Broken Strings: Chapter 3

"Zack… these—these are amazing." the mocha-eyed boy spoke in a rather awe-stricken tone of voice, eyes still lingering, wide, on the page that he held before him.

Not only were the drawings greatly detailed and wonderful; they also depicted images that the bronzed young man recognized clearly from his past—images that, particularly, had occurred to the both of them upon the day that he had met Zack.

First, there was an image of a youthful-looking eye, with what appeared to be heavy bruising surrounding its whites, and familiar, russet color.

Blinking at what seemed to be a mirror image of his own eye, Brian moved on to the next work of art, which depicted a little boy's hand, sketched up to the wrist, holding tightly to the lengthy, slim tree branch that it had in its clutches.

Every bit and piece, every detail, seemed to be stunningly spot-on, just the way that the older remembered them—perhaps even better than that.

Just as Brian's astounded gaze flitted to rest upon the last of the three drawings—a breathtaking image of a little boy's silhouette bolting down a sidewalk's path, whilst covering one of his eyes with his left hand—he sensed a quieted, erratic voice piping up from beside him, speaking more than it had ever spoken before.

"I – I – I'm aut – autistic…" he stuttered heavily, seemingly nervous of what his project partner's reactions to the drawings—to his condition—might be.  "Th – They say… s – stupid, because I d – don't talk w – well… l – learn… w - words…—but I do, I – I learn.  Through p – p – pictures."

Transferring his gaze from the notebook onto Zack's slightly scrunched up face, Brian nodded, entirely disregarding the way that the blonde boy stuttered so harshly. "So you have a photographic memory." he stated matter-of-factly, immediately fascinated with the way that his friend lived.  

He hadn't the slightest clue of what it truly meant to be an autistic teenager, or even if it was all too bad, despite the way that Zack seemed to be teased so ruthlessly.

As the larger teen knew that Zack wouldn't want to be singled out and questioned directly about his supposed disability, though, Brian avoided the topic carefully, figuring, perhaps, that he would approach this at a later date—when the green-eyed boy was slightly more comfortable with his presence.

After a moment, the shorter teen nodded. "Y – Yeah… and my h – hearing… it's—it's…" he trailed off, shaking his head as he began making a wild sort of gesture with his hands near his ears, one that seemed to indicate a loud noise, or perhaps an explosion.

Biting down at his lower lip gently, the bulkier young man averted his gaze to stare into the distance before nodding. "Intensified, you mean?" he spoke monotonously as he attempted to visualize what Zack's life may have been life, in the midst of this additional feat.

With intensified hearing, he can't be able to go to any concerts… goddamn.Brian thought to himself, shaking his head at the thought.  The brunette had always been extremely fond of music—some may have referred to it as his savior—and hearing that music played live.

And those fire drills at school… God!

Whilst imagining the shrill sound that was their school's fire alarm, the taller boy winced slightly, as Zack began confirming his inquiry; in any case, as he still processed the words, Brian continued pondering each and every small detail that may have made the other boy's life slightly more difficult than his own, or any other person's who may have been considered normal.

"H – Hear things… a – at—I guess, t – ten times, l – louder…" the smaller boy whispered, his frame lightly trembling once again as he explained one of the many details associated with his condition.

This small detail seemed to lead Brian's eyes to widen past their limits, and immediately, he felt the need to apologize to his class partner for anything and everything that he may have done to aggravate his heightened sense of hearing.

"Holy hell, Zee… how do you manage being at school with all of the noise around you?" the stunned young man spoke, voice having lowered a considerable amount.

With a strangled cough, Zack shook his head, then after burying his pallid face into his hands.  It was clear to the older of the two that it was extremely difficult for the petite blonde to accomplish this task.

"U – Usually c – come home… h – headache…" the emerald-eyed teenager murmured, rubbing at his temples just slightly. "B – But…—I g – get by, cause I l – like l – learn'in."

Sighing heavily, Brian once again forced down the urge to place a comforting hand upon his young friend's shoulder.

He couldn't seem to piece together why it was that no one would take the time, bother to sit down with Zack; to help him and guide him rather than making fun of him, since surely, on the inside, he must have been a truly bright student.  

"Couldn't you have gotten homeschooling?" the slightly bigger boy murmured, watching his classmate's every move, as his shoulders hunched just slightly further, proceeding to tremor, and as he revealed his boyish face from beneath equally as tremulous hands.

