Saturday morning Alex woke up with what felt like a throat full of sand and a head full of cotton wool. He was sick, again. He rolled over, burying his head in the pillows, away from the sunlight coming through the curtains. This was Zack's fault. Alex must have caught whatever this was off him yesterday when Zack kissed him.
Alex lay there for a little bit, thinking about the kiss. It had been nice, soft, gentle. Zack was a great guy, he was attractive in a way, but he was just too much like a brother to Alex. He’d make someone very happy one day though.
Just then his phone went. He grabbed it and read the text. It was from Rian.

From; Rian Dawson
- ‘Heya Alex, how did it go at Zee's yestrdy?’

Of course, Rian had known all about it. And, of course, Rian would want details. In his just-about-awake state, Alex typed out a reply.

To; Rian Dawson
- ‘heya, it went alright. We talked about y his mom sent him to camp and what happened there’

He clicked back to his homescreen to check the time. 10:14am. Too early for a Saturday, too early when you’re ill. It was only about a minute before Rian replied.

From; Rian Dawson
- ‘oh yh cool, anything else????’

Rian knew. Of course he did. Zack probably texted him as soon as Alex left yesterday. He replied,

To; Rian Dawson
- ‘yh he kissed me’

30 seconds later and he already had a reply.

From; Rian Dawson
- ‘OMG FINALLY COME ON DETAILS’

To; Rian Dawson
- ‘omg Ri ur like a teenage girl! It was nice, but it wasn’t quite right. We both knew it though and we’re still friends’

From; Rian Dawson
- ‘oh ok i really hoped u 2 would get together, you’d be soooo cute but as long as ur still friends’

To; Rian Dawson
- ‘yeah, hes too much like a brother ya no?’

From; Rian Dawson
- ‘yeah, oh well, anyway g2g im going out with Cass ’

To; Rian Dawson
- ‘ok have fun :P’

Alex shoved his phone under his pillow, and decided to go and find some Advil and cough syrup. He dragged himself down stairs in his boxers and old Star Wars t-shirt to the kitchen. He found his mom sat at the table reading the paper with the radio on.

“Morning sweetie.. Oh, you don’t look so good...”

“Yeah, I don’t feel too good either. Where’s the Advil?”

“Cupboard over the toaster, bottom shelf on the left.”

He padded over to the cupboard and took out the box. He took 2 tablets with some water and sat down at the table, resting his head on his arms.

“What’s wrong sweetie? Are you ill?”

“Mmhmmm...”

“What kind of ill?”

“Sore head, sore throat. Feel like shit.”

“Okay sweetie, back to bed with you. I’ll bring you something to eat, just rest okay, sugarplum?”

“Mmm.” Alex went back upstairs and flopped down onto his bed and dragged the duvet over himself. Before he knew it, he was asleep again.

---

Alex woke with a start. He’d been dreaming about being attacked by the Mafia and Miss Ravenkroft, and he’d just been shot. He looked around for his phone before remembering it was under his pillow. He pulled it out and checked the time. It was 5:53pm. Had he really slept that long? Checking his phone again he saw he had 2 texts and a missed call, all from Zack.

From; Zack Merrick
- ‘hey u wanna come round?? SyFy is showing Star Wars l8r, u could stay 4 dinner’

From; Zack Merrick
- ‘hey u ok, hope we’re still alright after yestrdy’

Alex didn’t want Zack thinking anything was wrong between them, because he didn’t think there was anything wrong between them. He couldn’t go round there, he was too sick, but he couldn’t see why Zack couldn’t come round to his. Just to be safe though, he ought to check with his mom.

“Hey, mom?” Alex called out. No reply. “Mom?” Still nothing. Alex got up and wandered down stairs calling out for his mom, who was nowhere to be seen.
He walked into the kitchen and found a can of tomato soup on the table with a note: Alex, Got called into work, Brenda needed cover for the late shift. I’ll be back late night/early morning. Don’t do anything stupid, Love, Mom xx

Well, though Alex to himself, I guess Zack was coming round. He took his phone out of his boxer waistband where he put it due to lack of pockets, and typed out a text to Zack.

