"Grand slam by our number fourteen! There's actually a chance of winning this match now! We're back in the game, boys!" a cheerful young voice shouted through the amplifiers, followed by raising screams and yells caused by the fans on the stands, who all stood up simultaneously jumping and fluttering their flags.

Zak jogged towards the last base gradually gaining speed and did a somersault on it, opening his arms wide towards the stands right after, as he always did after every good action.

His eyes didn't even bother to navigate through the excited sea of people jumping on the stands, as they usually did, but immediately landed on Darryl, who was smiling proudly at him while shouting cheerfully along the crowd.
A real and genuine smile grew on the short boy's lips, who got wrapped by his teammates arms without notice seconds later, making him panic inside, but giggle on the outside.

"You did it Skeppy!" the asian sophomore shouted, followed by other congratulations from the other teammates.

"I told you, Harvey!" Zak replied, chuckling at one of the boys messing his hair up.

The Junior hated being touched and especially hugged, the fact that multiple people were doing so was doing nothing but making him feel sicker at every second passing.
Human contact was something Zak struggled with for all his life, it made him feel caged, suffocated and... contaminated.
The only person he was able to be with, free from those bulky feelings, was Darryl. He loved being wrapped in the Senior long and comfortable arms, burying his face into his chest filling his nostrils with his sweet and soft scent, and... god, he loved the feeling of his slender fingers running through his hair.

Zak kept questioning himself why he felt that way only with Darryl, and never found an reasonable answer.
The lack of understanding on what he was feeling, built up a lot of confusion and insecurity, getting worse as time passed.

"Alright guys, let's destroy their asses for real, this time." Skeppy exclaimed, looking up at his teammates who were still hugging him. "We have one last inning, we can do this!"

The boys cheerfully shouted in agreement, and unwrapping their arms from Zak's shoulders, they jogged towards their defensive positions on the field, while the Junior stayed still, glaring at Dave and Finn which stared with despise at the small group for the whole time, while standing as far as they could.
Thinning his eyes at them and turning on himself on the opposite side, he looked at Darryl once again, not sure what he was expecting to get.
The Senior started to gesture with his hands as soon as Zak's eyes landed on him, widening his sweet smile.

«You're doing amazing.» he said through the sign language, giving him two thumbs up once completing the phrase.

The Junior couldn't help but smile at the Darryl's sweetness, it was incredible how he would always find a way to make him feel better, and especially, appreciated.
Nodding in response at his signs, Skeppy turned on himself and got in position, ready to destroy the adversaries.

Somehow, Darryl made him forget about his father verdict, and it was much better that way.

'I'm gonna win for him.'

The opponent team gained four points, and managed to eliminate all of Zak's teammates, leaving them with a little to no chance of winning, since they were under of five points.

"Shit, this ain't going as I was hoping." the captain murmured to himself, waiting on the bench for his turn with the last teammate remaining.

Dave and Finn were always the firsts catchers, and Skeppy still wasn't able to tell if they kept getting eliminated purposely or not.
Still, he was way too stressed and overwhelmed to care about it, but he would for sure take actions if that game would end up with a defeat.

"Skeppy?"

"Yeah?" he replied to the asian boy, turning his head towards him.

"Mind if I ask what happened exactly with Dave and Finn?" Harvey asked, resting his chin on the hand leaned on the bat handle.

Zak stared at the Sophomore for a few seconds, groaning lightly before answering properly.

"Look, I don't wanna be mean or anything, it's really none of your business." he answered, letting out a long sigh and looking back in front of him. "Don't get involved in this shit, they're acting like fucking preschoolers over a stupid thing."

"Oh, I hope things will resolve soon, then." Harvey replied smiling lightly, moving his eyes back on the field right after.

'Yeah... I hope so too...'

"Let's go Harvey," Zak's incited, laying one hand on the Sophomore's back and gently pushing him. "I want a home run!" he shouted, getting a grin from Harvey, who turned quickly his head towards him before getting in position, in reply.

Clank.

Skeppy hopped off the bench followed by the reserve who was sitting beside with him, both looking with dropped jaws the ball flying, waiting for it to surpass the fence before jumping and yelling excitedly at Harvey's first home run ever.

"Let's fucking go!" the captain shouted along the crowd behind him, raising a fist in the air. "Dude, I called it!" he yelled at the Sophomore running in the distance, who started going through the bases backwards so he could look at Zak with the happiest grin he ever saw.

"Only one point under everyone, with Skeppy, our number fourteen, ready to go, we are going to win for sure!" excitedly stated commentator through the amplifiers.

And that was where Zak anxiety peaked dangerously, overwhelming him in a two seconds span.

'I managed to get eliminated for four innings in a row, what exactly makes them think we're gonna win thanks to me?' the captain thought, masking his insecurity to perfection with a grin, as he always did.

Glancing behind him while walking towards home plate, he got welcomed back by Darryl reassuring smile, his hands started dancing in the air once again.

«You got this, little muffin.»

Feeling an unusual energy filling up his body, Zak smiled warmly in reply, and rotating his bat in his hands, he got ready. His eyes were pointed on the ball in the pitcher's hands, while the cheers, the voices and every other audible sound, became muffled due the captain's concentration.

