"Is it possible?" Darryl asked, leaning his shoulder against the door jamb as he waited for an answer.

"Sure, go ahead, Darryl." the teacher consented, smiling kindly at the boy.

"Thank you so much." he smiled at the adult before letting his eyes search for the short boy through the Juniors.

Zak felt an unusual panic building up, maybe for all those eyes pointed at him, especially for Vincent's ones.
But once he intercepted Darryl's glance, anger took over.

It was obvious what the Senior wanted to do.
He was playing safe.

'Why. Why is he doing this. He doesn't even know me, what the fuck does he want.' Zak thought, narrowing his eyes at him.

Clenching his fists, he abruptly got up from his seat, and ignoring everyone eyes pointed on him, especially the interrogatory ones of his best friend, he approached the closed door that Darryl closed as he walked out of the classroom.

Once outside, Zak leaned his back against the wall beside the door, crossing his arms as he glared at the Senior, clearly pissed.

"What do you want." he spat, narrowing his eyes at Darryl once again.

"Hey, no need to be so defensive and angry at me. I saw you and your note, and it's obvious something's wrong. I just want to help you." the taller by kindly explained with a concerned expression, tilting his head to the side.

"Wow. If with helping me you mean 'let's give Zak more fucking attention because he doesn't have enough of it already', you're doing it damn well." he harshly blurted out in reply, accompanying his words with a shake of his head.

"Zak, I'm not dumb. If I'd tried to talk to you in any other moment, you'd have avoided me and ran away." the blonde boy objected, sighing silently.

"I wouldn't have." he denied with a slight voice crack.

"You would have, Zak." Darryl retorted, his voice not as kind and patient as before.

"How do you even know?!" the short boy questioned with a massive voice crack, frowning. "Let me remind you that we meet only yesterday, and all we talked about was school stuff."

"As I said, I'm not stupid."

"You look like one acting this way." Zak spat, raising an heavy silence.

They stared into each other eyes for a long moment.

"Please, let me help you." Darryl broke the silence softening his voice, sighing lightly and arching both his eyebrows.

"I don't accept the help my best friend offers me, what does make you think you have any chance?" the short boy questioned harshly, shrugging and opening both his arms.

"Change." he replied, smiling softly.

"Huh?"

"People change. People need change." His index finger carefully placed on Zak chest. "You need change. And I'm here for you, a fresh start."

The short boy started at Darryl, frowning slightly at his words.

"I have no idea what are you going through, Zak, but I'm one hundred percent ready to help you. I want you to be happy, really happy. Don't think you tricked me into believing you are happy, because I know you aren't. Even if I stayed with you for only three hours." the older boy continued with his soft voice, arching his eyebrows. "I know you know you need a change."

Looking down and avoiding eye contact as he felt his anger increasing knowing how right Darryl was, Zak sighed, giving up. It was time for that change he was craving for.

"Alright." he murmured after a few moments in silence, sighing once again.

Darry, completely caught off guard by him accepting his help, wrapped the small boy into his arms, letting out a light squeaky noise of happines, proud of Zak decision.

"Thank you so much, Zak." he kindly said, tightening softly the hug the short boy didn't really return.

A new feeling rose inside of Zak, causing him to frown.
It increased significantly as he hesitantly hugged the blonde boy.

The boy in blue didn't have time to question himself about it that Darryl broke the hug, carefully grabbing his shoulders.

"Okay, so, you'll tell your teacher you have to leave with me for an important discussion, in the meanwhile  I'll grab your things, so we can go to the infirmary to cure your bruises, is it okay?" he proposed, smiling reassuringly.

"Wait, why not the opposite? It doesn't make sense." Zak objected, furrowing his eyebrows.

Darryl scratched his neck, getting visibly embarrassed.

"I, uh... I'm literally the worst liar in the world." admitted looking down at his shoes, his purity made Zak's heart soft.

"Oh, it's okay then, don't worry." the short boy reassured, smiling.

After doing as planned, Darryl happily hold Zak's hand leading him to the infirmary, without actually realizing it.
Though, the Junior weirdly enjoyed every second of it, he missed human contact. Plus, the Senior's hand was soft and warm, it made him feel protected for some reason.

"Okay, here we are." Darryl stated as he opened the door, leading Zak in.

The room was way smaller than he expected. Everything in the room was white, yet, somehow, the chamber was nicely dark. There were two cot, both surrounded by a open pale green curtain, and against the opposite side of the wall, there was some little furniture and a sink.

"Don't worry, nobody is going to be here anymore, the nurses are at a reunion and won't come back." Darryl reassured, widening his smile as he glance at the short boy.

