Road To Nowhere - Chapter 4

[ahopper84]

Title: Road to Nowhere
Chapter: 4/?
Rating: R/NC-17
Warnings: Drug use, language, sex... all the fun stuff.
Summary: Zac learns that growing up sucks, but not always in a bad way.
Author's Note: Just realized I never posted chapter 4 to lj! Whoops! So, surprise, today you're getting TWO chapters! (Unless you're reading on ao3, but then you're not seeing this!)



“That’s sick dude,” Skyler said, laughing. “Okay, I got one. How do you turn a baby into a cat? Freeze it, then use a band saw. meee-yow…. Wait, wait. How do you turn a baby into a dog? Pour gas over it and light a match. Woof.”

“That’s so fucked up.” I was cracking up, trying to think of a joke to top his. “Oh, oh, okay. What’s worse than nailing ten dead babies to a tree?”

“Nailing a dead baby to ten trees!”

I laughed and took another sip of my milkshake. We’d been walking around the mall for a couple hours now. I’d bought a couple t-shirts and a new wallet, and Skyler got me the new System of a Down CD.

“So how’s the job treatin’ ya?”

“It’s alright. I got to run the register yesterday. Got to work with Kat all day, too, while Tay was stuck back in the kitchen.”

“Nice, you getting anywhere with her?”

“I dunno…” I shrugged and stared at the floor for a second. “She’s real smart; I think she might be outta my league.”

“Hey,” he said, stopping me. “Don’t sell yourself short. You’re a great guy; any girl’d be lucky to get with you. Or guy,” he added with a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah…” I smiled and shoved past him, but stopped a second later. “Oh shit, that’s her!”

“Zac? Hey!” She spotted me from a few feet away and came over, grinning. Skyler nudged me and winked; I rolled my eyes and gave him a shrug, but ran a hand through my hair.

“Hey Kat, what’s up?”

“Oh, not much, just doing a little shopping. How’re you?”

“Pretty good. Oh, this is my friend Skyler. Sky, this is Kat.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, politely shaking her hand.

“So, what’re you two up to?”

“Just spending some birthday cash,” I said. “We were gonna hit up the costume shop too.”

“Oh, for your family’s party, right? Yeah, I still need to pick up a costume too.”

So Tay had already invited her. It sucked, but I wasn’t surprised.

“Well hey,” Skyler spoke up, “why don’t we all head over there? I mean, if you’re not busy.”

“Sure, why not? I could use a couple guys’ opinions anyway.” She grinned and together the three of us headed towards the costume store.

“You’re welcome,” Skyler whispered to me, chuckling.

“Shut up, dude.” Still, I had to hand it to him for the idea.

“So how’s school going?” Kat asked.

“Pretty good. I had to make up a math test I missed, but I aced it.”

“That’s great! I hated math when I was in school; English was always more my thing, especially creative writing.”

“English is alright. I’m not big on writing, but I like to read.”

“Me too! What kind of stuff do you like?”

“Fantasy, mostly. I just finished reading The Hobbit for like the third time.” As soon as I said it, I worried about sounding like a nerd, but she smiled.

“That’s cool; I never read that one, but I saw the movie. I’m more a murder-mystery kinda girl myself.”

We got to the store and split off, looking for a bit until Kat asked us to wait by the fitting room.

“You weren’t kidding, man,” Skyler said. “She’s majorly fine.”

“Told you. I was gonna ask her to the party, but I guess Tay beat me to it.”

“Are they dating?”

“No, he said they’re just close friends.”

“Right… question is, how close?” Sky said, nudging me; I rolled my eyes and gave him a shove.

“So? what do you guys think?” Kat stepped out from behind the curtain dressed in a tiny red dress with a hooded cape. She did a little twirl, her already short skirt showing another couple inches of thigh. I looked her up and down, unable to peel my eyes from all the skin she was showing off.

“Oh, um… yeah…” I cleared my throat, trying to look her in the eyes. “I mean, you look… great.”

“Yeah, that, uh… really suits you,” Skyler managed to say. I glanced over and felt a smug satisfaction that he looked just as flustered as I felt.

“Aw, you guys are sweet. You don’t think it’s too slutty, do you?”

“No,” we answered in unison.

Kat giggled and shook her head. “Okay, I’m gonna go get changed, and then I think I’ll just take this one. Be right out.”

“Hoooly shit,” I mouthed once she was out of sight.

“I know, dude, I know. You’re so lucky you get to work with her.”

“Yeah, just sucks about the ‘work’ part.”

“Still better than nothing, though. And she’ll be at the party, too. Maybe someone’ll suggest a round of spin the bottle.” He winked at me and laughed, then turned to look at some masks. I wondered if I’d get a chance to do anything with her at the party; last year we’d played seven minutes in heaven, although I’d sat it out. I browsed the racks, looking for anything that caught my eye. In the end I decided to just grab a pair of fangs.

“Hey, I wanna stop in at Hot Topic after this.”

“Goin’ goth on me?” Sky said, coming back over empty-handed. I showed him the fangs and he grinned, and grabbed a matching pair and headed for the register.

“Copycat…”

“Hey guys, I actually gotta get going,” Kat said, joining us. “Do you need a ride home, Zac?”

“Nah, I’m good. Thanks, though.”

“Okay, well I’ll see you tomorrow then! Nice meeting you Skyler.”

“Likewise.”

Kat payed for her costume and headed out, waving to us as she left the store. We got our fangs and made our way to Hot Topic, picking out some makeup and a few accessories.

“You wanna sneak into a movie?” Skyler asked a little later, taking a bite of his pretzel.

“Depends. Are we gonna actually watch it this time?”

