The high velocity of the wind caressed Zak's face during the entire ride to Zelk's house. He loved the sensation of being cradled by it so much that he almost argued with Vincent for taking the helmet with the broken visor, and from his point of view, it was worth it.

Stopping at a red light, his french best friend gave his leg two pats, catching his attention. Zak leaned forward as Vincent lifted up his helmet visor, resting his chin on the rider's shoulder.

"Gas is low, we'll have to stop at a gas station after the party. Is it a problem?" he asked once he turned his head to the short boy side, without looking away from the traffic light.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." the Junior replied with an usual voice crack.

"Zak, later will you tell me what's wrong? You avoided talking about it the whole day." Vincent added, his accent increasing along the Junior anxiety.

"Uhm, yeah, later." he quickly murmured in reply.

Wanting to avoid more questions, the short boy leaned back, surprisingly at the same time the red dot of the traffic light changed to green.

After visibly sighing, Vincent pulled the helmet's visor down and restarted riding, going faster than he should have, as always.

Zak's thoughts started twisting in his head, focusing more on the imminent party than Vincent.
Memories, mostly bad ones, of Zelk's and other parties would start getting bulky and heavy, causing him to struggle thinking straight.

'Am I doing the right thing?' he asked to himself, frowning uneasily.

Anxiety started kicking in, making his guts ache and his heart race.

"You'll regret this, Zak." he said quietly shaking his head slowly, as saying it out loud would make him more consciousof his choice. "You sure will."

Less than five minutes later, the two arrived in the alleyway outside Zelk's huge house, where a queue of badly parked cars occupied the sidewalk.

Some drunk Seniors and Juniors were already fighting each other right outside the front door, slamming each other against the wall or the floor.
The strong basses of the blasting music were audible even with the helmet on and the motorcycle still running.

Zak's anxiety increased even more, causing him to struggle breathing.

Too many red flags. Anywhere he looked at, he would find a new one.

'This is not okay.'

Vincent, stared at his friends with his eyebrows furrowed together as he already asked him to get off the motorcycle three times. Little he knew that Zak's anxious thoughts muffled every single surrounding sound, his voice included.

Confused, the french boy grabbed Zak knee, receiving a huge winch and a panicking glance in return.

"Oh, sorry, I spaced out." the older quickly excused himself, scratching the back of his neck.

"Again." Vincent emphasized with grin. "C'mon, get off the bike so I can park decently."

Nodding once in reply, the short boy hopped off the motorcycle and pulled off his helmet, turning his head back towards the huge white house, staring at it again.

Zelk's parents were both lawyers, always out of city for work, they didn't have any problems with leaving him home alone. Thanks to them being constantly away, the Senior was known for his huge parties, full of alcohol, drugs and chicks.

"Ready?" Vincent asked in a sigh, siding him.

"Yeah, let's have fun." he exclaimed, slamming his hands together.

Walking towards the open front door, Vincent talked about not drinking and something else that Zak didn't really listen to, too lost in his anxieties and fears which were perfectly hidden by his playful attitude towards any situation he would find himself in.

Once they entered the house, Zelk almost immediately spotted the two from across the crowded hallway, and quickly walked in their direction with a big smile printed on his lips.

"Zak! Vincent! I lost hope for a moment!" the Senior exclaimed, greeting them with a fist bump. "The party it's pretty lame now, sorry about that. We're waiting for important people to come, that should arrive in like half an hour or so, then the real fun will start. Oh, Dave, Finn and George are already here, wanna come?" he asked, indicating the direction where their friends were with a nod of his head.

"Let me guess, they're playing Smash at the switch, aren't they?" the french boy asked, grinning.

Zelk didn't get enough time to answer his questions that a victorious 'Technoblade never dies!' got shouted from across the huge room, accompanied by some loud laughters.

"Bruh moment." Zak said lengthening both words duration, expressing how not even remotely surprised he was.

The three started laughing after that almost theatrical scene, then followed the host who accompanied them towards the same direction he came from, dodging and slipping between all those people who were in the way.

Zelk passed by a table full of different colored plastic cups, giving a red one to both of the Juniors, receiving a pissed stare from Zak in consequence of his action.