After a moment, Brian heard a subtle sniffle emit from beside him.  Biting down hard on his lower lip, he shifted ever so slightly closer to Zack.

"N – No." the shorter teen answered simply, shaking his head quickly back and forth as he took in a deep, shaky breath.

Nodding, almost as if understanding the reason behind Zack's upset, Brian grunted slightly, torn.  Was it really possible that not even the kid's own parents would bother with taking the time to help their son?  Didn't they see the affects that every day life had on him?

"I'm so sorry, Zee." he murmured, gazing into his palms as they lie face up upon his lap. "I wish I could help you."

A slight moment of silence passed as the two teenage boys sat side by side upon the front porch of the blue-paneled house.

The most—besides the sounds of everyday life, which he was sure that Zack could hear much more clearly than he could, himself—that Brian could hear, was the sound of Zack breathing raggedly just about a foot from his side.

Unsure of what exactly he could say to aid his new friend's situation, the taller of the two high-school students was rendered speechless.

However, moments later, the younger boy broke the odd silence, voice still slightly shaky.  "B – Bri… why, y – you… n – nice?" he questioned gently, sharp edged teeth again gnashing into his full lower lip.  Brian was beginning to wonder, now, how the blonde boy's pierced lip wasn't always completely raw, since biting at it seemed to be a nervous habit of his; and, quite obviously, the younger boy was nervous all of the time.

Softening his thoughtful guise as he turned toward Zack, Brian shook his head.  "Like I told you, everyone needs a friend… and it sure didn't seem like you had one, so here I am." he spoke lightheartedly, casting a friendly smile in the light-haired boy's direction.

Zack simply nodded, this time, at a generally regular pace.  After a moment, in any case, the smaller teen clenched his green eyes shut unusually tightly, and swallowed hard.  At the first, the larger high-school student raised an eyebrow, contemplating silently what it was that bothered his project partner, now.

As Brian analyzed the other boy's features, though, he came to realize that the expression upon Zack's face appeared more so frantic—more afraid than upset.  At this, Brian blinked, brow furrowing more so than before.

However, the cocoa-eyed young man came to realize why it was that his friend appeared the way that he did, as he noticed a balmy, tremulous hand lifting from Zack's lap, and inch-by-inch, beginning to move toward him.

Sitting absolutely as still as possible as he watched the smaller teenager's hand, Brian took in a sharp breath.

It rather surprised him that the Baker kid suddenly trusted him so much—especially enough so to make an attempt at conquering the fear that so easily overtook his entire being after just less than a day of their knowing one another.

Finally, even as he trembled violently, Zack exhaled sharply as he had been holding his breath, and touched his fingertips to Brian's upturned palm, opening his eyes up as they welled rapidly with tears.

Sighing lightly as he knew that Zack was extremely afraid, the older of the two continued to keep his body as still as he could manage, even as he immediately felt the need to clasp his friend's hand within what should have been a secure, comforting grip.

"Zee..?" he murmured, looking towards the other boy as he uttered the nickname that he had established for him mere moments ago.  As he was about to speak his next words, though, to ask what the blonde boy was doing, Zack cut him short.

"I – I… B – Brian… I want to h – have… f – friends…" he sputtered, sniffling quietly as yet another of those ghostly stripes bolted downward, over the surface of his flushed cheek. "…l – like you.  N – Nice ones…"

Now, instead of speaking, all that Brian did was shift his hand just an inch or two beneath his friend's so that Zack's fingertips skidded along his open palm.  Subtly, the younger boy flinched, blinking his eyes rapidly and urging more tears downward as he experienced the skin on skin contact that was so odd, so frightening to him.

Even as he felt slightly nauseous at the light contact, lightheaded, and still very afraid, the petite young man captured every single one of these emotions inside of his own, personal bottle, and stored that bottle deep within himself as not to lash out and become violent with the only person who had ever wanted him as a friend, as he had those 9 long years ago.

And there was something most certainly came across as different about this—this touch, as Zack pondered it.  He knew that his classmate had only good intentions, when it came to their relationship as friends… didn't he?  As far as he was able to tell, this was true, and something about that fact set into him a strange sense of reassurance.

And so, as the other's hand moved beneath his own, young, naïve Zachary spread his partially clenched digits atop Brian's, aligning their palms and fingers warmly.

