Aboulomania [Skephalo]

a) Chapter 16

Darryl's POV

It was Nick and Karl, sitting together on a bench near a small ice cream store. Karl was laying his head on Nick's left shoulder and holding his waist for support, or even comfort. Nick, however, was leaning his head on Karl's and had his hand on his thigh, carelessly scrolling on phone. His serious face and Karl's calm face, both completely unbothered by their actions.

It was cute, but were they dating now?

"Are they dating?" Zak asked.

"I don't know, but you can't tell anyone you saw this, alright?"

"Sure, but why? We know though so why does it matter now?"

"Well I already knew, but Nick doesn't want the word out just yet, so please..."

"Of course!"

I wanted to confront the cute "couple" but decided to not disturb them. Zak started walking ahead and so did I, but Nick's head lifted up. His face turned pale and he looked terrified, but he relaxed once he figured out it was just me. Karl however, didn't take it too well. He saw me and realization kicked in and his head shot up, you could tell he was panicking just by looking at him.

I decided to leave now and looking back, I saw Karl still freaking out but Nick held his face and must have said something to comfort him. My mind was screaming.

Oh my goodness, they're so cute!

I smiled to myself and my eyes shut a little bit.

"Bad, come on! We gotta keep shopping and stop staring at couples!"

"Ugh, coming... Wait what?!"

I only got giggles as a response.

I caught up with the short one and walked into another store. This time it was filled with clothes. I explained to Skeppy a few examples of what our friends might like, and the store was filled with various options. We split up once again checking out different designs on clothing.

I saw a couple of things I kinda liked but I needed to save some money for my friends so I continued on. I came across this white hoodie with a small smiley face on the upper right side.

"It's perfect!" I and someone else said at the same time, we both grabbed it, too.

It was just Skeppy.

"I grabbed it first!" He said, tugging at it.

"I saw it first!" I fought back.

"You already bought a gift for someone so I get this one!"

"No, but I think this one is perfect for Clay and I think I should be the one to give it to him!"

"But I have no gift!" He whined.

"...Okay look. What if we pay half and half and we BOTH give it to him. Hm?"

He gave me a long death stare but then agreed.

"Fine." He snatched it from me and walked off.

"Hey!-"

"I'm just going to go pay for it!" He shouted behind him. I growled to myself but proceeded to follow him. We both paid and headed out of the colorful store.

"Should we meet up with the others and have lunch?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of hungry," He said quietly.

"We didn't finish shopping though." He looked at me.

"We can continue shopping afterward and just hide the gifts when we're eating."

"Alright, and just give them the gifts when we leave the mall?" He asked joyfully.