Quick steps echoed against the walls of the tight hallway, framed by the dormitories doors all closed shut.
The blonde boy stared worryingly at the phone screen as he walked to his apartment, looking at the unreplied texts sent to Zak hours before.

'Oh my goodness, I hope he's not mad...' he thought, anxiously tapping his thumb on the side of the device.

It was almost seven and a half in the evening, it was already dark outside and the gray clouds covering the sunset threatened rain.

Darryl felt bad for how much that stupid inventory check took, and he would have been back way sooner if the librarian didn't ask for help too.
The incapacity to say no to others was something really bothering, that would often trap him in unpleasant situations, especially when he would do something for his classmates such as homeworks and projects.

Once in front of his dormitory door, he tucked the device into his hoodie pocket accompanying the gesture with a light sigh. He took out from the opposite pocket a bunch of keys, and tucked one of them into the lock, quickly unlocking the door and entering the apartment.

"Hey, I'm back, little muffin!" Darryl announced closing the door behind him while taking off the black jacket he was wearing. "I'm so, so sorry I took this much, but..." his voice faded away as soon as his eyes landed on a cyan sticky note on the kitchen fridge feet away in front of him.

Frowning, the tall boy found himself unable to move, stunned by that single small piece of paper.

"Zak?"

Silence welcomed his words once again.
Knowing that the only answer to why the short boy wasn't answering was most likely written on the sticky note, way too far from Darryl, somehow kept his shoes glued on the ground.

After taking a deep breath, the blonde boy approached the fridge, freezing once close enough to understand the messy words written on the cyan sheet.
As soon as realization hit him, Darryl's eyes opened wide while in a quick motion he grabbed his phone back out of the hoodie's pocket.
His thumbs danced quickly on the screen dialing Zak's number, and after pressing the green dot on the display, the blonde boy brought the device against his ear.

'C'mon, Zak... please, pick up...' he begged in his thoughts, anxiously walking in circles as the regular beeping didn't stop.

At the last second, the call got accepted.

"Yo, with who am I talking to? I have no idea who's phone is this." a clearly drunk guy asked lengthening every single word spoken, ending his sentence with a sick laughter.

The screams and loud music in the background bumped into Darryl's hear, causing him to slightly distance the phone from his ear.

"Oh my goodness... Hi, this is Darryl. Why do you have Zak's phone?" he anxiously questioned, stopping his hectic walk.

"Uh... I dunno, It was on the kitchen counter, your friend is dumb." the boy replied, chuckling at his own words.

"Gosh, do you know who Zak is?" Darryl asked while putting his jacket back on.

"Uh... you mean Skeppy?"

"Yes, exactly."

"Duh, of course I do" he answered with an annoyed tone of voice.

"Good, do you know where is he?" the blonde boy asked, bringing his hopes up.

"Somewhere in the house, duh." the guy answered, with another laughter following his words.

Darryl gritted his teeth anxiously, feeling the blood boiling in his veins.

"It'd be way more helpful if I knew where, which house." the Senior muttered, about to lose his patience.

"Oooh, right..." his distorted voice lengthened the words even more than before. "I guess at Zelk's house, then... duh." his laughter got cut off by Darryl ending the call, already running down the building's stairs.

Luckily he knew that Jacob's house was just a few blocks away from the dormitories, on the east side of the small state, therefore the richest one. It was a total of about ten minutes journey.

The cold breeze of the early night slammed against his face as he ran down the streets, while his head filled up with bulky and bad thoughts on what Zak's condition could been.

'Zak, why? you said yourself that going to parties and getting drunk was stupid... then, why, you muffin top!?' Darryl screamed in his head, biting his lower lip nevertheless a familiar warm and iron flavored liquid started flowing in his mouth.

It wasn't raining, but the high humidity in the air made his breathing even more difficult.

'You keep talking and talking, but how much of what you say is true?'

After running through three blocks Darryl stopped abruptly, bending forward and leaning his hands on his knees, breathing heavily.
Trying to calm himself down he tilted his head up, letting his eyes wander around the fancy houses all around him in search of something that looked like a party.
As soon as he catched his breath, his heartbeat decreased allowing him to hear a soft and rhythmic bumping in the distance.

Without being able to think straight due all those thoughts in his head, Darryl restarted running, trailing on the firsts steps taken.
Once he turned the corner that led to the music, his eyes catched some faint flashing and colored lights filtering from the windows of a huge white house in the distance, surrounded by various motorcycles and cars badly parked on the sidewalk and forecourt.
Darryl took a deep breath and started running once again.

'Zak, please, be fine...' he thought as he stopped his race once in front of the residence.

