was amazing Alex.”

“I know, it really was.” Alex blushed and smiled,

“I’m... I’m sorry if it hurt. It’ll be better next time, I promise.” Jack smiled and leaned down, catching Alex's lips and a soft kiss.

“I love you.” Alex murmured against Jack's lips, smiling into the kiss.

“I love you too.” Jack pressed against Alex's mouth once more and pulled away, hugging him tightly.

Alex hugged back, and made his way out into the cold fall air, looking back at the house and smiling at last night’s memories.

Notes

One more chapter and than an epilogue!!