Zach has made note of the many facets of Shane's personality in the time they've spent together. One of those points is how much he likes to have fun.
"I'm taking Maddie with me," calls Granny from the door as she helps the girl with her shoes and places a hat on her head. "Will you boys be alright on your own?"
"Yes, ma'am. We'll manage." The door closes quickly behind them.
Shane is spread idly on the couch. Zach sits at the table with his notebook and pen. It only takes a moment for him to feel the eyes fixed on him from across the room. He decides to ignore them. It doesn't work.
"So."
Zach's eyes raise from his pages as he absentmindedly twirls his pen through his fingers. "So," he counters.
Shane's countenance says it all. "We're alone in the house."
"Hm. I hadn't noticed." Zach brings a hand to his chin and returns to his writing with a hidden smile. Yep. Shane takes the bait. Zach can see him scooting toward him now from the corner of his eye. The boy takes slow, unassuming strides, feigning indifference to the fact that each step is bringing a bigger smile to Zach's now distracted face and attentive posture.
Appreciative of the boy's advances, he doesn't even notice the item in Shane's arms as he arrives at his table.
After earning a peck on the cheek, Zach looks up to witness the boy's demeanor change. Shane is up to something. After taking a deep breath, from his lips spill the words, "Kiss, you're it!"
"What-?"
Like a descending wave of fabric, a giant blanket falls over Zach's head with a swish.
The handmade quilt is so massive and heavy that takes him a few seconds to get the thing off him. When he does manage to pull it over his head, sending his hair in all directions, Shane is nowhere in sight. Zach stands, allowing the chair to scrape gently against the floor and the quilt to fall into a pile at his feet.
"Shane," he smiles. The boy really had disappeared into thin air.
��We're not kids, you know."
So he says, but he is already peeking under the table, lifting the cloth to reveal nothing but it's dust-covered legs. He bites his lip.
A game of hide-and-seek, is it? There are plenty of small spaces to explore in a house of this size, but few of them accessible with such little time to hide. He makes his way out of the dining room and down the hall, opening closets as he does, peeking behind doors, pulling lightly at quilts and curtains.
Zach spins around, wondering which direction to go next.
"Shane! If you're hiding out in Granny's room, I'm not going in, you know! You'd better be somewhere in the house."
Quieter now, he adds, "I don't want to be talking to myself here…" He can't shake the smile off his face or the pounding of his chest. Shane knows how to have fun but more importantly, he knows how to make Zach have fun. Zach didn't hear any doors open, nor the telltale squeaking of the stairs. He heads toward the guest bedroom because it seems the most likely choice for a hasty hiding place. The door stands ajar.
"Shane?" He whispers. Of course, no answer comes. The room reveals nothing to give away the other boy's location. But...he's in here. Zach feels it. He doesn't know why but he is positive Shane is hiding in this particular room. He follows his gut; and his gut is telling him that a lively presence is in the room. And it's coming from right over…
Peeking toward the wardrobe now, he allows his smile to settle into a determined gloat. He takes one step into the room, then two with intentions of swinging the wardrobe open wide to reveal the boy inside. He steps over the threshold onto the wooden floor, then the rug.
"GAhh-!"
Zach screams as a claw-like hand shoots out from beneath the bed and grips tightly onto his foot. The shock sends him forward, but with nowhere to step, he falls to the floor.
Shane's sprightly face appears from under the bed, practically crying at the hilarity of seeing Zach's ungraceful meet with the floor. The boy had stashed himself away in what looks to be too tight of a space to navigate, even for someone of his size.
"Haha, you fell right on your butt!" He laughs some more, clutching his stomach beneath the bed in pleasant pain at the humor of it all. When he tries sliding his body out the way he got in, he finds the task to be more difficult than he imagined. His crippling laughter isn't helping one bit; he can't find the strength to move.
"Aha, I can't! Pull-pull me out; I'm stuck," he laughs, reaching for Zach's hand. "Help me."
Zach puffs out the air in his lungs and picks himself off the ground to face Shane. "Pull yourself out; you got yourself in, didn't you?" He is already tugging on both arms as the boy's laughter refuses to cease.
"Almost there, yank harder!" Shane says through breaths as he squints through the resistance.
Zach pulls, but continues, "If you got yourself in, you can get—yourself—" Together they offer one last heave. Shane's shoulders slide out, followed quickly by the rest of him.
