"Wow, it really is far from yours." Zak murmured, turning the key in the lock pushing then the door open.

The short boy entered the apartment followed by Darryl, who stayed silent for the whole time.
Then, he threw with nonchalance the bag he had on his shoulder on the small couch, turning on himself to admire his new 'home'.
He glanced at the older boy who was smiling softly at his excitement, and stopped in the curtains, and after approaching and pushing them away revealing only a simple window, a disappointed groan escaped from his mouth.

"There's no balcony..." whined purposely overreacting, turning toward Darryl with an exaggerated pout.

"We are in the first floor, you muffin. What did you expect?" pointed out the older boy, chuckling softly at his acting. "But since you like balconies so much, if you want we can study where there's one, or rather at my dorm." proposed slightly widening his smile.

Realizing how bad he formulated the sentence way too late, Darryl's heart started racing.

"Wait, what? Really?" asked the short boy sitting on the backrest of the couch, his eyes fainly brightening.

"Of course! I'd rather stay away from the library since everyone has eyes on us, and especially on you. So, from now on, I repeat: only if you want, we can study together at my dorm." proposed smiling, totally not flustered.

Zak's eyes landed on his emerald ones, and after struggling to look away for some seconds, he ended up to abruptly turn his head in the opposite direction.

"That'd be awesome, thank you." murmured smiling slightly, tapping his fingers on the pillow. "If I ask Vin-" his heart ached, it was hard to process what happened between the two. "... If I ask Harvey, to tell me what they did today, will you help me with it?" asked while getting off the couch as an excuse not to look at him.

"Sure, when would you like to?" Darryl questioned a little concerned on his correction, searching for his eyes that got slightly hidden from his raven hair.

"Well, tonight? Since the average is now super high I rather start studying immediately." shrugged, tucking his hands in the Jean's pockets. "Also, I have training tonight, so it'd be better to study this afternoon already."

Darryl stared at him for some seconds before answering, frowning at his words.

"Zak... you really should rest. A lot of things happened this week, especially today. Plus, last night you barely slept two hours. I'm really worried for your mental and physical health, I won't hide it." admitted the older boy, arching his eyebrows into a concerned expression.

The short boy eyed at him, looking away immediately with a small shake of his head.

"I'm fine." Zak sighed, furrowing his eyebrows in turn.

"How?"

"'How' what?" asked now frowning, glancing at him.

"How can you be fine after what happened, Zak. There's no way you are." Darryl insisted, shaking his head.

"Don't worry about me, really." murmured concluding with a little scoff.

'It'd be a huge waste of time.'

"Do you really expect me to ignore your healt just because you say so, you muffin?" asked approaching him, then softly passing one hand in his messy raven hair, revealing his chocolate eyes.

"Whatever..." murmured, slightly moving his head away. "I really need to study, and you know it."

"Zak..."

"In one hour and half, then?" proposed with a fake smile, completely ignoring his concern.

"As you wish, little muffin." the older boy sighed, giving in.

"Perfect! I won't make you wait."

"Okay, I'll let the door open." said walking to the exit, sided by the short boy.

"Alright, see you later then." greeted, leaning against the open door, giving a small sincere smile at Darryl, who turned in his direction.

"See you later, little muffin." replied, smiling back before leaving.

Zak watched the older boy walk away through the long hallway for a pair of seconds before getting back inside his apartment.

He spent the next ten minutes unpacking his stuff, while thoughts inevitably got bulky and heavy in his head.

Closing the dresser stuffed up with his clothes, his eyes landed on the bed where the small black box he took from his old house was laying, and temptation dangerously increased.
Teeth gritted against each other, fists clenched.

'I have to get out of this addictions.' thought, shaking his head while taking the container, reopening the dresser and hiding it under a hoodie.

A sudden and unexpected loud sound from his phone broke the silence, making Zak wince and fall on the ground, instinctively protecting his head with his arms, panicking.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I won't do it again, I'm sorry! Please! Don't hurt me, please!" desperately begged crumpling up on himself, his voice muffled by his arms.

Heart exploding in his chest, pounding so strongly to hurt his hears, lungs hurting at every breath and body trembling insanely, that's all he could feel and hear.

"Please! Please. Please..." his voice started fading away, so did the sound, stopping after that interminable minute.

Silence came back as there never been a single sound.
Zak stayed on the ground, hesitantly uncovering his face, scrambling heavily. Shivering uncontrollably, he lifted his upper body up with the help of his forearm, dragging then himself towards the dresser that was behind him, and leaned his back against it.
He cupped his face in his hands, unable to regain control over his breathing, whimpering terrified.

'I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe.'

Sobs got stuck in his throat worsening the situation, his hands slipped on the sides of his head, nails dug into the scalp as his breathing wasn't improving.

"Please, please, please." wheezed, tears filled his eyes and fell down his cheeks.

'Darryl, Darryl please help me.'

He squeezed his eyes as much as possible, whimpering.

'Darryl.'

Widening his eyes he looked in front of him, at the chair. A jacket was on it. Darryl's jacket.
Zak hanged it on there before unpacking his stuff because it was way too hot to wear it.

