Social Norms (Synacky)

Chapter Fifteen

Brian was still confused about Jimmy’s short song the next day, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to jump at the opportunity to spend some time with Zacky.

He didn’t have his phone number, but Zacky had his, and he waited around all morning, watching McKenna play with her toys, until he heard the phone ring. He knew who was calling.

“Hello?” he answered before Suzy could pick up, smiling when he heard the voice on the other line.

“Um, hey, is this Brian? It’s Zacky.”

“The one and only.” Brian replied, “What can I do for you?”

“I was wondering if maybe you wanted to do something today… I’m free all day since we don’t have practice at Matt or Jimmy’s.”

“Like a date?” he asked, and when Zacky confirmed he agreed, “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. What do you have in mind?”

“Uh, well, I thought I’d see if you wanted to come out to Central Park and fly kites with me. I’ve got an extra if you don’t have one…”

Fly a kite?

The idea sounded really childish, but Brian was eager to see Zacky and he couldn’t care less about the avenue it took to get there. “Sure, what time?”

“Um, can I pick you up at around one? I can drive too, you know, and I don’t wanna make you always be the one to pay for gas…”

“Yeah, sounds great.” Brian smiled even though Zacky couldn’t see it. “I’ll see you then.”

“Okay. Bye, Brian.”

Brian hung up, looking up to see Suzy standing next to him by the couch. “Was that Michelle?”

Fuck.

“Um, no, someone new I met…” his mind was scrambling for what to say, and Suzy sighed.

“Brian, Michelle was so good for you, and I don’t like seeing you rebounding this quickly…”

“She was cheating on me. And it’s not like we’re already going at each other. It’s just a date…”

“What are you going to be doing?” Suzy asked, “As I can recall, most of your dates involve ‘going at each other.’”

“We’re going down to Central to fly kites.”

“Fly kites? That sounds a little kiddish to me…”

“I think it’ll be fun.” Brian replied, nervously reminding himself not to slip up and mention Zacky was a guy.

“When are you picking her up?”

“Um, I'm getting picked up at one…”

Suzy frowned, lifting McKenna who was reaching up for her. “Well, Kenna has a doctor’s appointment at 12:30. I’d like to meet this new girl, though. Strange that she’s the one picking you up.”

Brian just shrugged, going to put the phone back in its holder on the wall.

“Bring protection, just in case…” Suzy said, and Brian rolled his eyes.

“We’re not going to be doing any of that. This person’s different.”

“Oh? How can you tell so soon?”

“I just can, okay?” Brian stalked to his room, shutting the door, where he hid out until Suzy left.

~*~

The air was blustery and windy, a perfect day for kite flying in Surf City. Zacky had a pair of diamond kites, one blue and one red, and he spoke animatedly as he got them out of the back seat of his car.

“When I was a kid we used to have this awesome stunt kite, and you could do anything on it. Dive bomb, then bring it back up and just fucking run with it and make it do flips and stuff. But Matt got the string tangled past any further use, so we just have these.” He handed a kite to Brian.

They went to a field away from the rest of the people, they weren’t the only ones who thought today was a good kite flying day.

Zacky had also brought cookies, courtesy of his sister, and set the cookies, along with their shoes, down by a tree before taking off with the kites.

It was fun, Brian had to admit. As they ran to try and keep the kites up, his curiosity about Zacky grew. He was a strange kid. Brian had never met anyone around his age that spent their time watching sunsets and flying kites. He wouldn’t call it quite feminine, or young, but there was something special about Zacky that he couldn’t quite place, no matter how hard he tried.

Zacky really enjoyed flying the kites. Brian watched him as he watched the kite, tongue poked out in concentration as he pulled the string this way and that to make the kite do tricks. He was good at it, too. Brian’s kept haphazardly spiraling to the ground whenever he tried to make it do something cool, and he had to struggle to get it up again.

“So my mom asked about you.” He said as he fed more string to his kite, watching it rise higher and higher.

“She did?” Zacky asked, “What’d she say?”

“At first she thought you were Michelle. She still thinks you’re a girl, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her I’m dating a boy… she thought we’d be fucking.”

Zacky rolled his eyes. “They always do.” He began to roll up his string, bringing his kite closer to the earth. “I don’t mind that she thinks I’m a girl, though, let her think that.”

Brian took down his kite too, and they sat down under their tree and ate the cookies Zacky brought.

“Your sister made these?” he asked, and Zacky nodded.

“I told her they’re for the guys in the band. It’s too soon for me to tell them I’m in a relationship.”

“They’re pretty good,” Brian smirked as he looked over at Zacky. “But I can think of something that tastes better.”

He noticed something else about Zacky; the fucker was responsible as hell.

Always, when they kissed, Zacky was eager and would kiss him right back, but he’d always pull away before they made out or tongues got that involved. He was a good kisser, but Brian wanted more. The foreign idea of fucking a guy sounded more appealing every day, but he was going to hold off until Zacky was ready. He was letting Zacky call the shots; he wouldn’t push him to do anything before he was ready.

“You know what, Brian?” Zacky asked as they finished another kiss.

“Hm?” Brian placed his lips against Zacky’s temple.

“I’ve got a good feeling about what we have going on.”

Brian smiled, taking Zacky’s hand and lacing their fingers together. “Me too, Zacky.” He replied, “Me too.”