by Solet, Trina
Chapter 9
With the start of the summer term, classes and studying were taking up much of Mark’s time. That left him less time to obsess over Zack. He did the household chores more hurriedly now, but he still found time to sniff Zack's shirts and also to feel guilty about it. Zack smelled good though.
And with kindergarten finished for the summer, Al was loosed on the world. Zack had given Mark his condolences for having to deal with Al all day, but it wasn’t so bad. Mark watched Al playing with a deck of cards and the cat. The game was mainly trying to give various cards to PJ after showing them to her. She pawed and sniffed at them.
"Get your nosy nose out of there, PJ. Those are my cards. Those are your cards," Al told her when she started nosing around the pile of playing cards Al had chosen for himself. He kept all the face cards.
Mark decided to teach him a card game and sneak in some math lessons at the same time. He imagined that Zack as an accountant would appreciate that. Whenever Mark thought of Zack, he felt a twinge. It was almost painful. Zack’s mischievous, blue eyes, his smile, and his voice would flood back to him. Then the feeling was more than a twinge. His whole body would become suffused with a sweet pain, a deep ache only Zack could soothe.
Mark was still not back from that evening’s class. Waiting for someone to come home was a new feeling for Zack. He wasn’t used to it yet. As he tried to read some articles online, he found he was too preoccupied with Mark to concentrate. He put aside the reading and just sat on the couch. He tried to use Al to distract himself.
"Come sit with me," he said to Al, who was sitting on the living room floor and playing with a set of classic Legos, not the creativity destroying new kind. PJ was there too. She had picked out a green Lego piece to swat at.
"I'm sitting with PJ now," Al said without raising his eyes from what he was building.
"Is PJ more important than me?" Zack asked.
Al became thoughtful
"Hey, hey. Don't think about it. The answer is obvious. I'm your dad. That's a cat. I win automatically," Zack protested seeing that his importance versus a cat's required serious consideration. Plus he wasn't sure he would come out on top.
"Bring PJ, if you want," Zack compromised.
"But we're comfortable."
"Do you know how rejected I feel right now?" Zack said.
"What?" Al said with puzzlement and no sympathy.
Zack grumbled loudly and stretched himself out into a sprawl.
"You settle down over there," Al admonished him. He was probably repeating a phrase he must have heard a million times at school and Little Rainbow and maybe at home.
"Am I disturbing you?" Zack asked.
"What am I chopped liver?" Al said making Zack wonder if he heard him right.
"What do you think that means?" he asked Al.
"I know what it means," Al said defensively.
All this nonsense just so Zack wouldn't have to face what he was really feeling. He couldn't believe how much he missed Mark. But he just couldn’t focus on anything until Mark was back. Zack sneaked over to Al and loomed over him and the cat until he was noticed.
"You can sit there," Al said with a sigh and pointed at a spot on the carpet not occupied by the cat. The cat meowed as if in agreement, but probably because she wanted Zack to pet her.
When Zack tried to take some Legos for himself, Al said he needed them.
"When Mark comes home, he’ll play with me," Zack said. He tried not to dwell on the more adult implications of his words.
"No, he won’t. Mark likes me better than you," Al contradicted him.
"He does not."
"He does. I'm the favorite," Al said.
"No. I'm the favorite."
"No, I am!" then seeing that Mark was finally walking through the door, Al ran over to him and appealed to him. "Dad thinks he's the favorite."
"The favorite what?" Mark asked. He got a look in his eye like he was trying to hide his real reaction to what Al said.
"Your favorite," Al said.
"My favorite what?" Mark kept toying with him.
"What?" Al echoed in confusion.
Zack decided to get involved.
"His favorite flower? His favorite flavor of ice cream? His favorite cartoon? His favorite cat?" Zack said hoping to confuse Al more. It didn't work.
"Favorite guy," Al piped up. "Who's the favorite guy?"
Mark gave the question some thought. Then he came out with a name.