'Darryl...'

Scrambling, he dragged himself towards it, barely able to lift his arm. His sight got blurry, yet, he managed to grasp the jacket. He let himself fall on the ground, weakly bringing the clothing again his face and body, hugging it.

'Darryl...'

His nostril filled up with Darryl's sweet scent. Tears soaked the jacket.
His body gave in, unable to keep him conscious due the lack of oxygen.

And once again, the pitch black he feared, swallowed him

Zak weakly opened his eyes struggling to focus the surrounding, getting hit by a massive pain in his head and chest right after.

'I passed out..?'

Groaning, he forced himself to roll on his back, squeezing his eyes at the sunbeams that overbearing entered trough the thin curtains.
He forced himself to get up in a sitting position, failing the firsts attempts before being able to.  Darryl's jacket was still in his hands, and sighing, he sank the face into it.
After a few moments, he tried to get up and stumbling dangerously, he layed a hand on the side of the face, massaging his temple while the other helped himself to stay stable using the desk.

"Jesus Christ..." groaned, squeezing his eyes as the pain increased.

He then remembered the cause of his panic attack, and eyed the bed where is phone was laying on.

'This is stupid.'

Staggering, he forced himself to walk and sit on the bed, grabbing then the cellphone.
His eyes got wide open as soon as the screen lit up, realizing how late it was.

"Shit." murmured, tight-lipped. "'I won't make you wait' my ass."

Looking quickly at the notifications on the screen, he spotted the call that triggered him, it was from Harvey, who wrote him a message right after calling.

Harvey :L (1 new message ◦ 1 hour ago)
yo man, i tried to call u cuz i thought it'd be faster to explain what we did today, but you didn't answer, so sorry if i bothered u ;_;
not sure what happened to u, but i sure hope u'll feel better soon :)!
< 14:03 pm

In the rest of the message, his classmate proceeded to explain the school arguments of that day.

After finishing reading, Zak thanked his friend then blocked his phone, throwing it on the other side of the bed while standing up, groaning at his head twining.

Without hesitating, he opened the dresser and took back out the black box, opening it.
The case contained four orange cylindrical containers, two packs of cigarettes and a plastic bag full of an unknown substance was folded on itself. Zak passed his and trough the oranges cylinders, stopping on one of them and pulling it out.
On the tag there was written 'hydrocodone', and two black stains covered the printed name and last name. He unscrew the white cap and shook the container until some pills fell on his palm.

'Whatever.' thought looking at the three pills now on his hand, bringing at his mouth, swallowing immediately.

He put the container back in the box, hiding it in the drawer again, then checked the time anew while grabbing Darryl's jacket and putting it on.
Hurrying out of the apartment, he locked the door and ran upstairs, anxiety pressuring against his chest.
For his misfortune, Darryl's dorm was a the fifth floor.

Finally arriving in front of Darryl's apartment, he anxiously knocked.
The door opened immediately, revealing the blonde boy with a welcoming smile printed on his face.

"'I won't make you wait', uh?" he teased, giggling softly.

"I'm so sorry, I swear to god, I didn't mean to." anxiously excused himself, looking down.

A hand kindly caressed the short boy head, messing his hair up.

"There's no need to worry, now that you're here." reassured him, smiling at him. "Did you get some rest, at least?"

"Kinda." lied, completely overwhelmed by the pain every inch of his body caused him.

'Jesus Christ, I should've taken more painkillers.'

"Better than nothing. Come in, you muffin." said sliding to his side freeing the way.

Zak entered the dorm, welcomed by a sweet scent of muffins and chocolate, but as soon as the door slammed close behind him, he yelped crouching on himself, covering his head with his arms once again.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry Zak! Are you okay?" anxiously asked, ducking beside the short boy, carefully laying on hand on his back.

The short boy stayed still shivering and struggling to breathe, taking a few of seconds before nodding blatantly lying, with his head still embed in the between of his arms.

"I'm so sorry Zak." murmured the blonde boy, caressing his back.

Still slightly struggling to breathe properly, he uncovered his head and wrapped his arms around Darryl neck, falling on his knees.

"I'm so sorry my little muffin, everything is okay. Nobody wants to hurt you, okay?" softly whispered in his hear, hugging him while caressing his back. "Everything is okay." repeated, feeling Zak's breathing slowly getting regular. "Everything is okay..."

"I'm sorry..." Zak murmured in a muffled and broken voice.

"No, don't do this. It's not your fault, okay?" Darryl broke the hug and carefully cupped the short boy face in his hands, making sure he would look at his in the eyes. "It's not. Don't let this unfair guilt consume you Zak, don't let it take control of your life. You'll regret it." he paused, trying to read the younger boy emotions through his eyes which went back at the same dull color as before. "It's not fair. It's his fault, not yours." laying his forehead against Zak's one, he sighed. "Don't do my same mistake."

Too bad people forget about those lost souls like Darryl.
Trying so hard to help others.

"Don't do it."

Unable to get help for themselves in the first place.

[unedited, 2000 words.]