Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:13:57 -0700 From: Dean Subject: When Nothing Goes Right, Chapter 6 Gay/Highschool Section Disclaimer- this story involves the love of two males so if this offends u then don't read. This story is totally fiction and not meant to reflect on anyone. And all the usual stuff applies lol. Hey you guys this is my first attempt at a gay themed story, so bare with me and send feed back, tell me if I suck or if I'm any good, this will be a short story with about 12 maybe more chapters, so I hope u guys enjoy. ****************************************************************************** When Nothing Goes Right Chapter 6 Zander's parents rushed him to the hospital and I followed. This was a huge, huge misunderstanding that needed to be fixed. I wondered the whole way there what would cause Zander to just collapse like that. It scared the hell out of me and I was just hoping that he was ok. I thought about everything I said to him that night and I just couldn't believe that I actually told him that I was in love with him; I must have been out of my mind. The truth was out and there was nothing I could do about it. Then there was the kiss and his reaction to it. I could still feel those lips on mine; still see the way he looked. It actually gave me some hope that he didn't seem angry at me kissing him. I just wonder what's going to go on through his head when he wakes up. I parked my car and by the time I got inside, Zander was already in the emergency room. His parents were waiting anxiously, so I timidly I walked over to talk to them. Mrs. Daniels looked up at me in shock, like she couldn't believe that I was there. She got up looking like she was going to throw a fit. "How could you? I trusted you...we trusted you." Mrs. Daniels said, crying to me angrily "Please...can I tell you what happened before you go blaming me?" I said feeling hurt and frustrated at the same time. "Just let the boy talk." Mr. Daniels said when his wife just shook her head at me in disbelief. "Oh shut up and don't you talk to me right now." She said to her husband. "Look..." I started, but was interrupted. "Mr. and Mrs. Daniels?" A doctor had come out. Mr. Daniels got up and they both rushed over to the doctor as he talked. "Your son doesn't appear to have any physical marks or trauma that would tell us that he was struck on the head with a lamp as you said he was. He appears to have blacked out from most likely a side effect of his previous accident." "Is he okay?" Mrs. Daniels asked "He's awake, but we believe that these blackouts may happen more often and that they could be triggered by stress." The doctor said. "May we see him?" Mr. Daniels asked "Of course, right this way." The doctor said turning to go through the double doors. Mr. and Mrs. Daniels followed him through the doors to see him, leaving me to wait in the waiting room thinking to myself. I hoped that what the doctor had told them would prove to Mrs. Daniels that I didn't hit her son over the head with that lamp. Zander was stressed, no doubt about that. I could see it the whole time I was at his house. I started to feel even worse as I wondered if I telling him I loved him triggered the blackout. I wondered how often Zander would have them and also couldn't help the feeling that all this was my fault. Well it was my fault that he's in this condition if what the doctor said is true, then it's because of me punching him down the stairs. I just hope he didn't hate me more because of all this. I had been lost in all my thoughts when suddenly Mrs. Daniels interrupted them. "Well come on. You can see him." She said, I couldn't read her expression though. "Mrs. Daniels, I'm really sorry. I hope you know I would never hurt Zander like I did before. This time I swear I didn't do anything." I told her quickly. "I know this wasn't your fault. I jumped to a conclusion, but all I saw was you over my unconscious son, with a broken lamp on the floor, and all I could think about was what happened between the two of you before at school. I was scared, but that doesn't give me excuse to treat you like I did. I should have known that you'd be the last person to ever do something like that. Um...Zander told us that you guys heard my husband and I fighting." I nodded my head, looking a little embarrassed. "Well I'm sorry about all of that and also for being so quick to blame you." She sounded really sincere so I smiled up at her and she smiled back. She opened up her arms and gave me a big hug. "So you accept my apology?" she asked when we let go of each other. "Yeah, it's ok." I told her while I walked with her to Zander's room. When we walked through his door and I saw him still a little pale but awake I walked over to him. "Are you okay? You really had me scared there." Zander looked up at me and I was preparing myself for those blue eyes to turn cold like they always did every time he looked at me. Surprisingly though, they didn't. His blue eyes looked up at me with sadness. "Mom, Dad...could I have a minute alone with Skyler. I need to talk to him about something." He asked them, but without taking his eyes off of me. "Sure buddy." His dad said as he and his wife left the room, closing the door behind them to give us privacy. "Zander, look...about what I said before..." I started. "Wait...listen. I need to get this out first okay?" I nodded as he continued after taking