Catch Me (Synacky)

Chapter Twenty-One: Brian

Zacky was kissing me. Hard.

I was caught by surprised, Rubix Cube falling from my hands to lie unsolved in my lap. Damn, Zacky was getting good at this whole kissing business. He curled his fingers in my hair and I cupped his face in my hands, smiling against his lips.

“What’s this for?” I asked him, lips trailing along his jaw, down his neck, and Zacky shivered.

He didn’t reply. He hadn’t been talking for about a week now, and I still wasn’t sure why. But I didn’t really care right now, as his lips moved on mine, eyes slipping closed and relishing the moment. I slid my tongue across his bottom lip, and he laughed, pulling away to look at me, before kissing me again.

It was bliss.

The Rubix Cube fell on the floor, and Zacky settled in my lap, pressing closer to me, and I deepened the kiss.

He gasped, and pushed forward so I was lying down and he was on top of me, and our tongues slid against each other, hesitant and new. He broke away, a wide smile on his face, and I savored his taste that still lingered on my tongue.

“You’re perfect, Zacky.” I whispered, reaching up to touch his cheek. “Flawless.”

He blushed, eyes wandering over my face. Slowly, he got up, and went to go brush his teeth, spinning as he entered the hall.

That night, we pressed close together, and he’d sneak a kiss to my jaw, and I’d smile into the dark. I wished every night could be like that night. Damn, I was lucky to have him. He and I were inside a snow globe, and sometimes we were shaken, but in the end, it made us more beautiful.

The next day, even though Zacky didn’t speak a word, we started our plan. He’d draw out maps of the institution from memory, and write what he was thinking. I’d point out flaws in his ideas, because I had been here for three years, after all.

He was trying to find out the best way to sneak out. He wanted to show me a park.

“And really,” he wrote, “I just want to kiss you as much as I please without having to be cautious.”

How could I disagree with that?

His original plan was to individually sneak out at night, through the door I had shown him. But at night the alarms go up, and the fence surrounding the place is charged, so that wouldn’t work. Sneaking out at night was not an option. We’d have to do it during the day.

“Unless we found out where the main power source is.” Zacky wrote, “Cut the power, and the alarms as well as the fence go down.”

Zacky had really nice handwriting. Perpetually smudged from his hand rubbing over it as he wrote, it still managed to look pristine, stocky letters that could have come straight from a typewriter.

“I don’t know how I like that idea…” I replied. “Cut power won’t give just us an opportunity. There’s some really crazy people here, Zee…”

Twice while I was here there had been deaths. One suicide, one murder. When something like that happens, the security goes up for a few months before dawdling back down to its original laidback state.

So, we were back to going during the day. In broad daylight. We’d need a time to sneak out that wouldn’t be too suspicious.

“We could make a run for it.” I told him. “Cause some chaos while we’re coming in from school, then climb the fences.”

Zacky nodded. He scrawled, “What chaos?”

I frowned, looking down at Zacky’s words. Then, it hit me. “I’ve got a perfect idea.”

~*~

Zacky tore up all the paper we had written on as soon as we had the plan down. He didn’t want anyone finding any evidence of what we were going to do before we did it.

Then, we waited for the right moment.

Valentine’s Day was just a few days away. I wondered if I should do something special for Zacky. What do people do on Valentine’s Day for their significant others? I didn’t know. We decided to wait until then to go to the park, so it would be special for both of us.

And, Zacky slowly got his speech back. Within a few days, he was almost back to normal.

“What happened to you?” I asked him, “Why are you able to talk again?”

“I slipped into regression.” Zacky replied, “Dr. Brooks worked with me, and I got over my apraxia.”

Apraxia? Whatever the hell that meant. I was just happy to hear Zacky’s voice again, and when I told him that, he blushed and looked down at the floor. And I kissed him and it was magic.

Remember how I mentioned that snow globe?

Well, on the night before Valentine’s Day, the night we finally could get away from it all, that snow globe shattered, all shards of glass, water leaking everywhere, the figurines inside cast down and discarded.

A boy was killed.

In the night, while we were all sleeping. The aids tried to cover it up, but word spreads fast around the institution, and soon everyone knew. His name was Michael and he was choked to death by his roommate.

Needless to say, it put everyone on edge. The aids watched us like hawks, and that night, when Zacky began to shift under the blanket to come get in bed with me, I whispered, “No, get back in bed. They’ll be coming back, I guarantee it.”

I didn’t sleep well that night. Zacky didn’t either. They checked on us every two hours.

When I did sleep, I had horrible nightmares. One in particular. The memory played over and over, wrenching me from sleep time and time again.

I had grown accustomed to Zacky’s body pressed close to mine at night.

Eventually, I asked him if I could borrow his pet. He hesitated, before slowly handing it over to me. I pressed it against my cheek, feeling its softness, breathing Zacky’s scent and finally fell asleep.