AN: OMG GUYS THANK YOU FOR GETTING HIGH SCHOOL HIT LIST TO #4 IN TEEN FICTION!

to celebrate, here is a little bonus. i really hope you enjoy it, i've been wanting to write some lgbt work to diversify my writing a little. please give me all the feedback you can! love you all sooo much,

Ann💕 

   Zachary Plympton let his breathing fall quiet enough to hear the movement of branches in the night. When he kept his movements still, he could hear his neighbors, laughing and toasting over a Sunday roast. He could hear the clatter of his mom placing the bourbon bottle on the counter two rooms down from his.

   He could hear the smooth purr of the Mercedes SLR pull up on the curb outside of his house.

   And that made him incredibly nervous. Because what on Earth would Max be doing at his house on a Sunday night? On all of the days he could crave his presence, it was the day he'd spent his morning sitting in church, shifting uncomfortably in his pew as he wondered who would still love him if they knew the truth. It was the day his family had gathered for lunch, only for them to fall apart again once the conversation grew heavy.

   It was also the day that he missed Max most, and he couldn't tell if that made it better or worse.

   Zach waited, and waited, the silence growing long after the engine of the car cut off. His body was coiled in anticipation for the doorbell to chime, for his mother to call out to him that his friend was here. But it didn't come.

   Instead it was a gentle knocking on his window, a small question waiting patiently to be answered.

   He rushed to the glass, seeing Max smiling sheepishly on the other side. He hoisted the window upwards and held out a hand, Max's folding warmly around his as he pulled him through the window. 

   "What are you doing?" Zach asked, his voice laced with a comfort he had been yearning for all weekend. "Why are you coming through the-"

   Max's finger rose to fall on his lips, a smile on his own. "Shh, I don't want your parents to hear."

   "Why?" Zach whispered. His parents knew he and Max were best friends. They just didn't know they were more, and he hoped they never would.

   He'd dreamed they had before, and he lived with the debilitating anxiety on a regular basis. His father would get home from work, and ask him how his football practice went, and then he'd grab a knife from the kitchen and hold it to his throat.

   My son isn't a homo. Boys don't like boys. I won't let God look down on this home because of your twisted brain. You're completely fucked up. Not my son!

   And then, it wouldn't matter if his father had hurt him physically or not, because the pain was more than he could ever imagine.

   "Because, we're going," Max said, his face softening when he saw the way Zach tensed at his touch. "What's wrong?"

   Zachary shook his head, his gaze falling to the floor. "It was just, Dad was violent today. It's fresh in my mind, you know? I just keep thinking how it would be if he found out about..."

   "Hey," Max said, pulling Zach closer and cradling the back of his head with his palm. 

   To everyone at Arlington College, Max was fast, rough and boisterous. He was womanizing, charismatic and carefree. To Zach, Max was slow and tender and gentle. He asked the simple questions that would clear complications. He'd use his words to rub the tension from Zach's shoulders. He'd let his lips press against his own in a way that set his mind free.

   "We're going," Max repeated, his breath cool against Zach's neck. "Tonight."

   "We're... going?" Zach asked, unsure if he was getting exactly what Max was implying. "Where?"

   "Away," Max said, his blue eyes searching Zach's for any kind of reaction. "I've got my car, a suitcase full of clothes, and a backseat full of food. We're going to drive. We're going to drive until nobody can hurt us anymore."

   Zach's heart hammered. Hammered in joy. Hammered in fear.

   "Tonight?"

   "Tonight. Pack your bags."

   They'd talked about it a while ago. In fact, they'd been planning it for years. He knew Max had been saving, but a large part of him also suspected that a lot of it was just talk. Talk to make them feel better, to believe there was some kind of happy ending waiting for them.

   But for it to happen now, barely even half way through senior year, when the tension between him and his family couldn't be any greater? He couldn't tell if it was bad timing or completely perfect.

   He kissed him, his soft lips meeting Max's tough ones.

   And then they were packing his bags, as quietly as possible.

   He pictured his father as he sifted through his drawers, opening the door to his bedroom the following morning to discover him missing. He'd kill him if he could, he was sure.

   "You know if we leave now, we can never come back," Zach said, his words raised from a whisper and slicing the adrenaline from the air, turning them sober.

   "I know," Max said, "And I'm ready. I know you are too, Zach. There's nothing left for us here. We have money, and each other, and that's all we need."

   As Zach fumbled with the zipper of his suitcase, he thought of his little sister, barely old enough to register the manipulation instilled on her by their parents. At least she was safe. She was a good girl, and they adored her. For now, until she grew a proper voice, she'd be safe. Maybe one day he could come back for her. He could take her away too.

   A tear ran down his cheek, quick and silent, and invisible in the night.

   Amongst the fear, and the regret, were the pinpricks of a selfish hope. And a joy so powerful, capturing him completely at the idea of loving Max with no guilt. Of holding his hands freely. Of never having to worry about upholding their image again.

   Max held his case of clothes and random photographs as Zach slipped out of the window. He wouldn't miss his bedroom, with the large painting of a cactus taken from the living room to hide the hole his father had punched into the wall. He wouldn't miss the looks from his family, or the way his heart twisted when he imagined Max with other girls at parties.

   He closed the window behind him, and as much as he could bare, he closed the world he'd grown up in from his mind. He would be a new person now. He and Max would be free.

   He wondered if Max felt the same. If that's what had driven him to climbing through his window tonight. If the moment had presented itself in a moment of passion, or a moment of fear.

   He wasn't kidding when he said his car was loaded. On the passenger's seat was the blanket from his bed, the one Zach liked to cuddle up under whenever the opportunity presented itself. He grinned, the silent bid for his comfort sweetening the build-up of stress in his muscles as he wrapped it around his shoulders.

   "Why tonight?" he asked, when Max pulled from the curb, and Zach wanted to focus on something that wouldn't make him cry any further.

   Max's grip tightened around the wheel, and his expression darkened. "I think we're in danger."

   Zach's mind transported back to the way his father had looked at him only that morning. "What's wrong?"

   "Monica Pennington," he said, his teeth gritted. Zach's heart pulled tightly. He knew how close Max was with her. "Chloe is her best friend."

   "Will's Chloe?" Zach clarified, his brows furrowing. "Why would she..."

   "She wants revenge for Monica," he clarified. "And I am afraid she knows too much about us."

   "What makes you think she knows?"

   "I don't," Max said. "But I don't want to risk it. If she was friends with Monica, then she's dangerous. And she's been hiding under our noses for too long. We could go to school tomorrow morning and our lives could be ruined. Do you want that?"

   Zach shook his head, but his mind was still racing.

   "And it's not just that. It's been a long time coming, you know that. We've spoken about this. You said you were ready."

   "I am," Zach said, his eyes focussing on the black night before them, the white lines on the road appearing infinite in the headlights of Max's Mercedes.

   "And so am I," Max said, his hands finding Zach's in the space between them, his fingers linking around his warmly. "No turning back."

   "No turning back," Zach agreed. He didn't know how far they'd go, or if they'd ever stop. He knew they'd explore, they'd forget about the world for a little while. But life would catch up with them somehow. There was no escaping it.

   There was one thing this decision would do, and that would be to bind them. It would be the point of no return, the end of their hidden romance.

   Zach squeezed Max's hand. Even with all of his doubts, he knew with all of his breaking heart that he was ready.