lovestar | skephalo

chapter 39 | black nail polish

Third Person POV
Zak opens his eyes, he's laid down on a wooden bench in a park. He's utterly confused to say the least so he turns his head and notices Darryl is sitting next to him.. Darryl?

Yes Darryl. His nose is buried in a book and Zak almost nearly misses the fluffy white dog sitting in the brunettes lap. Zak notices a Band-Aid on his forehead and a damp wet paper towel wrapped around his knuckles.

"Darryl?" Zak mutters in a croaky voice. "Your awake." Darryl slides in a book mark onto his page and closes the book. Zak then realises where they are - in Ohio. "Erm.." Zak sits up, "Why are you here?"

"Why am I where?" The other chuckles slightly. "In here, Ohio." He responds, "You know. People have been worrying lots about you." Zak is just glad Darryl isn't dead, that he is still in the country and that he found him. Well - That Darryl found him. "I really don't care about them. Well yeah, I miss my grandma, Harvey and Vincent but I feel more of myself here. But I guess I just kind of saw you and I HAD to help you." Darryl responds.

"Are you coming back?" Zak asks. "I'm not planning too. Why are you here?" The older boy starts patting Rat.

Zak huffs, "Another concert."

They both giggle a bit, well Darryl laughed first and Zak just tagged on.

"What's that?" The brown eyed boy points to the dog situated on the others lap. "A dog?" "No, Pff-" Zak cackles, "You know what I mean. Where, when did you get that dog?"

Darryl looks down at Rat. "Well.. I guess they chose me, a few hours ago I bought stuff for them. I still don't know their gender. Their name is Rat." He starts stroking their back gently. "I know how to tell the gender. My puppy obsessed middle school friend told me on how to."

Zak starts gesturing to Rat, "May I?"

Darryl nods and Zak holds Rat in his hands. Zak then flips them over; Darryl raises an eyebrow. "It's a girl." Zak flips Rat back over. "How did you know?" Darryl takes her back. "Well you have to check if they have a penis or n-"

"Language you muffin." Darryl cuts Zak off. It then goes silent for a few seconds until Zak speaks up.

"How about your boyfriend? Do you miss your boyfriend too?" Zak fiddles with his fingers. He entirely hates the fact of bringing up relationships between them but he's running out of questions to ask.

"Don't get me wrong, Zane's a great guy. But I- It just feels off. You know, he's like,, to nice."

Zak just nods, "Zane, Is that his name?" "Yeah it is. I met him at rehab." Darryl quietens. He can almost hint that Zak is regretting the question he just asked.

"Are we.. just gonna leave all of what happened behind us?" The shorter boy turns his head to Zak. "I don't know. Whatever you want." He responds, but god does he want everything to go back to normal, before Max had to come and ruin it all. Darryl doesn't respond, instead he nods.

"Do you want to pain your nails?" Darryl takes out the nail polish he bought earlier from out of his pocket. "What?" Zak mumbles. "What? Is that not allowed? Guys to do feminine things or something?" Darryl retorts jokingly. "No I didn't mean it like that I swear! Whatever- Just paint my nails." Zak places his hands out between the gap of him and Darryl.

Darryl chuckles and opens the nail polish. "I haven't painted my nails in a long time. My early years in high school I did but I got bullied because of it so I stopped." He shrugs. Zak feels bad, he doesn't know what to say so he just lets out something his brain told him to say, "Oh."

The brunette is already painting his second nail when he blurts out a question.

"I've been a bit icky to ask you this but I've been meaning to since I found you like.. that."

Zaks mind races, with answers he could only imagine. "Yes?" He answers.

"What happened? Why are you all.. injured with your knuckles bleeding?" Darryl asks. "Oh, I uh-" Zak tries to remember, and he does. "I might've found Max. Lost a bit of control and we fought." Zak says it like its the most casual thing ever.

"Max? God I've been wanting to turn him into the police. That's basically illegal to do, leaking pictures without peoples consent." Darryl sighs.

When the nails are all done everything goes silent.

"I'm gonna go bathroom.. I'll er- come back in a minute." Darryl stutters. Zak says goodbye but Darryl doesn't reply.

But he doesn't return

Even after an hour of Zak waiting he still isn't back

Maybe he didn't wanna talk to Zak anymore

Someone said that I never let you guys have a happy chapter so enjoy this mostly happy chapter.