Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 12

Note: The second part of the Wednesday entry (see previous post if this makes no sense.) Thanks for the comments! They always make my week.


Zach lay pressed against the table, baffled to say the least. He didn’t know what to think, so he stayed very calm and gathered more data to reach a given result. In the background, the clock had stopped ticking. And it almost seemed that time was floating rather than flying, especially when those dark eyes stared down at him like the twin barrels of a shotgun. There was a dead silence in the room, save for the constant burring of the air conditioner and the drumbeat of his own heart.

Zach squirmed uncomfortably, yet he couldn’t bring himself to look away.

Finally, Gentry pulled away his hand and said, “Are you still going to come here?”
“I don’t know…” Zach exhaled, and weakly quipped, “if we keep beating each other up like this, we may not live to graduate.”

“That’s your answer?”

The dim smile faded from Zach’s lips. He knew this wasn’t a question. Somehow the uneasy realization dawned on him that whatever he said past this point didn’t matter, and this wasn’t funny at all. There was no getting through when the brooding in his eyes was replaced by dark space, when the shark on land would emerge from its murky depths.
“I don’t know what you expect me to say.” Zach replied guardedly, “I don’t even know what you’re getting at. Don’t tell me that now you suddenly want a boyfriend. Is that it?”
He knew the words probably wouldn’t register, since today there was something unnervingly disconnected about him. A dreary tension; something which made him seem far away even when he was close, something which drew him in and drowned everything else out.