scrawny & broken | zalex 13rw

1

"Have you seen Jess?" I ask Courtney. "Nah, sorry Alex." Courtney says as she links arms with her girlfriend. It's nice to see her finally notice what she is. It costed a life to get there but, at least it's there.

I take a sip of my fruit punch. It tastes incredibly weird, somebody probably spiked this shit. I look around for Jess at the fastest possible rate i can, which isn't very fast because my stupid legs don't work.

I haven't seen Jess in awhile. Hell, I haven't seen much of anyone in awhile. Clay and tony and practically everyone ran off doing their own thing and because I'm too slow to catch up, well, you get the point.

I chug the rest of my "fruit punch". If I'm gonna sit here sad and lonely, I'm gonna sit here sad, lonely, and drunk. I glance over to Zach who happens to be talking to some girl. Good for him. I've never actually seen him with a girl. The whole Hannah thing was pretty surprising.

I took a few sips out of my second cup of "fruit punch" and could already feel myself sinking into the alcohol. It's crazy how this shit works so fast when your body is broken. It's kinda messed up isn't it.

I glance around again and this time I actually happen to catch a glimpse of Jess hurrying to the locker rooms. Why is she going to the locker rooms? I wonder if everything's okay. Did my dancing screw stuff up somehow? I'm probably just overthinking.

I try to make my way to the locker rooms but they just so happen to be on the opposite side of the gym and there just so happens to be a huge crowd of people all around me, which isn't all that great when you can barely walk.

I accidentally bump into a bunch of people which gets me a bunch of annoyed glances, but whatever. Why are the locker rooms so far and why the hell did she go into them.

After what feels like decades, not even exaggerating, I finally get to the.. male locker room? Why'd she go into the male locker room out of all places? I slowly open the door to the locker room, not for dramatic effect or anything, simply just because I don't have the strength to open it fast.

And then I see it. Jess on top of Justin. Of course it had to be Justin. Fucking Justin. I stand there for a few more moments taking it in, realizing how this is all real. They don't notice me. What a surprise. I turn back around and close the door behind me.

Tears well up in my eyes but I hold them back. I should have known better. Why would she choose some scrawny and broken boy over a highschool heartbreaker jock? I mean, a heroin addicted highschool heartbreaker jock, but they're all the same thing.

I try to rush to the parking lot of the school because I need to get out of here. I bump into alot of people again, but again I honestly couldn't care less. I just keep rushing through the crowd, hoping I can get out of this hell hole as fast as possible.

And thats when I trip and fall. Great! That's just what I need. I try to lift myself up but honestly I just look pretty pathetic. Suddenly I feel a strong grip help me up, which just so happened to be Zach.

"You okay dude?" Zach says studying me with his eyes. "I'm fine" I rush out as I pull myself away from his grasp quickly. "Yeah, you don't uh, look so fine man." Zach says as he trails behind me, trying to keep up with me because for the first time ever, I'm actually walking pretty fast.

I ignore him as I rush through the doors to the parking lot, him not far behind. "Alex, come on dude." he says, sounding like he's out of breath. Wow. Star athlete but yet he's out of breath running after a crippled boy. Ironic. "Just go back to your date Dempsey, leave me the hell alone." I say as I roll my eyes and keep walking.

I don't actually know where I'm planning on going because I don't have a car and I don't have any money for an uber, but oh well. I'll just curl up on the street and die.

It's like if Zach read my thoughts when he says, "Really Standall? Alright, so how do you plan on going anywhere." I sigh and turn around and look at him. He takes out his keys and swings them a bit from his fingers while he smirks at me, practically mocking at me. I roll my eyes. "So where's your car?" I ask him with a serious tone and he laughs.

"This way, sticks." He says as he starts walking to the left side of the parking lot. Sticks is a nickname he gave me while we were doing PT in the pool. It's basically how I have sticks for bones because any sudden movements makes me lose balance almost automatically. I don't know why he thinks hes so clever with that nickname.

I follow him to his car and he opens the passenger door and helps me on to the seat, using his pretty strong grip. Being an athlete pays off sometimes, huh. He reaches over the get the seatbelt. "What the hell are you doing?" I say with my eyebrows scrunched up a bit. "Safety first kiddo." He says with a small smile as he buckles my seatbelt. I roll my eyes at the "kiddo" comment.

He goes into the driver seat and starts to pull out of the driveway. We get onto the main road and from there it's just silence. I sit and think about what really just went down. I mean.. me and Jess practically established we were dating didn't we? Didn't she say she was ready?

I guess she meant she was ready for Justin. Why even go with me if she planned on boning Justin. Why is it always Justin? Hannah fell for him and look where it landed her. Hell, Jess went through hell with him too. Why do they always go back to him.

Then again, I guess Jess went through hell with me too. God, I'm such an idiot. I can't get anything right. I can't even shoot myself right. Now I'm stuck probably eternally crippled. Isn't life just fucking amazing.

"So.. you wanna uh, talk? About whatever happened?" Zach says as he clears his throat. I don't say anything, i just keep staring at the road ahead. I feel like if I say anything I'm going to cry. God, I am truly pathetic.

"Guess I'll take that as a uh, a no." Zach says with a sad expression. Damn. That made me feel so incredibly guilty. When Zach is sad it's like there's no hope for anyone to be happy. "I walked in on Jess with Justin at the dance." I say, it immediately stinging my heart when I realize what I just said.

"Ah shit dude, I'm sorry." Zach says as he glances at me for a moment with a sad expression, locking eyes with me for a moment before returning his gaze back to the road. We sit in silence the rest of the car ride to my house.

He helps me out of his car when we get to my house and helps me up the stairs into my house, waving at my mom as he helps me up. "You're home early Alex?" My mom says with concern in her voice. "Yeah I uh, just got really tired is all." I say. He helps me up the rest of the stairs and I walk into my room, him following behind me.

I slump into my bed and stare at my ceiling. Life is sad man. Zach sits in my desk chair and spins around a few times. He can be such a kid sometimes. Hah, and he calls me kiddo.

"Hey man, don't think too much on it. It's not your fault. Things are just.. complicated between them." He says, attempting to help me feel better. I give a dry laugh at that. "Dude, it's all my fault. I mean why would she choose ME over Justin." I say as I sit up.

"I mean, why uh, why wouldn't she?" He says as he shifts awkwardly in the chair. I look at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Why wouldn't she? I'm just some scrawny broken boy who can't even walk from class to class without a fucking body gaurd." I say as I get up and throw my cane across the room in anger. "I'm just some loser who can't ever do anything right, I can't even shoot myself right!" I say with anger as tears well up in my eyes.

Zach gets up and tries to steady me before I fall, but I fall onto him anyways and just start crying. Zach does something I wouldn't have ever expected, he links his arms around my neck and lets me cry on his shoulder as he holds me.

I keep crying on his shoulder. I lift my head up and gaze into Zach's eyes. I don't know what took over me in this moment, but it's like if I was put into a trance. I had never seen anything more calm or beautiful than his eyes. I kept a gaze on them and expected for him to pull away, but instead he did something I'll never be able to explain.

He leans down and kisses me, putting  a hand on my cheek but also a hand to make sure I won't fall. I don't pull away. He doesn't pull away. It's like if time itself stops and the only thing that mattered now was him. It's also the start of something new—good or bad? I guess we'll see.

—
sorry if you feel that escalated too quickly ahhh this is just the exact scene i imagine happens after season 2 last ep ends!! keep reading cuz i will be updating often!