“Hey, you’re the one that dragged us into the theater for The Princess Diaries.”

“Screw you, I told you that was an accident, it was supposed to be Jeepers Creepers.”

“Which we still haven’t seen, by the way. Anyway, I didn’t really mind.” He winked and nudged me, stealing a sip of my soda.

“Actually there’s that new one, Donnie Darko, that opened today. Looked pretty good.”

“So I should keep my hands to myself?” Skyler laughed as we turned towards the theater.

“We’ll see.”

-------------------------------------

Later that night, after dinner, I knocked on Tay’s door.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked as he leaned against the doorframe.

“Just wondering if you had any more of my present in there.”

“Sure,” he said, smirking. “Just give me a sec.” He ducked back into his room; I waited in the hall, rocking on my heels. “Okay, let’s go.”

We went out to the treehouse together, and Tay pulled a joint from behind his ear.

“Talked to Kat, she said she ran into you and Skyler?”

“Oh, yeah. We didn’t get to hang out for long, but we helped her pick out her costume. Well… she modeled it for us anyway.” I grinned, feeling my body heat up a few degrees at the mental image.

“Lucky you. Is Sky coming to the party too?” Tay took another hit before passing the joint over; I nodded as I inhaled.

“Yep. Is Ike gonna be there too?” This was the first party since Ike had moved out, so I wasn’t sure what his plans were. He was in college now; would he really want to hang with a bunch of high schoolers? Still, it wouldn’t be the same without him.

“I think so. He said he might be bringing someone, Nicole, Nina… something like that. You asking anyone? Besides Sky, that is.”

“Not really,” I said, shrugging. “I spread the word at school, but I didn’t ask anyone to go with me, like a date. I like to leave my options open.” I grinned, but Tay laughed, coughing on the smoke.

“Oh yeah, ‘cuz you’re such a player.”

We were quiet for a while, just passing the joint back and forth until it was done.

“So… you said you and Kat are pretty close, right?”

“Hm?” Tay looked up, his eyes taking a couple seconds to focus. “Oh, yeah. She’s great. Why?”

“Well… what kind of guys is she into?”

“Zac…” Tay sighed, rolling his eyes. It’d been stupid to ask him; of course he wasn’t going to help me hook up with his friend.

“Just forget it.”

“I just don’t want you getting hurt, okay? Kat’s not…”

“Not what?”

“Look, it’s really not my place to tell you, okay? Just trust me, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

“Screw you,” I said in a huff, getting up to leave.

“Zac, c’mon, don’t be like that. I’m just trying to help.”

“Yeah, well, don’t bother.”

I climbed down and stalked back to my room, dropping onto my bed with a sigh. Did he think I was too young for her? Three years wasn’t that big a deal, and it wasn’t like I was a kid. He was probably just scared of me moving in on his territory. Maybe he wanted her, but she didn’t like him like that. Well, just ‘cuz she shot him down, didn’t mean she’d do the same to me. I’d show him; I was going to ask her out, and she was going to say yes. I was sure of it.

I tossed and turned for a while, but I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about Kat, and how good she’d looked in her costume. With a frustrated sigh, I reached into my boxers and wrapped a hand around my half-hard dick. I closed my eyes and thought about her, pictured her at work, slowly unbuttoning her shirt. She smiled and sighed my name, beckoned me closer. In my imagination her clothes faded, showing more and more skin until she was wearing nothing but an apron.

I spit in my hand for lube as I pictured her dropping to her knees and sucking me off. I bit my lip hard to keep from moaning as I imagined staring down into her eyes, watching her lips curled around me. The vision blurred, though, her face flickering and shifting to Skyler’s. I shook my head, trying to get her back, but the face staring up at me kept switching between the two. I decided to just go with it, speeding up as I got closer to the edge.

“Fuck…” I tossed the sheets off of me as I jacked myself, desperate for release. I didn’t even care whose face it was at that point, as long as I got off. I could practically hear them moaning my name as I felt all my energy pooling in one spot, ready to explode… Zac, Zac…

“Zac?” It was Taylor’s voice, coming from the other side of my door. I tried to stop, but it was too late. I turned my head and moaned into my pillow, my legs shaking as I came. My breathing was ragged and my hands shook as I fumbled for the box of tissues in my nightstand drawer. I cleaned myself up as quick as I could, covering up just as Tay opened my door a crack.

“What the hell, man?” I snapped, and he froze.

“Shit, um… I’m sorry. I’ll just…”

“No, it’s… It’s fine.” I took a deep breath and sat up a little, reaching over and turning on my bedside lamp. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to say sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to piss you off. I just… I really don’t want to see you get hurt, you know?”

“I’m not gonna get hurt,” I told him, rolling my eyes. “And even if I did, I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can.” He came over and sat on my bed, and put a hand on my knee. I tried to shake the weird feeling that hearing his voice while getting off had left me with. “I’m always gonna worry about you, though. Kinda part of the ‘big brother’ job description, you know?”

“Yeah, fine. I just wish you wouldn’t treat me like some dumb kid. I’m not innocent or anything; I’ve done stuff.”

“With who?” he asked, smirking. I shrugged and looked down, picking at my sheets.

“People. None of your business. Anyway, I’m just saying, you don’t have to, like, protect me or whatever.”

“Alright, I’ll lay off. I gotta go crash; you may have off tomorrow, but I don’t.”

“Sucks to be you.”

“Night,” he laughed, leaving and closing the door behind him. I laid back on the bed, letting out a frustrated breath. I hated that my brain had taken his voice and twisted it into my fantasy. He was attractive, sure, but he was also my brother. The fact that I’d still gotten off anyway… I decided to just ignore that fact.