The blonde boy walked up the front door stairs, avoiding the forecourt where a few boys and girls were laughing out loud, all of them clearly drunk.
As Darryl opened the door and stepped in the house, his nostrils filled up with the smell of alcohol, smoke and marijuana that created an unique stingy aroma, while extremely loud music blasted in his hear, it's basses caused his body to tremble; and the flashing lights made him squint his eyes as they were way more intense than expected.

'This is not good...' the blonde boy thought, unconsciously digging his nails onto his palms.

The inside of the house was mostly dark, almost solely lit up by the flickering and colored lights that defined all the teens' silhouettes as they all jumped along the wordless music.

Darryl felt an unusual and uncomfortable sensation in his guts, which made him even more nauseated.

Making his way through couples making out, drunk guys and such, the Senior ended up bumping into most of them, luckily not obtaining any reaction if not a distorted laughter.

An heavy weight on his chest kept increasing as he walked more deeper into the unknown house, seeing familiar faces all around him except for Zak's one.
Darryl got pushed and bumped from some guys running towards a crowd not too far from him and confused, he frowned in discomfort.

"I heard the french boy is kicking his ass!" a guy yelled as he passed in front of the Senior with his friend following him behind, joining the group of people clearly screaming encouragingly at something happening on the ground.

As Darryl's ears caught that phrase, realization rose a bitter panic that caused his body to shiver, and to that heavy weight pressing his chest to increase ulteriorly.

'Oh, no no no, please, no.' he begged in his head once again, feeling about to throw up.

After dashing towards where the crowd was concentrated on, the blonde boy made his way to the front of the group, discovering with an inconvenient relief that the two protagonist of the fight were Vincent and Harvey.

"Oh my goodness..." Darryl murmured at the sight of the blood on the boys faces and ground, his voice completely erased from the encouraging shouts from the audience.

Harvey reversed the situation, passing from being on the bottom to the top of Vincent's bigger body, starting to punch him repeatedly nevertheless the Junior blocked most of the Sophomore's attacks.

The french boy eyes that were shining with a familiar light of hate, anger and disappointment, drifted towards Darryl, meeting his gaze.
Flinching, the Senior quickly looked away, pushing himself through the crowd wanting to go as far as possible from him. He walked away, starting to wander around the giant rooms of the house again.

'Zak, where the muffin are you?!' he thought trying to ignore what just happened.

The blonde boy turned on himself tiptoeing nevertheless his height, hoping it would help, but ending up crashing against someone slightly shorter than him.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so so-" the Senior tried to excuse himself, getting cut off before being able to finish his phrase.

"The fuck are you doing here, nerd." that someone turned out to be Dave, who growled ominously at him only after turning away from the two guys he was talking to, pushing Darryl violently.

The sorry expression on the taller's face quickly faded into a defensive frown, leaving room for an unusual anger inside of him that made his blood boil.

"It's none of your business." he promptly replied, gritting his teeth anxiously.

"Oh yeah?" a grin grew on Dave's lips as he started getting closer to his classmate, causing him to back up.

Darryl gulped nervously as he kept taking small steps behind him, maintaining a straight face in a desperate attempt to hide how uneasy he actually was.

"You might be right, but, y'know..." Dave abruptly grasped the older's hoodie with one hand, slamming Darryl's back against the wall behind him. "In here we don't fucking want queers." he growled, and one of the two guys who were following the baseball player words and motions spat on the left shoe of the taller with a disgusted expression. "So, let me repeat my question:" he slowly got closer to his face, narrowing his eyes. "why the fuck are you here."

Struggling to keep up that unbothered face, Darryl felt about to explode.

"I'm here for Zak, once I'll find him, I'll leave." he replied to Dave's questions with reluctance, gritting his teeth together.

At his answer, on the baseball player lips reappeared a larger grin, and without moving his eyes and hand away from Darryl, he signaled to his friends to go away with a shake of his free hand.

"Well, if you say so, let's have a lil chat about him." he imposed, patting his chest two times after letting his hoodie go. "I know you know about his physical conditions, so, for once do something useful and make him quit the team."

Stunned by his request, Darryl shook his head slightly and frowned even more.

"What? Why would I? Baseball is his life, and it's a choice that belongs to him." he muttered in reply, narrowing his eyes.

"He collapsed two fucking time last training and other two the session before. He's ruining himself this way, do you even realize it?" Dave angrily retorted, slightly tilting his head up to appear more intimidating.

"What?"

"Yeah, you heard me." he reassured him, nodding slowly.

"He's recovering, trust me." the Senior murmured, cleary hurt from that information.

"He's not, god damn it, can you even fucking hear me you faggot?" Dave snapped, hitting his chest with the back of his hand.

In confusion, Darryl stared speechless at his peer, trying to process what was happening.

"I..." he started, frowning. "I really don't understand if you're actually concerned about Zak's health or if all you want is just him leaving the team for the leadership, to be honest."

