Chapter 161
1679words
"Where are you?" The phone is answered
"I'm here I made it! I'll call you back later" the boy quickly hangs up. Checking his face and hair in the rear view mirror he practically jumps out of the car.
Inside 1482 Beverly Grove apartment 7H sits broken Zac. Crutches too far to reach, and dinning table chair too high to climb down. He was stuck in the middle of an empty apartment lacking the only healing he could use, his husband Theo.
'I'm so sorry but it's most likely that he'll never recover from this' the sound of the doctor's voice baring the bad news to his parents rip through his chest. Zac lie in that hospital knowing he'd never be the same again.
"How do you feel?" Zac hears answering his cellphone
"Feels like I just got home from the hospital a 22 year old husbandless man with no clue on how to go from here" he replies to his worried sister
"Need me to come over there, I can bring snacks, booze, American pie. You love American pie" "No Annie! I don't need any of that stuff right now!" Zac loses his tempter for a moment. The 3
months Zac and Theo has been apart were brutal on Zac, without looking back the man he loves ups
and leaves him, and now after an awful accident and 2 weeks in the hospital Zac is finally back home.
At 22 years old Zac Wells went against everything he believed and married the love of his life, 17 year old emancipated Theo Mercer. I know Theo is the love of his life, he knows that, and everyone else does, but when Theo up and left after 2 months of marriage and a 1 year relationship all faith and hope was lost. "You miss him don't you?" Zac's sister replies after a wave of silence
"Maybe Theo leaving was what I needed, I've been confused and thrown off path too long Annie. I gave my heart to him thinking he was mature but I was/ still am the fool you all believed me to be"
"You loved Theo before you even knew what gay was, heck before you even knew that's what you were. He's lost Zac and if you both give up then this all would've been for nothing"
"Maybe it was..." Zac slowly lost hope. He blames Theo for this, he blames him for leaving and not caring. 3 months ago Zac got his heart ripped out of his chest, and he made it clear nothing could fix that.
"He's in there, his body, his soul, our livelihood all in there" the boy paced back and forth "why am I still out here?" He stops pacing shutting all his nerves up and knocking, no answer "come on" he whispers knocking a second time
"Might as well come in!" He hears the words yelled and he grabs the knob. Swinging the door open "Annie how long have you been sitting out-" Zac looks over at the door to his husband staring back at him, eyes as wide as he remembers and hair still as crazy and curly as the last time he saw him "Theo?"
"My husband" a smile flashes across Theo's face as tears form in his eyes.
After taking a few minutes to take each other in Zac manages to get out of the chair ready to rip Theo apart "don't touch me" Zac stops Theo trying to come closer to him from the door "stay exactly
where you are because you won't be here for long" Theo fights every being inside of him that wants to just jump in Zac's arms and does as Zac wishes "how dare you come back here!?"
"I can explain" Theo holds back his tears
"Yeah so can I, I made the mistake of marrying a 17 year old" "You don't mean that" he cries
"Wanna bet? You should've stayed away Theo I was getting better being here without you" "I missed you every day Zac"
"Yep enough to call, text, Skype, shit even email!"
"I'm so sorry"
"I don't need your I'm sorries Theo I needed you here" "When I heard you got hurt I rushed over here"
"TWO WEEKS AGO THEO!" He yells at him causing Theo to shut his eyes afraid "I got hurt two weeks
ago" Zac calms his voice
"I didn't know that I swear!" Theo pleas crying "Annie called me yesterday and told me you were getting out and after begging she finally
told me you were in the hospital for 2 weeks, so I dropped everything and rushed over" "How's your new life wherever it is?"
"Woodland park Colorado" Theo admits where's he's been
"You've been hiding from me in Colorado?"
"I wasn't hiding from you Zac I got scared! We were getting serious and everyone in your life blamed me for who you became, I got up one day and convinced myself that you were better off without me and just left"
"How could you?!" Zac lets out fighting his emotions "I would've literally done anything for you Theo and you just left me here"
"What I did was the worst thing I could've ever done, I hated myself everyday but I knew it was the right thing to do"
"That was never for you to decide"
"Zac come on! You finished your book! You and your family are together again! I wasn't here holding you back from any of that anymore"
"My family thinks you're dead!" Zac admits throwing Theo for a shock "that's why they're letting me back in, they think you're dead and that I'm straight again"
Theo continues to cry "was it easier to kill me off?"
"Made the questions go away." Unable to stand anymore Zac attempts to sit in the high chair again but struggles, rushing closer Theo tries to help "I told you not to touch me, I don't need you" Zac lies
He sits down and Theo drops to his knees in front of Zac "I don't know what else to do" caressing Zac's leg with the brace around his hurt knee "I miss you so much" without thinking Theo starts to kiss Zac's knee where he is feeling pain. Zac forgot how good Theo's lips felt, when he'd get hurt and come home to the apartment he shares with his husband, he'd show him the pain and Theo would kiss it away.
That's what Zac wanted but when he came back home Theo wasn't there, and now that he is it might be too late. "Tell me what to do Zac I swear I'll do it" Theo continues to caress and kiss Zac's pain away but that wasn't enough
"Stop... Stop it!" Zac demands and Theo moves away "get off the floor"
As he stands up "there was not a day while I was gone that I didn't think about you" "Did you also think about how alone, confused, and hurt I was?"
"Everyday"
Grabbing his crutches Zac gets out of the chair walking past Theo to the front door, opening it "I can't handle this right now, you have to go" he waits for the boy to walk out
But Theo couldn't leave "I can't" the tears stream down unable to hold them anymore "I have no where else to go"
"How about Colorado?"
"Zac please" Zac never knew how to say no to him. Theo's eyes swollen from crying so much crying and Zac proving himself that he can stay strong fighting off the feeling of wanting to kiss Theo every time he looks at him.
"The couch but only for tonight! You have to be gone before I wake up" he walks away leaving Theo a mess standing in the spot they kissed the night they moved in together.
—
Zac and Theo once promised that they would never go to bed mad at each other. Those 3 months they spent apart were sleepless and meaningless.
Theo knows that Zac is awake and he's only a hallway away, sitting up Theo slowly walks to the room they once shared to find Zac laying on his back eyes wide open. Not going past the door frame Theo whispers "are you awake?"
"Unfortunately"
"Will you please talk to me"
Staying on his back not bothering to look at Theo "I don't know what you want me to say Theo" "Say that you'll give me another chance, say that our marriage isn't dead" he knows that this is a lot
to ask but Theo just needs a little hope that there's still something there
"Our marriage means something to you?" "Our marriage is everything to me"
"Then why did you leave?"
"Because one of us had to admit it Zac! We were so good, but I held you back from so much" Sighing "I have to sleep you should probably do same"
Wiping his eyes "I know I hurt you so much so that you took your ring off, but while I was out there the only thought that kept me safe was you" Theo turns to walk away
"Theo wait" Zac sits up
Turning back "Zac please just please give us a chance" rushing to the bed Theo crawls into his husband's arms and for a split second their chest against each other's felt familiar to Zac "I miss you so much" the boy starts to kiss Zac's face embracing the man he misses and loves
"I'm so sorry Zac please believe me"
Trying his hardest to fight his needs of Theo Zac pushes him away "I can't... I can't do this Theo" Climbing off "I get it" he stands from the bed "I don't deserve you Zac but I need you, we can't make
it without each other." Zac lays back down and before he leaves Theo turns back to his husband and whispers "I love you and I'm never leaving again. I'm not giving up on us, whatever it takes."
Waiting till Theo leaves Zac whispers "I love you too."
