lovestar | skephalo

chapter 19 | performance

Darryl POV
My eyes catch every noise the clock makes whenever it moves a minute. click, click. I bit my bottom lip - causing it to bleed slightly. I won't be able to attend Zaks concert if I don't leave early, the concert starts at 5:00pm but I promised Zak I would come at 2:00pm.

So I need to leave school early.. but how? It's 1:25pm currently and I'm in Spanish class. The bell finally rings, we have 7 minutes to grab our books, go to our class and, go to the toilet.

Everyone sits up and grabs their books. Harvey (whose seated next to me) is confused, "Why are you in such a rush?" He chuckles. "Concert." I whisper, "But the concert doesn't start until 5?" He asks. "Yeah.. but I'm gonna go visit Zak before they perform." I tuck in my seat.

"Oh okay" He responds. I then leave Spanish class, Vincent is away again.. His girlfriend wants him to skip school and go girl shopping, or whatever that is. I walk down the hallway, it's crowded and I feel like from the corner of my eye, every one and every eye is watching me. Elbows brush against other until I'm finally at the school front desk.

"Hello Ma'am" I smile gently. She looks up at me, she has a work pin on her chest, 'Jane'

"What?" She speaks in an accent. "Can I call my guardian? I left my phone at home and this is an emergency." I lie. "Go ahead." She hands me a phone, it must be paid off by the school. I dial my grandmas phone number, it finally picks up. "Yes?" I hear her sweet honey voice through the speaker. I gulp, what do i say?!

Jane is looking up at me with weird, intimidating eyes. "Is the dog okay? Did he take his meds?" I fib, "Are you okay? We don't have a dog." My grandma speaks. "Okay I'll see you soon goodbye!" I then hang up the phone. "She says i could go home, my dog isn't feeling the best right now." I give back the phone.

It then goes silent.

"Okay?" She scoffs. "Can I go?" I respond, she nods, staff don't get paid enough. I grin awkwardly and she grins back; a few minutes later I'm out of the school, the cold wind hitting my skin. I check my watch, 1:32pm.

I have about 15 minutes to walk to the nearest bus stop, the bus arrives at 1:50pm. I plugged in my earphones into my phone and opened Spotify, I listened to my daily playlist and continued to walk.

~~~

When I arrived on the bus it's already 1:42pm.

You
Im on my way, it's a 50 minute drive z_z

Zak
I'll see you soon, I just finished changing, we're getting our hair and make up done now

You
Zak in eyeliner? 🫢

Zak
I don't know... maybe?

I blush, it would be funny of him to be wearing eyeliner- not in a rude way it would look nice, that's why it's funny. I turn off my phone and all of a sudden an elder woman come and sits next to me - I didn't realise the bus got that busy that quickly.

"May I sit here?" She asks in a British accent. "Yes you can." I smile. "School hasn't finished yet.. what are you doing here?" She asks, looking at my school backpack. I fake chuckle, "I had to leave early because of an emergency."

She then looks at me daringly. "Your lying."

"Fine.. maybe I am, I'm just going to a concert and- my friend is going." I admit. "Oh okay.. you only live once right" She giggles, "I'm going to my grandkids school play. He just turned 13 yesterday."

I nod.

The trip continues with us casual talking.

~~~

Third Person POV
Zak is getting his hair done. Slick hair gel running through the locks and strands of his black hair. All of a sudden someone knocks on his dressing rooms door; "I'll get it." Ant speaks - whose sitting on the couch behind me waiting for his hair to be done. Ant sits up at opens the door.

"Darryl." Ant smiles, with a hand on his hip. "Hey Ant! Zak wanted me?" Darryl walks inside. "Hey!" Zak turns around and waves. Zak's hair stylist twists his head, "Hello! You are?"

"I'm Darryl, Zak's uhm.." Darryl struggles to find an answer. "My assistant." Zak finishes for me, I smile and pretend to agree. "Great. You can sit down over there until Zak's finished." The hair stylist points - using his lips.

Darryl follows the instructions and sits down next to Ant.

~~~

"Are you ready?" Darryl yawns. "I'm literally freaking the fuck out." Skep puffs out - they're both sitting down on a black couch backstage. Their about to perform in an hour. "Your gonna be great." Darryl yawns again, "Sorry I'm a bit tired." Darryl chuckles. "Thats alright. You can lay your head on my lap if you want- sorry that sounded really weird. But I wouldn't mind." Zak blushes, embarrassing himself.

"Okay." Darryl looks around, making sure no one is around. He then lowers his head down onto Zak's lap, closing his eyes that could barely keep open. "I'm playing Cupids Chokehold at this concert- you know, the song I wrote. Before we would actually release it anywhere else. I wanted this concert to have something special." Zak looks anywhere except Darryl.

"That's nice. I'm sure they'd love the song." Darryl smiles. "Hey, are you okay? Like after the whole live thing that happened a while ago?" Zak looks down at Darryl's fluffy brown hair.

Darryl gulps as he hesitates. "I'm fine."

Zak mumbles a little 'okay' and continues to scroll through his phone. He then hears something thud onto the floor, something like a hat. He shrugs it off and hums - caressing and playing with Darryls brown hair. Darryl doesn't mind it. "You know, I skipped school today for this." Darryl mutters. "Thats unlike of you. Badboy." Zak chuckles.

Darryl pouts slightly in reaction. "I like your eyeliner." Darryl speaks up. "Thanks."

"I should be going now." Zak announces to the brunette a few minutes later. "Oh- okay bye!" Darryl sits back up, Zak standing up.

Darryls left alone for 20 more minutes. He brings out his sketching book, the same book where he was drawing Zak's drum set.

~~~

Zak, Geo, Ant and Cara are all sweating. It's only a matter of minutes before they're on stage, they can hear yelling and chatters of the people behind the thin piece of a black curtain. About 1900 people are in the crowd. "Your gonna do amazing." Darryl smiles as he praises Zak.

"Thank you." Zak pants, he's trying his best not to hyper ventilate right now due to his nervousness level is sky rocketing. "You look nice.." Darryl breathes, running his fingers through his hair. "Thanks." Zak smiles, but his mind is racing with millions of thoughts.

'Is he flirting?!'

'Does he actually think that?'

'Or is he just trying to call me down?'

Darryl pats Zak's back with them both grinning. "We're about to start, see you." Zak waves off. Darryl gets pulled back by some staff, making him get out of the way of the stage.

Darryl sits on a stool on the side of the stage that is from a view that you can still see Zak playing, but except the crowd can't see Darryl. When Darryl plops his bottom down onto the wooden stool he gets a notification from Harvey.

Harvey
Bro are u here??

Darryl chuckles and snaps a quick picture of where he is.

Darryl
Back stage

Harvey
Shit?! Your lucky.. so your not coming down here?

Darryl
Sorry Harvey I won't :(

Harvey
All good dude. I'll record some videos for you, I'm on the seating area.

Darryl holds down on his message and clicks the thumbs up emoji. His head instantly perks up when he hears a drum playing, it's Zak. In front of hundreds of people. Cara then starts singing.

Take a look at my girlfriend
She's the only one I got (ba ba da da)