Zak didn't sleep at all that night. Not even a single minute.
His skinny body screamed in pain at the slightest movement despite all the painkillers he took.

Everything of an unusual silence. Even the soft and reassuring chirping of the birds outside the window disappeared, as if someone turned off the volume.

In day like those, the short boy would ditch school, lock himself into in his room and pass the entire day staring at the ceiling. Doing nothing.
But the Principal's words spoken the day before echoed in his head.

'«Don't disappoint him.», uh?' Zak thought, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. 'Disappointing people is literally what I do best, so good luck with that.' he sighed closing his eyes, curling up on his bedsheets.

The short boy, as he stood up after forcing himself to get up from the bed he felt glued on, with the tail of his eye catched his figure in the mirror recumbent in the opposite corner of the room.
It was hidden by a cloth, but that slid off to the side, letting a reflective part uncovered.

Freezing with his arm still stretched towards the phone on the nightstand, just a few inches away from his hand, Zak felt his heartbeat increasing, panic rising.

'Fuck, please, no.'

He forced himself to turn his head in the direction of the mirror, finding himself praying. Praying to a God he didn't believe in. Praying there weren't any visible bruise from yesterday. Praying not to have to live the same hell.

In vain.

Zak found himself staring at his reflection with glossy eyes wide open, pointed on his face. His right cheek was purplish and swollen, the bruise was more intense on his protruding cheekbone. Pain filled his body as he scanned his figure on the mirror, concentrating in several parts of his body

'Holy fucking shit.'

Letting his shaky fingers dance on the bruise exposed bruise with a disturbed expression, the feeling of the floor disintegrating under his feet and getting devoured by that terrifying pitch black overwhelmed him, leading him into one of his worst panic attack so far.

=============

Zak ended up losing the school bus because of that panic attack, and the time spent trying to decently hide the visible bruises did their contribute.

Sighing while closing the house's door, he walked as fast as e could, ignoring the massive amount of pain he was feeling. He took other painkillers, way more than he should've, but still, the pain gave no sign of diminishing.

'This shit never gets old.' he scoffed in his thoughts, clenching his teeth and shaking his head. 'If only there were dorms for Juniors too... why the fuck only Senior can have them?'

The motives why Zak hated that highschool weren't the typical 'You have to study.' or 'Too many tests.', his were a lot more elaborated and complicated, caused by unpleasant experiences.

It was the biggest school of the state and hosted more than one thousand students, and Skeppy didn't even wanted to go there, he got literally bought for his skills, and he was ashamed of it. Yet, he knew he'd be left without education if it wasn't for that, since him and his father barely made it to the end of the month.

Still, that wasn't even one of the motives he hated to go there. People there, both students and teachers, were stupidly dumb, conditioned by every single thing anyone would say, full of prejudices, stereotypes and stupid rules.

Zak was just so done with that Highschool, and knowing he had to go through two or more years there made him sick.

Sighing painfully and slowing down his pace as a strong sting caused by one of his bruises filled his body with pain, Zak finally arrived at school, arriving with five minutes in advance.

As expected, everyone's eyes immediately aimed on him.
The short boy knew how badly his bruise was hidden, still, he tried his very best covering it up, helping himself with fondation and a medical mask, but no matter how well he could've hidden it or how bad he wanted to be invisible, his popularity wouldn't let him breathe a fraction of second.

He could feel his skin burning under those glances, and regret, anxiety and panic overwhelmed him.

Some friends stopped him as he walked to his class, asking him what happened and how did he get that bruise. As usual, Zak lied, telling them he got into a fight after defending a girl who was getting molested.

He hated but loved his ability to lie that easily, yet, he perfectly knew he was going to harm himself and his relationship with others because of it. But that didn't stop him, it was more than a simple habit.

"Hey Zak." a strong accented voice called from behind the little boy who was taking a book from his locker.

"Oh," he turned towards the foreign boy, hiding himself behind his cheerful behavior. "Hey Vincent!"

The smile on the French boy's lips faded away as soon as his eyes landed on the bruise on his best friend's face.
He wasn't even able to slightly open is mouth to say something, that Zak already laid his index finger on his lips.

"Nope, don't even try, I'm fine, ok? I just got into a dumb fight with my neighbors." he made up, without moving his finger from where it was.

Vincent, about to object his statement, got quickly muted by Zak's second index finger, that unconsciously formed a X on his friend's lips.

"Ah, stop! If there was something wrong, you'd already know." the short boy reassured, tilting his head.