"The red cups are filled with water, dumbass" he reassured, chuckling. "By the way, I got asked about you, Zak. By this guy, uhm, what was his name? uhm, Darrel? Something along those lines-"

The cold water the short boy was drinking went down the wrong way, causing him bend foward and cough repeatedly.

"Darryl!?" Zak asked with one fist against his mouth, once he abruptly lifted his head up as he looked at Zelk right in the eyes.

"Yes! Exactly- Oh shit, was it a date?" the Senior faked a gasp, exchanging a surprised glance with Vincent, who was already laughing. "You forgot about a dat-"

"No I didn't!" the Junior almost screamed in reply with an unique voice crack, his eyebrows furrowed together. "And it- it wasn't a date!" he quickly added, crossing his arms angrily. "You perfectly know I'm not a fucking faggot."

"Yeah, sure." Zelk sarcastically replied, dragging out the final syllabus of each word.

"Hey Zak!" a British accented voice greeted, interrupting the discussion. "It's nice to see you again."

It was George, who waved friendly at him from the giant black leather couch, while on the other side Dave and Finn were sitting on, eyes glued on the small console screen and fingers frantically clicking on the buttons on their controllers.

Zak didn't care about Darryl, or at least, he didn't want to.

Sticking out his tongue at Zelk and Vincent, the short boy walked towards his group of friends on the sofa.

After greeting George, the Junior let himself fall on the couch beside the british boy, spreading his arms on the length of the backrest, then took a sip of water from the red cup he was still holding.

Dave and Finn busily greeted him, playfully elbowing each other as they kept playing the videogame. Zak smiled at the scene, he felt way more relaxed and he was finally was able to think about passing a nice night with his friends without all those useless anxieties.

"So, how was your first day as a Junior?" the british boy asked, turning his head in Zak's direction.

Sighing, the short boy let the back of his head fall against the couch.

"Want me to be honest?" he asked, looking at his friend.

"Brutally." he replied with his usual grin printed on his lips.

"Complete shit. I already got called by the bitch."

"Wait- What?" George frowned at his answer. "What did you do already?" he asked leaning forward, now with a quite worried look in his face.

"She wanted to talk about my grades and shit, nothing new." Zak replied in a sigh, lifting his shoulders.

"Eeeasy! Technoblade, never, loses!" Dave shouted as he spread both his arms in the air, letting himself fall against the backrest of the couch.

"Yeah, especially talking about your virginity." Finn talked back crossing his arms, pouting for the defeat suffered.

Zak, who was sipping his beverage, ended up spitting it back in his cup, choking himself with it again, while George stared at Finn jaw dropped, with a mix of disbelief and amusement in his eyes. Another 'Bruh moment.' slipped from Skeppy's mouth, still coughing because of the water.

Dave didn't do or say anything for a long and painful ten seconds, and then burst out laughing giving a massive slap on Finn's back, causing him to fall off the couch and cough in search of air as the hit emptied his lungs.

"You lucky son of a bitch, it's absurd how you're able to roast Dave only when he's drunk!" George exclaimed, laughing out loud along with Zak, who pressed his sleeve against his mouth as he chuckled.

Time passed and the house was filled up even more, completely crowded by the familiar faces of students who frequented the same Highschool as Zak.

The short boy was still sitting on the sofa with his friends, their topic changing constantly to baseball, videogames and eventually about relationships and homecoming.
To interrupt their loud and frenetic talking, were the lights turning off and getting substituted with flashing colored lights, whose barely lit up the surroundings.
A song started pumping out the speakers louder than before as soon as every room went dark, raising excited screams and a chorus.
Dave, Finn, George stood up jumping in unison with the beat, shouting and dancing.

In the meantime, Zak started to slightly panic. He pressed the palms of his hands against his ears, trying to smother the exaggerated loud music, in vain. His eyes searched for Vincent, discovering he wasn't there anymore.

'What the fuck?' he cussed, frowning at the empty space beside him.

Dave grabbed one of the short boy's arms right after, forcing him to get up from the couch with a playful smirk.
Taking the opportunity, the Junior pushed himself as close as possible to his friend's ear, trying to make himself audible.

"Did you see Vincent?" he shouted, without even hearing his voice himself.