"Out!"
Zach hauls Shane out and into his lap with a tumble, catching himself with his elbow past the carpet on the hard wooden floor. A small nail protrudes out from the wood.
He doesn't notice the blood already spilling out. He doesn't feel the pain. What he feels is the invigorating adrenaline filling his veins and the pounding of his heart as he lays panting after his effort, recovering from the small fatigue and amused by his current situation.
Because Shane is spread on top of him, much more rewarding and quite a bit heavier than a hand-quilted bedspread. Except, he's not laughing anymore. There's a glint in his eyes as Shane's classic predator's gaze meets Zach's with a cornering effect.
"Ouch," muses Zach as the pain from his arm finally registers in his brain.
"Did I hurt you?" asks the concerned Shane, shifting his weight.
"Huh-uh. Just hit my arm on the hardwood." Zach props himself up further as Shane slides off and rests his back against the bed frame and mattress. He had managed to put Zach in such a good mood, and Zach isn't ready to stop just yet.
"One more thing," he adds, reaching a resolute arm just past Shane's face and placing it dominantly beside his head. Shane actually blushes, which makes Zach even happier. He leans in and plants a kiss on the boy's confused lips, then pulls back immediately.
"You're it."
Zach yanks the quilt off the bed and throws it over Shane's head who, to his delight, didn't see his actions coming at all. Just to give himself more time, he flicks his finger against Shane's forehead, making the boy's hands fly over the blanket, distracting him from the task of removing its bulk. Zach runs out the door and up the squeaky stairs.
For the next hour, the boys become more and more creative in their hiding places, but also more efficient in finding one another. By the time Granny returns with her groceries, Maddie beside her, the boys are spread across the floor recovering from the thrill of the hunt.
"Not wasting any time before relaxing, I see," notes Granny as she glides around them toward the kitchen, placing items in their designated spot. Yes. We've done nothing but lie around, thinks Zach with amusement.
"I've got some lemonade here for Maddie; sit down and join her."
With gratitude, the boys rush to the table, gulping down the jars of refreshing lemonade placed in front of them.
"Oh, Zachary dear, you're bleeding."
Granny makes her way around the chairs and tenderly lifts Zach's arm, revealing a dry and bloodied wound on his forearm just below his elbow.
"Shane?" She demands with a sharp tongue, not hesitating for a moment in blaming the boy for the injury. He is at a loss for words, and Zach stares wide-eyed at the colorful mess.
"Just a bit of rough housing, ma'am. I didn't even notice it." Zach touches the spot, wincing at the resulting pain.
Granny moves quickly, seeming distraught as she rummages through cupboards and drawers, finally bringing forth a small plastic tub.
"I've got a first aid kit here," she says gently, touching the boy once more. Then turning to Shane, she demands, "Shane. Help the boy, will you? Into the bathroom, both of you, now. I still have groceries to put away and Maddie to tend to."
"Sure thing," Shane grabs the kit and Zach's hand and drags him across the hall to the downstairs bath.
There, he washes the wound with a cloth and warm water. After finding a disinfectant and a large bandage, he covers Zach's arm, apologizing for the horseplay and for not noticing the wound sooner.
Zach laughs. "I knew I felt something when we fell before. I hope no blood got anywhere." The boys make a face as they recall how many different spots they hid and ran to throughout the house.
Shane finishes bandaging the arm, and a different kind of smile creeps onto his face. The bathroom door remains open into the room behind him. He bites his lip, looking at Zach with a question. Not a question...the question. The question of permission. The question of, is anybody watching?
Zach shakes his head with a smile as he glances past Shane through the open door. The clock sits resolutely on the wall with its pendulum swinging back and forth, ticking gently with each click of its arm. The sound moves through the air, and other than Granny making noise in the kitchen, no other sounds reach his ears.
Granny could easily walk past, though she seems preoccupied at the moment. The silence between the boys becomes too much.
Zach's eyes are focused once more on the clock, and he shrugs lightly beneath Shane's gaze. With a mischievous smirk, and without turning to see for himself or breaking his gaze which is so focused on Zach, Shane kicks the door.
It slams against the wooden frame the exact moment he slams against Zach. Something crashes to the floor and shatters as their bodies and lips intertwine.