Somewhere Only We Know

Chapter 7

Jared was avoiding him. Not that Zackary cared anymore. He finally had some peace, right?

But, Jared was avoiding him. This was uncalled for and completely unexpected.

Why? It made absolutely no sense.

When coming back to the school the previous week after they had gone up the hill, Jared had stared at him longly, his wide eyes watching him as if he were trying to memorize his face. Zackary didn't understand. Especially when Jared reached out but stopped himself mid-movement, settling on patting Zackary's shoulder before walking past him without a word.

It frustrated Zackary.

Ever since that day, it had almost been two weeks, and he could feel the influence of Jared's presence slowly wear off. Yet he often found himself bored in class, wanting to find an excuse to ditch the afternoon.

Jared, Candice, or Jamie could've convinced him to ditch school with them, except there wouldn't be much convincing to do. It was just a silly external excuse for Zack's actual desire to skip school.

Candice was also nowhere to be seen.

Zackary slowed his pace to a stop, and Nolan halted a few seconds later after realizing that his friend wasn't walking beside him anymore. He felt angry, but he didn't let his emotions show.

But the ravenette was already making up his mind, his thoughts firing in his brain with the consequences of the decision he was about to make.

"I can't do this anymore." Nolan frowned at Zack's sudden, out-of-the-blue confession.

"What do you mean? The test is the next period; just finish that and then-"

"Nah."

Zackary, who was accustomed to always saying no to anything that went against the values installed in his mind like chains caging his emotions, seemed to have vanished in an instant. He finally said no to something he was supposed to say yes to. The black-haired male didn't even bother to give any explanation to Nolan about his behavior as he smiled half-heartedly at someone who wasn't even there.

The brunette nodded comprehensively, his eyes filled with understanding and curiosity, but nothing suggesting his confusion. He simply spoke one single word, "Okay."

Zack scoffed and shook his head before turning around and walking back toward the biology room.

What was he doing?

The hallways were full of people, but still got emptier by the second with the bell ringing and resonating through the speakers in the corner of each turn of the corridor. The clouds outside that moved with the wind made the light droplets of rain bang against the glass doors, giving the morning a darker look than it actually was. It filled exhausted students with false hope as they wished it was soon time to go home. Funny enough, Zack didn't seem to mind the quietness of those rainy days, though the rain seemed to have stopped for a while now.

The ravennette pushed the door open of his biology room, which was now empty, and he rapidly walked over to the window before sliding it open.

There were always teachers at the main entrance, so his only way to get out would have been the back exit or the windows from the first floor (where he was now). Except that with his student pass, it would've been easy to slip out of the school district, but at a time this early before lunch, it would've looked too suspicious.

Zack gripped the strap of his backpack and jumped over the ledge, landing and crouching down beside the wall. His eyes immediately darted to Jared, who was sitting down on the ground right next to him with a cigarette between his fingers and wide eyes staring straight into his. A smile stretched on his broken lip as his gaze looked Zack up and down.