The pitcher threw the ball.
It brushed against the bat, but proceeded to fly behind Skeppy.

"Strike one!"

'Fuck.'

The one deep breath he took, soon became two, then three.
His heart was exploring in his chest over a stupid game.
Over everyone's eyes pointed on him.
Over his popularity.

Was it even worth it?

The pitcher threw again.

Clank.

His shoes slammed against the sandy floor quickly and rhythmically raising a light cloud of grit behind him.
Zak couldn't do anything but run as fast as he could, unable to think of anything else but reaching the last base.
The crowd was going crazy, but right after Skeppy surpassed second base, the shouts got more and more intense.
Searching for the ball with his eyes, panic increased realizing they were about to block last base.

'Shit, I'm not gonna make it.'

He wasn't close enough.

'I'm not gonna make it.'

Zak threw himself on the ground in a desperate attempt to reach out to the last base.

'I'm not gonna make it.'

His body slammed against the sandy floor sliding for a few inches, his arm stretched in front of him.
The ball impact against the third baseman's mitt produced a muffled thud.

Silence reigned for s second that seemed to be a whole minute.

"Skeppy did it! We won everybody!"

Panting heavily, Zak slightly raised his head, feeling with his hand the irregular texture of the plastic of the third base, and sighing heavily in relief, he turned on his back, raising a fist in the air in sign of victory.

'I did it...'

A crowd formed by girls surrounded stiflingly Skeppy and Harvey, blocking the hallway right outside the men's dressing room. All Zak wanted to do was to go away, celebrate for the double victory of that night with Darryl, and chill with him on the rooftop of the dorms building.
The senior said to him through sign language to look at his phone where he texted him about his father, since Callahan called him to communicate the verdict during the last inning, and he also added he was going to wait for him outside the locker room.

Tiptoeing, Zak tried to see through the crowd for the tall and familiar figure of Darryl, and after spotting him in the distance only after a few seconds of struggle, a smile automatically grew on his lips.

"Yo, Harvey," the captain said getting back on his feet, turning towards the Sophomore. "I'm gonna leave these chicks all for you, enjoy." he murmured to his hear, messing his hair up and winking at him before excusing himself while slipping through the crowd.

Finally free from all that pressure and insistence from those mad fangirls, he took a relieved sigh and looked up at where he saw the blonde boy.
There he was, standing there patiently waiting for him with a welcoming and proud smile printed on his face.
They eyes met, and Zak not able to contain all that happiness, something he felt for the first time in ages, he literally threw himself on Darryl, wrapping his arms around him while squealing excitedly.

"I was right, you were awesome, little muffin!" the blonde boy exclaimed, hugging Zak tightly and turning on himself once. "And you're free now, it's finally over." he added, softening his voice.

"He's finally gone forever... I'm... I can't believe it..." the Junior replied with broken voice, pulling himself as close to Darryl's body as possible. "I'm so happy..."

"I am so glad you are, you deserve to be." the older boy replied, giving him a small kiss on the side of his head.

Zak slowly broke the hug, and once his feet touched the ground, he tilted his head down and quickly wiped his eyes with the uniform's sleeves.

"Aw, don't cry little muffin..." he leaned both hands on the short boy shoulders, arching his eyebrows.

"Don't get it wrong," he replied looking back up at him with a soft smile. "these are happy tears."

"Yo, captain," a teammate calmly approached the two boys before Darryl could say or do anything in response to Zak's words. "there's gonna be a party to celebrate, wanna come?"

Zak turned towards him, and his body stiffed up immediately at his proposal.

"Nah, I'm good, gonna pass this time." the Junior replied, lifting both his shoulders up. "Sorry."

"Alright, you're gonna be missed as fuck, man. If ya change idea ya know where to find us. See ya monday, then!" the boy greeted, waving at him while walking back from where he came from.

"Why didn't you accept?" Darryl asked as soon as Zak turned back towards him.

"Uh, let's say I have a lot of reasons not to go. Plus," he reached for the Senior hand, holding it without really realizing, and started to walk in the dorms direction with him. "I rather stay with you, chillin' on the rooftop together than with a bunch of drunk dudes and girls dancing over music I don't even like." he explained, shrugging lightly.

Darryl felt uneasy over his words.
Even more at him holding his hand out of nowhere.
For him, Zak's behavior was so confusing and... exhausting.
Trying to understand what the short boy felt for him was slowly draining his energies.

"Oh, okay."

A second before, he was distant and detached, while the second after he was loving and pleasingly clingy.

He was tired and confused over Zak feelings.

But, still, suppressing the need to kiss his soft lips, was slowly becoming unbearable.

And the truth was that

Darryl was secretly falling apart.

'Maybe I really am unlovable.'

[unedited, 2115 words.]

hi again, sorry for all these a/n, i hate them too.
I just really want to excuse myself for taking this long to update, but as some of you saw from my last announcement on my account, things aren't going well for me.

I'm going to change the update schedule once again, and from now on, I'll post only once a week.
I'm so sorry for this decision, but I'm overwhelmed with all these school and personal problems.

I love y'all sosososo much, y'all can't even imagine how fucking much.
thank you for all the support and love you're sending me.

have a nice night :) <3