With a muffled thud, Zak's hand smashed a couple of pieces of paper on the familiar dark wood desk, right beside the golden tag with the Principal's name and surname printed on it.

An annoyed and irritated glance from the middle-aged woman landed on the short boy's angry and hateful eyes.
Her expression quickly shifted after swiftly studying the sheets on the table, and with a small grin growing on her lips, she looked back at Zak, almost pleased.

"I'm so fucking done with this bullshit, you have to do something about it." the boy in black harshly spat, his fingers pressing against the multiple copies of several School Journals under them. "For real, this time." his eyes narrowed.

Scoffing at Zak's demand, the Principal smirked and leaned against the backrest of her giant leather black chair. She didn't even bother to hide how badly she was waiting for that moment, her malicious grin widened instead.

"They're just words, Carder. By now, you should be able to get over them, or am I wrong?" a hint of pleasure shone from her voice.

"Are you fucking okay in the head?" he retorted tight-lipped, tapping his index finger against his temple. "Darryl closed himself in his fucking room, both him and me got beaten up and threatened for this shit." his finger slid down his face and pressed on a band-aid, the one covering the cut Dave gifted him the night before. "If you haven't noticed."

The principal's hands connected, and so did hers and Zak's eyes. Hate shone through the short boy's ones.

He was done. Staying silent was no longer in his options.

"It's not my problem, Carder. After all, faggots like you two deserve this type of treatment." she stated, slightly rising his chin.

A wave of pure anger hit Zak.
Adrenaline took control over his body, causing to his legs to shake. He felt his heart exploding in his chest for how fast it was beating.
His knuckles turned white as his right hand clenched itself into a fist, trying to overcome the need to punch something. Or, in this case, someone.

A literal ticking bomb, about to explode at any given moment.
That was what he became.

"Shouldn't you have gotten used to getting beaten up, anyways?" the woman added before the short boy could reply, with her smirk widening. "I mean..." her eyes slowly ran across his face, from the scar on his cheek bone, to his bandaged neck.

Her words felt like a punch right in the stomach, leaving Zak without oxygen in his lungs.

"Are you fucking serious." the short boy slowly muttered, the rage in his voice marking every single word. The hand still pressing on the sheets on the desk closed into a fist too, violently slamming then on the wooden surface. "Are you fucking serious?!" he now shouted as he glared at her, eyes brimming with hate.

"Carder," the woman calmly recalled, lifting her chin up with superiority. "language and respect to your superiors." her eyes narrowed as she adjusted the extremities of her uniform in a quick and professional motion.

Zak frowned in disbelief at the Principal words, his open mouth moving without producing any sound, unable to express himself for a good moment.

"Respect?" he shook his head, scoffing at the old woman. "Are you actually fucking serious? You're talking about respect when you never, and I emphasize never, ever respected me. Never. Not a single fucking time in the four years I've been here in this shit hole you're so proud of. And really, you could be the fucking president or God itself and I still wouldn't give a single fuck about you being superior or whatever, because I'm so done with you being a massive bitch to me. You kept, and still keep fucking with my situation, teasing me and taking advantage of my trauma and past to put me down, and you perfectly know how close I am to going and try killing myself again." he leaned in, narrowing his eyes. "For the fourth time, I remind you." his voice broke at the end of the sentence.

The woman stared at him with a forced impassiveness, on the verge of failing to hide herself behind her usual severe and annoyed expression.

Before she could react, both Zak's hands, their knuckles white for how strong he was clenching them into fists, slammed once again on the desk with more violence, causing to a pencil holder to fall and roll on itself on the table.

His head, downward facing after the hit, slowly lifted up, reconnecting his eyes with hers.

"So," he continued, feeling a lump in his throat. Zak's eyes, despite being slightly hidden by his raven hair, shone with a surreal and intense hate. "before talking about how you deserve respect, learn how to respect others in the fucking first place."

Only then he realized he was out of breath, all because of the pressure against his chest increasing dangerously and the knot in his throat which was impeding the air from entering and exiting properly. Still, he didn't feel a ounce of guilt or regret for what he said and did.

The woman and the short boy stared at each other's eyes for a long moment. Silence towered over them.

"Carder," the principal started, the disgust and hate in her voice peaked meanfully.

Zak narrowed his eyes at her.

"you are suspended." her words came out raspy, each one of them stabbing the Junior's heart.

This time, his confident mask didn't let him down, hiding how badly hearing that phrase hurt him.

"I couldn't care less, you know why?" Zak asked leaning in, both his fists still on the table.

