Wish This Were Real // A Skephalo Story

Chapter 9

Zak/Skeppy POV

Darryl looks nervous, telling me his idea is stupid.

I honestly don't see the problem. Making Clay jealous, and showing I'm in a relationship will definitely get him to stay away from me.

Pretending to date someone would usually be pretty weird, but I can tell Darryl only wants to help me, which is the main reason I agreed. With anyone else, I would be hesitant.

I just have one question.

"Will we tell our friends the truth or..."

"We should probably let them think it's true for now. Unless you want to say something."

"No, it's fine. Let's just..not tell too many people until we can talk about it." I whisper.

"Okay."

The rest of Study Hall goes by fairly quickly. We agree not to do anything with our plan until after school, when we have time to talk about it, so both Darryl and I just sit quietly doing our work.

When the class ends, we walk together, seeing as we both have lunch.

Darryl shows us to a table with his friend, Cara, seeing as all my friends are skipping today.

"Hi, Darryl! Wait, Zak? What are you doing here?"

I don't want to make Darryl uncomfortable, so I nudge his arm, signaling he can do the talking.

"Oh, um, I was gonna tell you sooner, but we're actually dating!" He giggles, taking my hand.

Cara's face is in shock. "What? Really?" She grins. "Wow, I did not expect that. But you guys look so cute together!"

"Can you just not say anything to anyone else though?" I ask nervously.

Cara's eyes narrow. "You're not embarrassed of him, are you?"

"No!" I almost yell, not wanting my 'boyfriends' best friend to hate me. "I just don't want gossip. I recently broke up with Clay, and I want to tell each person when I'm ready."

Cara's expression brightens. "Oh, ok. That makes sense."

We eat most of lunch quietly, with a few questions directed towards me from Cara.

I learn that Darryl sometimes calls her Puffy, but she clearly did not enjoy it when I did the same.

It's not that Cara hates me, she just seems to not trust me yet. I don't blame her, seeing as we just met.

Once lunch ends, I move to get my trash but Darryl cleans up for me. I give him a grateful smile, and Cara just innocently makes a comment.

"I hope you don't always make him clean up for you." She levels a stare at me.

"Of course not! I was going to grab my trash, he just got to it first." I nervously scratch the back of my neck.

"Good." She smiles sweetly and turns to leave the cafeteria.

Cara kind of scares me, but at least she didn't immediately hate me when we met.

Darryl waves goodbye to his friend, gives me a hug, and heads down the hall. We don't have next period together, which is sad, but after this, we have French together.

I head to my locker to grab a few things, before making my way to the Language Arts classroom. We're working on group projects right now, but seeing as the two other people in my group, Geo and Velvet, are gone today, I don't really have much to do.

Most people have already started working when I get to class, so I just slump down in my seat and check my phone.

The group chat has been unusually quiet today, but I don't say anything, as I assume most of my friends are asleep.