To; Zack Merrick
- ‘hey Zee, can’t come round but u can come here if u want?? Let me no asap x’

Buzz, buzz.

From; Zack Merrick
- ‘okay cool, be there in 15 x’

While he waited, Alex warmed his soup. He hadn’t realised how hungry he was until 10 minutes later when the soup was gone.

---

“Hey Ale.. Oh my god you look terrible!” Zack stood on the porch looking at Alex with concern.

Alex had no idea how ill he looked, he hadn’t seen himself all day, but he knew was ill. “Yeah, I’m ill, no thanks to you.” Alex opened the door wider to let Zack in.

He shuffled into the hallway and shrugged off his hoodie. “What do you mean, no thanks to me?”

“I think I got ill when we kissed yesterday. I feel like my head’s been stuffed with a cushion. Not fun.”

“Oh, er, sorry about that...” Zack looked down sheepishly.

Alex just tutted and put and arm around Zack's middle, steering him towards the living room. “Don’t worry about it buddy. Do you want something to drink?” Alex called and he wandered to the adjoining kitchen.

“Er.. do you have coffee?”

Alex popped his head around the doorframe, grinning. “Do you even need to ask?” He walked back into the living room with two mugs of coffee and settled himself on the sofa next to Zack, handing one of the mugs over and pecking him on the cheek. Suddenly he was attacked by a huge coughing fit, nearly spilling coffee all over everywhere.

Zack patted him gently on the back, trying to help clear whatever was making him cough. “Whoa, are you sure you’re okay? I mean, you can go to bed and I can go home- “

“No it’s fine, don’t worry. Anyway, it’s just a film, it won’t make me any ill-er.”

“Well, if you say so.. Oh, it’s about to start!” Zack reached across to the coffee table for the T.V. remote.

Alex looked across and spotted the crimson scars the decorated Zack's forearm. There was one that scored through the rest of them, straight down, but no new ones thankfully. Zack changed the channel to SyFy and smiled over at Alex. Alex immediately shuffled closer and hooked Zack's arm around his shoulders and his own arm across Zack's middle. He just wanted Zack to feel happy and safe. Zack looked down at him and smiled, and Alex smiled back.

“Thanks for coming over Zee, I just feel lousy and it’s nice to have a friend around.”

“No problem Lex. Anytime.” He quickly kissed Alex on the top of the head and the two boys turned their attention to the T.V. as the opening crawl came on screen.

---

Alex hadn’t been dreaming about anything in particular, but he had been comfy, warm and happy. Which is why he was frustrated when his eyes flickered open to bright white light. For a moment he couldn’t remember where he was, or why he wasn’t in his bed. He rubbed his eyes and sat up slightly. He was in the living room. Then he remembered. Zack had come round and they’d watched ‘The Phantom Menace’, and around the point where Padmé revealed that she was really Queen Amidala, Alex had fallen asleep. He looked around again, searching for Zack, before he realised he was lying on him.
Alex was lying on top on Zack, who was still fast asleep, with his arms around Zack's shoulders and his head resting on Zack's chest, and Zack's arms around his middle. Zack looked quite sweet while he slept. If only everyone could see how gentle Zack really was, if only Zack didn’t hurt so much.

Alex was just about to settle down again when he heard a small “A-hem” from the direction of the kitchen.

He looked up quickly, accidentally jolting Zack awake, to see his mom stood in the doorway watching the two boys sleeping.

“Afternoon boys!” she chirped, grinning from ear to ear.

“What... where...” Zack said sleepily, before sitting up a little too quickly and knocking Alex to the floor with an ‘oof’. “Oh shit, Alex sorry...”

“It’s.. ugh.. It’s fine, don’t worry.”