"Isn't it obvious?" the shorter asked raising both his eyebrows with his lips forming another grin; leaning then back close to Darryl's face. "I couldn't care less about Zak."

"Then get off my face." he blurted out in reply pushing Dave away from him, feeling his anger quickly taking over his common sense.

"You son of a bitch-"

Seconds after Darryl got violently slammed and blocked against the wall behind him, and a sharp object poked his throat. Dave eyes, just a few inch from his face, full of rage met the taller's, but as soon as he tried to open his mouth ready to threat him, someone stepped in preventing that action.

"What the fuck is happening here?" a horribly familiar voice to Darryl asked, causing to Dave to abruptly turn his head towards the owner. "Put that fucking knife away, you crackhead." tje deep voice added, clearly annoyed.

Darryl wasn't able to move his head until the angry baseball player removed the knife from his throat with an enraged huff.

"The fuck do you want, Clay." Dave blurted out after pushing himself away from the blonde boy, angrier than before.

The name pronounced by him felt like a stab in Darryl's heart, leaving the boy without the ability to remove his eyes from the ground for some second.

'What?'

He forced himself to verify.
His eyes widened as they landed on Clay.

"You..." frowning, Darryl muttered that phrase that came out with a hatred never heard before.

The boy by the dirty blonde hair moved his glance away from Dave, looking at him. A smile, with a imperceptible not of nervousness, grew on his lips.

"Long time no see, Darryl."

Unpleasant memories took over the Senior's thoughts, increasing his need to throw up.

Clay quickly looked back at Dave, nodding as a signal to leave them alone, receiving a confused but pissed look from the player that walked away with another huff.

"I can't believe you had the audacity to show up again." his deep voice admitted, while he got closer to Darryl. "Did you miss my face? Or maybe you preferred the one full of wounds, blood and bruises you left me with two years ago?" he teased as he stopped in front of him.

"Shut the fuck up." he replied grudgingly, narrowing his eyes with disgust.

"Or else? I'm not scared of you anymore. Not even after what you did to me, Darryl." Clay's eyes narrow in turn.

"I just want to take Zak back to the dorm, that's it. Leave me the fuck alone and you'll never see me again." Darryl muttered, making clear his intentions.

"Oh, Zak you say?" he asked with fake surprise, smirking back right after. "He might be a little... Intoxicated, right now."

The one getting slammed against the wall was Clay this time, by Darryl who angrily grabbed his jacket and slightly lifted him up from the ground.

"You better not be the fucker who sells that shit to Zak." the Senior growled to his face, narrowing his eyes even more.

"I don't know what are you talking about." he innocently replied with his grin widening as it was something funny.

"I'm not gonna play one of your stupid games again, Clay." Darryl muttered after smashing the boy's back against the wall again.

"Woah, you really didn't change a bit from last time, did you?" he asked, shaking his head slightly as his movements were restricted from Darryl's grab on him.

"Shut, the fuck, up."

The grin on Clay's lips disappeared, giving room to a serious expression.

"It's been almost two fucking years, and I should be the angry one, here." he pointed out, narrowing his eyes.

"Don't you fucking dare." Darryl's grab tightened on his jacket. "Don't even try to turn this around on me. You backstabbed me. You betrayed my trust. You were my fucking everything, Clay. And you played with my feelings." he stared at him with eyes full of grief and hate, staying silent as he was trying to reorganize his thoughts. "You literally almost killed me. You permanently ruined my life. And you're ruining Zak's just for fucking money. Now tell me, should you really be the angry one?"

"What the fuck are you talking about, Darryl?" he asked in a frown, shaking his head again. "You beat me half to death. I'm not the pussy who blamed others for his suicid-"

The Senior hands let go Clay's jacket both closing into fists, and seconds later, one of them hit the shorter face at full speed. Darryl stared at him, feeling sicker and sicker at every second passing.

'Oh my gosh, not again. Please.'

Clay stared at the floor for some second as a distorted grin grew on his lips, then he started laughing.

"Yeah, that's what I thought..." he murmured, nodding as he looked back up at Darryl. "You missed the feeling of your fist hitting my face, didn't you?"

'No, please.' he begged, not able to control his body anymore.

"I can see the desire to hit me again in your eyes..." he continued, scoffing.

'Please. Stop it.' his hands closed into firsts again.

Clay walked closer to him, then stopped and tilted his head to the side. "Maybe it's best for you to go home and go cry to your aunty." he brought one hand on his mouth simulating a surprised gasp.

'Don't.'

"Oh, right, she disowned you! How silly-"

Grasping his jacket, Darryl pushed the younger on the ground, getting on the top of his body.

«They're not judging you because you are younger than them,»

He immobilized Clay on floor with one hand on his chest, raising a fist in the meantime, ready to hit him again.

«they're afraid of you because you're smarter than them.»

