Finally an update. Sorry it took so long, but between exams and being away I didn't have a lot of time or energy. I know, silly excuses. Anyways, there's some sexual content in this chapter, so you're warned.

And if anyone has any ideas for the story than I'd be glad to hear them, because I'm not really sure what to write for the next chapter.

Comment please?

title - on the other side
genre - drama/romance
pairing - Zac/OMC
point of view - Zac Hanson
rating - light NC-17
betas - I am my own beta. Any and all mistakes are my own. If you happen to tumble across any feel free to inform me so I may correct them, thank you.
info - we follow Zac as he engages himself in his first ever relationship and watch as he fights for a love some think shouldn't exist, but couldn't feel more natural to him.

Previous chapters:
prologue - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20
21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30

[ chapter 31 ]

Leaving had been the best thing to do, I knew that, but it still hurt like nothing I’d ever felt before. A part of me still couldn’t believe that my father had said the things he’d said and the irrational part of me most definitely didn’t believe that he’d meant it, though the rational side of me knew that he had. If his son didn’t want to stop living in sin, he would just stop having a son. Apparently it was as simple as that to him, but how he could think that loving someone of the same gender was a bigger sin that turning your back on your own son was beyond me. My parents had always taught me how important it was to love one another and now they were the ones pushing me away the hardest. It was ironic, in some really unfunny kind of way.

I heaved a sigh and stretched my limbs as well as I could in the cramped space of my seat. We’d only been in the air for an hour and we still had a little more than an hour to go and I felt horribly tense. Some of that was caused by the pain inside of me, but most was caused by the stress of flying, because even after so many successful flights I was still terrified of crashing. I tried to relax and not think about the fact that we were some ten thousand feet up in the sky and I was succeeding a little. The new music that was coming from my Discman was quite good and it was able to hold my attention every once in a while until the thoughts in my head started whirling around again. It was a CD by a band that was unfamiliar to me, but Kelsey, who had given me the CD as a belated Christmas present, had sworn I would like them and she was right as usual.

I had stopped to see her on my way to the airport after I had dropped off some of my bags at Isaac’s. It had been good to see and hug her again after those three horrible weeks in which we had barely gotten to talk. We had properly caught up for a while and I had felt better after spilling the entire story and all of my feelings. I think I might have gone crazy if I would have had to keep everything bottled up any longer. There was a small joyful sense of freedom about leaving home. I was completely in control of my life now and though it was a little scary it was also incredibly exciting.

With only fifteen minutes of flying time left I started to feel anxious for a whole other reason than crashing. It would be only fifteen more minutes until I could see Cayden again and it was all I could think about. It felt like it had been forever since I’d last seen him with all the things that had been happening, when in reality it had been no more than two short months since my lips had last met his. I was sort of nervous because it had been so long and I was a little scared it would be weird or something. I’d never done this seeing your boyfriend after so many weeks of separation thing and a little part of me was scared that it would be horribly awkward. It wasn’t like we could really properly say hello the way we would want to with an airport full of people and I was sure that that would only add to the awkwardness.

That was why I was shaking slightly by the time we were allowed to leave the plane. My hands were sweaty, even though it was cold, and I felt much like the first time I had met Cayden: like I was a mess who would never even come close to being good enough for him, but as soon as I saw the radiant smile on his face as he spotted me that negative thought was quickly erased. A wide grin easily found its way onto my own face and I quickly walked towards him. I decided right then that I didn’t care how people around us would react: I was going to hug him and I wasn’t going to let go until I felt like it or until security broke us apart, whichever came first. Apparently Cayden was thinking the exact same thing, because his arms wrapped tightly around me at the exact moment my arms wrapped tightly around him. I pulled him as close to me as humanly possible and it still felt like he was too far away. It was just now sinking in how much I had really missed him.

We stood there for minutes just hugging without saying anything until Cayden loosened his grip on me so he could look at me, but we still didn’t speak. We didn’t need to say anything, the look in his eyes said enough and I hoped the look in my eyes told him enough too, because I just couldn’t find my voice anymore. The effect he had on me was stronger than ever and I welcomed it more than anything. It made me forget all the pain and all the things that worried me. I knew I was exactly where I needed to be: with him, and the rest simply didn’t matter.

“Let’s go home.” He said after another minute had passed and we had finally let go of each other.

I nodded in agreement, still left in a state of speechlessness, which made him smile amusedly and I bumped his shoulder softly with mine as we walked to the conveyer band to get my suitcases. We each grabbed one and walked our way to the parking garage. The suitcases easily fitted in the trunk of the car and Cayden closed it with a loud thump before he turned to me. I’d been watching him silently. A part of me still couldn’t believe that I was really here with him. The past couple of days seemed too surreal to have really happened and I had the feeling that this was just an incredibly good dream I could wake up from any second by my dad who would start shouting at me some more.

But it wasn’t really a dream and when I pressed my lips to Cayden’s he didn’t vanish. Instead his arms wrapped around me immediately and his lips parted hungrily against mine and I was eager enough to give him what he wanted, because it was what I wanted too. His lips moved easily and perfectly against mine and a soft moan escaped my lips as his tongue traced my bottom lip before gaining complete access to my mouth. My hand moved to the back of his neck to pull him even closer to me than he already was and he responded by sliding his hands into the back pockets of my jeans and pulling my hips closer in return. I never wanted this kiss to end, but I ran out of breath and pulled away gasping for air. He grinned at me, breathing hard himself, and we both caught our breath for a second and then his lips were back against mine. This time we remained that way until a car suddenly honked right next to us and we jumped apart, because we hadn’t even heard it approaching. I felt a light blush creep up my cheeks and Cayden chuckled softly before pressing a series of soft kiss along my jaw right up to my ear.

