Skin and Bones (boyxboy) ✓

Chapter Ten

"Zackary, all I need is an address to send your stuff to."

He said nothing, just looked down at his drink and stirred the ice around with his straw.

"Pick them up or give me an address."

He looked really pretty, as annoyed as I was with him, somehow he looked better than I'd ever seen him tonight. Lips oddly pink and shiny and his hair was full of soft shiny curls. Zack was still wearing his coat, a coat I had bought him, which was a shiny dark purple parka.

It felt weird, sitting here across the table from him in the dimly lit bar. The way everyone spoke about him and from the way we had left things, the way he had acted the last time we talked, I had the impression this would be a much more volatile occasion.

His eyes looked really nice in the low light too, glassy and clear. 

But, no, I was still only here to get him to take his stuff back or tell me his address, and to get him to stop whatever he was doing with my friends.

"Just tell me the address man." I sighed.

He sat there and didn't move for a while before he finally spoke. "Is this all you want to talk to me about?"

I stared at him. "Yes. What do you mean, you knew what I wanted I told you on the phone."

He shook his head, eyes still on his drink. "I mean I can tell that's not all you want." He said, his voice going quiet, no, lower, towards the end of the sentence. He looked up at me, his head at an angle, the light suddenly hitting his eyes so that I could see how deep a colour his eyes were.

Alright, so I shouldn't have looked, but I never claimed to have decided Zack wasn't attractive. In a sense he was actually way out of my league, and while I had never cared it had always been clear that out of the two of us Zackary was way more attractive and I understood that and was comfortable with it.

"Zack... You're-"

"I'm giving you an opportunity." He said, blinking slowly.

Dammit, he really did look good. His smart casual black clothes and the silver earrings and perfectly groomed appearance... It drew strong contrast to my casual hoodie and paint stained trousers. I hadn't shaved properly either, my jaw felt particularly sandpapery tonight. It was oddly uncomfortable sitting around like this. It was like for the first time I was looking at both of us and seeing the massive difference.

To other people I must have looked like a construction worker from the building site across the street and Zack looked instead like a model straight out of a magazine shoot.

Did he always look like that? Had we always looked like that?

I sighed into my hand. "An opportunity for what?"

He took a deep breath. "I'm not over you..." He said quietly, resting his hand across the table, the light reflecting off of his watch for a split second.

My mind jumped to a flashback, the night I walked in on him with that other guy. He hadn't taken the watch off, and it had stood out in the lamplight against his otherwise completely naked self. Somehow, I wasn't hurt by him cheating on me, but for whatever reason that flashback made me feel grossed out by the watch. 

Do people wash their watches? I never have.

I looked down at those long slender fingers and frowned, pulling my hands under the table.

"I can't do that... this..."

"Wait-"

"No." I shook my head. "You know we weren't good together. I made you so miserable you cheated on me, you said it yourself." I reasoned.