That Night

0.5

"Have I ever mention how much I absolutely hate math?" Zacharias whined for the thousandth time. He threw his hands up and the pencil almost flew out of his hand.

"Yes," I sighed next to him, used to his complaining whenever he was doing math.

"Who cares about differentiation oh my god," he let out a deep groan, but finally returned his focus on his homework.

"No one, except for school and your grades," I continued explaining as simple as I could to him.

Just when Zac finally began to understand, his mom called out, "boys, dinner is ready!" Zac let out a relief sigh, happy to be free from math, I made a face.

"Okay we are coming," he jumped out of his chair and was by the doorway of his room before I could get a single word out. He waited impatiently for me, as I got up slowly from his desk and joined him. As we walked down, Zac continued his complain of why math was the worse subject ever, while I argued that English was much harder. Our bickering stopped once we arrived to the kitchen where his parents and sister were already seated.

"Hello auntie, uncle." I greeted them. Zac got tired of hearing me calling them Mr and Mrs Sin and told me to just call them auntie and uncle. I had been greeting them with that since then. "Daisy," I fist bumped her, she gave me a smile. I sat next to Zac and his dad, my usual spot. They patiently waited for me to say my grace and then we all began to eat. Mrs Sin's chow mein's heavenly smell filled the room as we dug in.

"Kade can you pass me the dumpling," Zac asked. With my mouth stuffed with chow mein, I nodded and used my chopsticks to grab one for him and put it into his bowl.

Pleasant conversation flowed as always, I was as in ease in Zac's house as in mine. It was like every other normal dinner, idle talks were exchanged with everyone. After we all cleaned and tidied up, Mrs Sin insisted that we go back upstairs to continue studying and called on her husband to ask him to help with the dishes. Daisy disappeared back into her room to continue binge watching her TV show and Zac and I went back into his room.

"Maybe you should go home it's late..." Zac said, blatantly ignoring the math scattered on his desk.

"Nope, you are going to ace this test,"

"Even my parents don't need me to get an A in every subject, daddy," the way Zac emphasised on the last word made my eyes widen. I tried to recompose but Zac knew me too well to miss the shock that passed as quick as lightning.

He made some noises at the back of his throat, I could see the panic in his eyes. Before he could say anything, I said, "yeah well respect your elders then and stop changing the subject,"

He managed to roll his eyes but complied and turned his attention back onto his studies. I cleared my throat and continued explaining, picking up right where we left. It must had been hours, before I was a hundred percent sure that Zac completely understood everything and would get a B then I agreed that I should go home.

A loud rumbling noise told otherwise, I walked towards the window that was adjacent to his desk and looked out. I could not see a single thing, except for sheets of water tumbling down like waterfall, the rain hit the window like a mad painter who were throwing paint at it, angry blotches of rain splattered against the window and everything was grey. Another loud roar made me turned towards Zac with  both eyebrows raised. He shrugged.

His mom knocked and after Zac shouted a "yeah?" She poked her head through the open door and said, "Kade I think it is best that you stay for the night? This storm is not going to pass soon, unless you really have to go home? It will be dangerous."

"Okay sure thanks auntie," I said.

She gave us a soft smile, "See you boys tomorrow," and she closed the door quietly.

I called my mom and told her that I would be staying over, she hummed in agreement. Zac and I played video games until midnight when he yawned and we agreed to call it a night. Luckily I had stayed over enough times that I had spare clothes left in here. Grabbing my spare clothes, I took a quick shower and brushed my teeth with some spare toothbrush he kept in the cabinets. Zac left his room to shower and I crawled onto my side of the queen size bed, near the wall. I slept over enough times that the space near the wall was unofficially mine.

I was a lot more tired than I thought, drowsily, I tried to stay awake and text Jeremy, sending him memes. Stiffing another yawn, my eyes water and the screen turned blurry. I found the charger, plugged in my phone and flopped back onto the bed like a potato sack. My head hit the pillow and I was out like I hadn't slept for days.

"Daddy," a husky, Chinese accented voice breathed into my ear, I shuddered.

"You know, I have always wanted to call you that," the voice said into the skin where my shoulders and neck meet. My eyes fluttered shut and my breath hitched.

"Do you like the name, daddy?" The voice whispered against my collarbone.

"Yes," I said breathlessly, the way I sounded I would have thought I had asthma.

"Daddy," I could feel the lips just a hair away, a thin, thin hair away from mine.

"Yes," I groaned. In a delirium, my semiconscious brain floated between reality and the dream. I could still feel the ghost of the lips, but the solid feeling of soft pillow and fluffy blanket against my skin contradicted with my dream.

"Zac?" My unbalanced brain gave my traitorous mouth the first name that came to mind.

"Hmn," a very familiar voice said somewhere near my ear. For a moment, I thought I was still in my dream. No, the voice couldn't be... no....

"Zacharias?" I said louder, a hint of desperation leaked. Desperation for a proof that this was not a dream? That the voice was not his? Desperation for reality? My mind could not work.

"Hmn?" A weight that I had not notice around my waist was suddenly lifted, "oh shit, I'm so sorry Kade," my half awake mind didn't pick up on the panic in his voice.

I didn't reply, I could not understand at first, but slowly, reality began to stable itself and I could process what was happening. Something shifted in the bed and Zacharais stood up. He looked at me worriedly.

"Oh it's okay," I said a beat too late, slowly realising that he had apologised for slinging his arm over me when we were sleeping. Thank god that he thought I was calling his name to wake him up, not because I was delirious or in a very weird dream.

"Okay, I'll use the bathroom first," and he left quickly. I was relief for the alone time to figure out what was actually happening. The dream confused me to no end. I had no idea why my dreams lately had all been about Zac, and always leave me flustered in the end. Something was always about to happen, I could feel that it was, something significant, but it never did. I always woke up before anything could occur.

"Okay your turn, hurry up I know how long you take to get ready," Zac came back before I could figure out what my dreams meant. Burying them and hoping it wouldn't happen again; I rolled my eyes at Zac and said, "not all of us can look flawlessly pretty in the morning Zac,"

Zac never seemed to care about his appearance yet he was the best looking person in school. He rolled his eyes back at me, "oh please, you are Kaden Zaveri, the "bad boy" that everyone wants,"

"Hmn yeah that's why I have to keep up my reputation. My awesome hair doesn't do itself," I gestured to my bedridden hair, that looked more like a nest of twigs. I was always jealous of Zac's naturally messy looking hair, he didn't even have to brush it.

"Just go, or we will be late," he made an impatient shooting gesture at me, I rolled my eyes again and finally left. The dream rose back immediately, despite how hard I shoved it down; plaguing me like a parasite, sucking out all other thoughts.

Fuck.