a few moments to gather up all his thoughts. "Look, I'm sorry, okay... I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you. Angie was right, I do have a lot of problems and all I can seem to do is blame them on other people. To tell you the truth, I'm the one who's worthless." "You are definitely not worthless, trust me, and I accept your apology as long as you accept mine." I told him. "Deal and about what you said to me at my house tonight... I don't believe in love anymore." "Why?" I asked curiously. "It's sort of a long story." He said looking away from me. "Well look all I really want is for you not to hate me." I said to him hopefully. "Okay, that I can do." He said with a small smile on his face. I smiled back at him; finally glad that I made some progressed with this guy. I stared at him for awhile not sure of what to say next. Then Zander seemed to get a little uncomfortable with the silence. "So...um...are you really, I mean, everything that you said to me tonight, was all that true? Are you really in love with me?" he asked curious. I just looked at him a little embarrassed, I'm sure I was blushing like crazy. I nervously nodded my head in agreement. Zander gave me that look again, the one I only got in my dreams, but if was only there for a brief second before he just took on a serious expression. "So do you think, we can be friends." I asked being a little brave at the moment. "Umm... I think I need some time think before I answer that." He said. "Oh well, okay. I need to get home, I guess I'll see ya later?" I asked hopefully. "Maybe." He said. ************************************************************* "So you were right, okay?" Zander said to Angie, scowling at her. They were at school, waiting for it to begin. Zander had called her to tell her about the blackout incident and that he wanted to talk to her. "I know! I'm always right." She said smirking at him. "I'm sorry... I know I was wrong, I just.... I really don't want to lose you. I don't know what I'd do without you, Angie. Please don't stop being my friend." Zander begged, sadly. "As long as you know that you were wrong and you apologized, then we're cool." Angie said very seriously. "Good so we're cool now right?" he asked to make sure that things were ok between them. "Well did you apologize yet?" Angie asked him. "I could have sworn that that's what I'm doing right now?" Zander said confused. "To Skyler, stupid!" Angie said with a little smile on her face. "Oh," Zander's smile dropped a little, "I did already, we um, had a little talk." "Really? How did that go?" she asked surprised "He wants to be friends." Zander said. "What did you say?" She asked. "I told him I'd think about it." Zander said looking at her. Angie gave him a weird look. "What? I am!" Zander said to her then added, "and I'm okay with the two of you being friends." "Whatever!" Angie said shaking her head and dropping the subject. ************************************************************* I was at school looking for Zander. I really wanted to know if he accepted my offer to be friends. I was being very optimistic about the whole thing because I felt that I had made great progress with him. I mean at least he had forgiven me and didn't seem to hate me. I saw him walking with Angie so I made my way over to them. "Hi Skyler." Angie greeted me with a smile. "Hey Angie." I said to her then turned to Zander. He looked good today, well he looked good everyday. I found myself staring at him caught up in my thoughts of how I felt for him and I realized that I had yet to say anything to him but stare. The weird thing was that he was staring back at me as if lost in thought like I was. I wondered what he was thinking about but then Angie sort of cleared her throat rather loudly, probably feeling awkward and it snapped me out of it. "Oh, um, hey Zander." I said to him a little nervously. Zander shook his head as if snapping out of a daze and nodded towards me. I smiled at him but he sort of just kept this neutral expression. Progress right? Well at least he wasn't looking at me with those cold eyes anymore. I decided to be a little braver. "So I was thinking that maybe you and me..." I started but then stopped as I watched him suddenly turn and leave, walking really fast down the hall, leaving me with a very confused Angie. "Um...ok? What was that all about?" she asked me. "I don't know?" I said, just as confused as she was. "Well, welcome back to school." She said walking with me to my locker. I was sort of sad about what just happened. I wasn't really paying attention to Angie or acknowledging that she was around me, and she noticed it too. "Hey? Hello? What's up with you?" she asked me. I didn't say anything. I wasn't used to her new friendship. She seemed to think about it though and realized instantly what was wrong. "Hey don't worry about him, just give him some time. Trust me, I know Zander. He'll come around. She said rubbing my arm. I looked at her smiling face. I put on my now usual fake smile to show that I was `okay', she didn't know the whole story. She didn't know that I had kissed him and confessed my love to him and that was more of what I was worried about. That he would reject me completely and I didn't think I could handle that. I mean if he didn't want to be more than just friends I could handle that. I just needed to be close to him. My dreams that I had constantly drove