Suddenly smiling very widely, the taller of the two boys gazed toward his friend, who only appeared slightly frightened, now, as he peered into the dead of air before the thick lenses of his glasses.

"You'll have friends, Zack.  I'll help you, and we'll work on making your social skills better… I promise you, you'll have friends." Brian murmured, his smile kind as could be.

The words were soft, spoken to be reassuring and comforting.  And, as the slightly larger boy concluded his sentence, he noted something that, in the strangest of way, made his heart to flutter within his chest:  From Zack, a crooked, barely there—though astonishingly radiant—smile.

As the bronze-skinned teenager continued to observe his friend's reaction, he bit down tentatively at his thin, candy-pink lower lip, his own smile growing into something that was most definitely, particularly heartwarming.

"And thank you, Zack." he mused after a moment.

Brian wasn't entirely sure of what it was that he was thanking the shy younger boy for; perhaps merely for accepting him the way that he had, and for trusting him.  No matter the reason behind them, the words felt remarkably appropriate to say in the moment.

Zack shook his head just once, sharply, as normal, before turning his gaze to the ground and sighing lightly as his smile slivered and then began to fade.

"D – Don't… n – not me." he muttered.

The words baffled Brian; firstly, because Zack's speech hadn't been quite audible as he had spoken them, and secondly, due to the meaning behind them.

In any case, rather than questioning the blonde boy, he sighed lightly as well, drawing his own molten gaze toward the darkening horizon before him.

He hadn't realized just how long he had been sitting with the young, autistic boy upon his front porch—it had to have been at least two hours, since the night seemed to have been coming upon them, now.

Wondering, now, what time it was (and if he possibly could have missed dinner at home), Brian extracted his small, silver flip phone from his pocket and pressed a button residing upon the side of the device as to set the screen alight.

The miniature digital clock upon the front screen of his phone indicated the time of day to be nearing 5:30 p.m., meaning that he had sat, talking with and getting to know his classmate, for upwards of two hours, as he had predicted.

Of course, Brian understood that his father and step-mother were more than slightly laid back when it came to his staying out late and hanging around with friends of his—that was, as long as he were to call in and inform them of the fact that he was doing so.

Blinking as he pushed his mobile phone back into the safe confines of his pants' pocket, Brian pursed his lips.

Abruptly, though, as the older boy pondered the situation he had gotten himself into, there was a rather frantic, though still meek, voice from his side.

"You h – have t—… g – go?" Zack squeaked, letting the hand that remained braced over top of Brian's to begin curling slightly inward, short, chubby fingers trembling once again.

Not having thought through the fact that Zack had probably heard him taking his cell phone from his pocket, as well as replacing it, Brian returned his eyes to those belonging to his friend, smiling halfheartedly as he gave a gentle nod.  "Soon, probably…" he spoke softly, moving his hand cautiously beneath Zack's, rotating it so that their hands were alternately positioned.

After a moment or two of awaiting the reaction the smaller student would give to his movement—which was ultimately slim to none—the brunette clasped his long, slender fingers around his friend's hand fully, biting down timidly upon his lower lip once more.  It seemed that he, too, had picked up this nervous habit that had originally belonged only to Zack.

The green eyed boy whimpered quietly and squeezed his eyes shut, beginning to shiver a bit more intensely at Brian's actions, now—or so it seemed.  

"My parents are probably wondering where I am... I'm kind of shocked that they haven't lit up my cell phone yet."

Allowing a strangled sort of grunt to elude the constricted muscles within his throat, Zack released a gentle whining noise once again, quickly drawing Brian's attention.  The older boy casted an apologetic glance in his friend's direction before releasing the feather-like grip that he held over the other boy's hand.

"Sorry…" Brian virtually whispered, averting his gaze from the timid boy's as not to startle him any more so than he already had.

In doing so, he came to realize that he still help upon his lap his friend's sketchbook, and at once picked the notepad up, turning back pages until the thin, cardboard-made cover rested atop the stack of drawings that it regularly encased.

Smiling, he then extended the spiral bound book in Zack's direction. "Here… I forgot to give this—"

"N – No!" the younger boy squeaked suddenly, curling into himself all at once before Brian was given the chance to finish speaking, and knotting his quivering fingers up in his golden tresses.  "D – Don't, p – please!"

Immediately startled by Zack's sudden outburst, the larger teenager jumped slightly backward, unsure of what he had done to entice such a reaction from the other boy.