"Get out." the Principal spat with a hint of something different than the usual hate or annoyance in his voice, narrowing her eyes.

"Because I finally said you all you deserved to hear. Oh, wait, I almost forgot something I always wanted to tell you;" a sick smile grew on Zak's lips, causing to the plaster on his left cheek to crumple up. He leaned further in. "Fuck. You."

With a quick motion, he slid his hand on the papers under his hand, making them fly and fall on the woman.
She abruptly got up from his chair, gasping in disbelief, screaming at Zak shortly afterwards.

He already left the room without looking back, hearing only muffled yells behind him.

The short boy couldn't care less about the consequences.

All he cared about, was having Darryl back in his arms.

The late evening sunshines filtered through the french window, coloring the inside of the dormitory with a pleasant orange shade.

Tapering fingers brushed against the chords of the guitar on Zak's legs as he hummed softly a familiar melody.

Darryl's song.

Several people knocked at the door, shouting muffled insults and such, others simply wanted to know if the baseball leader was okay, but obviously they weren't there just for that.

Zak ignored every single one of them, without moving form beside the closed door of Darryl's room.
Passing the whole time like that; playing the guitar, thinking, and sometimes even talking to himself.

He didn't want to give up.

Things obviously started disappearing from the kitchen, so the short boy, even knowing that he wasn't a good cook, prepared something to warm up for Darryl to eat when he wasn't there. And it worked, surprisingly.

It was reassuring, since a lot of bad thoughts on the Senior's condition inevitably passed through his mind.

Zak sighed, resting the back of his head against the wall he was leaned on.

'When are you gonna come out, uh..?'

A rhythmic knocking came from the door, this time, it sounded familiar to the short boy, who frowned as he tried to dig in his memories in search of where he heard that melody from.

It insisted, knuckles hammered against the wooden surface repeating the same rhythm again.

"Uh?" he breathed, trying to concentrate on it.

Letting the guitar on the carpeted floor beside him, Zak passed a hand through his raven hair.

And again, the knocking came again.

'Jesus fucking Christ, the fuck is it?' the short boy thought as he stood up and stumbled to the door, trying to repress his anxiety quickly raising.

The small chain inserted in the door blocked it halfway its opening, framing the boys standing on the other side.

Right in front of him, there was Harvey, his fist still in midair ready to knock once again.
Beyond his shoulders, the short boy could see Mega leaned on the facing wall, his usual stoic expression printed on his face.

Zak frowned as he looked back at the the asian boy, and his grin quickly shifted into an awkward smile.

"What do you want." the Junior spat, leaning his shoulder against the door jamb.

"How nice and kind of you." Harvey pointed out after his rough welcoming. "We just wanted to know if you were okay-"

Without losing a second, Mega stepped into the conversation cutting him off as he walked closer to the two boys.

«You wanted to.»

"Bruh, the fuck?" his classmate frowned at the shortest boy once he turned in his direction. "You're literally the one who proposed this."

Mega hurried a quick scoff, rolling his eyes and stopping them on the ground. Harvey grinned at him adjusting his balaclava out of embarrassment.

"Anyway," the asian boy continued, drifting his attention back on Zak. "How are you and how's the situation? Did he come out?" he asked, trying to peak through the small hole on top of his head.

With a shake of his head, the older boy denied, causing to Harvey's excited and curious mood to die down.

"I'm sorry, dude. I'm sure that soon he will."

Before Zak could even react, Mega stepped into the conversation once again, with his usual inexistent delicacy.

«The fuck did you do to get suspended?»

'Fuck.'

"Yeah," Harvey glared at the shorter boy once again, elbowing him, then looked back at his friend. "what happened? People say you threatened the Principal, which sounds pretty surreal, not gonna lie; other say you simply told her to fuck off. Honestly, after what happened, I don't even know who should I believe to."

Hugging himself uneasily, Zak swallowed anxiously and broke the eye contact by looking down at the ground.

The asian boy immediately frowned at him, exchanging a quick glance with the shortest boy.

"Wait."

«Tragic.»

Without detaching his eyes from the older, Havrey gave a decisive elbow to Mega, receiving a pissed glare in exchange.

"It's true." Zak sighed, giving in. There was no need to hide what happened anyway. "I literally told her to fuck off. I'm sick of her fucking with me the whole time."

"Oh, my, god." Harvey murmured under his breath, letting his head fall forward.

The shorter boy facepalmed instead, not bothering to the slightest to hide his thoughts on Zak's actions.