The confused look from the Senior received in reply made his heart sink. Tiptoeing and getting more closer to his hear, he tried again.

"Did you see Vincent?" He repeated again, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Obtaining the same reaction as before, Zak dismissed Dave with a shake of his head and quickly slipped through the jumping crowd, without having a precise destination.

Panic kept rising at each second passing. Breathing was a struggle due to the alcohol and marijuana smell, and because of the stale air.

Zak walked to the cups table as he felt his throat on fire, and discomfort took over as he realized there weren't any red colored tumblers on it.
Shaking his head slightly, he grabbed one of the plastic containers and chugged the content down, squeezing his eyes at the bitter taste of alcohol.
Putting the cup back on the table with no delicacy, the boy in blue decided to search upstairs, repressing the growing panic.

After dodging multiple peers, some were making out on the stairs and others already collapsed on them, Zak's thoughts became finally audible as the music was way lower on the upper floor.

"Vincent!?" the Junior called as he walked through the desolated hallway, taken aback by how hoarse his voice sounded like.

"Zak?" a high-pitched familiar voice came from behind.

'Shit. Everyone but him.'

Feeling his body stiffing up, the Junior turned towards Zelk, forcing himself to walk to him.

"Yo, did you see Vincent?" he asked trying his best to look calm and unbothered. "I've been searching him for like, half an hour!" the short boy exaggerated, spreading his arms.

The sudden gesture caused to Zak's head to spin, followed then by every noise around him echoing, obligaiting him to lean against the door jamb as his balance lacked.

"Dude, are you okay?" his friend asked, getting out of the room and grabbing his free shoulder as he lowered down to his height.

"Agh... Fuck, my head..." he murmured in reply, squeezing his eyes shut as hard as he could and pressing one hand against his face.

Zelk voice sounded muffled and disturbed to Zak's ears, some other words flowed out of the Senior's mouth, all of those incomprehensible for him.

The other shoulder got grabbed and squeezed harder, his body got shook and some phrase repeated multiple times followed the jolting.

'Jesus Christ, what is this?!' Zak questioned himself, confused and scared of those unknown feelings.

All of a sudden, his sight and hearing got back to normal, leaving him stunned and confused.

'What?'

"Zak!" Zelk called once again, shaking him more violently than before.

"Uh... sorry, dude. My head started spinning like crazy and..." he attempted to explain, narrowing his eyes.

"Holy fuck, you feel better now, right? No ambulance 'n' shit needed?" the Senior frantically asked him, visibly panicking at the only thought.

"No, no... it's fine, I'm fine!" Zak reassured with a dazed smile, shrugging his shoulder to get away from Zelk's grip.

"Are you sure? Don't play your dumb games with me again, Zak. I'm not going through the same hell you got me in last year." he grumbled, grabbing the short boy's wrist way too tightly without notice.

That gesture increased Zak's sickness.

"Yeah, let me go." he murmured in reply, looking down at the floor.

Zelk narrowed his eyes as he stared at him, tightening the grip after pulling Zak closer to him.

"Please." Zak begged in a shaky whisper, gritting his teeth together.

"Don't make me regret letting you go." the Senior murmured into his ear, letting him go and returning inside the room he was in, slamming the door.

Zak found himself alone in that tight, empty hallway. Alone and sick.

'Vincent why...?'

Another wave of that strange dizziness hit Zak. It was way more intense than the first one.
Despite it, he tried his very best to ignore it and get back in search of Vincent.

'Oh my god, oh my god...'

Helping himself with the walls he stumbled to the stairs.

He could feel his heart racing, pounding heavily in his chest, as it was about to explode.

'What the heck is happening? What the fuck is this? Vincent where are you? Fuck.'

Something inexistent pressed against his chest, preventing him to breathe normally.

'Vincent, you promised.'

Zak forced himself to go downstairs, clenching his hands around the handrail.
Music bumped through his body and walls, making everything shake.

He had to get out of that house as soon as possible.

'You promised.'

Just a few more forced steps led him towards the front door.

'I can't breathe.'

Zak opened it. One step, two steps, three steps.

'I can't fucking breathe.'

The hallway space where Vincent's motorcycle had been parked on was empty.

Vincent left without him.

Thud.

[2475 words.]