“I think we should find someplace more private.” He murmured somewhat huskily and squeezed my ass gently with his hands before removing them from my body completely.

I groaned softly. “I think so too.” I muttered and placed one last kiss against his lips, to make sure he was still real, before we both slipped into the car.

The ride back to his house was mostly silent, because I was perfectly content just watching him right now. His eyes would flash to me every couple of minutes too and every now and then when he didn’t have to shift gears his hand would slip in mine and squeeze it softly and each time I felt a warmth flood through my body that had nothing to do with the warm air of the heater blowing in my face. For the first time in weeks I was really smiling again. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be truly happy.

We each grabbed a suitcase after we’d gotten out of the car and walked up the snow-covered path to Cayden’s house. He opened the door and we both stepped inside shivering slightly from the cold outside. I expected his mother to come greet us, but the hallway remained empty aside the two of us and as I shrugged out of my coat Cayden told me both his parents weren’t going to be home before dinner, he was smiling mischievously as he said it.

“I like that.” I said as I kicked off my shoes, following his example.

“I thought you might.” He mumbled before pressing his lips to mine.

“You didn’t kick them out did you?” I asked after kissing him back.

“No, but I would have if I had to.” He said and I laughed softly.

“Come on.” He said and grabbed my hand and tugged me in the direction of the stairs. He didn’t need to tell me twice and I eagerly followed him up the stairs while checking out his butt in the process. I couldn’t help myself, he really did have a nice butt. I followed him to his room and he closed and locked the door of his bedroom behind us and I raised a teasing eyebrow at him. He only rolled his eyes in reply and then pushed me down on his bed. I really wasn’t about to complain, because his body was soon on top of mine and our lips were quickly locked in another passionate kiss.

It wasn’t long before both of our clothes had disappeared onto the ground and his mouth was working miracles on my body. I was once again thankful that his parents weren’t home as my moans filled the room until I found myself once again surrounded with pure bliss. I sighed in contentment and kissed Cayden softly as soon as his lips found mine again. He smiled down at me, seeming perfectly happy just pleasing me, but I was determined to return the full favor this time. He protested lightly as he caught on to what I was planning to do and ensured me that I didn’t have to, but I wanted to and his protests were quickly lost in the back of his throat as my lips wrapped around the head of his cock. His fingers tangled in my hair and tugged lightly at the strands as I tried my best to make him feel as good as he had made me feel. I sucked softly, swirling my tongue around him and let my actions be controlled by the moans that fell from his lips which told me exactly what he did and didn’t like. I really had no clue what exactly it was I was doing, but before long his hand tugged at my hair a little harder.

“Zac. Stop.” He urged quietly before another moan spilled from his lips and his hips rose off the bed slightly which brought him a little deeper down my mouth. I knew this was my warning, but I lightly shook my head and swirled my tongue around him once more. His hips jerked again and a warm substance filled my mouth as his body trembled with pleasure. I would have loved to say that it tasted amazing, but it didn’t. It wasn’t absolutely horrible, but it really didn’t make it in my top hundred of favorite flavors either, it was too salt and bitter, but I happily swallowed all of it down, because I knew it felt great to him and that was what mattered here.

I pulled my mouth back as soon as his body had called down and looked up at him from beneath my bangs. I was slightly embarrassed and didn’t dare to look at him fully, but he sat up and gently brushed the bangs from my eyes, before taking my face in his hands and kissing me softly on the lips. He pulled me back down with him and I was quickly lost in yet another kiss and then another and then one more before we just lay there in each other’s arms smiling goofily until we started to shiver from the cold in the room. We slipped back in our clothes and then reclaimed our position on the bed and continued with the soft kisses and gentle touches in between catching up on every detail of what happened in our lives since we’d been cut off from having regular phone conversations.

I wasn’t aware of any time passing until there was a soft knock on the door and the gentle, timid sound of his mother’s voice on the other side. I’m sure she was afraid she was interrupting something.

“Dinner’s ready.” She said softly, just barely loud enough for us to hear. “If you guys wanna come down…” She trailed off and Cayden laughed before responding.

“It’s fine mom, we’ll be down in a sec.”

“Okay.” She said a little louder, seemingly relieved she hadn’t disturbed us.

We could hear her trot back down the stairs as we got up from our warm and comfortable spot on the bed and straightened out our clothes and hair before we made our own ways downstairs.

His mom enveloped me in a hug as soon as I set foot in the living room and I gladly hugged her back. She was warm, comforting and motherly: everything my own mother hadn’t been for me in weeks and I felt the sudden urge to cry, but I restrained myself.

“It’s so good to see you again.” She said as she released her embrace a little and warmly kissed my cheek.

“It’s really good to see you again too.” I said and I meant that from the bottom of my heart. Right now I felt more at home here than I did at the house where I had lived my entire life.

“How are you doing?” She asked full of concern.

“Better now that I’m here.” I said honestly and she hugged me once again before she let me go to greet Cayden’s father.

“You’re always welcome here, I hope you know that.” He said as he warmly shook my hand with both of his.

I barely managed to whisper a thank you, because I really did feel like crying. I felt accepted and after everything that had happened I felt like that was more than I could have wished for.