"I don't know about you guys, but I deserve respect as much as she does." he spat in defense, crossing his arms. He looked clearly pissed by their lack of support.

"Well, don't get me wrong, but telling her to fuck off wasn't really the right thing to do, man. Like, if she kicks you out of the school, the fuck are you going to do?" the Sophomore pointed out with voice full of concern.

Silence and a quick mortified glance replied to Harvey's question, making him huff anxiously.

«For how much I hate to admit it,» the robotic voice from Mega's phone started, catching both boy's attention and eyes. «Mister I only get straight A's, is right. You gotta get your shit together, Zak. And, believe me, she's been a pain in the ass for me too for the two whole years I've been in this school. She's been telling me shit like 'Stop faking being mute and face life acting like a normal kid' and more, but I really can't even imagine what the fuck she told u; surely things way worse than mine. But still, as Harvey said, what you did and are doing, is dumb as fuck.»

Receiving two surprised stares in exchange, Mega shrugged and tucked his phone and hands back in his striped turquoise hoodie's pockets with nonchalant.

With a long and deep sigh, Zak nodded in agreement.

"You're right..." he murmured. His eyes fell on the ground once again as he slightly arched his eyebrows.

"Of course we are, Mister minus fourteen IQ." Harvey retorted with his grin growing back on his lips.

With an amused scoff, Mega rised a fist, getting fistbumped by his pleased friend right after.

In reply to their gesture and mocking, Zak frowned and crossed his arms again.

"You two really came here just for this?" raising an eyebrow, the short boy stared at them.

"Nah, we also wanted to ask you if you wanted to come over tonight, y'know..." Harvey rised two fingerguns as he talked. "Having a chill night with me and mega, with like, video games, films, junk food; we-" And once again, Mega cut him off.

«We want you to take a breath of fresh air.»

"Uh?" Zak frowned again, his eyes repeatedly jumping from a boy to the other.

"You need to get out of there and have some fun, Skeppy." leaning his forearm on the shortest boy shoulder, Harvey continued with an unusual reassuring voice. "We really want you to get your head off this shit for a moment."

The older boy stared blankly at him, with a hint of tiredness in his eyes.

«Okay, let's be real for a moment, Zak.» Mega somewhat looked severe despite his expression being the same as always. «It's not like Darryl will come out of there any faster because you're waiting for him right outside, actually, it's pretty much the opposite; he won't come out because of you being there.»

Despite that roughness could have been easily avoided, Harvey nodded in agreement.
And Zak expression, which shifted into another frown, let them know that realization made him grasp that what he was doing made no sense.

«So? You coming?» the static voice asked, while a grin grew under the light green balaclava of the shortest boy.

After a long stare, the short boy closed the door on his two friends face, the chain clanged as it swang against the wooden surface on the opposite side.

Harvey and Mega exchanged a confused glance, standing still in their positions.

Shortly afterwards, the door opened wide, this time without the small chain blocking it.
Zak leaned his shoulder against the door jamb. He changed himself into a new hoodie, still black and with red stripes on it, and a dull grey jacket; both of them obviously belonging to Darryl.

The two boys smiled, understanding his obvious intentions before he could even let them know.

"Alright," a grin grew on his lips. "I'm down."

"Oh, my, God." Zak exclaimed with disbelief as he looked at his computer screen with wide open eyes. "This guy had a diamond sword with sharpness four and fire aspect two?! What?!" his voice cracked multiples times, making his excitement even funnier. "Jesus Christ, I also nearly have full diamond. I'm legit stacked for my entire life, dude!" a soft giggle followed his statement.

"Bruh, how?! I'm barely full iron!" with a huff, the asian boy frowned at his laptop. "These UHC are going so bad for me, I'm doing terrible."

It's been around four hours since the three boys have settled themselves comfortably in the living room of Harvey's house. His parents weren't home, luckily.

The television quietly played in the background even if all of them were too focused on the game on their laptop.

It was late in the night, and the only sources of light were the computers and the flat screen attached to the wall.

Zak was sitting on the ground with crossed legs, his device on the small glass table in the middle of the room, while Harvey faced him on the other side.

In the meanwhile, Mega, that died from fall damage in the match and used the typical lag excuse, was making popcorn for everyone.

"Let's make some other gapples, juuust like sooo..." the older boy detached his eyes from the laptop and glanced at his friend. His grin grew wider as Harvey intercepted his mocking glare.

"Bro, stop." he frowned at him giggling at his response, then looked back at his screen. "It's been years since last time you played, how the fuck are you still this good?!"