"Paulie Armento."
"Who? Who?" Al asked first of Mark then of Zack, who shrugged. "Who's that? Is it a kid? Dad!" Al was turning from Mark to Zack trying to get some answers.
"What? Why are you bothering me? I’m out of the competition," Zack said to him.
"Mark has another kid!" Al said with alarm. "He can’t have another kid. I’m his kid."
"You’re my kid. Doesn’t that count for anything?" Zack asked him.
"No," Al answered without hesitation.
"At least think about it before you answer," Zack whined.
"Paulie isn't a kid. He's an old guy," Mark explained.
"Like Dad?" Al asked, and Zack glared. Mark smirked. Al was oblivious to the damage to Zack’s ego he had done.
"I'm twenty nine," Zack grumbled.
"Really?" Mark asked.
"You better be saying that you thought I was younger," Zack warned him.
Instead of saying anything about that, Mark turned to Al.
"Paulie is a little older than your dad. He's almost seventy."
"Just a smidgeon older," Zack threw in.
"What's so great about him?" Al asked even more jealous now that his competition was someone other than his old dad.
"He's in my class at college, and he has great stories," Mark told him. It didn’t make Al feel better.
"I have stories," he claimed.
"Yes, but they're all about PJ, and birds, and what the kids at Little Rainbow are mouthing off about," Zack told him.
"I have good stories!" Al insisted.
"Al, your stories are very nice. But Paulie is a lot older so he has a lot more stories. That's all. When you get older..."
"Broccoli!" Al exclaimed as a shorthand for what was keeping him from getting to be a grown up.
"Basically, yes." Mark had to admit with a shake of the head.
"See if you want to be big and be the favorite you have to eat..." Zack wanted to reinforce the point, but Al wouldn’t let him finish.
"I already said broccoli!" Al complained.
Mark had planned to study in his room. Zack didn’t like his plan though. Seeing Mark going off with his books, he asked him about it.
"I don’t want to spread my stuff all over the house," Mark told him.
"You're not a ghost haunting the place. Don't be so invisible. It'll drive me crazy. Relax. You live here," Zack told him.
Mark wanted to point out that he lived in there, meaning his room, but that would have sounded ungrateful to Zack when he was trying so hard to make him feel welcome. So Mark settled himself on the couch.
After doing his work for a while, he stopped writing and looked up at the ceiling. He could see the curve of the lamp shade as its shadow was cast up there and enlarged. The sounds of Zack putting dishes in the dishwasher reached him from the kitchen. He didn’t let Mark do the dishes because it was his time off. Al was playing with PJ. Soon Zack would start trying to get him to go and get ready for bed.
"Want some iced tea?" Zack asked from the kitchen door. "Maybe you want coffee. If you're going to stay up late, I can make you coffee."
Zack stood in the doorway to the kitchen, glass of iced tea in hand. Mark stared at him like an idiot for a while.
"Sorry," Mark finally said and blinked a few times.
"You definitely need that coffee," Zack decided and was going to make some before Mark stopped him.
The way Zack sometimes fussed over him gave Mark a funny feeling. It was strange. Mark felt both heavy and light, but
also all wrong. It was like he was at home. But no matter how he felt, that just wasn't true.
Now he heard the usual back and forth that was part of Al’s bedtime routine. Al always had an argument about why he shouldn’t go to bed yet. Zack always had a better one for why he should. In their exchange, Mark heard distorted echoes of his own family, just as he had when he lived with the Prestons. The world was full of families, parents and children. There was no end to the reminders. Mark wondered if he would ever see or hear parents with their children and not think of his own lost family.
It was well after Al’s bedtime when Zack found Mark asleep on the living room couch. He had a pile of books next to him and his laptop was open on the coffee table. Zack was glad that Mark studied in the living room instead of his room. It was nice to have him there. Unfortunately, his head was at a funny angle, so Zack had to wake him. He touched his arm lightly.