"Z – Zee?" he spoke quietly, not at all enjoying the sight of the blonde boy so upset.  It, in the strangest of ways, frightened him.  Perhaps, he thought, it was due to the way that Zack had lashed out at him when the two of them were younger.

At the first, all that was distinguishable were the gentle sniveling noises that radiated from behind the pale-skinned boy's palms as they moved to hide his face, as his upper body hunched further and further over top of his knees.  It didn't sound as though he were crying, but the way that his body began rocking gently forward and back surely communicated that something had disturbed him.

Brian watched, awe-stricken as his new companion seemed to all-out melt down before his eyes.

Soon after he had begun whimpering, Zack had begun sputtering forth words that were more than slightly broken; words that Brian could only distinguish small pieces from, and then after, could only derive a single message from within.

"I – I… n – no, y – you, c – can't… please…" he sputtered breathlessly, seemingly unable to find the words to explain to his wide eyed friend what it was that he meant to communicate.

Brian, however, sighed, taking a swing in the dark at the meaning behind the tremulous young man's emotional reaction, and deciding once and for all that he should act on it.

"I'm so, so sorry, Zee.  I didn't mean to—to startle you… I'll just, um—I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" the suddenly anxious high-school senior spoke, biting down at his thin lower lip harshly as he rose from his seat beside the other boy, and turned to set the sketchbook on the porch, upon the spot that he himself he had just rested.

Just as he turned, though, beginning to stride off in the opposite direction, Brian was stopped in his tracks, once again, by a rather estranged-looking, still-breathless Zack.

"B – Bri!" Zack squealed, bolting from his spot as well as he became painfully aware of the scuffing of his friend's shoe soles upon the sidewalk's pavement, as well as the threatening clack of his house's front door's bolt from behind him.

The shorter boy's arm instantaneously shot outward as he came within a foot of Brian, fingers clasping tightly around the other boy's wrist and tugging him slightly backward.  "D – Don't, n – no… l – leave…"

As the anxious, green-eyed teenager huffed out his last two words, Brian turned back toward him, a soft expression written over his features.  He was slightly more than shocked at the sudden, deathly tight grip that the younger man had taken over his arm, as well as the extremely frightened guise that his features had taken on.

"Zack…" he murmured, peering toward the smaller teen's hand upon his wrist.  Immediately, as he noticed Brian gazing toward his hand, Zack jerked his hand away frantically.

"I – I…" he sniffled, voice rising an octave or two as thick moisture swelled along his lower lashes and rapidly spilled over, "n – no…"

Turning to fully face the light-haired kid once again, the taller of the pair bit his lip gently, a careful smile set upon his thin, pink lips.

"I can stay, if you want me to… or we can go to my house." he spoke slowly, looking over the quivering form of his friend's body before him.  A horrid sense of guilt settled into the pit of his stomach as he observed the masses of salt moisture saturating the boy's cheeks, now. "I'll just have to call my dad."

Green orbs darted upward to meet brown eyes as a plush lower lip quivered sadly, masking the cries that seemed to hide deep within the confines of the younger boy's constricted throat.  "R – Really..?" Zack near whispered, blinking away just a few additional stray tears which lingered upon his long, brunette lashes.  "I – I – I…"

"Zee, don't worry about it… I understand." Brian responded as the golden-haired boy struggled to muster a response to the kindhearted gesture.

Lips quivering once again, pale-skinned Zachary Baker nodded, peering ashamedly toward the worn sidewalk below as his boyish face twisted up with what appeared to Brian as sorrow.  After just a few moments, the brunette standing before him became aware of the new tears that had gathered in heavy pools just beneath his eyes.  Quiet whining noises eluded Zack's lungs as he stood before Brian, shoulders hunched and trembling as always.

"C – Can we… w – we… your house?" Zack near whispered, blinking away the hot moisture that lingered along his lower lids.

Cocking a brow, Brian pursed his candy-pink lips, nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders as he casted a concerned guise in the direction of his clearly upset friend.  "Yeah… that shouldn't be a problem… I can just my parents that we're working on the project, and you can stay over." he mused, watching as the shorter boy's eyes darted between his own, and the ground.

Suddenly, Brian shook his head, tapping into a certain feeling within himself that so clearly told him that something wasn't quite… right, within the Baker household.  The way that Zack was begging for him to stay—or, more or less, begging to be able to leave with him—seemed to communicate something strange as far as the way that the younger man felt about his home.  This, on top of the fact that the smaller boy hadn't once mentioned having to get permission from his parents to leave, and spend time with Brian, came across as very odd.