In reply, the french boy sighed helplessly and carefully grabbed both of his wrists, pulling his fingers away from his mouth.

"Promise me you will. You will tell me if something's wrong, please." he begged him, still carefully holding Zak's wrists.

Imperticibly hesitating, the short boy let his arms slip away from Vincent grab, then smiled under the mask and raised one hand closed in a fist, with his pinky stretched out.

"Pinky promise." he quietly said with his high pitched voice.

The french boy smiled at the childish gesture, then grabbed his finger with his own, looking at him with gratitude.

"Thank you, Zak."

=============

Times passed by, and Zak's bruises got way more attention than he expected, pushing him on the edge of another panic attack. He had to lock himself in the bathroom stall for the whole lunchtime because of the fear of multiplying the attentions, receiving question, and especially, he'd rather not break down in front of everyone.

What bothered the short boy the most, was the umpteenth fake promise he made, this time with the person he loved the most. The regret mixed up with the other bad feelings, overwhelming him.

'Am I really going to fuck this up once again..?' he asked to himself, leaning his head against the wall behind him.

Knock knock.

Zak winced, squashing himself as much as possible against the corner of the small space he was in. His wide open eyes did move an inch, staring at the door of the stall.

Was he really that lost in thoughts to not hear the bathroom door opening?

Total silence incumbent upon the room, the only audible noise was Zak's heart pounding insanely fast in his chest.

"Zak? Are you there?"

That voice wasn't Vincent's.
It seemed familiar, yet, for some reason, he couldn't figure out whose was it.

A sigh broke the silence, then the mysterious boy walked away from the stall's door, stopping a few steps later.

"I hope that muffin is okay... I don't want him to be sad..." he murmured to himself, sighing again.

Water flowed down into the sink, once it stopped, other steps echoed in the room, until the familiar squeaking the bathroom door always emitted, announced that the mysterious boy left.

Zak started breathing again, grabbing his hoodie and pressing his hand against his chest and hugging his legs tightly with the other arm.

He realized it was Darryl, and he was searching him. That made him want to vanish even more.

Pathetic. Pathetic and worthless.

'I don't want him to see me like this.' he thought for some reason, letting his legs down the toilette as he grabbed his backpack.

He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and a pencil, and using the flat surface of the wall, he started scribbling on the sheet.

«Hi Darryl.
sry but i don't feel like staying @ school 2nite,
we still can study 2gether via skype or teamspeak idk
my @ is Skeppyz
sorry.

-Zak»

After reading the message all over again multiples times in the grip of insecurity, he folded the piece of paper and stood up.

'Why am I so worried about Darryl? I literally met him yesterday.' he frowned to himself, tightening the grab on the sheet.

One word reappeared in his head.

'Right... disappointment.'

He stood there for a moment. It was time. Searching the strength to get out of there, Zak stared at the door.

Deep breaths.

Leaning one hand against it, he closed his eyes for a second, then pushed and got out of the bathroom as fast as possible.

He had five minutes before the end of lunch break, and for how weird it looked like, he knew where Darryl's locker was since had accompanied him there the day before; so he went for it, hoping not to meet the Senior.

Once there, he anxiously looked around himself, surprisingly finding out there weren't a lot of people: just two or three freshman searching for their classrooms and some Junior walking the opposite way of the hallway.

Casually walking past Darryl's locker, Zak made slip the note inside the grille.

"Zak?"

The shory boy froze, staring at the funny patterns of the ground.

'You got to be fucking kidding me.'

For how stupid that action made him feel, he ran away without looking behind himself. He knew it was Darryl.

Pathetic.

Sixth period started right after Zak entered the classroom and sat down beside Vincent, who strangely didn't ask questions about where he passed his lunch break, but simply greeted him by smiling warmly instead.

The french boy was giving space to him, and for how much he appreciated it, he felt horrible.

'Am I pushing him away?'

Bad thoughts kept him company during the next two periods as always, while the class continued slowly.

The explanation the teacher was giving got interrupted by a knock at the classroom door, that got opened right after and a voice greeted the professor.

Zak didn't even bother to look up, he kept scribbling on the sheet were he was supposed to write his notes.

"I'm sorry for interrupting the lesson," a familiar soft and dorky voice shyly started.

Zak's body froze and his heart stopped.

'What the fuck.'

"but I have to talk with Zak Carder, if it isn't a problem."

His eyes widened.

For how much he hated it, Darryl was there, ready to face him.

He had no escape, this time.

[1859 words]