"I told you you needed coffee."
"Sorry," Mark said as he straightened on the couch.
"What are you apologizing for?" Zack asked him with a laugh.
Mark didn't seem sure himself, but then he said, "For sleeping, I guess."
"And that’s something to apologize for?"
Mark again looked confused. Then his answer came in the form of a question.
"I guess for sleeping on the job?"
"You're not on the job right now," Zack reminded him.
"Then I apologize for sleeping on the couch."
"I hope you can hear how lame that sounds."
"Maybe," Mark admitted. "But I'm really not supposed to be sleeping out here."
"Who says? I told you to make yourself comfortable. And if you ever end up doing something wrong, I'll tell you. And you can bet that I won't be subtle about it. Until then just assume you're doing everything right."
Mark looked up at him for a second then got busy with his books. Zack had noticed Mark doing things like that sometimes, like he was trying to hide from him. He hoped he wasn’t making him uncomfortable.
Zack was walking away, but then he turned. He shouldn’t have. All Mark did was stretch his spine. He raised his arms behind him. Resting his shoulders against the back of the couch, he pulled himself up and lifted his hips off the couch. Zack's cock stood up like someone rang a bell. What sort of man was he that everything Mark did gave him a hard-on? Zack had been on his way to his office, but rushed to his bathroom instead.
The only thing worse was later that night. Not able to sleep, Zack was finishing up some work in his office. Mark had gone to bed, so it seemed safe. But Mark got up and went into the kitchen. Seeing him rumpled from sleep made Zack hard all over again. Not able to take his eyes off him, Zack felt like he was taking him in, drinking in his effortless beauty. Zack could feel how warm he must be. He could guess that his bed was warm too, having been heated by him. He was too aware of Mark’s body now, its shape, its dimensions, the span of his shoulders, the weight of his muscles. He imagined exploring his skin with a light touch that would turn firm to feel what was under the skin, to feel inside him. More than anything Zack wished to be touched by him the same way.
Chapter 10
Though Al accepted Mark immediately and obviously liked him, there were still some issues to iron out. Zack first noticed that Al’s socks were by the couch in the living room. It was Saturday, and the three of them had gone to the park and then to lunch. The socks on the floor had every sign of being taken off in a hurry. One was half way inside out. The other one was balled up.
"Al, why are your socks here?" Zack asked when he saw Al coming down the hallway in his bare feet.
"What am I chopped liver?" Al said.
"What? What does that have to do with your socks?" Zack asked him.
Al shrugged.
"He keeps saying that," Zack complained to Mark, who poked his head from his room probably to see how Al would get the best of his father today.
"He heard it at Little Rainbow, but he doesn't know how to use it," Mark explained.
Zack knew he could look forward to Al misusing the phrase some more, but for now, he just wanted him to pick up after himself.
"Al, pick up your stuff."
"Make Mark do it," Al said.
Zack wished he had seen Mark’s face when he heard that, but he had been too stunned to think to look at him. By the time he turned to him, Mark only stared at Zack expectantly.
"It's not Mark's job to pick up your stuff. It's his job to make you do it," Zack said to Al.
"Sorry, I..." Mark started to say, maybe thinking that Zack was reprimanding him.
"I was yelling at Al not you," Zack said to him. "He knows better than to leave his chores for other people," Zack made sure that his voice was very stern. Leaning down to his eye level, he narrowed his eyes at Al. In response, Al mirrored him except he looked like he was squinting to see something on Zack's nose.
Mark broke up the staring contest. He got Al to pick up his socks and take them to the laundry. Then he took Al to his room to make him straighten up in there. From what Zack could hear, Al wasn’t being too cooperative. Soon Al was back making a complaint to Zack.
"Mark is trying to punish me!"
"Good. Saves me the trouble," Zack said to him.
"You let Mark do whatever he wants!" Al accused.
