Even In Pieces [Bxb] Chapter 25

Everett

Today is the last day of rehearsals, which means everyone in the theater is buzzing. The costumes are being checked over and over, The lines are being read till it’s burned in your brain and the set is being checked till everything is perfect.

Zachary is busy with organizing tickets. He and Mason have been at it the whole evening. Jess told me to get a break since I had done most of the weight lifting. I decide to get everyone a coffee since all of us totally deserve one. I place my order and take it back in a paper cover bag.

The smell of the coffee already draws attention from all of them as soon as I enter the theater. I go over to Zachary first.

“Your smoked butterscotch latte.” I hand him the cup, and he nods to me. The rest of them stare at me. I hand the rest of the coffee cups, which are just plain coffee, to everybody else.

“Why the hell are you guys acting so weird?” Sofia narrows her eyes at me.

I look at her, confused. “Us? Who?”

“You and Zach! I mean you guys are still as obnoxious to each other as always but like why the hell are you guys being so… different?”

Zachary turns to face Sofia and scoffs. “So now you guys are complaining that we are not punching each other?”

“No, you dumbfuck. You guys are hiding something from us!” Sofia complains.

“Definitely,” Leslie joins in.

Zachary and I glance at each other. I can see the amusement in his eyes. Clearly he is thinking the same thing and my heart goes nova in my chest. He is okay with telling them. We haven’t discussed going public. It’s not like we discussed anything being official, we are just in a weird relationship we’re neither of us are really interested in anyone else. but I want to tell them. I want it so bad.

“I mean you even got him a different drink instead of coffee,” Roman points out.

I face Roman and cock my head a little. “And?”

“And it’s kinda weird that you know his favorite drink when you hate him.” Jess says, eyebrows frowning.

Zachary puts on a fake scowl. “Everett hates me?”

I bite my lips to hold off a laugh that’s threatening to come out. The rest looks at us wide-eyed.

“That would be pretty ridiculous since we are sleeping together and all,” I tell them, trying to keep my emotions from not showing on my face.

All of them look at us like it’s the first time they have ever seen us. I let my smirk take over my lips. Looking over at Zachary I notice that he is enjoying this as much as I am.

“What?” Mason was the first one to recover from his shock.

“You know… like hold hands, kiss and fuck each other kind of people,” Zachary nods at them while keeping trying to hold back his laugh.

“You both…,” Leslie points at us, “Dating? Since when!?”

“Not exactly dating,” I tell them.

“I don’t know Everett, we pretty much see each other all the day, you crash at my dorm room, we fuck every chance we get, we text each other at the dead of the night, we are not interested in anybody else. I’d say we are definitely dating.” Zachary rolls his eyes at me.

“That… that does sound like dating,” Jess mummers.

I stare and Zachary, my nerves buzzing under my skin. Did he just admit to us dating? Like officially? Zachary is initiating us being official? Now that means more to me than us being official itself.

“Like boyfriends?” I ask, stupidly.

Zachary smirks. “Unless you have other plans.”

Boyfriends. I don’t particularly care about labels as long as we are in some way official. I grin at Zachary.

“But I thought you guys couldn’t stand each other!” Roman actually howled, dragging his voice out.

“Most of the time,” Zachary confirms, and I roll my eyes at him.

“Except you weren’t thinking that when you were fucking me last night,” I tell him.

It’s his turn to roll his eyes at me. I smirk at him.

Mason groans. “TMI dude!”

“My brain still hasn’t caught up,” Wes sputters.

Zachary and I shrug at him unapologetically. We aren’t going to explain our relationship to anyone. That just wouldn’t be us.

“I still feel like I am in punk’d or something. Like a camera is going to burst in and tell me how stupid I am,” Jess says crossing her arms across her chest. We both smirk at her.

“Punk’d doesn’t exist anymore, Jess. Stop being so old,” Mason grins at Jess who narrows her eyes at him.

“If looks could kill you’d be six feet under by now,” Carl snorts at Mason then turns to us, “Well, it’s good that you both decided to pull that stick out of your ass and admit that you have feelings for each other. I definitely thought you guys would be too stupid to do it though.”

Both of us gape at Carl. He looks really pleased with himself right now. And smug. I still don’t understand how he knew when I didn’t know about my feelings for Zachary until a few weeks ago. Zachary seems to be thinking something along the same lines by the look on his face.

“Wait, you knew!?” Jess sounds genuinely surprised.

Carl’s shrugs. “I mean you have to admit that when they are in the same room, even if it’s cursing each other out, their whole focus is on each other. I just thought that maybe…”

Zachary makes a dying grunt in his throat. Did he just choke on spit? Not that I can blame him. Especially when he says it that way, it makes it feel so obvious. Gee Everett, how could you be so stuck up that you couldn’t even realize your own damn feelings!?

“When you put it, I guess that was repressed sexual tension then?” Sofia smirks at us.

I snort, because that is just funny. It probably was repressed sexual tension. The rest of them snickers.

“Cat’s out of the bag now, I guess.” Zachary shakes his head lightly and goes back to working on whatever he was working on. That doesn’t deter any of them from teasing us.

Soon enough our shift ends, and I let Zachary drive us back to the dorms because I lost a bet I had made with him about who can eat more pizza slices in fifteen minutes. Turns out Zachary is really good at eating pizza slices. It’s not like I have any problem with him driving my car anymore. Especially when he looks so fucking hot behind the wheel. So hot I am not far from ripping his shirt off to pull him on top of me right here. Right now. Instead, I say, “You okay with going public?”

He turns to me and then back to the road. “Yeah, no point in hiding it in the theater.”

I look at him smiling, “What about in the university?”

Not that I care if we have to hide a bit more. I know Zachary’s inhibitions well enough, and I won’t blame him for it. But Zachary just shrugs, “Well, I didn’t want anyone to know about where I work because well I didn’t want people to know about my relationship with my father. It would have been suspicious that I worked part-time when I had a rich father, but I guess he isn’t going to change, and it’s time I stop wishing for him to come around and be a better father,” Zachary shrugs.

I slide my hand onto his thigh and let it stay there. He looks downs at it before focusing back on driving. He smiles, “I don’t want to wait for him anymore. Not after what he said about Vio. He hasn’t done anything yet, but I will have to deal with him soon.” He looks at me then, grinning “I have you to deal with now anyway. Can’t have too many problems in my life.”

My heart literally punched my chest so hard that I am pretty sure I could find a hole if I checked. It probably wasn’t the most romantic way to say that but when have we ever been romantic. But damn if it didn’t make me feel like a tornado was raging inside my body.

I snort. “If anyone is the problem in this relationship then that’s you.”

Zachary grins. “I wasn’t the one who set fire in your parent’s kitchen.”

“I wasn’t the one who decided to sneak out of the dorms to hit a bar at midnight.”

We both grin. I love how easy it is for us to be so easy with each other. Call each other at the dead of the night just because we were hungry and annoying. Waking up at three am because one of us sent a video of a dog barking at a lizard and burst out laughing while being absolutely irritated to wake up at three in the morning. But we still laugh, not because the video is funny, far from it; just because it was him who sent it. And the dirty texts. Both of us being equally shameless makes it all a hundred times better.

“My practices are going to get more intensive. We have a game coming up soon,” I tell him.

“I know. You have been more excited the past week. All the fucking adrenaline.” Zachary rolls his eyes.

“Deal with it.”

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