Out of Ink

Chapter 4

When Zack pulled up in front of Emmett’s house, some of the loneliness he’d been feeling earlier eased. The two-story suburban home looked quiet from the outside. It was part of a housing development which meant the houses were close and the front yard, non-existent. The roads were so narrow, that two cars could barely pass each other, which meant that Zack had to park his car half on the lawn. He did this a lot, so the grass was kind of worn, but Sam and Patrick didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it may have been Patrick that had first told him to start parking there. Zack turned off the engine and sent a quick “here” text message to Emmett. For some reason, he always felt awkward knocking on the door. He grabbed his backpack from the seat next to him and hopped out of his old jeep compass. The car had originally been one of his dad’s rental cars, but he’d given it to Zack when he’d gotten his license. Zack hadn’t had any issues with it so far.

He walked up to the front door just as Emmett opened it. “Hey man. Come on in.” Emmett held open the door and Zack stepped into the familiar hallway. He quickly kicked off his shoes and they walked through to the kitchen where Sam and Serina were preparing dinner. Nothing fancy, just spaghetti Bolognese. Which Zack happened to love. “Zack's here.” Emmett announced.

“Hi Zack.” Sam smiled at him. It was only a few years ago that he’d stopped putting aunty in front of her name.

“Hi.” He gave her a quick wave.

“We’ll be in my room.” Emmett said, leading the way to back the stairs.

“Hang on!” Sam called. “Dinner is ready. So just take Zack’s stuff upstairs and come straight back.” Emmett gave her a thumbs up over his shoulder to show that he’d heard, and they both jogged up to his room. Emmett’s room was always surprisingly tidy. Bed made, no clothes on the floor. Although there were an unusual number of hair and hygiene products on his dresser. Zack left his bag beside the bed and they both headed downstairs again.

Serina had finished grating the parmesan cheese and was setting the table when the boys made it back downstairs. They each washed their hands in the kitchen sink, before taking a seat at the table across from her. Her father Patrick came into the room, eyes glued to his phone. “Put it away.” Sam chastised her husband. She did a quick sweep of the kids. No one else had brought their phones to the dinging table. Patrick turned off the phone and placed it on the island bench before joining them all. The home was open plan, so the kitchen, dining and living spaces were all in one room. There was a media room at the front of the house, but that was rarely used. That would be where the boys hung out that night. Sam had said a firm "no" to the kids having tvs in their rooms. Although they had laptops, so there wasn’t much difference anyway.

“So, kids, how was school?” Partick asked, scooping pasta onto his plate.

“It was okay.” Serina said with a shrug.

“Some kids pranked our maths teacher with a wireless mouse. She couldn’t figure out why the cursor wasn’t moving.” Emmett said.

“That was you two.” Serina dobbed them in. Sam didn’t look impressed.

“Actually, it was Billy’s idea.” Emmett protested. “We just laughed.”

“That wasn’t very nice of you.” Sam scolded them. “I hope you at least let your teacher know was going on.” Nope. Serina thought. No one had said anything, and she’d just given up on using the smart board for the whole lesson. Serina would have told her if she’d known at the time. It wasn’t until the lesson was over that she’d seen Emmett retrieving the mouse dongle from the teacher’s computer.

“Did your parent’s get off Zack?” Patrick asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah.” Zack answered between mouthfuls of spag-bol.

“They’re gone for two weeks right?” Sam asked him. “Are you sure you’re okay alone in that big house for that long?”

“I’ll be fine.” He lied. Emmett didn’t buy it. “I’ve stayed by myself before.”

“Yeah, but not for two weeks.” Sam told him.

“Can he stay here?” Emmett asked eagerly. His parents exchanged glances.

“Sure.” His mother shrugged. She hadn’t felt right about Zack staying all alone anyway.

“Or Emmett could stay at Zack’s place?” Serina counter offered. She did not like the idea of him staying there for a whole two weeks. And the idea of no Emmett for that long was way more appealing.

“Definitely not.” Her parents said together. Who knew what those two would get up to unsupervised.

“So would you like to stay here?” Emmett asked Zack.

“Only if it’s really okay.” Zack said. “I don’t want to be a bother.”

“It’s fine.” Sam said. “You’ll probably be over here every day anyway. And…” She looked directly at him. “You’re never a bother.”

After dinner it was Emmett’s turn on dishes, since Serina had helped to make dinner. But since they had a dishwasher, it mostly meant just loading it and maybe washing the one or two things that couldn’t go in. Zack helped and they had it done in under five minutes. Then it was just a quick wipe down of the stove and bench tops and they were done. “All right! Time for gaming.” Emmett announced.

“Mortal combat or Mario Cart?” Zack asked.

“Defiantly Mario Cart first.” Emmett replied. “Do you want some snacks?” He opened the pantry door and came back out with a packet of microwavable popcorn and some skittles. Zack nodded and grabbed a large bowl from the cupboard while Emmett microwaved the popcorn.

“Me too!” Sam called from in front of the TV. She was watching some medical drama that the boys didn’t recognize. They were going to the TV in the other room. “Can you throw another popcorn in the microwave for me? Thanks boys.” Emmett grabbed a second packet out for his mother. When theirs was done, he switched them. Zack and Emmett mixed the popcorn and candy together in the same bowl and Zack went ahead to get the game all set up while Emmett played the dutiful son and waited for his mother’s popcorn to finish popping.

Upstairs, Serina was laying on her bed with her nose stuck in her book. The boys had the TV downstairs so loud that she could hear it through the floor. Luckily for Serina, she was good at tuning out noise while she read. A quick glance at the clock told her she’d been reading for hours. It was getting close to midnight. With a sigh, she closed the book. At least she’d gotten to a good stopping point. The house was quiet. Emmett and Zack must have finished up downstairs. She hadn’t heard them come upstairs yet, so the bathroom should have been free. She had to pee before she fell asleep, otherwise she’d be waking up way too early to a screaming bladder. Serina padded barefoot down the hall and slipped into the empty bathroom. She was just washing her hands when someone knocked on the door. Serina opened it to find Zack standing there dressed in a grey t-shirt and navy blue pajama bottoms. She felt his gaze travel all the way down her body and back up again. There was a spark of mischief in his dark eyes and his lush mouth tipped up in a cocky smile.

“Nice Pjs.” He teased. She frowned and looked down. Crap! It was early Autumn and still hot, so Serina was wearing a pink singlet top and shorts. Really short shorts, with Hello Kitty printed all over them. And to her horror, her top was practically melded to her breasts. She wasn’t wearing a bra because she was just about to go to sleep. She blushed and side stepped around him. Feeling very self-conscious, Serina hurried to her bedroom where she shut the door, hopped into bed and pulled her blanket right up to her chin. Zack's cocky little smile loomed in her mind. And was it just her imagination, or did he appear to like what he saw? Nah. She was completely imagining it. He’d probably just thought her shorts were hilarious.

Zack stood brushing his teeth at the bathroom sink. Trying to get the image of Serina’s cute PJs out of his head. He’d seen her wear pajamas before. But not like that. He’d also never seen her without a bra before, the outline of her n*****s had been very visible. And were those shorts even shorts? They’d been so tiny he could mistake them for underwear. And the way she’d blushed when she’d realized how much skin she’d been showing? Zack’s body was twitching at the memory. Emmett suddenly appeared in the bathroom, startling Zack out of his forbidden thoughts. “Right.” He thought to himself. His best friend’s sister was beyond off-limits. That was one bridge he really didn’t want to burn.