Title: Let's Play Pretend
Rating: G
Author: Jen
Summary: Is Slater simply taking a joke too far?
Disclaimarama-lama-ding-dong: Characters not mine. 'Saved by the Bell' not mine. Money not mine. This computer not mine. Cookies not mine. I want cookies.
Spoilers: Very brief ones for the ep where Zack and Slater compete over Kelly's spare George Michael concert ticket, and she thinks she's in love with Screech.
Author's note: It's only a short little thing; perhaps the shortest fic I've ever written. I've just had this one idea nagging away at me for a few weeks now, and I had to write it down before it drove me crazy.

It was always tough admitting he was wrong. Zack had always had a hard time with that. Tonight, though, he would quite happily admit he'd been wrong. As long as there was no one else in earshot, anyway.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with going to the concert with Slater. The other boy might have joked about it being a date at school, but now Zack wondered why he'd ever been apprehensive about it. Everyone at the venue had been far too interested in the guy on stage to worry about whose car Zack Morris had arrived in. He himself had barely taken notice of the other people at the concert, so why should they have cared about him? They were just two friends sitting in adjoining seats.

Maybe Slater had made him a little nervous at first by keeping up his joke, but from the way he'd laughed as he slung an arm around Zack's shoulder as they stood in line, it would have been obvious to anyone that he was only kidding around. He wasn't going to complain about Slater buying him drinks and snacks either, since it meant he had more money to buy a concert T-shirt.

Slater did that kind of stuff all the time, though, he'd told himself every time he started to get just a little worried by the other boy's behaviour. An arm around the shoulder meant nothing, and Slater insulted him often enough that no one took those other comments seriously. There was no reason why he should ever have been unnerved by Slater's behaviour.

Even now, as Slater walked him to his own front door, like he'd insisted he would on the journey home, Zack told himself he had nothing to worry about. Slater probably didn't even notice that he was shoulder-to-shoulder with the blonde. Zack was still buzzing from the concert, which was probably why he himself didn't realise until they reached the porch, and Slater moved away, breaking the contact.

Zack still didn't worry when Slater suddenly started to look nervous as they stood facing each other by the front door. Not even when Slater picked up his joke by saying, "well I got you home on time, so your dad won't be mad at me." Zack just laughed until Slater joined in, hardly even caring anymore that the joke had been running all night.

Slater was already leaning towards him before it occurred to him to start worrying, but before he could do anything about it, Slater had kissed him. Zack could only stare back, dazed, as the dark-haired boy offered an anxious half-smile, before ducking his head and turning away to head back towards his car.

If it was a practical joke, it was probably the most elaborate one Zack had ever known. But there was no other explanation for it. It was just some big joke at his expense, that everyone at school would laugh about in the morning.

Besides, if anyone did laugh at him, he didn't actually have to tell them that the joke was on them.