«It's just the typical noob luck.» the shortest boy stepped him, walking into the room with a giant bowl of popcorns in one hand and his phone on the other.

"Shut up- Oh!" Zak retorted, stopping himself as he spotted Harvey in the game. "Look who I found, a full iron noob!"

"Oh boy, hell no! Go away! Leave me alone!"

Mega put the bowl in the middle of the table with no delicacy and let himself fall beside the older boy, enjoying the show while munching on some popcorn, slipping them under his balaclava.

"Come here!" the short boy hummed and giggled as he tried to catch up to Harvey.

"Alright, I'mma bow you to death, then!" he retorted, eating a golden apple before turning towards him and starting to shoot, without missing a single hit. "Bow time!"

"Ow, stop! I'm not even taking any damage!" Zak whined, his finger pressing frantically on the mouse as he tried to hit him.

"Oh god, oh boy, three hearts-" he turned on himself and ran away, regretting his choice immediately. "Oh god!"

Both boys eyes opened wide as they both found themselves falling down a ravine. As usual, Zak screamed loudly, while Harvey just bursted out laughing, accepting his fate, unlike him.

"No! I don't have a water bucket, no!" he whined noisily at the red screen that signaled his death, covering his face with his sleeves. "I didn't have a water bucket!"

The other two boys were laughing out loud at him with almost tears in their eyes, both on the ground.
A scene like that was something surreal for Zak.
Him, laughing with two old friends over a stupid block game.

He felt genuinely happy.

«Who's the noob that only dies from fall damage, now?» Mega's phone asked as he was still laughing in the floor.

"Still you!" the other two replied in unison, restarting laughing right after looking at each other in disbelief for the timing.

«I despise you both.» he retorted, crossing his arms but still unable to stop giggling.

"Jesus Christ, I haven't laughed this hard in years..!" Zak exclaimed after everyone calmed down a bit. "Thank you, guys."

"You're welcome, Zak." Harvey, still in the ground, turned his head in his direction and looked at him from under the table, grinning at him

«Cheesy noob.»

"Pft, shut up." the older spat, giggling softly at him.

"Skeppy?" the asian boy recalled, his expression turning somehow into a more serious one.

"Yeah?" he asked after turning his head in his direction.

"Will you be able to play homecoming's game?" a hint of worry shone from his voice.

Zak felt the other boy turning towards him as well, both their glances pointed on him. An anxious wait for an answer.

"I..." he turned his head, facing the ceiling. "Have no idea of what's going to happen after what I did, honestly."

Arching both his eyebrows, Harvey sighed.

"Can I be the one asking you a question, this time?" Zak moved his head back on its side, looking back at the asian boy and then at the other Sophomore. "To you too, Mega."

Shrugging at him in reply, the mute boy looked at Harvey along with Zak.

"Shoot."

"So... How... Do I actually know if I'm gay or... Bisexual?" he frowned uneasily, immediately looking away. "Like, how did you two figured it out?"

"Well, I always knew, somehow. Since I was five, I'd say." Harvey started to explain with his grin widening, as if he was about to tell a funny story. He brought both his hands on the back of his head, making himself comfortable. "I just accepted it once I started highschool, two years ago. Like, y'know, when you find yourself looking at girls in the hallways and be like 'Damn, she hot.' but at the same time, you inevitably look at boys and just go 'Damn, he hot too, tho.'; there's nothing you can do about it but accept it." a small chuckle escape from his mouth. "And embrace it."

Mega scoffed at his statement, clearly smirking behind his balaclava.

"What about you?" Zak quietly asked, turning his head towards the shortest boy.

He frowned at him for a long moment before taking his phone out and start typing. His thumbs frantically hitting the screen emitted a soft tapping noise, which didn't last long.

«Aroace stands for asexual and aromatic, which means I lack of romantic and sexual attraction. I always knew too, but at first I thought it was normal not feeling anything, that I was just too young to experience them; but then time passed and nothing changed. I just realized I never really desired a relationship in the first place, too. It's an hard concept to explain, and as you can tell, I literally suck at explanations.»

"It's okay. Thank you for telling me your stories."

"But, what about you, Zak? You didn't go into particulars." Harvey pointed out, turning on his side. If you're struggling to figure it out, we're here ready to help you." Mega nodded, agreeing with him.

At his friend words, on the short boy's lips grew a thankful but uneasy smile.

"Even after all I said about gay people..?" he dared to ask, still looking away.

"I'm one hundred percent sure that was internalized homophobia, lad. I used to be like that when I still was in denial, expecially when I was around homophobic people in the first place." the asian boy reassured, smiling softly at him.