After noticing Zak not moving a single inch, the Senior realized he was holding his hand. His cheeks started burning consequently once e let him go, and he ended up being a flustered mess.

"I- Uhm- I'm sorry!" he babbled, scratching the back of his neck getting even more redder.

"Don't worry about it." Zak reassured, sitting on the cot.

The junior hated to admit it, but that second where he sat on the bed and his face wasn't visible to Darryl, a light smile grew on his lips. He felt that unfamiliar feeling building up inside of him.

Still flustered, the blonde boy took the medications needed from the closet, stacking them on the little table beside the cot where Zak sat, and after making sure nothing was missing, Darryl sat down on the chair in front of the short boy.

"Alright, now I'm going to pull off the foundation, ok?" he asked, carefully moving his face to examine wound mire closely.

Zak nodded while fidgeting with his fingers, the feeble nice emotion he felt seconds before vanished, letting room and contro to the bad ones. He felt exposed.

"Zak?" the Senior called him, a while after starting wiping a humid cloth over his bruise. "What really happened? I mean, you don't have to answer, of course, I respect your privacy." he quickly added.

The boy in blue glanced at him, but Darryl was extremely concentrated to be cautious on cleaning up his cheek, to notice him.

"Got into an unfair fight." he made up once again, frantically bouncing his leg.

"Oh."

Darryl felt stupid, from all the things he could've say, he permitted at that stupid 'Oh.' to slip out his mouth.

After a pair of seconds of silence, the older boy took a gauze from the table, soaking it with an unknown orange liquid.

"This is going to sting a little, okay?" he murmured as he lifted his head up, glancing reassuringly at Zak.

In response, he simply nodded once again, making Darryl uneasy. Silence was the worst for him, he hated it.

Zak's muscles tensed up as soon as the gauze pressed against his cheekbone, not expecting to hurt that badly. The taller boy noticed it, and wanting to help relax the Junior in some way, he started humming a sweet melody.

The tension in the short boy's body slowly released, and a soft light smile grew on the Senior lips.

Zak felt suddenly free from his anxieties and fears, and the burden of lies and secret got lighter.

"Thank you, Darryl." he whispered, closing his eyes.

After a few minutes, the Senior stopped working on his cheek, leaning back as he glanced at Zak, smiling reassuringly.

"Done. Do you have other wounds or bruises I can medicate?" he kindly asked.

Again, Zak avoided eye contact, fidgeting with his fingers. Darryl hated making him uncomfortable.

"Hey, I just want to help you, there's no need to be ashamed or afraid." he remided him, putting his hands on Zak's knees.

Looking back at him, he hesitantly grabbed the extremities of his hoodie and forced himself to lift it up to the start of his rib cage, revealing a bandage soaked in mostly dry blood, that got all around his thin waistline.

"Oh my goodness..." Darryl whispered, clenching his teeth as he looked at it.

His shock wasn't pointed only on how much blood there was, but also at how skinny he was. He tried his very best not to mention it.
Yet, Darryl couldn't stop his eyes a second, running from Zak's ones to then go back on the wound.

"They... were armed?" he asked in pure disbelief, stopping his glance on him.

"Eh, they used broken glass."the short boy replied, not totally lying, since his dad used a broken bottle.

"Why didn't you go to the hospital? This-"he tried to question concerned on his condition, getting cut off by him before being able to end his sentence.

"Darryl, I- If I want you to know something, you will know before even asking." he snapped letting go his hoodie, getting his waist covered by it. "I know, it sounds stupid, but... there are things I rather not talk about. And it's not because I don't trust you, because I do, strangely, and... it's fucked up honestly, since I barely know you. But you're different from others. I feel like I can tell you anything, yet... I'm fucking scared to do so."

The blonde boy stared at him for a long moment, surprised by those words. After processing them, he smiled softly, slightly tilting his head to the side.

"I'll always respect you and your decisions, Zak. Just... don't forget I'll be always there for you, ready to help and, even just listen to you, ok?" he reassured, putting his hands on the little boy's knees again, tracing circles on them with his thumbs.

'Fuck, why does it feel wrong?' Zak anxiously thought, feeling suffocated by an inexistent something pressing against his chest.

He hesitantly smiled at Darryl, nodding.

"Thank you."

"No need to thank me, little muffin." Darryk reassured, smiling at him ince again.

The short boy lifted his hoodie back up, silently studying the Senior's motions as he started to unwrap the bandage around his waist. After throwing it in the dedicated bin, he leaned a hand on Zak chest, gently pushing him and making him lie down.

Silence towered over the two, stronger than before.