me crazy. It was like my unconscious mind was teasing me, giving me a taste of what I wanted with Zander and then snatching it away from me when I woke up. "Yeah ok, thanks again Angie." I told her still smiling. "For what?" She asked smiling back confused. "For wanting to be my friend. I need them." I said simply. "No problem big guy." She said squeezing a muscle on my arm. The next two weeks were the same. Zander would continue to avoid me and I would try my hardest to talk to him. At school when I would go to hang out with Angie, Zander would suddenly have some place he needed to be. When I went to his house to help his dad finish up work with the house, he would lock himself in his room until I left. I was getting really frustrated. I just wish he would talk to me. It wasn't like he was being rude or mean. In fact, I would catch him staring at me from time to time, but I couldn't really read his expression though so I didn't know what to think about it. ************************************************************* Zander just didn't know what think about it all. He seriously didn't mind becoming Skyler's friend after the talk they had at the hospital two weeks ago. In fact, he was dying to get close Skyler in any way. That kiss that they shared that night was great and it completely took him by surprise and after that he just couldn't hide behind his pride anymore, but he just didn't trust himself to just stay friends with him, especially since he found out how Skyler really feels about him. He sort of felt the same way, but the fact that he couldn't trust love anymore and the fact that he didn't want his heart broken kept him from being anywhere near Skyler. Zander avoided Skyler as much as he could. Sometimes he would catch himself staring at him, fantasizing about Skyler's big muscular arms wrapped around his body holding him. He would stare at Skyler's mouth, imagining those nice big lips against his with their tongues dueling each other. Sometimes he would be so deep in his fantasy that he wouldn't notice that Skyler had caught him staring. Angie knew something was wrong with Zander, and he would try avoiding her as much as possible too. The fact that she was now friends with the boy of his dreams and the fact that he didn't feel like being confronted by her about why he was avoiding Skyler, kept him alone all the time. He had other friends but none of them could replace her. It was a sacrifice he had to make though. At first he would hang with Angie until Skyler would show up, but after awhile he just stopped hanging out with her all together, he even stopped returning her calls. She would leave him angry messages, but he just didn't know what to do. He started to feel alone and it was getting a little depressing. The one good thing going on in his life right now was the fact that his parents stopped fighting. It seemed that his blackout incident helped them to see that they really needed help. They decided to go to marriage counseling to repair their marriage and fix their family. Zander had been put on medication to help with stress to prevent hi from having anymore blackouts, which was a good thing because this whole Skyler/Angie situation was not only depressing him but adding to his stress. He knew that he couldn't avoid them forever though. Eventually he would need to do something. He just didn't know what yet. ************************************************************* I had that same dream again, the one about us together on the couch and ending with him telling me to talk to him. When I woke up, I knew that I just had to make Zander listen to me. This had been going on long enough and I couldn't take it anymore. One way or another he was going to talk to me. "You like him don't you?" Angie asked me at lunch. She was sitting next to me and I had been staring at Zander trying to figure out the best way to make him talk to me. "Huh?" I asked confused. She looked at me and then nodded to Zander. "Of course I like him, I want to be his friend." I said trying to play it off. "You know what I mean. Don't play dumb. You like him, like him." She said giving me that look that told me I better not lie to her. I looked at her in shock, I knew that I was turning beet red and therefore the truth was out so I couldn't lie to her. She just continued to look at me waiting patiently for my answer. "Is it that obvious?" I caved in. "Oh wow, so now it all makes sense. That's why you were so depressed about him all the time. But hey listen, there's something you need to know about Zander." She said turning serious. "I know, he told me all about him and love...right after I kissed him and poured my heart out to him." I said a little depressed "Oh my god, really?" she asked me surprised. "Well no, actually he fainted first, was rushed to the hospital where his mother accused me of gay bashing again, then apologized when she found out I had nothing to do with it, then me and Zander apologized to each other in the hospital room first, and then he told all about how he didn't "do" the whole love thing anymore." