Henry’s Boyfriend
Nothing major, just my first published piece in testing the waters of the Zenryverse. As friends know, I write almost exclusively HD content for Charlotte and I am not a Suite Life person, but I do feel like I comprehend Zack as far as Nikki has interpreted him, so I hope I do both of them justice in this little tidbit that I whipped up. @zenryverse
The last time that Charlotte had agreed to bunk with a stranger for convenience purposes, she absolutely lived to regret it. Jasper’s ex girlfriend when he was still… doing that whole, finding himself thing and dating girls. The girl had tried to kill her, despite being pretty tight with Jasper. Sure, this was absolutely different, but Charlotte felt a little bit triggered every time Zack smiled and asked her if she needed anything. She would wait for the moment that he’d pull out a weapon and charged at her. It was ridiculous. She knew that, but that was what her mind decided to do to her with the anxiety of living in a new place with a stranger.
“Henry’s boyfriend,” was basically how she even knew this guy. Henry. “Master of being a good judge of character,” she thought sarcastically as she watched Zack cooking in their shared apartment, while she sat at the little table that was only big enough for the two of them, because that was all that they currently needed. He smiled at her from the other room - actually - there was only a threshold separating the kitchen from the “dining area,” which was a little corner of a room that she used for studying. Zack generally ate on the couch… the futon.
She forced a smile back at him and looked at her computer again. Charlotte had been accepted into Harvard and she had a full ride, but, there was some type of discrepancy in the dormitory applications and she wound up not having a place to stay by the beginning of the semester. A disaster, but something that she was quickly able to work around… Henry’s boyfriend offered her some space in his place. It was small, but he had an extra room that he could clear out for her and put a few things in storage. He generally used the room for his music creation and hobbies, but some of it could fit in his bedroom and he could rent out a storage space for the things he didn’t use as frequently.
She hated to put him out that way, but she had to have something very quickly, as the semester wasn’t going to wait for her to find an affordable place close enough to school, but she promised him that she’d be out of his hair as soon as fiscally possible. “No worries! Hen says you’ve literally saved his life more than a few times. You’re welcome wherever I’m at.” Right.
But, staying under the same roof with someone that she only knew through Henry, MILES away from the person that they knew each other through and for her, away from everything that she knew at all. She didn’t think she would get homesick, but being in close quarters with somebody that she didn’t know how to really interact with was more challenging than she’d figured it would be. The weather was very different, she didn’t know which eateries were the good ones yet. She had signed up for way too many classes to get her core curriculum out of the way, and she didn’t have any friends… after years of practically living with all of her friends. They were all doing their own things and their schedules were different enough that she couldn’t even schedule screen time with anybody but Schwoz, and half the time, he was running around after his new team of heroes.
The most conversation outside of classes she had were that Mika kid contacting her for advice, and these strained interactions with Henry’s boyfriend. He set a plate down next to the computer and she smiled up at him politely. He did keep her fed, so that was a plus. “There’s a farmer’s market I like to hit up, if you want to come with me this weekend,” he said, sitting across from her.
“Uhh…” she pulled up a holographic schedule and shook her head, “No can do, but thanks for the offer.” Zack’s eyes were studying the schedule with a smile in them. She nervously put it away and his eyes landed on her. She shrugged and said, “I use the tech from… you know… I made the schedule interactive, too.” “Hen talks about how smart you are all the time. I mean, I knew, but it’s always kinda cool to see things for yourself… hey… you think that could work with sheet music?”
“Definitely,” she said. “I’m not that great at writing music, but I could make a program that made the holograph capable of recording the writing of music.”
He leaned back and folded his arms, smiling, “What you said was ‘not that great at writing music,” what I heard is that you write music?”
She laughed, “I mean, I can hardly call it that. I did learn to play a guitar fairly easily.” She huffed, just thinking about it, “Ray made me and Jasper learn instruments so that we could be his band. The idea was that we’d be on the scene of places to play his soundtrack during battles…”
Zack laughed and shook his head. “That’s… not a terrible idea.”
“It’s very narcissistic though.”
“I’ve heard he’s full of that. I relate… slightly.” He glanced at her untouched plate and that was her cue. Charlotte pushed her laptop aside. Dinner smelled delicious. She tried a little and saw as he lit up when he watched the obvious satisfaction on her face. “Is it okay?” He asked, knowing the answer.
“So, so good!” She commented, before forking herself another mouthful. “Thanks, for cooking dinner.” She managed, between chews.
“You were going pretty heavy on those instant noodle thingies. Figured you could use an actual meal, since you’ve got like daily classes. Why do you have daily classes?”
She held a finger up as she finished chewing, then admitted, “I thought because I was coming right out of school, full days scheduled, that I could go right back in all the same… and I can, but… I didn’t prepare for some of the extras.”
“Like eating?” he asked, incredulously. She shrugged. “How is that an extra?”
She chuckled, then thought for a moment, before pulling her schedule back up, hovering above the table, “When are you going to the farmer’s market?”
“Saturday, around 1.”
“Lock in schedule,” she said and Zack watched the lights of the time switch around as she gave other commands to make room for the visit. “There. I can go.” He held out his fist towards her and she shook her head, “I’m sorry I don’t fist bump while eating.”
“Fair enough.”
She returned to her studying while she ate. Zack eventually took their dishes away to wash as she stayed there for the rest of the night, ignoring her reminder to go to bed until everything else in the apartment was silent and she knew that if Zack had already gone to sleep, she was surely up far too late for her own good. Whenever she collected her things to duck into her room, she heard him talking softly and held her ear close to his bedroom door.
“Of course, I’m taking good care of her. I don’t know if she’s really taking the best care of herself though…”
She left him to his privacy. Probably talking to Henry. She checked her phone. Henry had tried to call her a few times within the past couple of hours. She suspected that he must’ve had some free time and presumed she’d be winding down or something. She glanced at Zack’s door and knocked twice, “Goodnight, Zack,” she called.
“Oh, there she is!” she heard him say. “She just told me goodnight. I could give her the phone… okay… nevermind then.” And after Henry must’ve said a little more, Zack called back, “Night!”
Henry had warned him not to get in her way if she was sleepy or hungry. He knew she wasn’t hungry, but if she was sleepy, he didn’t want friction. Henry knew her best, after all. He heard her bedroom door open and shut and talked a little longer to Henry before nodding off to sleep on the phone.
Charlotte noticed after getting out of the shower that Henry had texted her his warnings to Zack with a wink emoji, prayer hands and a heart, with the note: Last thing I need is you murdering my man.
She rolled her eyes and simply texted back: Goodnight, Idiot. He could hear the smile in her voice when he read it. He was glad two of his favorite people were in the same place when he couldn’t be with either of them, but dang. He missed them. Figuring things out without Charlotte around for a change had been one of the biggest challenges of his life. He wondered sometimes if things were just as hard for her, but she was Charlotte, so.. Not likely.
Charlotte laid in bed, playing some lo fi music from her phone trying to sleep. She wondered if Henry was having as hard of a time as she was… Nah. He still had Swellview. She picked up her phone to tell him that she missed him, but decided against it. He still had Swellview and he had Zack, and he had a new situation to settle into without her. “I miss you, Henry,” she said to herself and set her phone back down, willing herself to try to get some sleep while she still had a little time.