"Uhm... could you do that again?" Zak hesitantly murmured after a few minutes, unable to bear with that silence.

"Mh? Do what?" he asked confused, stopping to clean up the dry blood from the wound to look at him.

"Uh... nevermind." the short boy quickly brushed it off, biting his lower lip.

"Oh, come on Zak. You mean... humming?" Darryl questioned, feeling his cheeks burning.

Zak, after debating in his head if he would look ridiculous or not by answering sincerely, looked away and nodded, causing a soft giggle from the blonde boy.

"Okay, but just because it's you." he murmured stumbling on those few words, restarting to hum a different melody right after.

Getting carried away by it, Zak jolted at unexpected acute pain that pervaded his body, caused by the disinfectant Darryl patted on his wound. He brought the back of his hand against his mouth, biting it and letting out a suffocated wail.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry Zak, there's nothing I can do about it! Do you want me to stop?" Darryl asked in panic, bringing both his hands up away from his waist, glancing at him concernedly.

Energetically shaking his head, the Junior squeezed his eyes as the pain didn't vanish. Darryl instinctively grabbed his free hand and waited a pair of seconds before restarting to disinfect the wound.

"Don't stop singing, please..." Zak begged moving his hand away from his mouth, tightening the grab on Darryl's one.

The Senior glanced at him for a pair of seconds, hating to see him suffering that much, then restarted to softly hum another melody, caressing the back of Zak's hand with his thumb whilst with the other he restarted working on his wound.

The short boy let out suffocated whines and tightened the grip on Darryl's hand every few seconds.

He didn't understand.

"I don't understand..."

Why was he doing this?

"Why are you doing this?"

The pain gave voice to Zak's thoughts.

"What? Helping someone I care about?" replied Darryl, stopping caressing his hand.

"Gh... Are you serious? I- agh... You barely know me. Plus... ah... I only brought you problems, first-... First my grades, now this..." the short boy panted out, tightening once again the grab on his hand.

"The fact I barely know you doesn't makes you less important, you muffin." he replied, restarting to caress his hand. "I won't let you fight whatever your fighting alone, Zak." he continued, finally finishing to medicate the wound. "As I said, I'm here for you, and I always will."

They looked each other in the eyes, silently, still holding hands.

"I feel like you deserve to know that I'm not a good person, Darryl." the Junior quietly murmured, slipping his hand away from his grip.

"I don't care at all." he replied gazing at Zak's hand, then moving his eyes back to the wound, applying a gauze over it. "Get up, please." he asked kindly, smiling at him.

After letting out a small groan as the short boy helped himself getting up with his forearm, he silently followed Darryl movements who started bandaging his waist, securing the end of it.

"Done." the Senior smiled satisfied, looking up at Zak. "How are you feeling?"

"Way better. I... I have no idea how to thank you..." he murmured, looking down at the floor.

"You don't have to, ok?" Darryl reassured, smiling. "Now go home, you should get a good rest, you look really tired."

"Huh? And the lesson?" he asked in a single voice crack, frowning.

"You're literally about to fall asleep, Zak. Stop treating me like a stupid." he kindly replied, adjusting his glasses.

"You're right, sorry." he murmured giving in, scratching the back of his neck. "Uhm, can I ask you your number?"

Darryl cheeks restarted burning, caught off guard by his unexpected question.

"U-uh?"

"You know, I rather not communicate with pieces of paper." Zak pointed out, snickering.

"O-oh, right. Uhm," he nervously looked around, in search of something to write on.

"Here, write it down here." Zak said, giving his phone to the Senior.

"Oh, thank you."

Zak didn't understand why Darryl was so agitated about it, and ended up thinking he did something wrong to him.

"Here you go, you muffin." the Senior said, giving back the device to his owner. "Go home and rest, okay?" he smiled softly at the short boy.

"Alright." he replied hopping off the cot, grabbing his backpack and walking towards the door. "Thank you again." he said, turning in Darryl's direction as his and leaned on the handle.

The Senior widened his smile, tilting his head to the side.

"Stay safe. Ah! And call me if you need help or anything, okay?"

"Alright."the short boy answered again, smiling back.

For some reason, Zak felt the hurge to hug him.

"Bye." he greeted, opening the door and getting out only after seeing Darryl waving at him.

Walking out of school, the boy in blue couldn't stop smiling. The emptiness in his heart somewhat started to get filled without his acknowledge.

Zak vaguely felt something he didn't in a long time. He missed that feeling.

It was Hope.
Hope and affection.

Nonetheless, he couldn't help himself.

And his smile quickly faded away.

'I don't deserve this.'

[2714 words.]