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "So that's what his big problem is!" Angie said catching onto everything finally. "Yeah, I guess." I said shrugging my shoulders. "So you like guys?" Angie asked becoming suddenly really interested. "NO... I mean, I don't know what I like. I just know I like Zander...A LOT! I may even be in love with him and I don't know why. He's all I dream about and I can't figure that out, because he was nothing but an asshole to me before. But I guess it's just how I feel." I said blushing that I was telling her all of this. Angie gave me a hug and then gave me an understanding look. "I know what it's like to want something you can't have." She said sadly to me. She sort of zoned out, staring at me for a few seconds, making me completely uncomfortable. "Um Angie, hello?" I said waving my hand in front of her face. "You're sort of freaking me out." "Oh, yeah, right, sorry about that." She said snapping out of it. "The bottom line is that all though I have these feelings him, all I want is to be close to him. So if that means just being friends... I can deal with that." I said. "Easier said than done, believe me." She said, about to zone off on me again. "Don't start acting weird again please." I said to her. "Shut up!" she said smiling and giving me a little push. "Look, if it's bothering you this much, just make him listen. I know him, he puts on this tough guy act, but he's just as insecure as you are, maybe even more. Just don't give up okay." "Yeah, you're right. I'm going to talk to him if it's the last thing I do." I said trying to be positive and summoning up all my courage. ************************************************************* After school I drove over to Zander's house where Zander's Dad greeted me at the door. "Hey Sky, what are you doing here. The house is all finished up, remember? You just miss hanging out with me, huh?" he teased me. "Of course you old man, I can't get enough of you." I joked back, stepping through the door. "Hey I'm not that old." He said closing the door behind him. "Yeah okay." I said with a sarcastic smile. "I'm actually here to see Zander, is he here yet?" I asked trying to keep my cool. It was getting harder and harder to keep from getting nervous. "No he's not home yet from school, but he should be soon. You can go wait up in his room if you want. I actually have to get going. I have to go to an appointment, so make yourself at home. Oh and thanks again for all your help. The upper floors are looking really good; it would have taken me a very long time if it wasn't for you so I appreciate it really." He said reaching for his jacket in the closet by the front door. "It's the least I could do sir." I told him as he went through the door that led to the garage. "Talk to you later Sky." He said and then left. I walked up to Zander's room. I actually hadn't really seen his room before, just the outside of his door, which had a sign on it that read DO NOT ENTER. I hesitated a moment with my hand on the door, and then ignored the sign all together and open the door to step inside. Zander's room was huge, way bigger than my own. He had lots of cool stuff in there; a big flat screen plasma TV hanging on the wall in front of a queen sized bed. There was a desk in the corner and there was another door that led to a bathroom. I looked around and saw pictures of him with Angie and different friends scattered around the room in frames on dresser tops, desktops, and hanging on the walls. I decided to sit on the bed to wait for Zander's arrival. When I sat down though, I actually sat on something hard. I picked it up and took a look at it. It was a scrapbook. On the cover was a picture of a big red heart and a black circle with a line through it over the heart. I was curious so I opened it. The first page was of a boy that looked to be 11 or 12. There was a collage of pictures of the same boy, most of them alone, but some with his arm around another boy about the same age. When I studied the other boy a little more I realized that it was a younger Zander. They both had smiles on their faces. I flipped the page and there were more pictures but this time of another boy with Zander, but this time they both were a little older. They also looked happy in all those pictures. I flipped through all the pages and on each page there was a different boy and as I got closer to the end I noticed that they would get older and so would Zander. They would also be more intimate shots of him and the boy on that page. The boy on each new page would be hugging Zander or kissing him, holding him, and basically all the stuff that I wanted to do with him. The last page that had any pictures was a guy that I actually recognized to be the one who Zander was arguing with that day at school when Zander embarrassed me in the crowded hallway with that kiss. They looked happy together. I stared at one picture with the guy holding Zander from behind with his chin resting on Zander's shoulder. I looked at Zander and he looked so in love. I touched his face on the picture. I've seen that look on him so many times in my dreams. It was usually directed towards me though. I was so caught up in his scrapbook that I didn't even hear the door open. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Zander said looking very pissed off, his face getting very red. "Oh Shit!" was all I could say. ************************************************************* So that was it, how is it going so far...chapter 7 is already written but I'm not gonna type it up till I finish writing chapter 9. so I'm not gonna promise that it will be out soon. but it is coming so don't worry. Please send me feedback on this chapter. Email me adsherrill@msn.com