𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 || 𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐨

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.

as much as he hated to admit it, there was absolutely no doubt that zak liked darryl. yes, like that. he didn't want to. he had no idea how it happened. but it did. it was there, and now it was painstakingly obvious.

he picked up every tiny action of his. the way his face would heat up when the two made eye contact, the way his voice seemed to crack slightly when he spoke, the way his heart would race when darryl even smiled at him. he was in deep, and he had no idea what to do.

he'd never been in this position before. he never spoke to anyone. he tended to keep to himself, so there couldn't have been any way he'd develop a crush on someone before. what was he even meant to do?

he still wanted to be friends with darryl. there was no questioning that. darryl was his best friend. the best friend he could have possibly asked for. he wouldn't change that for anything in the world. but what was he supposed to do now? what do people do when they have a crush? what does that even really mean?

he was overthinking again, as he usually did. this time was different. something had changed. as he lay in his bed, hugging a pillow to himself under the covers, he thought of darryl. what if he was hugging darryl right now instead of this pillow? what if he was resting his head not on a pillow, but on darryl's chest? listening to his heartbeat and shallow breathing as he slept? wouldn't that be nice?

where was this even coming from?

it was as if zak finding out that he had a crush on darryl opened this floodgate of new emotions and thoughts that he'd never had before and, quite frankly, found awfully weird. he'd never thought this way about anyone before, and he most certainly was not used to it, nor would he be used to it anytime soon.

what was he going to do? he had no idea what people do when they have a crush on someone else. and he didn't exactly have any friends to confide in about it either.

he had darryl, but that was going to be a bit of a problem.

ask him out? no, that was the most ridiculous thing that zak had ever thought of.

and who's to say that darryl even liked him back? that was also kind of a huge problem.

he sighed and pulled the pillow tighter to his chest. maybe he could just...forget about the whole thing for now, deal with it some other time. yeah. it's not like he had to deal with it right now. he had plenty of time. maybe if he put it off enough he could just...forget about it completely. yeah, that seemed like a pretty good idea. he shut his eyes and tried to clear his mind of all of the ridiculous thoughts he'd been having for the past hour and a half. maybe now he could get a bit of sleep.

⊱ ────── {⋆❉⋆} ────── ⊰

"wha--? where did that banana peel come from?"

zak giggled uncontrollably as his little cart zoomed past darryl's, which was spinning rapidly on the track. zak wasn't the best mario kart player ever, but darryl had managed to encounter so many banana peels and blue shells that zak somehow overtook him and took first in the race.

"guess you should have been paying more attention," zak teased, looking over at darryl who was pouting playfully, slumped back against the frame of zak's bed. he brought his knees up to his chest, resting his arms on them and looking over at zak, who was sitting on the floor next to him.

zak quickly averted his gaze back to the television screen.

"oh, you're just lucky. i totally could have beaten you," darryl insisted.