«We all say a shit ton of things we don't really mean, in our life, don't dwell too much. You're fine.»

"Thank you again." he quietly thanked, smiling in turn.

"So?" Harvey pressed on him, now grinning.

"Uhm... I... Didn't really thought about it, y'know? Like... My father would always repeat me how I wasn't love worthy, and.. I ended up believing him. So, I never thought about love, loving and being loved, especially because nobody really catched my heart."

"Nobody but Darryl, right?" the asian boy dared to state, smirking at him.

Zak could feel his face heating up, and spontaneously brought the back of his hand in front of his mouth, muttering a quick 'Shut up.' in reply.

"But I'm right!"

"Yes, you are! Now shut up!" the short boy's voice cracked meaningfully as his face reddened up even more. "Still, I feel like... It's too late now."

"Eh? What do you mean?" frowning, Harvey exchanged a quick confused glance with Mega.

"Like, both of you always knew, and I'm here, still not knowing what I am..." his voice faded away, and he hugged himself in discomfort.

"Bruh. What you're saying it's fucked up, to be completely honest. There's no age to this shit, boomers might realize it now and they're still as valid ad me and Mega. Everyone's take theirs time. And, it's just a stupid label after all, Zak, it doesn't define who you are, okay?"

His seriousness quickly faded away, leaving room to his chill and crackhead vibes.

"So? What are you going to do with Darryl?" he continued, grinning.

"It's... Complicated, now. Because of me, he got outed and something really painful that happened in his past, came out and..." Zak let out a raspy sigh. "I'm pretty sure I fucked up again... This time, once for all."

"You didn't. Those fuckers of the School Journal did. On God, I'm going to flip if they write something more about you or Darryl."

«Same here.»

"Thank you guys, I really appreciate it, I really do, but I rather keep you two out of this." Zak uneasily objected, his eyes jumping from a boy to the other.

"Pft, ain't gonna let this shit happen again, just watch us."

«Zak, why didn't you ask Dream about what happened with Darryl?» the sudden question caused to a cold shiver to go down the short boy's spine.

Silence towered over the three boys for a long moment.
And after it, the two friends realized they weren't going to get an answer.

"Wait... You're-"

"Can we please not talk about that?" Zak immediately snapped, clenching his teeth. "Thank you."

After waiting a moment before talking again, Harvey sat up and rested his chin on his arms crossed on the glass table.

"Zak, do you really like Darryl?"

Frowning at his question, the short boy forced himself up, helping himself with his forearm.

"What?! Of course I do..!"

"Then don't give up on him already." Harvey never looked that serious. "Things are pretty fucked up at the moment, but just because it won't come easily, doesn't mean you shouldn't try."

Zak stared at his friend for a long moment, this time, his seriousness stayed.

«Y'know, the situation between you and Darryl reminds me of that old videogame called "Ilomilo".» the shortest boy sat up too, passing his eyes on the two friends. «The one where in each level you gotta make the two characters on the separate sides meet.»

"I... Don't get it." the Junior admitted, fidgeting with the hem of his sleeves.

With an annoyed huff, Mega quickly typed on his phone, leaning it on the table once done.

«I'm talking about the game plot; losing the one you love, and then finding them again.»

Harvey slowly nodded, agreeing with his words, while Zak kept staring at him without moving a single inch.

«The point is, teamwork is a must to pass each level. So, Zak, you can't expect to be able to magically fix everything by yourself, and at the same time, don't expect Darryl to everything alone too.»

"Wow." Harvey murmured, throwing a handful of popcorns in his mouth. "Why does this sound like something took off from Reddit under the slash "I'm fourteen and this is deep"?" he didn't bother to gulp down before talking.

In reply, Mega punched the table as he glared at him, feeling his nerd culture insulted.
Unable to contain himself, Zak burst out laughing, followed shortly afterward by Havrey.

«Wow. I'm tryna be helpful, here.»

After recollecting himself, the asian boy looked back at the oldest.

"Still, it's pretty scary how an aroace understands love more than us, to be honest."

"I know, right?" Zak giggled lightly, glancing at Mega. "But what he said it's true."

Harvey and the shortest boy smiled softly at him.

"I love Darryl with all my heart." he clenched his hand into his hoodie, right on the heart. "I love him so much that it hurts."

He smiled faintly.

"And honestly, it scares so much to think he may not love me the same way I do."

Zak was terrified of losing him with all himself.

"I don't wanna lose him."

Hadn't he lost him already, though?

[unedited, 4571 words.]