His arm stopped, leaving the shaky fist still in the air.
The flashing colored lights couldn't reach Darryl's face, neither did the flash of the phones of the crowd formed around the two, leaving his expression hidden in a dark shadow.
Clay didn't oppose any resistance, he just stared at the boy on the top of him with a satisfied smirk printed on his lips.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I thought." he murmured, shaking his head slightly.

Several hands grabbed Darryl arms from behind, trying to pull him away from Dream.

"Still the same sick monster of two years ago."

Yanked and getting dragged away, the Senior stared blankly at Clay, unable to move his dull eyes off him.

"What the fuck is he doing here?! Get him out, now!" a familiar high-pitched voice shouted, somewhere in the crowd.

That was the last thing Darryl heard before the music, the screams, and every single noise around him became muffled. He blankly stared at an inexistent something in front of him as the two people who immobilized his movements brought him towards the exit.

"Don't even try to show up again, nerd." an unknown voice growled at his hear before pushing him down the front door stairs, making him trip and crash against the cold and wet grass.

The light rain slowly soaked Darryl's clothes as he didn't move from the ground.

'Zak...'

He forced himself to get up, failing the firsts attempts.

"Zak..."

His dull emerald eyes landed on the closed door as he stood up.
And like in a film scene, it opened.

'What?'

Vincent was the one who opened it, he had Zak, who didn't look good at all, on his back, his short arms swinging down the slope of the french boy's neck. The Junior glared at Darryl with eyes still full of contempt, his face was full of bruises and semi-dry blood from the previous fight.
He stepped down the stairs visibly stumbling, then let Zak off his back, wrapping one of his arms around Darryl's neck.

Without saying a word, Vincent walked back up to the front door, about to get back to the party.
Darryl pulled Zak closer to himself, without looking away from the french boy.

"Vincent, wait-" the Senior tried to stop him, obtaining an harsh response.

"No, don't even fucking try." he blurted out, stopping and just turning his head slightly to the side. "Go away. I just want you two as far as possible from here. From me."

Frowning, Darryl stayed silent, staring at Vincent as he wiped some of the blood under his nose with the back of his hand before getting back inside the house, slamming the door behind him.

In a second, Darryl's attentions transferred on the drunk boy in his arms, that seemed about to pass out.
He didn't looked physically hurt, but still, he clearly wasn't able to walk.

Sighing, Darryl lifted the Zak's body up in his arms, his heart getting stabbed as he felt how light he was.

The short boy head rested on his chest and incomprehensible murmurs would come out from his mouth time to time as Darryl started walked down the streets to the dormitories, without saying a single word.

In the middle of the journey, Zak head titled up, brushing against the Senior's bust.

"Darryl..?" he called as he weakly leaned one hand against Darryl's cheek, causing him to flinch. "You're crying..." with a gentle movement of his thumb, he wiped a tear away.

"Oh my goodness..."

Once Darryl realized he really was, he stopped walking and let the short boy sit down on the sidewalk, turning his back on him to quickly wipe the tears away.

"I'm fine," the Senior reassured, turning back towards Zak with a fake smile printed on his lips. "as always."

"Is it because of me?" he insisted, frowning weakly.

Without answering, the blonde boy stared at him with discomfort.

"Darryl?" the short boy recalled his attention, tilting his head to the side. "I want..." he corrected himself with a chuckle. "I need to tell you something.. I'm sure it'll make you feel better!" he exclaimed, opening both his arms and giggling a little.

"What is it?" Darryl asked after hesitating way too much.

"Come closer, it's a secret!" he specified, pressing a sleeve against his mouth as he snickered.

With an uneasy feelings that caused his guts to twist, Darryl crouched in front of Zak, leaning his hands on the Junior's knees.
On his lips grew a sincere and unexpected smile as he meet the emerald eyes of the Senior.
Darryl could hear his heart explode in his chest, not able to think, move nor say something.

The stingy, alcoholic and warm breath of Zak slammed against his lips as the younger got closer to his face.

"The secret is..." he whispered, letting his eyes drift away from his eyes.

The short leaned in even more.

Their lips collided together into a light kiss.

"I love you."

[unedited, 3915 words]
>>>>IMPORTANT A/N sorry :(<<<<

just want to let you all know that I'm taking a pause from writing to edit and improve all these twenty-five chapter i wrote so far :)

sorry to leave you all on this cliffhanger, but i really cant keep going, my already bad anxiety is getting worse and i cant get over how bad my previous chapters are :')

also would you guys be interested in a little Q&A in the next chapter? :0
let me know!

i- i really can't thank you all enough for everything.
your love, support and funny comments helped me through this really, really dark period I've been in for years.

lets say i might finally see a small light.
hopefully it's the end of this dark tunnel and not a firefly.

thank you guys.
i love every single one of you immensely.

<3