Alex's mom laughed from the doorway at her son lying on the floor failing at being helped up by his half-asleep friend. She turned away and went back into the kitchen, leaving Alex and Zack to sort themselves out. Alex got up and turned to Zack and told him to wait for a minute, before dashing after his mom. “Mom, whatever you’re thinking, it’s not like that.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Alexander...” she said innocently as she sipped her coffee.

“Mom, he’s just my friend. Me and Zee aren’t... You know, together.”

“I never said that you were! Anyway, why is he here in the first place?”

“Oh, he came round last night and we watched Star Wars. I fell asleep though so...”

“Okay, well so long as his mom knows he’s here.”

“Don’t worry, it’s all fine!” Alex said as he walked back into the living room, where Zack was sat cross-legged on the sofa rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Alex looked up at the clock on the mantel piece. It was 2 in the afternoon. How had they slept that long? “So Zee... What happened last night?”

“You, er, fell asleep.”

“Yeah, but how I end up sleeping on you?”

“Oh... You kinda crawled onto me...”

“What?”

“Yeah, you were, like, fidgeting around, then you kinda climbed into my lap... I don’t know...”

“Oh my god, I’m sorry! Ugh, that is so embarrassing!”

“Nah it’s fine, don’t worry. I didn’t mind.” Zack smiled up at Alex from the sofa. His eyes were a little puffy from sleeping and his hair was sticking up at all angles.

Alex decided that bleary-eyed bed-head Zack was cute. He kissed his forehead before saying “You know, you’re pretty comfy!”

Zack just laughed and replied “Well you’re pretty cuddly!”

Alex sat down and laughed along with Zack. When they stopped though, there was an awkward silence, before Zack piped up. “Hey Lex?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Er... Sure.”

“What.. er. No, never mind.” Zack sighed, waving his hand dismissively.

“Come on Zee, spit it out.”

“Okay... What... are we? What is this? The way you act sometimes, it’s... it’s like we’re more than friends. But... oh, I don’t know.”

Alex could see where Zack was coming from though. They had always acted as a little more than friends and, to be fair, Alex was a little ‘clingy’. He did always get piggybacks and sit on Zack a lot. He pondered this for a moment before he spoke.

“I don’t really know. It’s like a relationship, with the physical side, isn’t it? I don’t know... You don’t have a problem with it, do you?”

“No! No, it’s nice. It makes me feel... wanted. Cared about, you know?”

“Aw Zee, you are cared about! Don’t ever think you’re not, okay?” Alex half sighed, half laughed as he sat himself on Zack's lap and hugged him, resting his head on Zack's shoulder.

Zack tensed for a second, but relaxed a moment later, leaning back on the sofa and putting his arms around Alex. They stayed like that for a few minutes, until Zack cleared this throat. “Hey, er, Alex?”

“Yeah?” His voice was muffled in Zack's t-shirt

“As nice as this is, I kinda stayed out all night. My mom’s probably going to be worrying.”

“Oh yeah, shit! Sorry, I’ll let you go now!” Alex jumped up from Zack's knees and walked him to the door.

They said their goodbyes and Alex shut the door, deciding to finally look at himself in the mirror. He got to the bathroom and almost gasped in surprise. His skin was a lot paler than usual and had taken on a slightly grey-ish hue. There were almost purple circles under his eyes and his hazel irises had dulled down to pond-water brown. His hair was a mess and was getting too long and too dark. He looked like shit. And he still felt like shit.
He walked into the kitchen, took two Advil and a mouthful of cough syrup. He didn’t care, he was ill, he was allowed to not care.

“Mom, I’m going back to bed. If I’m hungry I’ll come down and get something, don’t worry about me.”

“Okay sweety... Don’t worry about school either, you can have tomorrow off.”

“Thanks mom, love you!” Alex called from half way up the stairs.

“Love you too, sweety, now go get some rest!”

Alex crawled under his duvet, and fell asleep almost instantly.

Notes