In any case, he knew that it wasn't entirely ethical to question Zack right off the bat—especially not now, what with the emotionally unstable condition that he was in—when he knew absolutely nothing about the people that the smaller teenager lived his everyday life with.  It was completely probable that the golden-haired student was simply enjoying the fact that there was someone who had finally showed him compassion, and friendliness, and that he wasn't quite so keen on letting that go so quickly.

And so, as the porcelain-made face belonging to his classmate drew gradually upward, allowing that set of piercing green eyes to mingle with his own, Brian simply smiled kindly once again, nodding lithely in compliance as he gaze at Zack.

"C – Can.… g – go, now?" the sandy-haired young man spoke breathily, the glimmer in his irises coming across as more than slightly fearful.  As he became aware of this, the taller of the two teenagers sighed heavily.

"Yeah, Zack… let's go." Brian spoke softly, making his best attempt at ignoring that ever-nagging voice at the rear of his thoughts that screamed at him to question the other boy about his personal life, now. "Maybe instead of working all night, we could just hang out… talk more, and come up with ideas for the project."

Nodding sharply once more as he drew his gaze toward Brian's timidly, Zack exhaled deeply, blinking several times in a row as he wound his arms around himself, shifting his slight weight from one foot to the other a few times as he began quivering gently as always.  The shorter boy rubbed his shoulders swiftly, as though he were cold, before allowing his chilled palms to slip downward and into one other, wringing about each other sheepishly.

"S – Sorry…" he spoke tentatively, averting his eyes and cracking the gentlest and vaguest of smiles as his gaze met the pavement beneath him once again.

And as the larger of the two seniors witnessed the younger man's shy and rather heartwarming smile, he forgot entirely of the way that Zack's actions had struck up a burning curiosity within him, and simply grinned warmly.  

"It's completely fine, Zee.  Let's start walking?" he suggested, cocking each of his brows skyward as he peered into the smaller man's hazy green eyes.

Emitting a forced choking noise—which Brian had begun assuming was the way that he communicated laughter—Zack blinked, turning to collect his sketchbook before following as his new friend began striding in what must have been the direction of his home.  He cleared away the remaining tears upon his cheeks and sniffled subtly, earning yet another concerned expression from the older boy.

Scrunching his face up slightly as he disregarded the looks that his actions had earned him, the petite, blonde-headed boy released a gentle sigh of relief as he sped up slightly to match his sable-eyed friend's walking pace.

Sparing one last glance over his shoulder, he stifled the quietest of whimpers as he gaze toward the house that—thankfully—he was now departing from.  In the front window loomed as tall and brooding silhouette, which kept its dark eyes over him and Brian as they strode from the front porch and down the sidewalk; this was the last thing that Zack wanted to see.

In any given case, since the figure didn't seem to be making any move to follow the two of them, the younger man did the best that he could to clear the haunting image from his mind as his palms began to sweat lightly, and he stepped slightly closer to Brian.

Releasing several narrowly-spaced breaths of air as he gazed toward the unsuspecting older boy, Zack swallowed thickly, moments before coming to the conclusion that he would thank the bronze-skinned boy for allowing him to come along in the only way that he could think to do so; a way that would surely please the other man.

Once again holding a large amount of air captive within his lungs as his long lashes fluttered, the smaller teenager cautiously extended a hand outward whilst walking, and clenched his fingers tightly around Brian's palm.  Despite the fact that the other boy's hand was quite warm to the touch, the estranged new contact sent chills ravaging the course of the paled boy's spine.

Gaze snapping downward to rest upon his and Zack's hands—linked, now—Brian drew a deep breath inward, tentatively winding his fingers about his timid friend's sweat-kissed palm as well.

As he swallowed down a particularly prominent lump lingering within the confines of his throat, the taller man smiled toward his green-eyed project partner, who appeared to be completely oblivious to the gesture.  Zack's shoulders slumped before rolling upward weakly as he craned his neck, clearly trying his absolute hardest to become comfortable with having his hand encased within another person's.

Despite the fact that—due to the phobia he possessed of physical contact—the younger boy was beginning to appear dizzied and slightly green, Brian was beginning to believe that, earlier, it hadn't been this contact at all, that had frightened his autistic friend.