"I'm letting Mark do his job. And for some reason, you are making Mark's job harder than it needs to be. Be a good kid for Mark, and he won't have to punish you."
Al stomped away not having gotten Zack on his side.
Zack hoped he had gotten through to him about how things worked. But what he heard a few days later let him know that Al still had the wrong idea. Instead of getting the message, Al was even more off track.
From his bedroom, Zack heard Al and Mark down the hall. Al was obviously giving him trouble.
"You put them away," Al said.
"No. Al, you know you need to pick up after yourself. We talked about this," Mark reminded him.
Zack also thought he had already settled this issue with Al, but apparently not.
"No. You do it. I'm your boss," Al said to Mark.
Hearing his son say this, Zack had to jump into this discussion. He walked over, and Al looked up at him. Zack smiled down at his kid.
"You're whose boss? You are Mark's boss? Is that right? How?" Zack questioned him.
"Because we pay him, and he works for us," Al said reasonably.
"We? Us? You have money in the bank I don't know about?" Zack leaned down to peer into Al's upturned face.
"No."
"Aha. So who made you Mark’s boss then?"
"Gavin said..."
"Gavin made you the boss?" Gavin was one of those snotty, know-it-all kids at Little Rainbow. Every other day one of them was filling Al's head with something he didn't need to know.
Despite the interruption, Al pressed on.
"Gavin said that I was Mark's boss and that I could get him fired if I want, all I had to say was he hit me."
For a minute Zack was speechless.
"Wow! What did you ...?! Would you say that if he didn't hit you?" Zack asked once he could speak.
"No," Al said having no clue about the seriousness of that kind of accusation. Forget about getting him fired. That kind of thing could get poor Mark killed.
Zack leaned down and made sure he had Al’s undivided attention.
"Let me set you straight. First, you never accuse anyone of doing something they didn't do. And Mark is the boss of you. You are no one's boss, you tiny, little man."
"I'm not a tiny man. I'm a kid," Al said in his defense.
"That's right. You’re a kid, and Mark is your boss. And I am your boss too. Don't forget that," Zack said, but Al disagreed with that last point.
"You're not my boss. You're my dad."
"It's the same thing."
Al seemed to consider this for a minute.
"Is Mark my other dad like Gavin and Lily and Maggie and Lee have?" Al asked breathlessly. His
eyes grew wide with excitement. And a second ago he was talking about getting Mark fired.
"No! No." Zack looked at Mark for help. But of course Mark couldn't help him because he was too busy trying not to laugh at the whole thing. Zack was on his own.
"Al, if I ever get you another dad, I'll tell you about it. OK?" Zack assured Al.
"You don't need to get me another dad. Mark is already here."
"Al!"
"What?" he asked as if Zack was just calling him in from another room and not using his name to tell him to zip it.
Mark finally came to the rescue, though not with a straight face. He took Al by the hand and led him to his room to put away his books and toys.
After that, Zack asked Mark to be more take-charge with Al. Mark agreed, but he had his own way of doing things. Plus, he wasn’t Al’s parent, though he sometimes acted like one.
Once more Zack was hearing something alarming. This time it was Mark’s raised voice.
"What do you think you were doing?!"
Zack stepped out of his office and saw that Mark was holding Al in his arms. Al looked a little stunned. Mark set him on his feet abruptly. Seeing Zack standing there with a questioning look, Mark explained.
"He was climbing the bookshelf," Mark said, still clearly angry about it.
It was a tall bookshelf and entertainment center. Zack remembered telling Al not to climb it when he was much younger. Mark must have grabbed Al off the shelf as he was climbing it, just as Zack had done once.
"You could have broken your neck," Zack said to Al who was still speechless.
"You are never to do that again!" Mark told him even more vehemently.
"You can't yell at me," Al said to Mark. Over his shock now, he was suddenly teary eyed. This was probably the first time Mark had raised his voice to him.
"Yes, I can!" Mark said loudly as if to prove him wrong.